Best Buy South Hills

As someone who has been in customer service and management for almost 20 years, it is not often that I am impressed by customer service. Today was one of those days and not for the right reasons. I recently purchased an upgrade from a phone that I had been waiting to go on open box sale for months. When it did I purchased it with a trade in included with specific instructions on how to handle it. When I received it, I was surprised by how pristine the phone was. Inside the packaging was the phone and the cord but no instructions. I contacted customer service and they apologized and instructed me to go into the store. I was assisted by the manager Collin at the South Hills store. I explained the situation and he smiled and laughed and told the other employee I don’t think I can help. He took me to the counter and began to explain that he could help me. He gave two options that included me paying roughly $200 additional or to return what I purchased and take a gift card. I talked to him about the situation and what I was explained by customer service. He proceeded to tell me those were my options and if they were not to my liking I could contact customer service which I did. He instantly seemed displeased with that and attempted to send me home with no attempted resolution. I then went back and forth with customer service that offered to let me drive to another location which I told them was not reasonable. They spoke to the manager and they went back and forth to come to the realization that the best option was to give them more money. I attempted to come up with a creative resolution and was given the excuse that the system doesn’t allow them to return or adjust other products. After, thinking it over the only option I had was to return the device as $200 was a lot of money. The manager who was extremely agitated and offered no reasonable solution returned the device and allowed me to setup my own phone and leave the store without a fully functional phone. When I asked for his managers name he only knew his first name and did not know a contact or email address i could reach out to. He also instructed me he did not have a business card or telephone number i could call him at. When I questioned the legitacmany of this he acted confused and explained he did not know his bosses last name and only talked to him on teams sometimes. He eventually relented and gave me a random business card with limited contact information and a generic email. This is honestly one of the worst experiences I have had with retail. I was given no solution and treated like an idiot. I am thorughoughly upset and cannot imagine ever shopping at Best Buy again.

This wasn't a horrible experience , but, managers need to be aware. I shop here fairly often for ink and printers and it's generally a solid experience. Yesterday I walked in looking for a Fitbit. When I walked in there were 4 young folks standing there greeting me all doing not much at all. When I said I was looking for a Fitbit they pointed me to the area and someone showed up quickly...actually 2 young men. I decided on what I wanted and I asked the lead..."Can you take 5-10 minutes and just get me all set up with the app and get this thing set up"...I'm 61 years old and not great with patience or technology set up. He said "he's not allowed to by his manager, but, I can go over to Geek Squad and pay $50?! " I am in sales and if I sold a customer and then told them I'm not allowed to service them or ignored their phone calls after the sale I would have a lot of cancellations or not have a job. If that's your policy...it's bad to say the least . Keep in mind there were 4 people doing nothing when I entered. I said...OK, went home and 3 of us including a 17 year old tech savvy young lady couldn't get it done. I have owned a Fitbit before but apparently now Google owns it and it's a "Google Health" app but there are countless apps in the I store....quite painful to be honest. When I had a Fitbit before it was fairly easy , but, the logo of the app that it says to look for is not even the correct logo. The directions were not good and I gave up and returned it 2 hours later.....I will get an Apple watch and not at Best Buy....I can go to the Xfinity store and they will hold my hand through the process . I told the sales person directly but professionally why I was returning it....He said "i don't work on commission"...wrong answer . You are there to be "of service to others"...If the policy of Best Buy is to sell it and forget it....you need to rethink that in my humble opinion. You then tell me to contact via social media and i get an automated message with no phone number ?

Friendly and helpful staff. Always had what I needed.

I had a positive and informative experience at this location. I was assisted by Matthew who had extensive knowledge of flat screen TVs. He spent a considerable amount of time with me and I purchased a 65" LG TV and swivel stand. I appreciate employees/managers like Matthew who go out of their way to help and wanted to give this commendation.