Customer disservice

I do the vast majority of my Christmas shopping online for a handful of reasons:

1. Parking in crowded lots full of strollers, shopping carts, and oblivious pedestrians makes me want to tear my hair out.
2. I feel more comfortable with an online interface than a recent holiday-season retail hire.
3. I’d rather browse on a laptop than on my feet.
4. I can more easily track my spending and to-get items with my spreadsheet.
5. I get a thrill out of checking tracking numbers and shipping status. (“Out for delivery! YES!”)

However, I am sad to report that the online ordering process did not fare so well for me on one specific occasion. Behold, a timeline of my frustration:

Monday, November 26

• 11am: Stumped for gift ideas for my cousins, I order a $50 gift card from Best Buy so that they can buy accessories or games for their beloved Nintendo Wii.
• 12pm: I receive an e-mail that confirms my order.
• 1pm: I receive an e-mail that informs me that my order has been shipped with the postal service, so I should allow 7-10 business days before receipt. No problem.

Friday, December 7

• Ten business days have passed since my shipment confirmation, and no gift card is in sight. JG suggests giving it a couple of more days, just in case something happened with the mail.

Saturday, December 15

• I have still not received my gift card in the mail, so I call customer service to inquire after it. I sit on hold for 20 minutes. The representative doesn’t quite understand how she sees that my order was shipped, but I haven’t received it. I repeat that I haven’t received it. She still does not understand, because it was shipped, right?
• I adopt my “don’t mess with me” tone and tell her what she’ll do for me. She’ll arrange for the original gift card to be canceled and a replacement card to be shipped to me overnight, since I need it next week.
• The representative says, “Ooh, you need it next week?”
• I snap, “Yes, that’s why I ordered it in November.”
• The representative promises that she’ll have a new gift card shipped to me as soon as possible. Maybe I’ll even get it today, she says. I highly doubt that, as the mail has already arrived.
• I receive a case number for my complaint. The representative says that someone from gift cards should call me to follow up, but I make a note to follow up on my own during the next week.

Tuesday, December 18

• I have not heard from the gift card department.
• Assuming that the request for the replacement gift card should have been processed on Saturday and then shipped overnight on Monday, I call customer service in the evening to ask just what the heck is their problem. JG advises me, “Nothing gets accomplished by yelling.” I say that I won’t start off yelling.
• I wait on hold for 50 minutes, simmering away.
• The customer service representative who finally takes my call is puzzled when she pulls up my order number and case number because there are no additional notes after the ones from Saturday’s call.
• In essence, nothing has been done.
• I am livid.
• The representative says that she will make a note for the gift card people to issue a replacement gift card to be sent out as soon as possible. I respond sharply, “Why should I be confident at all that the notes you’re taking would resolve my issue, since it is clear that the previous notes have had no effect? The fault, here, is not with me, since I ordered this gift card more than three weeks ago.”
• The representative offers to let me speak to a supervisor, which I accept. I sit on hold again. Unsurprisingly, a supervisor is not available.
• The representative says that she will make the notes she mentioned and put me in a queue for a supervisor to give me a call to discuss the issue. The supervisor should call me within 24-48 hours. I receive case numbers for my additional complaint and the supervisor call.

Today, Friday, December 21

• I have not heard from the gift card people.
• I have not received a gift card.
• I have not received a phone call from a supervisor.
• I am set to file a formal complaint with Best Buy.
• I am determined that they will fix the situation for me; I will not simply cancel this order.
• I am telling everyone I can about my experience, and I am never patronizing Best Buy again.

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12/28 UPDATE:

Saturday, December 22

• While I am elbow-deep in cookie dough, I receive a phone call from a guy from the “Research department,” whatever that means. He confirms that I have not received my gift card, which should have arrived between December 7-10, according to his records.
• I restrain myself from pointing out that, if I had received it between December 7-10, I would not have spent an hour and a half trying to fix my problem and he would not be calling me on a Saturday.
• Between 25 minutes spent on the phone and no less than three occasions of waiting on hold (I can only speculate that he had no idea what he was doing), the representative is able to cancel the first gift card I ordered and arrange for a replacement to be sent.
• Somehow, all of that sounds very familiar. Oh, yes, I have already heard it twice before.
• I write down the new order number for my records.
• The representative asks me if he can help me with anything else, although I can tell from his tone that he really hopes that he can’t.
• I say cheerily, “Actually, I have one other question. How can I go about filing a formal complaint about my problems in resolving this issue?” I receive instructions on where to go on the Best Buy website.

Thursday, December 27

• I receive the gift card in the mail, at last. One month and one day have elapsed since I received original shipping notification.
• JG and I go to a Best Buy store to spend the gift cards, in a ceremonial fashion, that he received for Christmas, thereby ending our patronage. As icing on the cake, our cashier is completely rude and off-putting.

Friday, December 28

• I write a detailed letter of feedback, employing every rhetorical device I know.
• I submit the letter to Best Buy’s electronic feedback form, prepare it to send to the corporate headquarters via snail mail, and e-mail it (plus a link to this post) to IHateBestBuy.com.

#87