Full Circle III - A Photo Blog

BestBuy.com Online: HORROR Story

June 8th, 2008 by jfrfullcircle

Greetings
Fellow bloggers, sponsored reviews websites, Best Buy Corporate Headquarters and Best Buy.com “review” sites, Whirlpool Corporation by e-mail and via-US Postal Service and whirlpool_customerexperience@whirlpool.com, Consumer fraud division-County Attorney’s Office, State of Arizona, All Arizona Newspapers, Better Business Bureau, friends and family

BestBuy.com Online: HORROR Story
June 6, 2008
You are going to want to read this

Like I have all the time in the world to write a story BUT this one, I can’t let go. I bought a new Washer and Dryer at BestBuy.com and here’s the resulting pain and suffering.
One Friday May 16th I spent 7 hours online (research and ordering) and going to an actual store to do some research in order to make an informed decision on which product I should purchase. I decide on a set by Whirlpool (my old set was Whirlpool which, I was told by a sales person at my local store, Whirlpool bought Maytag Corp.)
Why did it take 7 hours? Have you bought a washer and dryer lately? Well I haven’t in 16 years. But the old set was on its last legs. Figured I better see what’s out there.
If you want a matching set-WATCH OUT-Online BestBuy.com website doesn’t have detailed pictures. BestBuy.com sales department (one of 7 people I talked to says, “These folks can help you with the details about the best features, capacity, appearance for matching, etc”) NOT!
If you want certain features, believe me, there are hundreds. Did you know you pay more for a knob that tells you your water level or temperature choice? Otherwise (without the knob to choose) the cycle you choose does that for you. In other words, if you want a hot water wash, you’ll get a “heavy duty” cycle that provides a high agitation and a beat to death your garments type of agitation (delicate whites that need hot water gets pummeled). This is just a small taste of the time consuming research on buying a new washer and dryer. Well, if you want certain features and your concerned about your budget.
You haven’t heard the horror story yet,
the preceding was to give you some advice and help. Help, that I hope, keeps you from ordering on BESTBUY.COM
So, on Friday May 16, I get very friendly service, a delivery date and all runs smoothly. I am impressed. Saturday May 24, 2008 the washer and dryer are delivered and the deliver is on-time and I am impressed. One hour after they leave, I put in a heavy load (one that my old washer and dryer easily handled).
The load, almost 10 seconds into the spin cycle, clunks and clanks the sounds of an unbalanced load. I go reset all the clothes and it happens again. I am pulling heavy wet sheets and towels out one by one-and that load becomes 2 loads. Later, I try another load (medium) and my husband and I nearly jump out of our chairs in fright as the washer clunks loudly announcing it has stopped washing and is going to fill up for the rinse. When the load is done, I see fabric softener drooling down the agitator. The last load I washed, same problems. BUT the dryer is fine. Yes, I am very upset. For details on which washer I am talking about, go to BESTBUY.com-Washers-Whirlpool-reviews-, most of this is in there. SO I call Best buy the following Friday May 30th 2008 to ask for some help and what can be done. All parties I spoke with remarked that I indeed had a defective washer. There is no question about that fact.
Would love to detail and give names here but this is about BESTBUY.COM’s policy. Eight hours on Friday May 30th, I talked to 9 people. Four were those that “route you to the appropriate representative or department”. Why four (4) people? I was routed wrongly twice and hung up on twice by a young lady that first said “I’ll get you to my supervisor “and after 20 minutes the phone went dead. The second time I called back, I happened to get this same young lady and she said, “My supervisor is going to tell you the same thing I just did, hold on”. I held on for 10 minutes (just to see how long it would take) and the phone went dead again. I was disconnected. What did she tell me?
Oh Yeah before I tell you what the “policy” is, the other five people, in this total of nine, was (never a supervisor, by the way. Best buy apparently doesn’t want that to happen).
 2 that did route me correctly to the “appropriate department”
ï‚· A nice young man that was most helpful (see below)
 A “sales” department person that basically was no help at all and I trained her with what I learned in my research
Just for fun, let’s not forget the 3 sales people (in 3 separate trips) at my local Best Buy store, the 2 delivery persons (nice job guys) and who knows how many others I will have to deal with till this is over.
I was told that BESTBUY.Com policy is that “we will pick up your defective washer and within a few days we’ll credit your bill and then replace the washer”. I say, “In other words, you will have my washer and my money for who knows how long? You say a few days, but I am uncomfortable with this. What if something just happens to go wrong in the “few days” between your taking the washer and I receive the credit? At this point I am imagining all kinds of scenarios. Mainly, I have a washer and several hundred of dollars on my bill and no way to get either AND I have no washer to wash my clothes. What I am hearing is that I need to trust that BESTBUY.com won’t make any mistakes.
So, we go round and round about my discomfort. She keeps repeating that this is BestBuy.Com policy. This young lady has a thick accent on top of everything else. I can’t get to her supervisor, I have spent 4 hours on the phone dialing and calling back and being on hold. I go take a break for about an hour.
Finally, I get a nice young man (see above in the count of 9). He is very apologetic and is determined to help. “There just has to be a way to help you”. (Thanks Brad you were and still are the only truely considerate help I have received to date). He takes my story and we strategize. He documents my case (gives me a case number which didn’t happen until now) and my concerns. Eventually, he says, “this goes to the credit department. They are the ones authorized to credit your account and they will get the picking up of the old washer and the delivery of the replacement settled. They will call you within 48 hours (this is Friday, May 30th).
Wednesday morning June 4th @ 7:30 am my time the credit department calls. I am on my way out the door to work. We arrange a better time to handle this. We synchronize or clocks. We decide on Friday morning, June 6 @ 10:00 am my time and 1:00 pm her time. I have to re-arrange all kinds of schedules to accommodate this call. “1:00 pm? – Where are you?” I ask. I am in Canada, credit dept lady says. She finishes by saying she will call me.
At 10:10 my time, credit has not called. I call credit 1-800-922-4171. JP takes a message and says, “I see she’s not at her desk”. He takes a message and my case number. It is 2 hours later (12:10) my time and I sit here writing this, waiting on a call to finally get some relief. I am thinking, How rude, my time is not valuable? If I leave or miss her call to go to other appointments and errands, it will be another week before this gets settled and that will be near the 30 day mark when BestBuy.com is off the hook.
All I know is this.
I am going into around 30 hours (not including the 2 spent writing this letter) of my time spent on this. Granted, some of this was my own research and ordering time but I still have:
ï‚· No resolution or hopes of a working washer in this house any time in the near future
ï‚· A credit card bill where I have to make a payment within 10 days on a washer that is not working
ï‚· Piles of laundry to be done
ï‚· Once they get your money, WATCH OUT
ï‚· I WILL NEVER order online again, not for a major expense and definitely not at BESTBUY.com even if they do change their policy.
 Why can’t there be an even exchange? In these days and times, BEST BUY would rather use up the gas to pick up a defective washer and another trip to deliver the replacement?
 Why do I have to trust them? (between pick up of old and delivery of replacement)They have my money. Why can’t they put a hold on my account until all this is resolved?
 I could potentially have a defective washer and only a dryer in this house AND be out some hundreds of dollars at the same time (until of course, the defective washer gets credited to my account). Days? Weeks? I don’t know.
ï‚· I do know I am NOT allowing that washer out of my site until I see a replacement here. D
 AND—they have my old set that still operated perfectly. Which by the way, upon ordering the representative had no idea what happens to the old set turned in? Did I get a trade offer for the old set? NO! She finds out that 1) we will either throw them away or 2) refurbish them and sell them, 3) or given them to charity. This means: 1) throw them away? WHERE?-She assures me “not in some dump somewhere” 2) Best Buy makes more money off of me by selling my refurbished set, and 3 ) I don’t get the deduction, if they truly went to charity.
PS—I am shocked I just cut and pasted this into Best Buy’s website customer service, e-mail box and it actually let me put all this (3 hard copy pages) into the box—but WAIT—I haven’t “SUBMITTED” it yet. Let’s see how long it takes for customer service to call me or respond to this e-mail. Update you all soon.
I can’t wait for “credit” to return my call (now been 2 hours and 31 minutes), I need to go
Credit called: One hour later (1:00)-“If I don’t call you back today, I’ll be back in the office on Sunday and call you then”
Update on “credit” calling me
Sunday June 8th, 2008
No call from credit@ 12:30 pm Arizona time (3:30 pm Canada time)

I’ll be back to update you all later.

I have mailed a copies/blogged all of this to:
Update
 Anyone want to take odds that I’ll get a response from BestBuy with the US Postal mail letter before I get one from the e-mail submitted?

June 6, 2008 12:40 pm, Arizona time
 3 ½ pages did submit nicely into the Best Buy.com’s customer service e-mail and they say:
“Thank you! Your e-mail has been sent to Best Buy. We’ll send you a response shortly.”What’s “shortly” mean—This is too funny they also say: “Phone is much faster than e-mail”. I say, “it may be faster but good luck getting anything resolved”.

Customer Service Inquiries
Best Buy
Corporate Customer Care
P.O. Box 949
Minneapolis, MN 55440
1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289)

Web Site Inquiries
BestBuy.com
Customer Care
P.O. Box 949
Minneapolis, MN 55440

Store Inquiries
Best Buy
Corporate Customer Care
P.O. Box 9312
Minneapolis, MN 55440

Media Inquiries
Best Buy Public Relations Department
NewsCenter@bestbuy.com
Phone: 612-292-NEWS (6397)
After Hours Pager: 612-618-6703

Best Buy Co., Inc.
Corporate Headquarters
P.O. Box 9312
Minneapolis, MN 55440-9312
612-291-1000

Corporate Campus
7601 Penn Avenue South
Richfield MN 55423

Additionally, this letter has been sent to:
Sent June 6, 2008 @ 12:50 Arizona time:
1)Whirlpool-Contact Us Dept at Whirlpool.com website
Response: Thank you! for your interest in Whirlpool.
We will respond to your email within 3 business days.
AND
2)Whirlpool Corporate Headquarters by Letter-US Post Office
2000 N. M-63
Benton Harbor, Michigan 49022-2692
United States

AND
3) whirlpoolcustomerexperience@whirlpool.com additional e-mail

---

June 6, 2008 @ 1:24 pm Arizona time
4) BestBuy.com customer review of the washer I purchased
Response: “Thank you! You have successfully submitted your review for this product. Please note that it may take up to 72 hours for your review to appear”.June 6, 2008 @ 1:50 pm Arizona time5) The BBB that will handle your complaint is:
BBB of Metropolitan Dallas
(Dallas, TX)
1601 Elm, Suite 3838
Dallas, TX 75201
Phone: (214)220-2000
Fax: (214)740-0321
Email: info@dallas.bbb.org
Web: http://www.dallas.bbb.org

RESPONSE from BBB: “This case will be reviewed by a complaint specialist at the Better Business Bureau, and then forwarded to the business for their response. It is our policy to allow the business 30 working days to respond to your complaint. You will be notified when the business has responded.

30 days??????

UPDATE
June 8th, 2008
Blogging copies placed at: http:frankslog.com,

http://jfrfullcircle.seo-blog.org/wp-admin/post-new.php

http://fullcircleiii.seo-blog.org/wp-admin/post-new.php

 

King Crimson
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO:
http://frankslog.com/king-crimson-videos/

 

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted fellow Martian explorer, the Mars Exploration Rover “Spirit,” inside the feature dubbed “Home Plate” in Gusev Crater.

The intrepid, long-lived rover shows up as a tiny black speck at about the 5:30 position of the lighter-colored, roughly circular central feature of this image, taken on Sept. 27, 2007.

Spirit is driving toward what is hoped will be a safe winter home on the north-facing slopes on the north side of Home Plate, toward the top of the image. There it will tilt its solar panels toward the sun for the long Martian winter. There is a concern that Spirit is approaching its third Martian winter with more dust on its solar panels than it had during its first two winters, lessening its ability to generate power and remain operational.

Home Plate is a flat, raised feature probably representing a remnant of a deposit from an ancient eruption.

The new color image of Home Plate was created from a distance of 168 miles (270 kilometers) over the surface. At that distance, the camera could resolve objects about 32 inches (81 centimeters) across. The sun stood about 56 degrees above the horizon in the winter afternoon sky.

Mars Rover Landing Video Animation
Get to Know MRO: Top 10 Facts About NASA’s Mars
Mars Rover Special Report

—Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona and SPACE.com Staff

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

It is Interesting how the surface of Mars appears to be habitable by humans. It is, in fact, not hospitable at all to human life.

Here are some great shots we got of our trick-or-treaters;








To see all the photos, get on over to http://frankslog.com (Full Circle I)

Cosmology is the science that studies the physical laws of the universe. Cosmologists try to answer many questions on the formation of the universe, the causes of space phenomena or, again, the source of such energies as the dark matter. What particles made it possible for all structures to form? When did the first matter appear, putting an end to the Dark Age of the cosmos?

http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/img/sci_core-hubble.jpg