Testimonial #8: Anonymous writer

My wife and I had to seek out a new computer due to one of our computers crashing and dying. We made the mistake of deciding to go to "Worst Buy" to do so.

After arriving at "Store A", we went back to the computer department to look around. After 20 minutes of waiting one of the ten or twelve people wandering around decided we were worthy of his time. "Surfer Boy", as we decided to call him, immediately tries to sell us a computer out of our price range with, or course, a $200 extended warranty. We politely informed Surfer Boy we could not afford the unit or the warranty. After a few more minutes of discussion, we went to seek a manager.

We discussed Surfer Boy's attitude with the manager, who gave us a minor concession on the shipping costs if we wanted to order from their "custom build" center.

After another 15 minutes of haggling, we eventually decided on a particular computer within our price range, and a monitor for same. We were then subjected to more attempts from Surfer Boy to sell us an extended warranty. After 4 more refusals he finally figured it out.

We are then informed that they don't have any of the computers in stock! After searching their computer database in our area they tell us no store has any of the units. So we need to get a computer, and we don't want anything else they have. So we say ok, ship one from your fulfillment center. We pay for the units, (we were able to take the monitor with us) and go home, 10 miles north to our house.

After making some calls, we find a "Worst Buy" store 30 miles north of our home ("Store B") has 2 of the computers in stock. So we call Store A to determine if we can pick up the unit there and cancel shipment of the first one from the "Fulfillment Center". The people at Store A say "Sure, you can do that". So we call Store B again and tell them of our plans. They say "Oh, you can't do that, you have to cancel the order in PERSON at Store A first then repay for the new one here".

We call Store A again. They call Store B and everyone at Worst Buy agrees we can get our computer there. So we drive 30 miles north to pick up the computer at 7:30 PM. Imagine how surprised we are when we get to Store B, and actually find they have the computer! (It's the ONLY thing about which we were not lied to.)

We get the unit and go to arrange to take care of needed paperwork to allow us to take the machine with us. Of course by now, we get "Oh we can't cancel this, they have to do it in Store A. This is AFTER 3 different "Worst Buy" people said we COULD do it at Store B.

The little "Customer Service" clerk went to talk to her manager at this point to see what could be done. "Mr. Manager", is a 20-something with a smirk and an attitude (big surprise). They stood about 30 feet away from us, "Mr. Manager" never came over to explain ANYTHING to us. All he did was tell his little minion that we could not do what we were told and could NOT take the computer which, oddly enough, we had ALREADY PAID FOR!

So we get on the phone with Store A, and the "Fulfillment Center". After 45 minutes of phone calls no one gave us anything but attitude. We offered to fax every piece of ID we had to prove who we were to Store A (please note that we had a receipt from Store A with my wife's driver's license number and birthdate right on the front), and they insisted we HAD to be at that store to cancel the order. Apparently their computers can't fix anything, but they can tell if the customer is standing right in front of them.

We're 40 minutes away and both stores now close in 30 minutes. We're also told that if the original order was to be cancelled it had to be done the SAME day. Well, that isn't going to happen now.

Before we left Store B, we actually cornered the "Manager" and asked him why were were lied to so much and why we could not get the computer promised us 2 hours earlier. His response was "You should be glad I won't let you do this with all the credit card fraud out here, and I'm not going to have my employees commit fraud," intimating we were trying to defraud the company.

The attitude of this "Manager", and every other "Person" at "Worst Buy" has made it painfully obvious to us that we will never, under ANY circumstances, purchase ANYTHING there again. We will be sending certified mail to every person on the "Worst Buy Corporate Governance" list, as well as the Better Business Bureau, our Senators and Representatives, the Consumer Protection Agency and the Federal Trade Commission. Whether we see any action against this nightmare of a company remains to be seen, but we will be seeking recompense for this disaster for as long as it takes.

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