Recently, Best Buy pulled some pretty nasty shenanigans on unwitting customers who had been waiting in line for some freshie XBOX 360’s. Unfortunately, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. After a few really irritating experiences with Best Buy, I vowed to never buy anything from them again. I’ve also convinced several friends and family members who were once loyal customers to stop shopping at Best Buy…but that’s a whole other story.

I remember back in the mid-nineties, I was totally stoked when they built a brand spanking new Best Buy near my parent’s house. I made it a ritual to go into that store at least once a week and I clamoured for the Sunday paper to see what juicy electronic delights were on sale. I even remember their radio and television ads of that time: they marketed Best Buy as the place to buy electronics in a friendly, no sales pressure environment. I remember the ads stated that their salespeople weren’t commission based, so there was no pressure. They even went as far as to mention that they didn’t try to sell service contracts! After a few years, I guess they realized that good customer service is a small price to pay in order to get rich off bogus service contracts and high pressure sales tactics. Within a few years, the salespeople were still non-commissioned, but got “perks” for selling certain high margin items including service contracts! Slowly over the years Best Buy turned into an evil retail entity who has even made it standard policy to violate their customers constitutional rights as they try to leave the store with merchandise they just purchased.

I guess the moral of the story is that in the end, money trumps good customer service. Duh.