“Bro, do not sign up for this credit card.
My name is Alice, and this is my story.
I. THE GREAT MISTAKE
It was a crisp autumn afternoon when my $300 laptop fizzled out with a blue screen of death the day before my 44-page deadline. I needed a laptop, and I needed it in 5 minutes. I was relieved to remember the existence of brick-and-mortar stores where you can get anything on demand, so I drove to Best Buy, annoyed by the inconvenience but excited at the prospect of getting new things.
I only had about $500 of flexibility in my budget, so I set my standards low.
There were, like, three laptops in that price range. All of them were gray, clunky, archaically slow, and would probably konk out after one "Full Discography" download from Limewire.
Then I saw her. The most beautiful device I'd ever seen. I needed to have her. I wanted to know her. I craved for her smooth crevices, her crisp keys, her sleek folio, and elegant flat finish to be something I knew every day, touched every day, and understood most intimately to the point that our relationship calcified into effortlessly utilitarian. I wanted to have something this beautiful and take it for granted. Could I be the kind of person that owns this laptop?
My budget and the rare whispering angels of better business sense which value surviving, feeding myself, and sleeping under a roof said that that's a hard no. But my aspirational self, the part deep down inside of me that dreams, told me that I /am/ that bad b--- of my dreams already. I can embody elegance, success, and cutthroat efficiency; I can be the girl in the Cake song who's trading her MG for a white Chrysler Lebaron. I can own uninterrupted prosperity, and use my machete to cut through red tape. That machete was a promotional financing credit card loan from Best Buy/Citibank.
Seduced by these mad visions, I was all-too susceptible when a glossy advertisement enticed me, murmuring sweet nothings directly to my id:
"The choice is yours every day with a Best Buy credit card."
The choice WAS mine. Like a woman in love with a man who's unfaithful, I wanted to believed its promises; I didn’t care if they were lies.
Like a glutton, I scrawled my signature frantically on 27 forms, frantic to do anything to get my fix.
If you have legitimately ANY more common sense than me (which is a pretty low bar), please don't repeat my mistake.
II. THE AFTERMATH
The interest rate is robbery. The terms of credit are lengthy, complex, and unintelligible. After the "promotional period" (~11 months, long enough to lure you in and then ensure you totally forget it's temporary) your interest rate skyrockets from 3.99 to 26.49 percent.
Late fees are exorbitant, and their justice is swift and cruel. I once made a payment at 10:00 pm on the due date, but it didn't process till morning, so I was charged $40 in late fees.
X: One time I made my payment a few days in advance, but since it didn't process on the exact due date I was slapped with late fees again. They are bloodthirsty, merciless, and draconian in their layered deception, obfuscated red-letter laws, insurmountable labyrinths of inconvenience, pitiless penalties, and ruthlessly exacting methods.
XX: One time, they called me at 11 a.m. on the literal day my payment was due, asking me why I hadn't paid it yet. ....It was 11 a.m. It was due *that* day. I had already scheduled a payment for the date, like, on time?
XXX One time, I was (legitly this time) late paying my bill by a whole 5 days. They called me every day, at least four times a day, to tell me that I needed to pay up #orelse. It was borderline harassment; worse than those guys in college who tried to booty call you at 2 a.m. with 9 texts of "hey you up? answer me". It was legitimately stressful and exhausting; you felt like you were being attacked or something.
Their debt collection practices are cruel. Their policies are inconsiderate. Their promotions are deceptive, malicious, and misleading. Their terms are ludicrously exorbitant. Their punishment is absolute.
Pay off this card as soon as you can, on time, throw that predatory contract in the shredder, and bid this cruel parasite goodbye.
III. THE END
In the end, was it worth it? Yes. Absolutely. I love this laptop and have absolutely no sense of financial management.
Was it a bad decision? 100 percent.
But is Best Buy the winner here? No. Never.
I am the girl in that Cake song with a short skirt and a long jacket; this laptop is my car with the cupholder armrests; and even if I had to crash and burn on my way to hell, at least I had a car that would get me there.
EPILOGUE
To read the rest of this review or to learn more about the Best Buy Credit Card, go to "wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_lending_defined" or check out "creditkarma.com/personal-loans/i/what-is-predatory-lending"”
“I paid my credit card in full. My account indicated $0 for several months up until now, which shows a reported balance of $59, despite not buying one product from this company since February of 2019. I have been waiting on hold for 48 minutes now with 1 person transferring my call. There is absolutely no customer service present, so I guess I will just have to physically travel to the company’s location to dispute this situation.”
“This company does not care about its customers. I ordered an item online as a gift, it never showed. The first online chat I was told that it was being shipped from the manufacture, and I would get some information from them shortly. Almost a week went by nothing. A second online chat I was told it was lost in shipment. tracking information shows it was never shipped. I get it the person on the other end is only able to offer excuses for the company, buy the company has no customer service what so ever. I will stay with Amazon at least they will resolve your problems.”
“Pleeeeeeeaaase don’t buy anything online from best
I ordered a laptop one week ago and they didn’t even send me my laptop
I don’t know who can help me at all.
I called them four times: no help!!!
Please do not buy from best buy online!!!”
“I am a Best Buy Elite member, and my rewards points were incorrectly issued as 2x $65 Reward Certificates rather than being "banked". On December 31, I talked to the Customer Service Manager in-store in Tucson AZ to save my rewards, and he called MyBestBuy Rewards with me to have my reward certificates saved. I listened to him on speakerphone CONFIRM that I could call back in to activate my Reward Certificates.
Today, I was going to BestBuy for my next purchase, and I called to activate my points. The Mexico City service rep told me my points had already been re-issued as Reward Certificates, which had expired a week or two ago. This is incorrect - the Customer Service Manager in-store verified I would be able to use them at this time in the future by calling in. I was escalated to Supervisor Joe L from Rewards Department in Mexico City, who was extremely rude and hung up on me.
It seems this is a common scam, so here is the direct link to file a complaint about BestBuy with the BBB of Minnesota and North Dakota, where BestBuy is headquartered:
https://odrcomplaint.bbb.org/odrweb/public/NewComplaintForm.aspx?Qualified=y&BBBID=77&BusinessID=7663”
“BE AWARE OF BEST BUY PRODUCTS & RUDE CUSTOMERS SERVICE PHONE CALL OPERATORS & GEEK SQUAD POLICIES ARE FALSE & JUST WANT MONEY...📵🚫📵🚫📵🚫STAY AWAY FROM BEST BUY”
“Went to my local Best Buy to get a new monitor. Wanted to have 2 at my home. Currently just have 1. They looked up the one I recently purchased and suggested the same one. Deal ! They said this one is not in the store - but it is at the Jacksonville Airport location - I can buy now and go pick up. Deal! I drive 20 miles to go pick it up and they tell me, "someone just purchased it". Um. No. I told them that the other store said they have 3. They said they have not done inventory in over a month and could not validate that. Um. No. So, I asked for a credit, and canceled the "protection" and went to Wal-mart and purchased the same thing. Sorry sucky service is such the norm, now. And, I saved money. No wonder Walmart works!”
“This is about a completely failed phone system. Three days in a row waiting over 10 minutes to get someone to pick up. I just want to schedule an appointment with the Best Buy in West Nyack, NY. Guess I have to waste the gas to drive there. Once, OK. Twice, not good. Three tries, you know they just don't care.”
“Their appliance installation is done by incompetent 3rd party installers.
I have had two HORRIBLE experiences, 5 years apart.
5 years ago - 3 tries to install a new washer. after 3rd failure, I had them take it back (it was day 15). Lowes - did it right, first time.
More recently, they dragged a new stove across my floor, causing damage.
AND had to do a RE-Install.
BB's response to the damage to my floor - gave me info to file a claim with the 3rd party installers insurance. Which was then denied. BB did not compensate me at all for my time, aggravation, or for the damage to my floor.
I will NEVER do business with BB again.”
“Wish I had reviewed this website before buying appliances from Best Buy. Buyers beware. Do not have them do the delivery or install. Something is terribly broken with their internal system for inventory, delivery and installation. This company will not survive so buyers need to be concerned about getting their money wrapped up in court. I cannot get delivery or installation as they continue to reschedule. Personally I believe they are "robbing peter to pay paul". Paid for all appliances but after 4 reschedules cannot get a straight answer from them on why I cannot get delivery of what I purchased. With multiple answers don't know who is telling the truth and who is not. Needless to say this is enough to last a lifetime. I'm just thankful for social media as hopefully I can help others as this is a horrible experience.”
“I have had the worst experience with Best Buy. Apparently they allow people to open a credit card online without showing any form of ID. I. Today’s world with all the security breaches this is downright reckless, in my opinion. They certainly dont protect people from identity theft and make it very easy for people to open accounts using others’ social security numbers only. This is what happened to me. It was never brought to my attention until a year after the account was open and sent to a collections agency. Apparently once reported they can take up to 90 days to mark it as fraud which is needed for the credit bureaus to remove it from your credit report/score. This severely damaged my credit which is otherwise very very good. I’m Closing on a house and must get it removed in order to qualify for a loan and Best Buy has done nothing to try to get the investigation closed. It’s been 45 days. I’ve provided all information I can and done an identity theft report yet still nothing. Now they are hosting me a lot of money by not working with me to get this fraudulent account removed from my name. Apparently it’s because they have so many cases of fraud and are inundated... seems like the appropriate thing to do would be to up their security and what they require for people to open these accounts instead of continuing to place consumers at risk .... so disappointed with Best Buy.”
“So I went to order this computer online. No where on the check out page does it say you can't put it in two debt/ credit cards. One would think that it would have an asterisk stating that. Well I decided to try it on one, well my bank declined the transaction. Which is fine they have fraud prevention. They do it to protect the consumer. My plan was To just go to the store, pay for it. Well the same store, same exact computer, in the same exact condition they raised the price 110$ in one day. Best buy claims to honor agreements price match, etc, nope I have the email, I have the reference number Order #
BBY01-805694688817. It's best buys Allen Park Michigan store. I'll save my self a big headache and just shop at there competition. I was willing to drive the hour and ten minutes to get it and pay the price they quoted me in the email. But the fact is after 1 day they changed the price 110 dollars for the same exact thing, same exact store and in the same exact condition. Everything's the same except the price. Well best buy, I'm not a regular shopper, but you had an opportunity to make me one, now you don't. Not that you care. Save your self trouble shop some where else. I am.”
“I bought iPhone XS, requested it to be sim free as I was taking it abroad. I was sold a Universal iPhone which is a locked phone. Tried to operate in UK it was locked. Best Buy fobbed me off with Apple warranty and told me to call Apple they should be able to help. Apple UK informed me not covered with Apple Warranty. Now stuck with a unoperational phone I paid $965. Best Buy refused any help or options. Extremely bad customer service no help at all. I called from UK 3 days in a row having to wait 30 - 40 min for my calls to be answered. Feel completely ripped off.”
“Bought a washer less than two years ago. Bought extended warranty. The thing won’t spin. STILL UNDER WARRANTY. they have been out 5 times to fix it and they can’t. The last time I called to get a 6th service call and they won’t send anyone out. I was told someone would call me to resolve the problem. No one ever did. I’m going to load the damn thing up and dump it on their sidewalk. Then I’m going to demand my money back for the washer and the stupid geek squad warranty. They are a bunch of idiots! Don’t buy anything from Best Buy! And certainly don’t buy the geek squad extended warranty. I’m guessing a few years from now Best Buy will wonder why they are out of business.”
“Purchased a Sony Bravia TV, has consistently kicked off internet, we purchased the long term warranty.... and have been getting the run around for a couple of weeks as they sent incompetent service people who show up for appointments without the part that is needed. Do not purchase this brand of TV.”
“I had purchased a HP computer monitor at Best Buy Harlem Irving store. When I picked up the monitor to install the screen cracked. Best Buy Harlem Irving store manager Muhammad Mavrik refused exchange. You would think with the completion they have, Best Buy would be more customer focused. I mean it was only a $100 monitor that I didn’t get to use. So I guess I’ll go to Best Buy, look at what they have, then buy from Amazon. I will never buy from Best Buy again. All for a stupid $100 monitor they wouldn’t exchange. More for principle than the money. It’s obvious they didn’t care. I guess that’s why Amazon is so successful.”
“Best Buy has become such a disappointment and it's truly sad. In a world that is becoming less in store shopping and more online you would think the customer service in stores would go up. For best buy that is NOT the case. I've had two incidents in the last 2 years with them that has done me in with every spending another dime with this company. I purchased a brand new samsung washer and dryer set with additional geek squad protection. Let me just mention the protection plan was close to $600 per item. We didn't mind paying it for such a large purchase. But to my surprise I finally had to use the protection plan for my washing machine and they have FAILED miserably at providing us help. We have been without a washer for 3 weeks. With geek squad auppose to come out coming three times but one time they no showed, and came the two other times. The first time they were due to come out the next day when I recieve a phone call to check if I recieved the parts. Mind you, I ask the gentleman "what parts? How can you order parts for it when no one has come to look at it?" He came the next day for all of 5 minutes just to say I'm ordering parts, but you guys can still use your washer. Which was NOT true as it ruined a whole load of clothes because it never fully washed nor did it spin. There was still a bunch of water in it. Then he comes back after the parts were ordered and he comes in looked at the washer again just to say I need different parts I'll have then sent overnight. Well needless to say two days passed and still no parts. So I call corporate and they inform me that the part wont be in for another 5 days and they will come out the next day. The offered no kind of compensation or solution. What makes me truly upset is that after telling corporate how upset I am at the poor quality of customer service and plan to write a review about my negative experience so other people don't make the same mistakes as I did. I also informed him I would no longer be a member or make any purchases with them he states I can provide you with a gift card of $25 to best buy. Like what in the world makes you think that I would want that after you guys have treated a loyal customer like this? Indeed not me sir. Please stear clear and purchase elsewhere!! I promise you will not regret it.”
