Best Buy

Last week I ordered a wireless keyboard and mouse from BestBuy.com. Unfortunately, I almost immediately realized that the keyboard and mouse would not work, because it had a PS/2 connection, and my work laptop only supports USB. When looking around on the site, I saw that one of my options for cancelling the order was emailing Customer Care. This seemed like a good option to me, because I hate calling customer service departments (ha! I wonder why). The email was pretty quick and to the point - needed to cancel the order I'd just placed.

2 days passed and I noticed that my order had shipped. Clearly, they did not cancel it. So now I HAVE to call Customer Care. They inform me that I can't cancel the order because it's already shipped. DUH! That's why I tried cancelling it right away! And hey, don't put that as an option if it doesn't work to email it in! Yes, I know that the store is just down the street from work and that I can return online purchases there, but if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have tried to cancel the order in the first place. After telling me there was no supervisor for me to speak to, the woman does put her supervisor on the phone (of course). He tells me the same thing - apparently, sometimes you can't cancel an order even minutes later because they ship them out so fast. It didn't ship until the next day, so let's try not to pull that one shall we? In the end, I find them utterly unhelpful.

Sunday, four full days after I placed my order and subsequently cancelled it, I received a response back from Customer Care. Here it is:

"Elizabeth,
Thank you for contacting Best Buy about your order # BBY01-77634006462. I'm Garnett with Customer Care.

We appreciate your concern about canceling your order.

Your order has reached a point in the processing stage where it is beyond cancellation. If you do not wish to keep the item, returning is easy. Just take it to your local Best Buy retail store, and they'll be happy to assist you with your return. To find the Best Buy closest to you, go to:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=cat12090&type=page&isCarFi=null

If returning to the store is not an option for you, just follow the instructions on the back of the packing slip. Once it's returned, we'll credit you for the full amount of the product. Shipping charges, however, will still apply.

Thank you for sharing your comments with Best Buy. Please do not hesitate to contact us with additional questions or concerns.

Best wishes from Best Buy,
Garnett and the Customer Care Team"

I'm not exactly the nicest person when it gets to this point, so I'm sure you're not surprised that my reply back wasn't exactly pleasant:

"Thanks, Garnett, for making it impossible to cancel my order by not responding to me until FOUR DAYS after I made my request to Customer Care. This may be the last time I use BestBuy.com, as your service is terrible. If I wanted to go through the "EASY" hassle of returning the item to the store (which requires going to the store) or via whatever instructions are on the packing slip (which requires going to the post office), I wouldn't have tried to cancel the order in the first place.

Your telephone customer care was equally unhelpful. Your menu was difficult to navigate and the people I spoke to were entirely unhelpful, by not answering a single question that I asked.

I would suggest either replying to email inquiries faster or not having it at all, because if you're not going to get back to the customer until their item is almost delivered, there's really no point in having email/web service (if you want to call it that).

Thanks for not helping me at all. "

I was really surprised at horrible this all was, as previously I've had nothing but good things to say about BestBuy.com. But hey, apparently bad customer service is in these days.