MY BEST BUY
What is a "restocking fee"? Is it necessary? Ok,let me rephrase that: Is it honest? Now, the mustard-colored store, Best Buy, and the red-colored store, Staples--and I'm sure some other stores--have this ridiculous fee. Yes, I said it. It's ridiculous. Now, despite my adding more stores to the list, really, let's not kid ourselves, the "biggy" is the mustard-colored store: Best Buy. It wins the prize for most annoying, and is perhaps the most complained about "store of whatever comes with a screen or a plug." Anyway, the point is they win the prize for annoying. Now, it wouldn't be too bad if they were just annoying like those flies that swirl around your hand as you drink your tasty mocha, you could just swat them; but they're not just annoying, they can actually, literally, affect your life. It's like that oops-I-didn't-notice-the-parking-times-sign-hidden-behind-the-brush-of-leaves mistake, which matters little to the tow-truck hauling the ass of your car away, for which you have to pay a hundred or so dollars to get it out of hock: precisely the day you don't have the money, and precisely on the day before your job that requires you to have your own transportation begins.
Now, it's perhaps a harsh statement, but the fee (15% of a specific product's cost, normally a laptop and a camcorder) is something like a moral injustice, and a customer abuse. Sure, people flock to the store, which means that most do not buy computers or camcorders, or they'd know better. Now, of course, Best Buy does give those "irksome returners" a chance to avoid the 15% restocking fee by allowing them to take their wares to the store's expert "Geeks," who are experts at finding usually nothing wrong with a computer. It's almost a hypocritical act, this testing a computer with the "latest technological equipment that will magnificently triangulate to the cause of anything--they could, if added a sonar, perhaps find the source of that annoying sound at night in your basement!). Now, a laptop error is like that stuttering that only happens when you're in front of that beautiful person of your dreams, which doesn't happen when you're just talking to a friend. It's almost as if the computer hated you, too. On top of that, there's something suspicious of stores having the same "restocking fee of 15%" when you return your laptop or camcorder. Cooperatives exist, they're a reality. It does almost seem that they expect to be validated by charging the same percent.
Now, I won't seem like I'm just speaking for everybody else. I wasn't exactly born a man that feels all pains--it would be a strange form of genius. On the other hand...but never mind. The world's truth is: there would be no great advancement in the science to cure cancer, or any other of those A-List diseases, if someone beloved in one's life--oneself or somebody else--had not gone through that suffering, and sometimes lost the great war.
First and foremost, Best Buy and all other 15% restock fee enforcers, ought to fulfill their contract. And no, it is not at the back of the receipt, nor is it written in sun-glazed letters at the glass front door. To fulfill that contract you must believe your customer and not call him or her a liar: sending them to the Geek Squad is name-calling. The most important contract is signed by the customer nodding his head and understanding the salesperson. It's in the salesperson being clear about the risk of taking that computer or camcorder home for 14 days, that any issue will be tested at the Geek Squad, which will rarely find a problem (key words) and that returning the item simply because one found something better will be punished with a 15% restocking fee. You know you don't charge the 15% restock fee out of necessity, but out of greed, avarice--a deadly sin!-- the "I gots to get me sumpin' out of this" mentality. But I've gotten ahead of me. The first thing to do is to tell the customer.
Secondly and secondmost, be nice to the customer and believe what he says when he comes back balancing the ol' box in the ol' hand he used to take it out. Yeah, you recognize the box. It sat there for a while. And you recognize the face. It was the dude last week. "Nice chap. We gave him great service." Yup! Continue the process, and give him back his money right away. It's a moral obligation. Your geek squad is not, I repeat and emphasize, NOT going to find the problem the returner of the camcorder and computer has experienced. The customer is always right and always tells the truth--except when it is blatantly obvious he's lying, like, he's your friend or something, and you know him to a tee, or you managed to pull him out of a virgin dame, all by yourself. Otherwise you will get into something called "a debate with a customer," which will be followed, inevitably, with loud voices and an impetus to grab your throat and slam your head on the counter when the hand is around your neck. And you will have made a scene and lost a customer. And customers rarely give up talking about your service. Trust me, I'm writing this.
For all intents and purposes, the goal of Best Buy, and several other businesses, is not to please the customer, but simply to make money. Which is the reason why this viral reaction happens from the store when an item is seen walking back. Holding on to the customer's money as much as possible is the goal of Best Buy. That's why when the store has agreed to return the money it will take up to two weeks or more to return it by check--in the hopes of the customer changing his mind.
To end, I believe a customer ought to show his dissatisfaction any way he damn right pleases, short of spreading bullets or burning down the store, of course, or even getting physical. To cuss is okay. It's the only way to let you the store understand how pissed off we are, and how far your heel is going into our dignity, how deep your sense of "righteousness and correctness" has soured, and how we feel you're spitting in our face. An incredible, indescribable anger possesses the customer that sees the wheel of last week turned today. Last week was all laughs, last week the store was helpful, though little informative on store policies. Now you're insulting and calling names (utterance unnecessary).
To fix the problem, Best Buy, begin to change your policies, or finally begin to tell the truth. Yes, by word of mouth.
