I’m not sure if anyone cares about an update, but I wanna just vent a bit.
I got the email (as shown in the screenshot) on June 25 very late at night.
Welp, I filed a Chargeback immedialy upon reading that. Guess that’s one store I can’t go to anymore… 🤷♂️
Still have yet to hear back from the bank on their process, but they say they’ll “temporarily credit the balance” while they “investigate”.
If my Bank decides to screw with me, the next update is probably gonna be in “c/ActuallyInfuriating” (I hope everything goes through fine, fingers crossed)
I did some online searching, and found like a few different posts from Reddit with others saying they got the same “completed investigation… unable to provide refund or replacement” bullshit.
They didn’t even give me a chance to send the video evidence. The rep on the phone said they would “contact me there are any updates or request further information”, but didn’t tell me where to send the video to. Nor did anyone contacted me to request it.
What I think happened with the so-called “investigation” is that, BestBuy just deferred it to Doordash, and they must’ve looked at the picture taken by the driver and just sided with their driver to protect their bottom line, and BestBuy just accepted that as an explanation.
Pictures are stationary lmfao. That proves nothing. Only that the package was at the door (which was actually a neighbor’s door btw), not that the driver didn’t just snatched it immediately after.
Tbh, I doubt things would change much even if they got the video, they don’t take this seriously at all. They would’ve just said the video was blurry and deny refund.
Btw: I ended up ordering a different laptop from Amazon and they shipped with UPS and it arrived safely, with all security seals intact. I don’t like how Amazon is taking over everything and have become monopolistic, but at least their stuff actually arrives…
Did you report doordash to the police?
This does seem like an important step. Like yeah, absolutely report this to the vendor but a theft also occurred so at least get a file going. Providing a police file # might have been enough to get them to refund as well
Terrible, terrible place.
I was so much happier when I realized that Staples had almost as much tech stuff. Staples staff answers all my dumb questions clearly and never tries to oversell.
Seconded. This seems like a gamers nexus story ready to happen.
Or if you’re in Canada: London Drugs actually has decent service in their computer dept
Frequent sales and stock too
Go to your attorney general’s website and fill out a form for a complaint. Check the box says you don’t mind getting the news involved and detail everything you’ve done so far that hasn’t worked.
I worked in customer service escalations for a large company. We had a couple of dedicated people who handled inquiries on complaints sent to the AG, skipping several tiers of support if someone from the AG’s office asked about it. Usually it was some bored office adminstrator who’d share the customer’s complaint and await a response from the company and make sure everything was above the board, and largely exist as a mediator between the customer and the company. Involving the AG is a very good step to take in a customer service failure on any kind of order/RMA problems, especially if you’re out money
Credit Card Charge back.
They already did. See the top of their post
OP, if you do go over to actually infuriating, could you post a link to it so we can still follow the story?
Will they refund you if you do in fact go to the police? This is a pretty incredible claim to take at face value.
The “libertarian paradise” idea is that as far as Best Buy is concerned, the item was delivered. If the DoorDash delivery driver happened to turn right around and steal the package, that’s a separate crime and a matter for the police to deal with, same as if anyone else had stolen it. And it’s OP’s fault for not picking the box up sooner, during the 3 seconds it was sitting on the porch. The porch that wasn’t even theirs. So anyway, the libertarian solution is for OP to contact police to track down the thief and either recover the stolen item or sue the thief for monetary compensation. Best Buy is innocent and no refund is coming. DoorDash is innocent too because they contracted with an independent contractor to deliver the item, and what the contractor does after the item has been delivered is not their responsibility.
This is why I don’t actually blame them for wanting a police report, the laptop will have gone through their system, been scanned and processed, all the way through to final delivery. Looking at the information they have, I don’t blame them one bit for being sceptical.
This is an extraordinary event.
I agree that OP is in the best position to report the crime to the police - they are closest to the police station, they have video evidence, they literally know who the thief is - but it should not be their responsibility! OP has done nothing wrong and there are no measures they could have taken to prevent this crime (other than not shopping online at all). If OP gets a police report, OP is taking up the task of being the victim, and then BestBuy has no legal obligation to refund them at all, other than out of the kindness of their heart. Rather, BestBuy is the victim in this crime, same as if the item was stolen off the shelf at their warehouse and scanner records forged. It is their responsibility to file a police report, if they want the numbers in their system to add up. Only then could they ask OP to kindly provide the video evidence to help them out, and they’d be lucky if OP would give it to them, having no obligation to do so.
And the Police won’t investigate because of whatever mental gymnastics of the day they come up with to avoid the paperwork.
“You never actually recieved it, so it was never your property to be stolen.” Or something.
Yes! It’s an olympics game of mental gymnastics where everyone - BestBuy, DoorDash, OP, the police - try to offload responsibility onto someone else. However, a crime WAS committed. Someone is the victim. The victim is the one who was deprived of property/money and will not have access to it until/unless the thief is caught and property recovered. BestBuy thinks OP is the victim, since the item was stolen off (not)their porch. OP thinks BestBuy should be the victim, since OP had no involvement in organizing the delivery. DoorDash could also take up responsibility of being the victim, since it was their (not)employee that stole from them.
If OP goes to the police now, they would be losing the mental gymnastics by accepting the status of the victim. BestBuy would never refund them in this case. It is in OP’s best interest to pursue the chargeback first. If OP succeeds in the refund or the chargeback, then BestBuy will have no package and no money, so BestBuy would be the victim. Then it will be BestBuy’s responsibility to report the crime.
This is the weirdest collection of words I’ve read in a while.
At the moment, all the evidence shows the laptop being delivered, including the photo showing final delivery. If OP files a police report, and presents evidence showing the laptop was indeed stolen, then it’s on the delivery company, as it’s their employee.
The bank would likely also want proof this happened.
The person who delivered/stole the item is not a Doordash employee, as @TauZero@mander.xyz points out. They’re also right about if OP goes to the police, OP is subtly conceding that the independent contractor driver is the perpetrator, which can be argued to be letting BestBuy and Doordash off the hook - which is what they want.
I agree that doing the chargeback is the best course of action at this point. Yes, the bank will want to see the video proof - the bank is probably the only organization involved who would care about that.
Sometimes the banks don’t approve the chargeback without a police report. The police report needs to be filed. Also, if it still exist, try escalating onto best buy forums, you used to be able to get to their highest level escalation team by doing that.
For every person like you that won’t take the shit, there are many more that will just give up. Just like unemployment and insurance claims - denial is the first step in protecting the bottom line.
If nobody accepted such bollocks, it would be more economical to actually investigate, provide service & improve processes - rather than trying to bin complaints at the first hurdle.
Prime (lol) example over here is with Amazon not making it easy to return shit after 30 days, by hiding all the easy return options at that point. You can still do it by contacting customer service and they will generally acquiesce, but just having the extra steps there is enough to save a ton of money by keeping the uninformed in the dark.
Fuck em. Make it difficult for them. Be the goddamn squeakiest wheel you can possibly be.
Tangentially related, SSDI disability process does the same thing.
A bazillion hoops with no hope of doing it all correct unless you have a lawyer. Each step of the process is prolonged with denials, extentions, hearings, appointments, reviews, etc.
You can’t work during the process, so if they take long enough they can force your hand. Can you actually find some gainful activity? You better because you have bills and it’s year 3 now. Private disability insurance runs out after 2 years or so.
Oh look, you happen to be able to do a job. Looks like you aren’t disabled. Denied.
Yes &
For every person like you
There’s at least 1/10 of a person doing their best to commit fraud. Maybe they’ll pretend they found a hair in their food, maybe worse:
Source of that is a terrible rap song, Punchmade Dev - Wire Fraud Tutorial
These are the kind of criminals support agents deal with all day long. Then you and I come along and nobody trusts us.
Well whatever is after Veo 3 should make all our lives easier. Hey we can always face-to-face barter whatever we whittle!
For every person like you that won’t take the shit, there are many more that will just give up. Just like unemployment and insurance claims - denial is the first step in protecting the bottom line.
This is the crucial part. Same reason many brands have shifted from giving discounts to “rebates”. You have to jump through a few hoops yourself to get it, it’s not automatic. And that immediately results in a decent % of customers simply not even bothering, which is exactly what manufacturers are banking on.
I worked retail almost 20 years ago and that was the last time I saw a rebate. I haven’t had to mail in or apply for a rebate in ages.
Menard’s has a perpetual 11% rebate program. It’s super obnoxious having to mail it in
I doubt Menards exists in a country where someone uses the term “bollocks”, but that’s fair. I’m curious to know how many Brit places have mail-in rebates nowadays.
sometimes it goes wrong for companies doing this
I hope you did report the matter to the police regardless?
You know they’re just going to drown you in “civil matter” shit as soon as you try.
The cops won’t actually do anything, but you will have a case #. Theft is a crime, and crime should be reported.
I had a bad experience with the police with a, in my view, an unjustified arrest a few years ago. Not to mention, cops didn’t do anything when someone strong-arm robbed my mother. Nor when someone stole her identity, even when she has a possible address and phone number of the perp. Nor when that time someone was banging on my door in the middle of the night, either harassing us, or potentially trying to break in (my parents run a small bussiness, so perhaps it’s someone with a grudge that found our address), I called the police and those people banging on my door left right before the police came, possibly because they saw the cops coming, I had a video of them sitting on my doorsteps for half an hour, trying to peek in the house, through the mail slot and the windows, and just aggressively banging on the door every few minutes. Its not soliciting either, they didn’t have a clipboard or anything like that. So anyways, they left before the police came. I told the officers what happened, I said I had a video. My whole family was home and they also explained the same thing. The cops just said something along the lines of kparaphrased): “So they didn’t break in right?” and wouldn’t even take the videos we have to just store in it their database for future references. Like I wasn’t even asking them to investigate, just to record it into the police records. They wouldn’t care. They said we shouldn’t have called because “no crime have occured”. I mean, like: two complete strangers stood outside my house in the middle of the night and banged on the door for half an hour that’s fucking harassment. I have a video, and they won’t even take it.
So I ended up just saying “Sorry to bother y’all, have a good rest of the night” so I don’t get shot, but deep inside, I just felt like shit for even bothering to call. Like good thing they didn’t actually try to break in, but what if they had?
And can I mention how they took like 30 minutes to respond to a possible home invasion? (well I know they didn’t end up breaking in, but they could have)
So after all this, seeing someone in police uniform gives me PTSD (not literally ptsd, but you know what I’m saying). In my city, there are no “online reports” yet, I have to go to a police station or call for them to send an officer to take the report. Nah fam, that’s just gonna be “it’s a civil matter, please don’t bother us again”. Besides, I never even obtained possession of the item, it arrived on a neighbor’s doorsteps very briefly, and never really left the posession of the driver. So it’s really the driver stealing from Doordash, Doordash failing to fullfill their agreement with BestBuy, and BestBuy failing to fullfill their agreement with me.
I would probably have to actually try talk to the police if the Bank fucks with me. But until then, I’m trying to minimize police contact as much as possible given the um… recent unstable political situation here in the US.
If I got robbed in ths street, that’s a different story. The police would probably at least file the report. But not getting a package? The cops would laught in my face and tell me to contact the merchant and/or the financial institutions first.
File a police report. Your bank isn’t going to help you without it.
I might have to, ugh. But at least I tried dealing with BestBuy first so now the cops can’t just say “civil matter” and tell me to get out.
Its a last resort for me, I wouldn’t go to the police as a first option. I try to exhaust other options first.
Fuck the police. Adding them to any situation is guaranteed to make everything worse.
But, sadly, if the bank requires the report it is the only option.
Someone stole your purchase, police should never call that a civil matter. Cops aren’t going to help anyway, but without the police report neither is BB, DD and ultimately your bank because the lack of getting police involved makes it look like you are committing fraud. Get the police report and get it to your bank before the back concludes their investigation because it’s harder to reopen one once it’s closed.
I hope you reported bestbuy to the police - or at least your bank.
The 100% won’t do a damn thing.
Doesn’t matter, you need the report as proof for the chargeback.
No you don’t, I have issued chargebacks absent any police report: All you need is proof.
Correspondences proving what OP said is sufficient.
Send your story and video to some of the tech press. I’d bet someone picks it up and Best Buy suddenly gives you whatever you want to make it right.
That’s a fantastic idea
Also I’m never buying anything valuable off of Best Buy after reading this
Best Buy is the worst about this stuff! I’m still bitter bc a few years back they delivered a brand new washing machine that didn’t work. I asked them to come back and pick it up to exchange it for something else and their pick up crew didn’t record that they took the machine back. Luckily they left me a slip showing they picked it up. But it still took me 9 months of fighting with the store to get a refund and I was accused by the manager of creating a “loss issue.” After they finally refunded me they still charged me a pro-rated amount for having the warranty for 9 months bc they didn’t cancel it the same week they picked up the machine.
What worked for me was to go to a different Best Buy store (bc the manager was a dick) and show them the evidence in person and ask for help to resolve or escalate the issue.
But it still took me 9 months of fighting with the store to get a refund and I was accused by the manager of creating a “loss issue.”
9 months?
I mean, does your country have strong customer protections? I know some countries don’t and you’d have to deal with the merchant. But if your country does have consumer protections, you probably should’ve filed a dispute, because they have to be filed within 60 days in the banks I’ve used, so I would not have waited that long because that’s kinda just gambling on the store playing nice.
I immediately reported it to my bank and disputed the charges. After 60 days they recharged me because they sided with Best Buy stating that I had actually received the machine, and it was now up to the company to provide a refund based on their policy (thanks Chase!)
Chase
Oh my fucking god. That’s my bank right now.
😖 (Am I fucked?)
Chase is an awful bank so be ready to fight them too. I am still upset about the money they siphoned from my account after taking over a regional bank here. I would change banks when you are able to. I wish you good fortunes.
I made the mistake of buying a 14tb external drive there that I needed that day and couldn’t afford to wait since I had a drive failing. Little did I know they dropped their return policy to 15 days but even bringing it back on day 8 after the drive burned up from overheating from copying 14tb of shit they rejected it and said that it was “all scratched up” because it has the crappy piano black finish you can scratch with your nail.
Got it replaced through the manufacturer and pretty much opted to never go back to a best buy after that. Used to be one of my favorite stores but all the anti consumer bullshit is driving it into the ground. Made a minor issue way more pain than it ever needed to be
Best buy had one of the lowest lows and best recoveries I had ever seen while working there. The new French CEO made it about customer service, and I saw people and teens who had never considered going to a best buy start going. Stock price went up, people were happy.
Then the board ousted him a few years ago and made it all about profits, going right back to where they were in the downward spiral, completely unaware of the irony. I hope they fail now. They could have come out on top but greed took over again.
Is this the thing where they sent it by doordash?? Wtf!?
Have you thought about sending this story with the video to local news? I’m sure they will love it and negative publicity will force BB to resolve it.
Amazon is a great place to shop for things to buy on ebay.
That’s all perfectly cromulent, but just keep in mind fleaBay has its issues as well. One must be ever diligent whilst shopping online. And it’s getting worse.
Ebay can be really really bad too, Google around and start with the ebay executive team that sent a bloody pigs head to a journalist who said some bad things about ebay
On the flip side, I ordered something on eBay specifically to avoid Amazon and I still got a package from Amazon. Some people are basically just using an automated eBay account as a front for Amazon and pocketing the tiny margins.
If your bank fucks you, small claims court time and new bank time.
That means BestBuy effectively gets a $700+ dollars interest free loan from me for a few months, since courts take months.
Maybe reach out to your state AG before going the small claims court. Report them for anti-consumer behavior. Frequently, the notice saying they’ve received a complaint and asking for what’s up is enough to get them to change tune immediately.
If you exhaust all other options, what else can you do? The suggestion of filing complaints with your state AG and any applicable groups would also be a good move - good suggestion from Fugly!
Actually, now that I think about it, you could try contacting higher ups at Best Buy to see if they would make it right, make noise on social media, and consider contacting local news if you’re up for it. Putting pressure on them like that might speed up the resolution.
This is actually where Twitter was good. I would always get a better response with a public @ mention to the company on Twitter.
I had a similar experience with Reddit and ENGWE after their faulty front fender broke my fucking arm. They didn’t seem to give a shit until I started making noise. After that they reimbursed me for my helmet, but I still need physical therapy and a new fender. We’ll see how that goes.
good luck with getting the PT covered!
Thanks, I live in America so my healthcare is a God damned dumpster fire.
The ironic twist there is that insurance companies here should have good legal teams to go after someone else to cover it.
