Best Buy Lakeland

We walked in looking for information and walked out with a computer set up that works for our needs. We were paired with Chad in the computer department, and he was AMAZING. He answered all of our questions, looked up reviews, and showed us as many options as we wanted so we could be sure we were making the right investment. His personality and patience were highly professional, and I am so glad we met him that day. He used his own experience with certain technology to assist with guiding us to the correct brands, and he was not pushy at all. I cannot speak more highly of Chad, and I hope your company realizes the rare individual you have working in your store. I also hope he is compensated as such, because you can't afford to lose him. I'm a 20 year customer service veteran myself, and it was nice given the level of service we used to get before technology took over and everyone got lazy. After multiple attempts to contact store leadership through the phone number online, the 1800 number for Best Buy, and even their chat, I certainly hope that Chad gets the recognition he deserves. I was unable to locate a member of leadership on our way out the door, and figured it would be easier to just give them a quick call. Boy was I wrong. The AI "assistant" on their ridiculous phone system assisted me by hanging up because it refused to put me through. I understand that store staffing may be reduced these days, but there were PLENTY of people in that building that could have answered the phone. I was also unable to leave a review directly on Best Buy's website, so here we are.

Gerry was so helpful. Was able to mentally keep inventory on discounted items. Very appreciative of anyone helping me save money. Knowledgeable of printing equipment and ink.

Always understaffed and those that are there lack training

We came in to look at a point and shoot camera we had researched online. We walked in on a Saturday morning and went to the camera section. We found the one we were looking to buy. We stood there a full 10 minutes, with 4 employees very near by in the area of the laptops. They appeared to be just talking, not helping anyone. Finally I walked over and asked if there was anyone working the camera area. All 4 said they could help. One young man followed me over to the camera section, and asked what I needed. We explained that we had researched the LUMIX camera, and wanted to physically hold it and look at it. He explained that they can’t let people hold the cameras. I pointed to a $2500 camera in the case, and said: “you are telling me, people spend $2500 on a camera and never want to hold it and see how it feels?” He said it was for security reasons. He offered to get “Jonathan” and maybe he could release the camera we wanted to look at. Jonathan came and unlocked the camera we wanted to see, releasing it from the case, but would not take it off the large white “security mount” so we could never actually feel the true weight of the camera or see how easily it fit in a front pocket (a selling feature Panasonic touts). The salesman was right there. He was watching us. Had we of wanted to steal the camera, he could have easily yelled for security to stop us at the front door. Someone could have locked the front door. Instead, we left and decided to not give Best Buy our business. If we can’t hold, look at and manipulate the camera in the store, we might as well give our business to an online store from New York, which is exactly what we came home and did. No wonder they are closing Best Buy stores. Your customer service is mediocre at best……and you have a security problem, that doesn’t allow customers to handle product.