Nov
What Best Buy & Hookers Have In Common
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You can consider this a rant post if you like but my experience at Best Buy today got me thinking about customer service and how Social Media can sometimes be used to mask an organizations real customer service policy.
Yesterday my Blackberry Storm died on me. To be more accurate it suffered a software issue that is a known problem. The only fix is to replace the handset. So I went to Best Buy where I purchased the handset from four months ago. This seemed to me to be the obvious course of action.
We Only Help If You Pay
When I spoke to the assistant they told me that Best Buy were unable to help me because I had not purchased their additional insurance policy at the time of purchase. I was careful to explain to the sales associate that the insurance policy wasnt necessary as this fault was not caused by accidental damage but by a software flaw – a known issue and that the handset needed to be replaced. He recommended I send the handset to RIM. I asked him what I was supposed to do for a phone, he shrugged and asked did I not have an old handset lying around that I could use?
I asked to see the manager, what I was presented with was someone from the Geek Squad. Not THE manager but A manager. She told me the same thing, that unless I had purchased additional insurance Best Buy would do nothing for me as I was outside their 30 day policy.
Take Your Problem Somewhere Else
This struck me as strange. I could understand if I was taking in a broken handset, something I had damaged, but this was a service issue. I asked them to clarify their policy again, she said that I needed to take the handset to Verizon. I asked why I would do that, they are the airtime provider, not the hardware provider, she stated again it was not Best Buy’s problem.
Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am
So Best Buy only wants a relationship with me if I am prepared to pay for it. This sounds rather like another, much older profession to me. Best Buy entered Social Media with their warm and fuzzy TweepleForce on Twitter, setting the expectation that they wanted to”engage” with customers, seems that is only true if you want to pay for it.
What other brands make you pay for the relationship with them?
As an aside, I took the handset to Verizon who replaced it, backed up my data and made sure I left the store completely happy with an updated handset all for no charge. While I was waiting I was even able to pay my cell phone bill at their in-store kiosk.
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I don't know Simon…I can sense your frustration and I'd be frustrated too. But I'm not sure the hooker analogy is quite right in this case. Now, if you ended up with an STD from a paying experience and went back to the brothel only to be denied a refund from a madam after opting to not purchase the no-STD insurance…well that would be closer to your point. From Best Buy's standpoint, that's why they throw out their insurance which many of us don't bother with.
I imagine Verizon's reason for treating you like a king is because they have a more vested interest in your happiness…its called monthly billing and a renewed contract. The managers at Best Buy had no clue whether you were a one-time buyer or a long-term, loyal purchaser. And there's the real issue here: the relationship. Businesses that value relationship will win more fans (and I think that was your point in the end). For Best Buy, it appears there was no obvious incentive to build a relationship with you once you swiped your credit card for your phone purchase.
Interesting to see what other responses you get.
Chris, the point here is that Best Buy want to sell me insurance that covers things that should be covered in a relationship. Not just accidents, or my bad handling of the device, but for things that are outside of my control – in this case a software failure. Best Buy do in fact know if I am a regular customer through their Best Buy Rewards program, they get that info when they call up my phone number in their system and they get to see the numerous purchases I have made with them, both at stores & online. So they are trying to encourage loyalty, they want repeat business. However, what they don't want is the responsibility of that relationship unless I pay them to take responsibility – hence the Hooker analogy.