Best Buy West Madison

It was good. Only went in for a phone case but took awhile to get checked out.

On the one hand, I appreciate the fact that this BB managed to hold plenty of stock of the new Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 for the release date, ensuring that there were plenty for customers in-house who might not otherwise have gotten one due to scalping. It was also nice that they handed out candy, water bottles, and vouchers to people for the midnight release. But the release event could have been handled a lot smoother. For one thing, it kinda sucked that they made us wait outside in 45 degree weather even when it was raining. If anyone had forgotten cold weather gear, hypothermia could have become a real problem for people waiting in line. I understand that BB didn't want a huge swarm of people standing around inside disrupting regular store operation most of the day, but at the very least they could have brought us in out of the cold once the normal customers were locked out at store closing time at 9PM. It would have saved us at least a couple of hours of bone chilling misery. Moreover, the vouchers were only handed out around 9PMish when the store closed normally, even though I and multiple other people had already lined up for the console as early as 11AM that morning. I wish BB had anticipated the demand and decided to have the console vouchers printed out and ready to go at store opening on the day of the midnight release. It would have saved everyone the misery of standing arouns for 12 or more hours. We could have gotten a voucher and at least then napped in our cars, if not driven home with the voucher to rest and come back for the opening. This also would have saved time for the customers who didn't manage to get a console from the limited supply. They could have asked for a voucher any time during the day and been told there was none left, and gone home or to a different store to keep looking. I understand that the stores don't want to tell us exactly how many consoles they have in stock due to the scalper problem, and telling people when vouchers are gone lets people deduce the stock quantity. But you were already handling scalpers well thanks to only allowing one console per person. Why continue to be cagey about your stock quantities even while limiting it to one per? It feels disrespectful of the customer's time and makes people incapable of judging when they should move on to the next location to keep hunting for stock. Please Best Buy, I beg of you, next time you decide to do one of these midnight launch events, make the vouchers available from the very beginning of the day so these issues don't recur! I'd very much like to not stand around in the rain for thirteen hours next time!

Understaffed, so service not the best. Prices are good!

The Madison West Towne Best Buy reminds me why going to a brick and mortar store still matters, even when you need to buy something like a phone that you can only get from a chain store. I went in after my phone died and received EXCEPTIONAL customer service from Randy at the Verizon desk. He was able to navigate some confusing and frustrating red tape to help me redeem my available upgrade and correct my shipping address so that the phone was sent to me instead of a family member. 10/10 will come to Randy again when I need my next phone.