Buyer Beware Online: Tech Advice

One of our own people bought a Dell computer online from BestBuy.com for his Autistic Son for Christmas. While the computer took over 10 days to get there it was still on time for the big day. Because it was an expensive Laptop it was his primary Christmas gift. When he opened it there was a big smile and much happiness until it was turned on. The screen had a "Pink Screen" defect and it was simply no good. Calls were immediately made to Dell who were very nice on the phone; but that is where it ended. They told us they would call back and we are still waiting. However the computer was bought at Best Buy online and so that is where we called next. We spoke to Yancey in Online support and received a ticket number and he nicely told us to send the child and father back into the store to exchange the computer for a like model and that if there was any additional charge that Best Buy would take care of it. That sounded professional and nice and that is where that ended. The Child and his father went into Best Buy store number 554 and they were told by the manager Lynda (after a long wait) that the online department would send a return label for the defective computer. When they asked to speak to the General Manager named Joe they were told "Joe" does not speak to customers???? Then we called online customer support again and were given another number and then told that a manager would call us back within 2 hours. Good guess if you thought they never called back. Since then we have tried to call Best Buy online customer support 11 times. We were put on long holds and when someone answered we politely asked for online customer support and 11 times we were disconnected and then told "yeah we got a problem with our phone". It is almost two days and this child still has no resolution or no computer. Also in the meantime Christmas vacation for this family has been ruined!!! When we tried to post a complaint to the profile of Kevin Dunn (The CEO of Best Buy) online his staff flagged it as spam. I guess Best Buy thinks legitimate customer complaints come under the spam department? So maybe the solution is a simple one: 1. Deal with a reputable dealer that cares about their customers. Buy your important tech purchases in person and MAKE SURE THEY WORK PROPERLY. BTW After that we finally reached another Best Buy representative who told us that we should absolutely get a fair replacement but that was the discretion of the store and they didn't want to mess with their inventory. Of course why should a sad autistic child that got disappointed at Christmas take precedence over inventory. What ever happened to old fashioned customer service. The Best Buy website says they are dedicated to customer service. What is that supposed to mean? in any event I am sure there are many other stories like this for the Holidays and we hope at Celebrity Wire you are not one of them. Happy Holidays!!!!

Rene Auberjonois Rene Russo Renee Olstead Renee Taylor