Best Buy Columbia

I had an incredibly disappointing experience at the Best Buy store in Columbia, Missouri that completely changed my opinion of this company and its management. My family went in to purchase a new laptop and were helped by an employee who sold us on a MacBook Pro. She explained that the 16-inch model was not available in-store and would need to be shipped to our house. She rang everything up, quoted us around $1,500, and we completed the purchase believing we had ordered the MacBook Pro she recommended. During the same visit, I also purchased a brand-new Apple Watch Series 11, so this was not a small purchase and clearly showed we were serious customers spending a significant amount of money at their store. After getting home, we realized she had actually sold us a MacBook Air instead. Mistakes happen, and initially I wasn’t upset. We contacted customer service and were told the only way to fix the issue was to drive all the way back to the store. When we returned for the second visit, we spent over an hour and a half in the store trying to get the issue corrected. The employee who originally helped us admitted it was her mistake and was genuinely apologetic. She tried to make things right, which I appreciated. Unfortunately, the actual MacBook Pro she originally sold us on was closer to $2,500, a huge difference from what we were told. A manager came over and initially agreed to honor the price because the mistake was entirely on Best Buy’s side. Another manager even processed an in-store credit for us so we could complete the purchase while waiting to return the incorrectly shipped laptop once it arrived at our house. Everything appeared resolved until the manager suddenly walked back over while we were literally in the middle of checking out and said they were no longer going to honor the deal because he “didn’t realize the price difference.” So after wasting our time, making us drive back to the store, keeping us there for over 90 minutes, and admitting the error was theirs, they completely backed out at the register. What pushed this experience from frustrating to unacceptable was the attitude from management, specifically General Manager Mark Flakne. When I explained that I had spent a lot of money with Best Buy over the years and that this situation felt completely wrong, I was basically told they “didn’t care” and they weren’t going to lose money over it. That response told me everything I needed to know about how this store values long-time customers. Mistakes happen in retail. What matters is how management handles them. In this case, they handled it with poor communication, wasted time, and zero accountability. The employee who originally helped us was polite and trying to fix the issue. Management completely failed her and failed us as customers. I expected professionalism and customer service from a company like Best Buy. Instead, I left feeling like once they had our money, customer satisfaction no longer mattered.

Don’t try to contact the store directly because you get a AI. Once you get past AI you get a hold of a person that can’t hardly speak English that is not even in the store. This is the worse customer service!!

If I could leave less than one star I would. Trying to call the local store and get sent to ai then to a call center to be told they need to verify before you can call the store!!! It's bullshit I just need to ask if a part would be in stock.

Ordered a video card that was available for 1 hour pickup at noon. 9 hours later now it will be available for pickup tomorrow. Tried called the store a couple times and now you get sent to their AI bot that isn't helpful at all, glad those multi-billion dollar facilities are getting built to be worthless and tax free for our billionaire overlords. Once you get by the AI you get transferred to a out of country call center (you know the one). Of course they are very polite and will say "Don't worry it will be ready today soon." " It will be ready by the end of the day." "It will be ready tomorrow sir." WHAT IS THE POINT of having 1 hour pickup available if it isn't going to be available, what is the point of listing your number online to call to maybe help out customers but then instead just have us talk to ai that CANNOT give out any useful information. If I could talk to someone there and they just would say "We are too busy and can't get to it today" I would %10000 percent take that answer over talking to an AI or someone who isn't even there and you would keep my business. Human interaction over whatever the hell best buy is trying to pull. Out of principle I have now cancelled my order. I know, "get off your soap box | Stupid keyboard warrior | I'll show best buy with a bad review | Blah blah blah" But it truly isn't that hard to have some customer service, especially to the point where you have to rely on such worthless options and pay millions for it.