Best Buy Bakersfield

The last place you should shop ONLY if you can't find what you're looking for somewhere else. Selling "Like New" products at full price without letting the customer know. 👎

They helped me choose best pc for me

Absolutely Unacceptable Customer Service and Defective Products I had one of the worst retail experiences of my life at the Best Buy located at 8300 Rosedale Hwy, Bakersfield, CA 93312, involving both defective products and extremely poor customer service. On 12/28/25, I purchased an iBUYPOWER Element 9 Gaming Desktop (Intel Core i7-14700F, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD). Within just a few days of normal use, the PC began freezing during basic tasks like alt-tabbing and produced five blue screen crashes (BSODs) within 3–4 hours. The system was never overclocked or modified. When I attempted to factory reset the PC before returning it, Windows would not allow the reset. On 1/11/26, I returned to the store to exchange it for the same model. Initially, a young employee was helpful and understanding, but he was suddenly relieved by an older employee named Mia, and the experience immediately went downhill. I explained the BSOD issues and that Windows would not let me factory reset the PC. Mia refused to proceed with the exchange unless it was factory reset, despite me clearly explaining that the system would not allow it. She told me I would need to schedule a Geek Squad appointment, with the next availability being January 21st—outside of my 15-day return window—and that I would also have to pay for the service. I asked to speak with a manager and was told a Geek Squad supervisor would come speak with me. I waited over 30 minutes, and no one ever came. I went home, researched the issue myself, purchased a USB flash drive, wiped the drive through BIOS, and performed a fresh Windows 11 installation using the Media Creation Tool. Once the system reached the initial Windows setup screen, I shut it down and boxed it up. When I returned to the store, Mia again handled the interaction. She questioned whether I had actually reset the PC and treated me as if I were being dishonest. She took the box to the back, knocked items over, then returned and incorrectly claimed it was not factory reset—even though I knew it was. Eventually, I was able to place an exchange order through the PC department staff, who were polite, professional, and helpful. Unfortunately, the replacement PC had to be shipped. On 1/16/26, I received the replacement unit. Within days, it exhibited the same BSOD issues, with Kernel-Power 41 critical errors appearing in Event Viewer. After another clean Windows installation via USB, the PC blue-screened again—this time clearly displaying STOP CODE: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT (0x1A) while Windows updates were downloading. At that point, I immediately boxed it up. On 1/23/26, I returned to Best Buy to request a refund. While I was already speaking with another employee, Mia stepped in, interrupted the interaction, and took over the transaction. She incorrectly stated that this was the third time I had returned the same PC, when it was actually the second unit, and claimed that because of this she would need to involve Geek Squad to inspect the PC. After I pointed out that I was well within the 15-day return window, the pushback stopped, and she proceeded with the refund, though her demeanor made it feel as if she was reluctantly allowing it rather than simply following store policy. This entire experience was exhausting and unnecessarily stressful. Mia showed zero empathy, provided constant resistance, and made me feel like I was doing something wrong rather than returning multiple defective products. After reading other 1-star reviews that specifically mention her by name, it’s clear this behavior is a pattern. I will never do business with this Best Buy again as long as Mia is handling customer service. Best Buy needs to seriously address how this employee treats customers. Absolutely disgusting customer service.

Okay to purchase ear buds