Posted on 12/27/2011 10:24:34 AM PST by Hunton Peck
“I wouldn’t touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.”
There’s a bit of inherent risk when shopping online. You’re handing over your credit card to a retailer that promises to ship you something in return. Most of the time transactions are completed without issue and orders are fulfilled as promised. Sometimes things go awry, though. And sometimes Best Buy ruins Christmas.
Best Buy started reaching out to customers earlier this week — you know, mere days before Christmas — that the retailer was unable to fulfill orders placed as far back as November. Big Blue was sorry but they were canceling the affected orders. Happy holidays! Signed, your merry friends at Best Buy!
Consumers traded the safety of buying an object from a brick and mortar store for the convenience and often lower prices found online. As Best Buy proves here, buying items online is still a bit risky even in 2011. Consumers just do not know for a 100% fact that they will get their product. Sure, receipts are issued and shipping estimates are given, but there are just too many variables involved for complete trust. Shipping companies can also break the chain, too. You just never know if the FedEx man is going to chuck your LCD monitor over a gate.
Generally though, the bigger the retailer, the more safe the transaction feels. Amazon, Walmart, Newegg and, to a lesser extent now, Best Buy should be considered trusted retailers. These massive companies should be able to fulfill online orders with minimum exceptions. But issues do arise. Customers are sometimes left without their order, feeling used and abused.
Don’t worry about Best Buy, though. The retailer isn’t hurting its bottom line by canceling orders en mass. The Wall Street Journal quotes an analyst stating “It’s a hiccup for the company” and “It probably won’t make a big difference for Best Buy’s holiday sales.” Oh good. Because Best Buy’s earnings were the first things I thought of when this story broke. Screw the customers. They don’t matter anyway.
Apparently if those with canceled orders whine enough, Best Buy will issue them a gift card for the inconvenience. Of course those that suck it up and move on get nothing.
There’s no way of knowing how many of these canceled orders were to be holiday presents. Reportedly many of the canceled items were sold on Black Friday. But even without Christmas looming, Best Buy held these orders hostage for nearly a month. They violated the trust of their customers. The retailer essentially cast a wide net, collecting just as many orders as they could, likely knowing it would be unable to fulfill them all. It’s greedy, unacceptable and just plain wrong. Merry Christmas.
Oh, and just in case you need help, the CEO of Best Buy posted a tip to his Facebook page.
“Guess Best Buy wasn’t as all-powerful as this blogger thinks.”
Or just not as powerful as Santa. :-)
Several years ago Toys R Us ran into the same problem but they did the right thing by sending shipments with priority mail or over night and promised if you didn’t get your order by Christmas Eve they wouldn’t charge your card.
Honestly, I would start a shareholder’s suit for negligence against the officers personally: this is too unreasonable to be excused as a ‘business decision.’ Reboot? That’s an I.T. solution, not a business solution.
Only if the meaning of Christmas to you is a gew gaw from Best Buy.
“My mother-in-law was distraught that a gift meant for me hadn’t arrived”.
From what I occasionally read about MIL’s... you had your Christmas present right there. If she was upset that you may be disappointed.. you have a great relationship with her.
Best Buy sux. They have been screwing over customers forever.
Sorry, but you take an order on 11/25 or whatever black friday was, and then cancel it on December 20th???? That’s crap... especially when we are talking things that aren’t in short supply...
Seriously you couldn’t fill an order for a Wii??? After a month? That’s not a supply chain issue, that’s Best Buy deciding you didn’t buy enough other stuff with that loss leader order, so we are going to not fullfil your order.
I have never been a best buy fan, ever, so this didn’t affect me, but I can assure you, this wasn’t a matter of they were hoping to fill these orders until they last minute, this was a matter of taking as many order as they could get knowing they never intended to fill them all, and cherry picking the ones to fill and rejecting the ones with lower margins. Imagine if your brick and mortar store did this to you..
You walk into buy that sale item, and that’s all, but when you go to leave, they won’t let you buy it because you didn’t buy anything else....
No one would stand for that, yet because they did this online, its okay? Hopefully folks will learn and just not shop at Best Buy and they will go the way of Montgomery Ward.
Last year my goofy kids went to Best Buy at 4 am and waited in line for the store to open. They didn’t even buy anything. They just wanted to be where the action was.
Ya slip a few elfen provocateurs into an operation, it’s amazin’ how much can mischief they can make . . .
Wait...
How did people do Christmas before best buy was invented?
People don’t even know what Christmas is anymore.
“since the phone book is dead.”
It may be dead, but I still get at least 8 of them a year! They go to the recycling bin.
You are so right. I am so sick of santa. My Marine and I are spending our Christmas budget doing things together during his leave. Priceless.
I too, found the Santa ads disrespectful and an insult.
Honestly, their advertizment agency said “Let’s insult and denigrate Saint Nick at Christmas - what a great idea”? And the people at BB went along with it?
I don’t shop BB when I can go elsewhere, and I usually do go elsewhere. Why? What’s more important than selling me an item at a good price? Service after the sale. I bought in inexpensive TV, after 35 days it wouldn’t turn on. BB refused to accept it back as defective, no in-store credit, no refund, nothing.
Since then, I have purchased 3 HDTV and a very expensive home theater system. Nothing, not even the cables came from BB; and likely nothing ever will.
Over-anticipating a weak shopping season is forgivable....
Not having the capacity to order and ship late is just stupid.
You are correct and your reply makes too much sense for the ones defending this. Best Buy screws over customers ALL THE TIME!
there is no problem shopping at best buy (except the LOUD rap music, noise, clueless sales people, etc.) as long as you DON’T Buy anything there.
Use Best Buy as a way to look at something then buy it for far far far less and better online. (assuming they even have the item in question) Computer parts are 5-10 times more expensive.
Even walmart is probably better than their offerings and prices.
If Mr. Burns is that shallow that an electronic item not being shipped to him by Best Buy will ruin his Christmas, he has larger problems than Best Buy not shipping his electronic item. He just doesn't know it yet.
I had an issue where I bought a Sony a66 camera online with in store pickup. The camera was very hard to find as floods have stopped production. But I found one bought it with IN STORE Pickup and the store didn’t have it. Neither did their warehouse. So I asked what this guy was going to do to fix this and he gave me $50 gift certificate. And I didn’t buy anything. I then found the camera at Ritz Camera about 1 hour away (2 hours away from the best buy I was going to have to drive to).
So they did right by me.
interesting tidbit, while everyone is PO’s at best buy’s attack on santa.
CNBC is reporting poor holiday dales.
MEANWHILE
Fox News with the same “obama surge in approvals” is reporting stellar holiday sales.
attack santa clause.
boost obama grinchmas.
BB is seldom a top Reco from CNET.com or Amazon.
Looking for the meaning of Christmas in a thread critical of the on-line shopping experience....????
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