Best Buy Appliances Consumer Reviews - Page 2

OAKLAN, CALIFORNIA -- Bought Samsung steam washer and dryer from Best Buy in Oakland on 2/22/2011. Got it delivered on 3/11/11. When I first got it, they dented the front panel of the washer and scratched the front plastic door. They were going to install it, but I said hold off on it til I get the Geek Squad to fix it. I figured, yeah, things happened and that's why there's extended warranty which I bought for 4 years. Geek squad came on 3/19/11 to fix the entire panel. Called Best Buy to set up another installation, and got it installed on 3/25/11. Installation was done by the same company that delivered the washer and dryer.

So I watched carefully to make sure they don't mess up my home and/or washer and dryer. They made sure the washer pan was installed correctly and started with installing stacking unit kit. They were careful with moving the washer and dryer up the stairs and putting it on the hardwood floor. Once they got it stacked, they were bit confused on how to get two very heavy appliance into a washer and dryer room. They told me that I should've bought a metal pan instead of plastic because when they move it, it's going to bend the tip and possibly crack it. Really? And where do you find them and who installs them?

When I purchased the washer and dryer from Best Buy, they never mentioned anything about having a specific type of pan and you can't even buy those metal pan. But installation guys just went on with installation.. Using whatever they can to move it, but ended up cracking and bending the pan. And also, they damaged the stacking unit kit.. The dryer on top is leaning forward and there's a huge gap between the washer and dryer.

When the installation guys thought that they were done damaging it.. Tried to turn on the dryer without any clothes. He clearly saw that vibration on the dryer was not normal. And also he asked me if this was floor item that I bought? Because the washer door is not closing?? Really? It's brand new and just because the door is not closing makes you think that it's a floor model??? All he told me was that sorry for the damage, but this is all I can do, can you sign this paper so we can report to our supervisor? Yeah, I signed that paper with very long memo saying "damaged the pan and broken door and damaged the stacking unit kit".

Next day, went over to Oakland Best Buy to show the pictures and videos of it and since the stacking unit and pan was purchased and installed by stores other than Best Buy, that we would have to make a claim with Best Buy corporate.. And gave me Geek Squad phone number. Called Geek Squad on 3/26/11, explain to them the whole story and made my 2nd repair appointment on 4/1/11 and the Geek Squad agent told me that she would make note of the pan and the stacking unit kit and when the tech comes on 4/1/11, that I would have to talk to him about setting up another appointment to have him bring new pan and stacking unit kit and install the unit properly.

So on 4/1/11, tech came and fixed the door the second time, but didn't get the note for fixing the pan and/or stacking unit kit so he left. Called Geek Squad again, to find out what the ** is going and they transferred me to claims department and filed an incident report.. And told me to call Best Buy with that claim number.

Called Best Buy and they told me to call Geek Squad.. And Geek Squad told me to wait 24 hour for the claims to process.. I've searched online and found out that Best Buy's claim adjusters are Gallagher Bassett.. So why couldn't they tell me to call Gallagher Bassett with that claim number??? All those commercials about Geek Squad agent.. Solving any kind of problem.. Very incompetent people.. Don't know what the ** they're talking about.. It's been more than a month.. And still haven't been able to use my washer and dryer.. Once!!! And how long will it take??? Who knows...

On Sunday Nov 22nd 2009, the local BestBuy flier included a great deal on a LG Washer/Dryer combo. My wife and I briefly discussed and decided we should go for it. I called the local store and they stated that they'd already sold out, but suggested I go online to BestBuy.com. No problem, I hopped on the trusty computer and 15 min later I'd ordered our brand new washer/dryer and picked the delivery date of Nov 29th. This is where the happy part of the story ends. A few hours later I get a notice that the ship date I picked wasn't available. No problem I thought. I'll just call them up and get it fixed.

After about 30 min on hold I finally get through to an agent. She states that sometimes the site and the local shipper aren't in sync as far as available shipping dates, but she helps me pick a new date (Nov 30th). Nov 30th rolls around and I have to take a half day off of work so I can be home when they deliver the washer/dryer. About 12:00 pm I start getting a little nervous so I decide to call them to verify the delivery. Again after 30 min on hold I get through to a very nice representative who apologizes because their systems are down "for update". Hello, it's cyber Monday.

I doubt that the systems were being updated. She says to call back in 1 hour and they should be able to tell me my status. An hour goes by and back into the wait queue. I finally get to a person who proceeds to read me a predefined script about how the systems are down and hangs up on me before I can say anything. OK, deep breath. Call back again, wait again, this time I stop the person from reading the script and try to explain that I'm just looking to see if my washer/dryer are being delivered. She tries a number of ways but has no luck, because she can't look anything up by order number currently.

She does however give me the number of my local BB store as its the local warehouse for deliveries and suggests I call. Calling the local store. After about 15 min on hold I get through to a customer service agent and then get transferred to the warehouse. The gentlemen tells me he'll look into it and call me back. About 50 min later the phone rings and I get to talk to an extremely helpful woman named Linda. Linda has been working on the issue but has run into the same roadblocks I did (and she works there). She suggests that I continue to try to get through later in the evening and tell them to ship the product to the store instead of my home, and then she'll figure out how to get it to me.

She provides me her direct line and I thank her for her help and promise to call back once I've made some progress. It's now about 10 pm on 30th and I've basically wasted the whole day trying to get through and get an answer, but I figure I'll try one more time and see if the systems are back up. Call, wait 10 min, new message "We're sorry but all online agents are busy. Please try to call back later." CLICK... OK, that's enough for tonight... Dec 1, 2009. Off to work to try to make up the time I missed yesterday. Get a break around 10 am, and decide to call BB. Call, wait 10, "We're sorry", CLICK. OK this is starting to get to me.

All I want to do is get my washer and dryer shipped. This should be easy. I give it another hour and try again. Call, wait, CLICK... arrrrrghhhh. One more try at 1:00 pm. Decide to take a new route and get the operator instead of the automated method. Tell her I've been getting cut off. She apologizes and attempts to manually transfer me. I end up in a hold queue. 45 min later I get transferred to someone's voicemail box that's full and then it hangs up on me. Seriously??? I'm at a loss.

I understand it's the holiday season and they're busy. I understand computer systems having issues (it's what I do for a living)...but why oh why can't I just talk to a human. Any human.. I would have even been happy with the guy with the full voicemail box... I'll try again later, and keep trying. Hopefully before Christmas I'll find a human willing to help... Will update when I've found a solution...

UPDATE - I actually talked to a person!!! Dec 1st, 2009 OK, So last night I finally get a hold of a person. Lo and behold, the washer/dryer is no longer available. I ask what they can do for me and I'm transferred to a "team lead". After explaining the situation AGAIN to the team lead, he assures me that they'll make it right and is going to pass my case to the "customer care" team. I ask when to expect to hear from them and he replies "3-7 days". WHAT? 3-7 days, are you kidding me? I ask if they can expedite the handling of the case at all, and he promises to physically walk the case over to the dept and let them know.

Who knows what's going to happen next, but I'll keep posting as I hear more. Dec 3rd, 2009 Still nothing from "customer care" so here we go again. Call in and get a hold of another customer service rep. She puts me on hold to read my case notes. After explaining again what happened and that I understand my original choice isn't available I give her our new choice of model, she puts me on hold again and tells me she'll see what she can do. She comes back and tells me she'll give me free shipping on the new washer/dryer, but I'll have to pay full price. OK, now I pitch a fit.. this is ridiculous. Tell her I need to talk to a supervisor. She puts me on hold again.

I talk to the supervisor and he basically tells me that that's the best they can do. Refund my shipping, and if I choose I can call the corporate office if I'd like to try to take it further.. LOL. Not sure where to take this next, but I guarantee I'm not done yet... March 25th - 2010 ... It's been awhile but since there are some recent updates to the story I thought I'd let everyone know. So back in December after the above debacle I gave up on BB. No results from corporate, online, or the store, so I went and purchased a new washer/dryer from a local company and have been happy ever since... until recently.

On March 6th I'm sitting at home minding my own business when I get a call from my credit card company. Apparently there had been a number of charges on my credit card that day that were abnormal. So they go through the list: charge from out of town, yup, that's my wife, charge from PayPal, yup that's me, charge to BestBuy...wait a minute. Apparently after 5 months (yes 5 months) BestBuy got a returned set back in the warehouse and decided to attempt to charge me for them. Now not only did they not bother to contact me, or setup a delivery, but they attempted to charge my CC long after the initial charge authorization had expired.

Luckily my CC company was nice enough to cancel the card and issue me a new one. Then I begin getting emails from BestBuy daily asking me to call in to update my credit card info so they can charge me or they're going to cancel my order....LOL..LOL..LOL... While I didn't win the fight I at least got one last poke to the eye of BestBuy before I lost.. If nothing else comes from this I pray that it helps someone in the future to avoid them at all costs. Thanks for reading.

MURRAY, UTAH -- I purchased a washer and dryer set on clearance from Best Buy on Friday. It was scheduled to be delivered on Monday. I was told someone would call to let me know a two hour time frame when I could expect delivery. No one called. I tried to call Monday before I left for work, but they don't open the store until 10. So I called again at 10 - it took me 10 minutes just to get someone to answer their phone - only to be told that the two hour window was from 9:30 to 11:30! So I raced home to wait for delivery.

At 11:40 the delivery still had not come - so I called Best Buy again - after another 20 minutes of sitting on holding and getting the run around, I was told that they couldn't get in touch with the delivery man, but they left him a message to call me ASAP. About 10 minutes later he called, informing me that the washer they sold me was not in stock and he was still trying to find one from another store and didn't know when or if he would be able to deliver. It would have been really nice to know this before I took 2 hours off work to wait for him to show.

I tried to call the store again to talk to a manager, but couldn't ever get anyone in the appliance department to pick up the phone, so I called corporate customer service. They were very kind, but explained they couldn't do anything because the product was a clearance item that they were not restocking. But said they would send me a gift card for my trouble and told me to go into Best Buy to see if I could find something to replace it or to cancel my order. So, I went back in to Best Buy and it was finally determined that there was a newer model that the salesman thought was the clearance model - which caused the whole mix up.

He took my phone number and said he would redo the order with the new unit at the clearance price and would call and let me know when I could expect delivery. Surprise, surprise, no phone call. I spent another 20 minutes this morning trying to get in touch with someone at the store. Only to be told that they were going to give me the new model at cost - but it was still about $40 more than the model I originally purchased and I needed to come back in and repurchase everything. If the unit wasn't such a good price, I would just cancel everything because I don't want to deal with their crap anymore. I guess you get what you pay for.

I can say that after this, I am seriously reconsidering paying for the extended warranty if this is the kind of service I can expect. And I will never make any large purchase from Best Buy again. UPDATE: After another hour long trip to Best Buy, we finally, hopefully have everything figured out - and delivery is set for Saturday and I am now having nightmares about my washer/dryer and the delivery. I get a phone call on Friday telling me that delivery is scheduled between 9 and 11 am. Hooray - maybe a little redemption for Best Buy! Not! 10:30 Saturday morning and I get a call. They are running late. It will now be between 11:00 and 12:00.

12:30, I call, they are still running behind but are almost to my house. They arrive about 10 minutes later. 2:30 - They have been trying to install everything for about 2 hours when I am told there is a problem, they can't hook my dryer up to the vent. It seems the connection in my wall is old and outdated and won't attach to the dryer hose I was sold. Sorry, nothing we can do. Seriously, this guy was ready to pack up and leave me with a dryer in the middle of my kitchen! After explaining to him as calmly as I could under the situation that I refused to pay for delivery and installation if the product wasn't installed.

He told me I could go find a part that would work and call him and he would try to come back and fix the problem, at his convenience of course. So, after 3 trips to Best Buy, 5 calls to Best Buy (each one taking at least 30 minutes), 5 1/2 hours of waiting for delivery people, and 2 hours of installation, my old, semi-working washer / dryer is gone, I have a working washer, and no dryer. And, the assurance that may be, if things aren't too busy tomorrow, they will be able to come over and get my dryer hooked up. Word to the wise, no matter the price, don't buy major appliances from Best Buy, it is never worth it!

AKRON, OHIO -- Three things people should know before heading to Best Buy. This one is specific to the Akron, Ohio Chapel Hill store. 1. Best Buy has been heavily advertising how their stores now include "experts" on major appliances. Okay, good. I needed a dishwasher, so I go to Best Buy and am greeted by the gentleman working in the appliance department. A 45 minute story made short, he had NO idea of the differences between comparable models without spending time looking stuff up on his computer and then handing me pages of specs for me to read through. I thought he was supposed to be at least moderately versed in his department.

There was a $200 price difference between a Whirlpool Quiet 1, Quiet 2, and Quiet 3. I had researched the dishwashers on line before going to the store, but they didn't specify differences to that exactness, and some of the spec fields on their site were blank. When I asked about the difference between the three that the third would be so much more money; his answer was, "Well, the 3 is the most quiet." Yes, I rather assumed that. Thanks for the clarification. I walked around the department then, reading the specs he gave me, looking at the models, and he followed me closely the entire time. I wouldn't mind this, except for the fact I told him to give me a few minutes to make a decision.

I had to walk out of the area to get a moment to look at the specs. I went ahead and bought the 2 on June 22, but I didn't buy it off any kind of an expert. 2. The price of my dishwasher was $399. I went home that night and got on line to look at it because I was excited. The price of my dishwasher on their site is $379. No where on there, that I can see, does it say "Internet Special." So, Best Buy, which has been in trouble for the bait and switch before, has done it again. Hindsight, I should have printed off the limited specs on line and taken them with me because after looking at umpteen dishwashers, I couldn't keep which cost what straight in my head.

I called Best Buy and the girl told me I could bring my receipt in and they would give me $20. Okay, no problem there, but I think they count on people not doing that do they can keep the money, sort of like rebates? Why don't their prices match? Isn't false advertising illegal? 3. My microwave died one week after I bought my dishwasher. I went to another appliance store, HHGregg. I had never heard anything good about the store from anyone, and I went in once and couldn't get waited on. However, I wasn't immediately going to return to Best Buy because I had felt lied to, I had to do all of the work, and they had a limited selection.

When I went in there, I saw my dishwasher for $321 and I was instantly angry. A $10 difference, okay, big deal. An $80 difference? Oh heck no! I talked to the salesman and he said, "It's on sale for $379, but then there is a $50 rebate on it. When did you buy yours?" I said, "A week ago?" He pointed to the date on the rebate paper and said, "You can get the rebate. It started a week before you bought your dishwasher." Okay. So why didn't Best Buy offer this to me-it is a WHIRLPOOL REBATE, not a Best Buy, or HHGregg rebate. If I had not walked into HHGregg, I would never have known about it because Expert-boy never mentioned it.

I ended up buying $750 worth of new kitchen appliances off him because he offered me $25 off the microwave and $50 off a new stove (I'm redoing my kitchen, now everything matches). He also gave me the rebate paper on a dishwasher I didn't buy from him and filled out the numbers on it for me. Nice guy.

Oh, and what a concept, he told me all about the microwaves, wattage differences, sensor touch buttons, and what would be the Best Buy for my price range-and he didn't have to use his computer to do it. So, it's a foregone conclusion that I need to spend more time looking around before I buy large ticket items. I take partial responsibility for the troubles I had, but I was also counting on Best Buy to live up to what it advertises. Shop there if you want, but be careful.

PORT ORANGE, FLORIDA -- On February 21, 2005, I purchased an LG front loading washer from Best Buy in Daytona Beach. I also purchased a 5 product service plan for it and the matching dryer I bought with it. Fast forward to last Friday. I was doing laundry and came back to switch the loads around. The washer had a code displayed. I assumed it was out of balance and tried to redistribute the load with no luck. I then looked the code up and saw that it meant that the motor was overloaded. The instructions said to unplug it and call for service. I called Best Buy and set up an appointment.

I was told that the tech would be here between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday and that the tech would call me that morning to give me a better time frame. I explained to the woman that I work till 1 so it would have to be after that. She told me that she had no control over their scheduling but that she would make a note that it had to be after 1 p.m. I gathered up all my laundry and went to the laundromat. $14 to wash my laundry! Today is Tuesday and I got a call this morning on my cell phone while I was at work. It was the tech telling me he'd be here between 10 and 11. I told him that wouldn't work, I work till 1.

He said he had made his schedule and my area is covered in the morning as he comes from Orlando and does this area first and works his way home. He said there was no note that it had to be after 1 and he wasn't going to come then and I'd have to reschedule. I asked him about coming after 1 when I rescheduled and he basically told me I was out of luck because he does my area in the morning and it wasn't going to be after 1 but I could just keep making appointments and see if I could ever get one that met my needs. I hung up and called the customer service number and was told by the rep that they have no control over the scheduling of the repair company.

I explained that I have to work, as most people do, and I can't be available for a 10 hour window to wait for the repair guy. She wasn't impressed. I asked for her supervisor, who gave me the same story with a total lack of regard for my situation. I took an appointment for Thursday and we'll see if I can get lucky then. When I got home, I called back and asked for a supervisor again. I got the same "I couldn't care less" attitude from this supervisor who also told me I couldn't speak to his supervisor and he'd leave a message and maybe she'd call back in 24-48 hours. I met with the same response from a customer service person and her supervisor.

So basically I'm stuck with a washer, which hasn't ever given me any other trouble, that doesn't work and a pretty much useless product service plan. After a lot of prodding, I did find out that I can contact a reputable repair service on my own and have the washer fixed and submit the bill to Best Buy for consideration to be reimbursed. They assure me they "usually" do reimburse people but it depended on if they felt the repairs were justified, etc.

And no one could give me a time frame of how long it would take to get reimbursed. I am a long time big spender at Best Buy. I've bought 3 sets of appliances at Best Buy, computers, t.v.'s, software, video games, CD's, DVD's, etc., at Best Buy. I'm thinking Circuit City or some other store might be getting my business in the future.

ALBANY, NEW YORK -- BIG PROBLEM for Best Buy customers, If you go Christmas shopping in early December, nothing you purchase will be returnable after the gift is opened on Christmas day because of a 14 day return policy which is UNHEARD of in the retail industry. You're stuck with it. They did it that way intentionally and they will enjoy telling you that you can't bring it back.

ONLINE, CALIFORNIA -- I purchased a new refrigerator on September 19th. Additionally I purchased an ice maker hose line that I did not need. I still did not get a refund on this even though I was told by customer service representative refund would be processed in a couple of days. No matter the emails, calls and reviews they just don't care.

COLUMBUS, OHIO -- Delivery of fridge was a nightmare. Delivery men scratched fridge and walls of my home. The delivery men actually yelled at me and my husband that they didn't do it. Went to Best Buy with pics and they filled out form to escalate the problem to this outside company. The company calls me and leaves a voicemail with a disconnected number and no one ever calls me back as of this date. Went back to Best Buy two more times with promises to call me and no one has. Been over a month.

COLUMBUS, OHIO -- Delivery of fridge was a nightmare. Delivery men scratched fridge and walls of my home. The delivery men actually yelled at me and my husband that they didn't do it. Went to Best Buy with pics and they filled out form to escalate the problem to this outside company. The company calls me and leaves a voicemail with a disconnected number and no one ever calls me back as of this date. Went back to Best Buy two more times with promises to call me and no one has. Been over a month.