Yesterday I posted a promotion where Best Buy was offering $50 off a $100 purchase (for included items) through the end of the week. The terms were pretty liberal and didn’t even exclude gift cards. My assumption was that it would get pulled and it did, although I am pretty disappointed on how Best Buy handled it. Make sure to read through the post though to see how you can potentially get a $50 credit for a future purchase.
I did purchase two $50 Amazon gift cards yesterday morning and had no problem getting the purchase approved. I then went back today with Mr. Deals (he received the email as well) and the manager absolutely would not honor the promotion. I had the original coupon printed out and was following all terms of the promotion. The item we were trying to purchase was even within the no terms guidelines that was sent out to stores yesterday late afternoon. I did walk into the store last night to inquire about the certificate and was told that the coupon was still valid until the end of the week, just the list of excluded items has changed.
Well after fighting with the manager, he suggested I called Best Buy as that is what he was told to tell customers. So I called while in the store and got absolutely no where. The representative knew of the error, informed me that it was a mistake and that it was a one day promotion. He said that customer service couldn’t do anything, but the store manager is absolutely able to override the purchase if he/she wants. I spoke to the store manager again, explaining to him that customer service sent me to the store manager and the store manager was sending me to customer service, and at the end of the day it is the customer’s loss. The store manager didn’t care and ultimately lost out on the sale. No way was I going to support a store at that moment that did not care about the customer. Now I understand if I fully abused this promotion it would have been a different story, but I didn’t – I followed all the guidelines in the coupon I received in my email inbox.
I did leave the store, but wasn’t going to give up there. I received the email since I was a rewards zone member (I believe), so decided to call them and explain the situation. I hardly had to explain myself and within a few minutes the representative I was speaking to got approval from her manager to give me $50 towards a future purchase tied to my member number. If you actually did receive this email, I’d suggest going this route. Call 1-888-BEST-BUY and select option 1 for the Reward Zone. Now, if you did not actually receive the email or already used the coupon and gave your Reward Zone number at purchase you probably won’t have much luck, but maybe?! I am not advocating those who took full advantage call (those who purchased thousands of dollars worth of Amazon or Best Buy gift cards – you know who you are!).
While I am ultimately happy that Best Buy made right by this, I am still fully disappointed in how it was handled. Best Buy sent out an email to their loyal customers and never had the decency to send an updated email letting their customers know that they made a huge f* up and give them the new terms. The only way a customer would have known that Best Buy screwed up was by wasting their time and going to the store. The store manager even tried telling me that an updated email was sent out. Upon speaking to customer service and a sales person at the store it was verified that an email was never sent out! It is unfortunate that not only did Best Buy not follow the rules that “the customer is always right” but they also blantently lied to their customers.
So to make a long story short, make sure to call Best Buy if you actually did receive the promotional email and did not take advantage yet.
Hopefully you were all able to get a good deal yesterday, and if not goodluck with customer service!
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People are taking this WAY too far. You should be thankful that you got it to go through once. You took advantage of an error on their part, and it worked, but then you got greedy. It’s annoying hearing people complain that a store wouldn’t give them a free 50 dollars. Is this what we are reduced to as a country? You can argue “well they should honor the terms on the coupon.” Sure, but common sense tells me that they would not want you to purchase gift cards with the promotion, no matter what the terms exclude and don’t. They have the right to change their terms whenever they want, without warning. It’s sad the lengths people will go to for a few bucks.
@Dave – I didn’t take advantage of best buy at all. I used the promotion I received in my email ONCE, and my husband went to go receive the promotion in his email ONCE. I absolutely would not have fought the manager if they didn’t allow gift cards, however, I absolutely didn’t think that having this promotion last 5 days was an oversight.
Is it really worth going through all that aggravation for $50 when you already cleared $100 on a deal that is already pushing things? We all knew this deal would not last. This game is for the fun of chasing points and deals, not fighting with store managers and customers service reps.
@Jimbo – As I mentioned, The $50 was for a different person who had not yet taken advantage of the deal.
Best Buy deserves everything they get. They are the most inept bunch I’ve ever dealt with. If you get an email with a coupon they better honor the terms, even when they screw up. They’ll eventually follow in the footsteps of Circuit City, good riddance.
consider yourself lucky – my bestbuy as of Sunday afternoon PST changed the terms to include only single item purchases of $100 or greater. now excluding gift cards, i can understand that. but suddenly saying that it has to be a single item purchase and cannot be a combination of items is just ridiculous when that is nowhere in the original terms.
just another example of best buy’s incompetence and all the more reason not to shop there.
This post is a bit incomplete. Are they still honoring 1 coupon per customer and if so what are the new terms? I was all set to buy a $110 item tonight but i wont waste my time if all coupons are now 100% void.
This post is a bit incomplete. Are they still honoring 1 coupon per customer and if so what are the new terms? I was all set to buy a $110 item tonight but i wont waste my time if all coupons are now 100% void.
@boraxo – no, best buy has changed the terms without notifying their customers.
I’m thinking that the BBB needs to get involved as well as legal authorities. The coupon doesn’t say it excludes gift cards. I hate that some abused it but it still doesn’t seem that best buy should be able to change the terms.
I filed a complaint with the WA attorney general. It didn’t bother me that they pulled the coupon. Rather, it was the series of lies that they told, and continue to tell, to weasel out of honoring the coupon.
For example, they claim the coupon “was sent out with incorrect product inclusions, product exclusions, single product call out and end date” here:
http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Best-Buy-Geek-Squad-Policies/50-MasterCard-Coupon-Correction/td-p/652207
Really? I can understand a typo here or there but to completely re-write the terms and then claim the new terms reflected the original terms is obviously a lie. Just pull the coupon, tell the truth, and say you don’t want to honor it.
@HikerT – I absolutely agree.
$50 card in mail for me! thanks for the heads up
My BBs even excluded sale items from the list of approved items, which pretty much excluded 85% of everything BB sells. Towards end of the day, my friend said they would not even accept all Mastercards, only Best Buy Mastercards… Granted it was likely a mistake…since its too good to be true but BB should have apologized and posted amendments right away. Word would have spread quickly and they wud not have as many disgruntled customers (like me). Used to be neutral towards BB… Now I’m definitely negative!
The deal is dead, move on everyone. Don’t try to overuse and abuse. On to the next deal!
Companies are so dumb these days if they don’t think they’re bad service will be blasted all over the web. “Word of mouth” has such a different meaning than it did even 10 years ago. Best Buy is off my list!
Conversely, a good report is like pure gold for a company!
I just called them and they said there is nothing they can do. I am now holding for a supervisor,
@Patricia – any luck?
Many thanks to all of the greedy individuals who caused this offer to collapse. One man apparently was so bold as to print 20 of the coupons and present them all at once. I had intended to get a new microwave this weekend which I really needed since the wheels broke on my old turntable inside. Now that I finally got to a printer the offer is no longer available. I am privately networking for future offers and will never share through this or another blog ever again. Too greedy.
your a thief and its people like you who ruin things for honest people
@Serri – Out of curiosity, how did I ruin anything? My husband and I were actually the honest people, just like many out there who were out of luck.
[…] has been done already. Some people got the original coupon and wanted to use it the next day, others were arguing at the cashiers‘, etc etc. The public opinion of Best Buy couldn’t be worse. Of course, I’m […]