Best Buy, not Best Service!

I like Best Buy, I really do. I think they have some of the greatest prices around on electronics. They finally wised up and lowered their prices to reflect what people are selling on eBay etc. They are FINALLY competitively priced. I've never liked their service though. NEVER! I had a huge issue with them about two years ago regarding honoring the warranty on a laptop. About 3 years ago I had a problem with just getting customer service. I was wandering through the television department and there was no one there to serve me. I was annoyed. While in the store I called Best Buy and complained that I was standing there and NO ONE came by to help me. Suddenly I have 6 employees on me. UGH! So annoying!

Anyway, last night my husband asked me if I minded him using the gift card my boss gave me to Best Buy on a universal remote for the basement. We already had one for the upstairs family room but George wanted one for the basement. We went to Bestbuy.ca to see how much they cost. My boss had given me a $500 gift card and the Logitech Harmony One 1100 Universal Remote was there and on sale for $379.99. I told George that he'd have to pay a little extra out of his pocket since I did use about $120 on some Wii Games on Christmas Eve. Not a problem! Usually the website lets you click a button to see if your local store has it in stock. There was a message "During Boxing Week in-store pick up and store stock availability is unavailable until January 4th. We apologize for any inconvenience. Visit a store near you". Okay. Well we weren't in the mood to go out to Best Buy only to find out that it wasn't there so we decided to give our local store a ring...and a ring....and a ring. We tried pressing 0 to speak to customer service and no answer, we listened to the automated messages to direct us to Audio/Video Accessories including remote controls. No answer.

George was at home for about 10 minutes on hold when he decided to actually get up and go to Best Buy. He went, found the remote, and came home. He was still on hold with Best Buy (he called from his cell and took his cell with him). By the time he showed me his phone the call log was up to 48 minutes and 37 seconds on hold. I decided to hang up at this point. Not only that but while George was in the department he saw the phone ringing and asked a customer service rep "are you going to get that" to which they replied, "I'm too busy!"

I get that its a very busy time of year for stores right now. Americans have Black Friday and we have Boxing Day which has slowly become Boxing Week. It's our biggest shopping days of the year. People go insane. But why not change your automated system to reflect that of the website? How about something like, "We are sorry for any inconvenience but due to the number of in store customers at this time we are unable to answer any questions over the telephone regarding products or stock availability? Please come to your local store for any questions or call back after Jan 4, 2010?"

I mean its a really crappy thing for a customer to point out that the telephone is ringing and for the employees to just shrug it off and claim they are busy. Yes, you are busy but why can you not excuse yourself from your in-store customer for 30 seconds and pick up the phone and say "Best Buy, please hold". Finish with your customer and take a minute on the phone with the phone customer before finding the next person to hawk commission from? Believe me proper customer service goes a long way and the person who called is very likely to come into the store, into your department and ask for YOU by name to serve them to give you the commission. I know that I do that when I call a store. I ask for their name and when they are working, I especially do that if I'm doing comparison shopping in stores and have just eaten half an hour of someones time. I'll ask for their card as well as when they are working next in case we decide to come back and get the item from that particular store.

Anyway I thought that was rather crappy of them and thought I'd share. I guess its true that you always complain about bad service and never really rave about excellent service!

Shopping? Baking? Where did the time go?

I'm really freaking out because I thought that this year I was more into the holiday spirit, that I was doing a great job getting ready for Christmas. Apparently, I'm not. I put my tree up in November and thats about it. I've hardly decorated and honestly thats because I don't have that many decorations... I was never into decorating for holidays but now with Demi on the way I figure I should be more into it. I'll be going shopping on Boxing Day (Canadians version of Black Friday) and picking up 50-60% off holiday decorations. I already have a mini tree for Demi's room though!

I started my baking yesterday and figured I'd get some done today but I didn't have time. I got home late, ordered dinner, ate dinner with George, picked colors for the basement and Demi's room, wrote Christmas cards, looked up some addresses for my sister's wedding shower and wedding (seriously, are we still sending these damn things out!?). I seriously considered just putting together my list for my baby shower invites but since the invites aren't ready yet and I haven't heard anything much from the designer as of late I don't know where we stand. I honestly think that if the invites aren't ready or at least a proof ready by the end of this week I'll just look online like I had done for my wedding and wedding shower invites.

I might bake more tomorrow but who knows how I'll feel after work? I thought about maybe baking on Wednesday but I have two doctor's appointments back to back, and then run an errand for my sister's wedding and then come home. I might be in a sour mood by the end of the day. Actually maybe not, on Wednesday we find out if Nicole and Rody are having a baby boy or a baby girl. Which really means I'll find out what George and I are going to be the God parents to. A part of me wants her to have a baby girl so that I'm not the only one with a girl...and another part of me wants Demi to be the only little princess in the group. She is the first to be born so I know shes going to be the boss. It makes it easier if there aren't two little girls fighting for the Queen role. If Demi is anything like me, she'll definitely be the ring leader of this group (and eventually the world... I just feel it!!)

I haven't done ANY Christmas shopping yet. Like seriously! On Saturday night we are having our groups little Secret Santa...which isn't really a secret since I know who everyone has. I was going to order something online for the person I got but I'm afraid the gift won't be here in time not to mention that it will probably end up costing more with rush shipping, duties and taxes... and if I get it delivered directly to Montreal instead of to George's warehouse in the US is the added cost of international shipping plus brokerage charges. Gosh, I'm happy we have that warehouse in the US.

I just feel that all of this time is passing by so quickly and nothing is getting done. Sure I'm putting small dents into everything but NOTHING is 100% complete...well I did manage to get out all of the corporate gifts for work but I still need to think of what to get my boss. Yes, my in office co-worker and I always buy our boss something. He's honestly treated us great and always gives us awesome gifts so we try to return the favor on a smaller scale.

My first year at work I was only there for 3 months when Christmas rolled around. Daniel bought me a gorgeous pink rolling luggage carry on thing. Everytime I've taken it ANYWHERE I get compliments on it. Everyone nudges their friend and goes "Oh look how cute that is! Isn't that nifty". I sent him an Edible Arrangement since I barely knew the guy right!?

Last year he gave me a 500$ gift certificate to Best Buy that I used towards the purchase of a 60" television for our basement (George and I paid the difference). My co-worker and I went to a store called Tin Dex (I think thats the spelling) that sells a lot of collectible products. Daniel has a real penchant for Coca Cola products. Like, seriously loves them. He has a cabin "up north" and he has one room that has EVERYTHING Coca Cola. So Ernesto and I bought Daniel a Coca Cola clock that has the neon red light around it and a Coca Cola napkin holder.

I told Ernesto we should go back and continue his collection of Coca Cola products. Daniel has no idea where this store is, not many people do. I only know of it because George is in the toy/collectible industry and they deal with each other. I'm completely out of ideas on what to get Daniel. Daniel has EVERYTHING he could ever ask for! His other hobbies are just too expensive to contribute towards. He loves to water ski (barefoot too!) Um actually that's the only hobby I can think of. Last year his wife recommended that we get him some accessories for his iPhone but Daniel has everything related to his iPhone possible. I was thinking either getting more Coca Cola related things or getting Daniel a gift card to Swiss Ski School in Florida which is where he goes at least twice a year? Maybe $100 from each of us? It wouldn't be much but it is a one night stay there.

Opinions? Ideas?

By the way: Are y'all done with your shopping!?

NaBloPoMo: 12/31