Sunday, November 30, 2003

Worst Shopping Trip Ever

I went to Best Buy on the day after Thanksgiving for Christmas shopping. After waiting in the Disneyland-length line for an hour, I finally got to the checkout. The cashier asked me for my name, address and phone number twice. Then she scanned the item(s) and received a Windows Internet Explorer "Page Not Found" error page. After waiting five more minutes for a knowledgeable manager to arrive, she was told that she would have to enter my personal info again and re-scan. The same thing occurred, but the manager hadn't stuck around long enough to see that. So after waiting for another five minutes for them to come back, the manager said he'd go talk to the systems guy. After waiting another five minutes, the systems guy says the national computer system is down (thanks, Microsoft) and the item/items (which I cannot reveal) cannot be sold to me.

The manager tells me to just come back the next day and purchase the item(s) which will "obviously not be sold to anyone else." Besides, they can't reserve anything, because it requires the national computer system.

Realizing that I'd just waited in line for an hour only to be told I can't make my purchase, the manager tells the cashier to give me a $20 gift card. Unfortunately, in order to activate a gift card, the national computer system is needed. Of course, the manager walked away before the cashier had a chance to tell him that.

So after waiting another five minutes, a different manager signs a note which I'm to validate at the customer service counter that I deserve a $20 discount when I return the next day.

When I do return, I have to wait in the customer service line (which consisted solely of myself) for 15 minutes, only to be told I didn't actually need to be in that line and I should just go get the item(s) in question ... which is/are no longer on the shelves.

When I leave, I ask the employee standing at the exit for a customer comment card. He tells me they don't have any, but he gets asked for them all the time and wonders why they don't have any. I think I know why.

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