Best Buy Columbia

The longest battery replace and poorest communication. Dropped off a phone at scheduled appt time and shopped until diagnostic complete. Told they needed to wait for battery to drop to complete repair. That’s fine—I understand. What was NOT communicated was that several hours later when they called to tell us they could do the repair we’d have to go back and pay and sign the paper before they’d do the repair. And then it would be another few hours. Three times in one day for a battery repair? No thanks. It’s like they think gas is under 4 dollars again or something and people have no pressing plans. There has to be a way to do this better. Honestly, the store looks like it’s about to go under and I wouldn’t be surprised. Sad.

It's a shame that the Columbia Missouri store has turned into complete trash... I wait 5 min for help, cool. Make a round trip to the bathroom and 15 min later still zero assistance...Oh and forgot about homeboy on his cell phone texting and walking.... Close the store and save your embarrassment....

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!!