Image by Ron Dauphin via FlickrThanks to Best Buy, it will be a Merry Christmas for my son this Christmas. Unfortunately for a lot of other people, Best Buy will end up being the Grinch that Stole Christmas. Best Buy was overwhelmed with online orders this year and recently announced that several order, even some placed in November, would be cancelled an unable to be shipped in time for Christmas.Just prior to Thanksgiving, I had posted that I was considering trying to take advantage of the Black Friday sales in order to buy my son either an xBox 360 or a Playstation 3 for Christmas. A friend of mine who stops by here on occasion suggested I look at Best Buy's website because they were going to have a lot of the Black Friday deals online with free shipping. So, Thanksgiving morning, I found one of the systems on line, ordered it, and received everything I ordered within a week.
Earlier this week, my friend posted that he was Scrooged by Worst Buy. He actually had placed his order on November 19th, well ahead of the game. When he was wrapping presents a week or so ago, he noticed that this particular item was nowhere to be found. He searched his emails, found confirmation of the order, but could not find a shipment confirmation. Upon logging into BestBuy.com, he discovered his order had been cancelled. So, my friend was left without a key gift just one week before Christmas.
His experience was the first I had heard about issues with Best Buy and their online ordering. However, the proverbial excrement has hit the fan as more news stories have broken about Best Buy's ability to fill orders placed online. Today, I have heard stories on the radio and the local evening news about people who have just been notified that their orders will not be filled with just a few days before Christmas. One person posted that she ordered the same item that I did, one day later, and was just notified that her order was cancelled.
Naturally, Best Buy is getting a lot of bad publicity for their inability to fulfill orders in time for Christmas. Even more disturbing is the reports of bad customer service in the aftermath of their screw up. Thankfully, I didn't have an issue with my order. I only had two items, so I tracked it daily from the time the order was placed until received. Hopefully the folks who were disappointed by Best Buy's poor performance were able to find the gifts somewhere else, but a lot of people will probably think twice before ordering from them again.
Hey Dickster,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mention. Best Buy ended up making it right. Check my Updated post at: http://itsmynd.blogspot.com/2011/12/scrooged-by-worst-buy.html
WG
well at least they are trying to make up for it. they have a lot of bad publicity to overcome. Merry Christmas
ReplyDeleteHey there - cool blog, and congrats on actually getting your stuff from Best Buy! I've linked to your post on my own blog at:
ReplyDeletehttp://rsmithing.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/best-buy-going-bye-bye/
I encourage you to drop by and share your perspective in the comments. I'm curious about your thoughts on the ideas there, what with your friend's having been through this.