Best Buy is conducting very deceptive business practices which the general public must be made aware. It involves the sale of damaged large screen TVs and, most likely, all major appliances that are picked-up at their stores by the consumer. I'm sure they are banking big this football weekend.
My boyfriend and I purchased a 65 inch LG TV totaling $635.99 from Best Buy. We ordered it online. Apparently, with Best Buy, when purchasing this particular TV online, the only option to receive the merchandise is "in store pickup". There is no option to have the product delivered to the buyer. Additionally, bear in mind the temperatures in the Pittsburgh area and most of the northern Continental US have been sub zero this past week.
We picked up the TV at the Robinson Township (Pittsburgh, PA) store Friday evening (2/1/2019) after our work day. While the associate from best Buy loaded my tv onto a dolly for me to take out to the car, I noticed that when trying to load it, he tilted the tv VERTICALLY and rocked it onto its horizontal side, while rocking it back and forth on the store floor and was by himself- not being assisted by someone else for the majority of the process- how you're SUPPOSED to handle a television. At the time of course I didn't care to mention anything about the handling of it, seeing as who am I to tell a Best Buy employee how to do their job?! No problem- we wheeled the dolly with the tv out to the front of the building, my boyfriend and I loaded it in the back of my car and were very careful when handling the box- as we know that tv's are fragile- especially in transit. The Best Buy employee stood there and watched us, not saying one word. We left the store and had no problems making it home slowly and safely with the tv snugly in the trunk.
As soon as we were home, we carefully removed it from the trunk of the car, keeping it upright while walking it the 10 feet to our first floor of our house and setting it gently on the living room floor. We followed the instructions to remove it from the box and packaging materials, and started getting the tv unwrapped. At this point in the instructions process, the tv was laying flat on the ground. When I pulled back the thin film that separates the tv from the styrofoam, I noticed immediately that the glass screen was cracked and looked like a spider web, and I told my boyfriend right then. At this point, we hadn't even completely unwrapped the tv from the styrofoam protective layers. We put it back in the box and immediately called the store. I explained the situation and an associate told me no problem, come back tomorrow for a return/exchange for the same tv.
We returned it to the same store the next day around 11 am, since we got home with the tv at 8:30 pm the night before- and the store closed at 9pm, so we had to wait overnight. To our amazement, the manager, Joshua Scott, refused to return the TV stating that the damage was not the fault of the store even though the store never verified that the TV was in tact and unbroken before it left their premises. We stated our case, however the manager was adamant that the damage was caused by the us "after we had taken it out of the box" and said that we must have smashed it with an object or dropped it when the box and styrofoam weren't protecting it- since there was no substantial damage to the tv box itself. He eventually asked us to leave the store and was extremely rude- he immediately came out from the back of the store and said "Yeah you had a question?" And seemed like he couldn't be BOTHERED to attempt to help us, customers of the store that he manages! We were dumbfounded as the return and Exchange Promise printed on their website states they will take returns and if not fully satisfied with a purchase, they will help with a replacement, return or repair. There could be nothing further from the truth!! While going back and forth with the general manager, he made many condescending comments to my boyfriend and I about the fact that he "knew" that this damage was definitely accidental damage done by US and would not show one ounce of sympathy, let alone say one "I'm sorry". He simply repeated over and over again that the damage was completely our fault, and gave us no other options. I looked at my boyfriend with tears in my eyes from complete helplessness and frustration and and I cursed, to which Joshua told us to leave the store and that our broken tv would be out front on the curb where we were told to wait. read more