Best Buy “In Store Pickup” Geek Review

Best Buy Pick up from StoreThe other day I decided to try out Best Buy’s “In Store Pickup” where you buy online and go into the store and pickup the merchandise rather than simply order a product online. The advantage of “In Store Pickup” includes obtaining the merchandise almost immediately and knowing the product is in stock… in theory.

I needed a small laptop for a multi-week trip and found a 4 pounder at Best Buy and purchased the laptop online with the delivery method of “in store pickup”. After ordering I waited for a confirmation email that never showed up, but should have after 45 minutes. I decided to go to dinner and stop by the Best Buy later that evening.

When I showed up at Best Buy I proceeded to the Customer Service area where you pick up the merchandise. I was first in line after the two people currently being helped. It took another 15 minutes to finally get to the counter to pick-up the laptop.

Once I gave the confirmation number I noticed the service representative get a kind of quizzical look that meant something was wrong… then I hear the dreaded “I’ve never seen that before!” If I had a dollar every time my wife and I heard that, I’d have at least $20 or so. Anyway, the head of customer service comes over too and says the code being displayed is a “fraud alert” code. I ask if we should should call Best Buy’s fraud alert group and the customer service representative say that I should then immediately start working on the customer behind me!

I called the 888-bestbuy number and get in touch with an extremely nice and helpful lady in the fraud alert group that tells me there is not a fraud alert on the purchase and that the transaction went through fine but that the particular store had a fraud alert placed on it. At this point I’ve been in the Best Buy store for nearly 45 minutes and have just gotten pissed as the store caused the problem but didn’t know anything about the store generated error!

Next I passed the phone with the fraud alert person over to the customer service representative and they started working the problem together. After the one hour mark all of us decided to close out the transaction and simply purchase the laptop like I had walked in the store!

I’ve been purchasing online since 1995 (12 years now) and can honestly say I’ve never had a worse experience than this Best Buy “In Store Pickup” experience! After all, I shop online for the convenience and to save time and this experience taught me not to use Best Buy with the “In Store Pickup” delivery method.

5 thoughts on “Best Buy “In Store Pickup” Geek Review”

  1. I did in-store pickup as well. I ordered a Canon Digital Elph and a hard-to-find high-speed flash card. They tell you over and over on the website, “DON’T COME IN UNTIL WE EMAIL YOU TO TELL YOU THE STUFF IS IN.” But it was on my way home from work, so I went in anyway.

    The first person I talked to asked for some sort of confirmation number, whilch I did not have. They also asked if I had been emailed yet, and I said no, it was just on my way home from work. So they went to see if my stuff was in.

    A second person came and asked if they could help me. I told them I was picking up a web order and that I had already been helped. They said, “Oh, you’re Mr. [me]?” I said yes. They said, oh, you should have checked your email. Your order was cancelled because we don’t have any stock of those items. I was pretty choked. The inventory showed both items in stock at this store the night before. I asked, “Both of them?” They said yes.

    Then the first employee came out of the back room with my stuff and handed it to me.

    What the hell? I can only assume that someone else working in the store found the sweet bargain I located, and tried to score it for themselves. Bastards. Oh well, it worked out in my favour.

  2. I had this worst buying experience today in Best Buy “In Store Pickup”. I was there to pick up the item that I purchased on line with my confirmation letter from Best Buy, but the person who was in the counter told me to be back shortly. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I haven’t seen the person again so I requested somebody else to attend to me.

    To my surprise, I wa advised to fall in line to the Customer Returns/Exchange section which has about 15 people already in line. She said I needed to fall in that line because because both sections have only single line. I felt adamant about it that I even asked everyone in the line if there is anyone who’s in the line to pick up an item, and of course, no one because it is a Customer/Exchange line. Why do I have to fall in into that line just to pick up the item I ordered on line? I felt it was stupid!!! So out of dismay, I decided to leave the store and cancel my purchase on line!

  3. had a similar experience yesterday with in store pickup. I thought it would be much faster seeing as its the holiday season. When I went to pick it up, they sent me to the exchange & return aisle. As you can imagine during the holiday season, this is the longest line in the store. Over an hour later I finally had my blank dvd-rs. Ridiculous. Worst experience ever. Wish I had gone home and cancelled my order

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