So off we went to Best Buy to pick up a Toshiba Ultrabook. Nice computer for Anna; light, powerful and very nice looking. The Best Buy Mobile store in the Indian River Mall had it on sale at a very attractive price. I had seen it beforehand and Anna decided to go for it rather than a much more expensive MacBook Air that had almost the same specs. We went to the BB Mobile and were approached by a salesgirl who was quite friendly, and happy that she didn't really have to sell us anything. We knew what we wanted. But, they didn't have one in stock and thus the trouble started. She checked the inventory at the nearby BB store, the regular retail outlet which sits only yards from the mall. She noted they didn't have one either, but the manager on duty suggested she call over and sure enough they said they had one. The manager indicated that she would be happy to walk over to the store and pick it up for us. I was okay with that, and she had the salesgirl call back to verify is that was okay with them. She then found out that since she was the manager on duty that she could not leave the store. So, another call. Each call took several minutes since it seemed as though no one in the BB wanted to deal with the Mobile store. I over heard the conversation and that the BB manager, Mark, was busy but he would bring the Toshiba to the Mobile location. This is about a five minute walk if you go slowly. The sales girl and the Mobile manager asked if we were okay with the plan, and we were so we decided to run an errand and then come back. This had already taken most of an hour due to the BB store being slow to respond. We did leave and then return within about 30 minutes. Upon returning we learned that neither the Toshiba nor the manager had come yet. The salesgirl then called the BB to find out why Mark had not brought it yet. Again a long wait for someone to pick up the phone. That someone should have been Mark, but apparently he was too busy to comply with the request. It would now be two or hours before he could bring the Toshiba since he was busy. This was really annoying. You might ask why I just didn't go pick it up myself: 1) I greatly dislike that particular BB 2) I didn't think it was fair to the salespeople in the Mobile store to lose the sale after how gracious they had been 3) I greatly disliked the arrogance of Mark 4) the Mobile manager told me they really were slow that day and the sale would greatly help. But, now we either walked out or waited for Mark to show up. It kept crossing my mind how little respect Mark gave to both a waiting customer and his fellow workers in the Mobile store. They all work for the same company, yet it seems this was not the first time that Mark and the BB employees acted this way toward the Mobile outlet. What a shame. We left!
Anna called the Melbourne, Florida BB and they indicated they had the Toshiba in stock. We decided to make the 60 mile round trip and get it. When we arrived at the store the salesgirl was quite friendly, the Toshiba anxiously awaiting our arrival. I told the salesgirl why we were there and of course the usual "wow that's terrible" reply came.
This reflects very poorly on Best Buy. I posted on their customer service site and one of their trollers replied with a "that should never happen blah blahs."
It has a happy ending in that Anna loves her new Ultrabook. It's name is Vespa. Don't ask.
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