Best Buy in Yonkers, NY sells ceramic tiles in hard drive packaging

Going to Best Buy and short of a few ceramic tiles for your kitchen? Next time, you may be able to buy them at Best Buy instead of your Home Depot. The trick is to look for hard drive cases. The catch is you won't be able to get a refund if you buy this way.

Funny? May be.

Joking? No!

Consumerist reports that's what happened to Sam who bought a computer hard drive from Yonkers Best Buy. He later found out that there was no hard drive and the box was instead filled with ceramic tiles.

When Sam brought the matter to Best Buy's attention, they first agreed to help Sam but then snatched the replaced drive and refused to help Sam any more. Best Buy won't give him a refund either.

You should really read the full letter from Sam sent to Consumerist (the link is above), but here is a quick review.

... So I got home, opened the box and found not a 1TB internal hard drive but 6 pieces of bathroom ceramic tile wrapped in last months New York Post. I got into my car, raced back to Best Buy and voiced my complaint. The employee and assistant manager were more than willing to help, saying that it happens. So they set up the return and I repurchased the drive and while I was checking the contents to ensure it was a hard drive this time, the store manager came up, took the box from me and said to take it up with the manufacturer.

Now to my surprise, I argued with the guy saying that they have already accepted the return and I have now purchased the new one. He said I was shit out of luck. I followed up with the manufacturer today and they said they would get the complaint to the Best Buy Purchasing department. Best Buy corporate said that they stand by their manager's decision.

I've told American Express to stop payment and went to the local consumer affairs department and will be going to the better business bureau....

The fact that Best Buy initially agreed to help and then acted in the most juvenile-run-company way makes me feel terribly sick.

I HATE it when our "favorite" retailers abuse their power and try to save a few bucks rather than listen to a legitimate complaint.

Best Buy's management would much rather make a big deal out of the issue and create a disaster for their PR by engaging in shady practices and pissing consumers off, especially when they know what goes on in their stores. Below is a quote from a comment posted on Slashdot discussion regarding this (linked below):

As an ex-BestBuy employee I know a little about the fraud that goes on in that store. During the brief holiday season that I worked there, Packard Bell had a promotion (if that gives you any idea how long ago this was) that you would receive a free OEM-bagged Sound Blaster card with the purchase of every system. We had a case of 100 Sound Blaster cards behind the counter that disappeared overnight.

One of the employees discovered that when you climb the ladder up to the stock area up above the shelves, there are no security cameras to keep an eye on you, so here's what you do... Get a case of printer paper and carefully slip the plastic bands off that hold the box shut. Remove the reams of paper inside and place them on the shelf for sale. Tear open hard drive boxes, sound card boxes, software packages, anything you want and toss the remnants around and pack the contents inside the now empty printer paper box until it's completely full, then replace the lid and plastic bands and carry the box down the ladder and put the box full of "paper" on the back of the shelf behind several boxes that really contain paper. Come to the store on your next day off and pull your box of "paper" from the back of the shelf and pay $19.99 for it and walk out of the store with several hundred dollars worth of gear. You got the BestBuy!

This stupid employee came over to visit my brother and told him (in front of me) how he managed to get away with it and just assumed (incorrectly) that I wouldn't mention it to my manager or the store manager the next day. The store manager told me that they suspected him but didn't know how he was doing it and after hearing how they confronted him and told him that they were giving him one last chance to return the stolen items or they would call the police. His reply was something to the effect of "go ahead, if you had any evidence you would have already called the police." And then they kept him employed!!! They did not fire him!!! He quit on his own a few weeks later when he realized that he was under constant supervision and wouldn't have an opportunity to steal again.

And it doesn't ends here. The more I read through Slashdot comments, the more it made my blood boil.

I was a customer service manager for a Best Buy in Houston, TX for a little over a year. Best Buy Store #291 - "The PowerHouse" Galleria. This store did incredible revenue. My specialty was dealing with overtly horrible Best Buy politics on a daily basis. I sat in on numerous Geek Squad and Home Installation meetings where Management would tell the service sales people to increase their service revenue "by any means necessary." I kid you not, I saw employees express concern about the prices and methods of invoking cash from vulnerable customers, and the management would repeat itself by saying, "by any means necessary." I saw an employee charge a customer $59 to "diagnose" her computer when a CD was stuck in her CD-rom drive, when all he did was pop it out with a paper clip. I saw more horrible Best Buy policies than you could imagine, and I made a good living for a year of my life, trying to negotiate comprimises between customers who had been ripped off bluntly, and Best Buy's corporate ladder, to try and salvage any sliver of dignity that company could possibly salvage, and this speciality of mine only lasted until I'd expressed my concern to the corporate level enough that they realized it would be easier to push me out of their store than it would be to address the concerns that I brought to their attention with regard to their return, exchange, and serviec policies. Being on the inside of that place blew my mind. As for their "service plans," they use the rock-bottom dollar lowest-bidder service centers that broke as many things as they repaired, if not more. Seeing this bit on /. reminded me of the days I spent with customers who were literally crying infront of me because of how this company had wronged them. I'm not saying don't shop there - frankly I could care less and I still buy the occasional item from Best Buy out of sheer convenience, but stories like this one never surprise me, in the sense that Best Buy's business model is to make money by any means necessary.

The fact that Best Buy's management has decided to decline help doesn't make things any better.

So the question is, as the holiday shopping season is on us, are you going to check your packages when shopping from Best Buy or will you prefer to go to a different retailer?

References:
Best Buy Customer Gets Box Full of Bathroom Tiles ... Discussion on Slashdot