For those of you who know me, also know that I seldom go to extensive and humiliatingly homosexual methods for the sake of degrading somebody(s). Unfortunately, this was the only way I felt it would be appropriate, even to a minimal of what they deserve. The story goes as follows: You should all know my friend Andrew, right? This is a true story about how he was screwed by Best Buy, names being changed to protect the guilty.
The story starts with the purchase of an amp, which he intended to have installed in his car, for purposes of disturbing the peace (a bad ass reason to get one). He had gone down to Best Buy in Lynwood (Store #477/19225 Alderwood Mall Pkwy/425-670-2670) in order to get this product installed in his car. He parked it in the lot outside the Best Buy Installation Garage, where he filled out the paperwork for his car and amp. Then, an employee named Diablo went with Andrew out to the car, where they looked over the amp to check for the necessary wires needed to power that puppy up. Diablo put the amp back on the passenger seat, and Andrew gave Diablo the key, the only key to his car. Andrew locked the door with his electronic car locking/panic alarm keychain, and took off with Bryan and Emily who had driven down there with him, planning to return in just a few hours to pick up Andrew's car when Best Buy had claimed it would be completed.
I met Andrew and Bryan and Emily at Denny's soon there after, while they were waiting for the phone call from Best Buy. It came, but bearing bad news. Andrew's car had been broken into, and the amp stolen. They told Andrew to come and just pick up his car and go. We went to Best Buy, and checked out the car in the parking lot. There was no damage to the car whatsoever, not even on the lockguard, only meaning that the car had been unlocked by a key. We went inside and asked to speak to a manager, and one was sent. He gave us a load of shit about how they were not liable because the car was in the parking lot, and not in the garage. Andrew did some fast thinking about who he knew, and called his neighbor, and ex-cop from the Lake Forest Park PD. Andrew's parent's were out of town, and could not handle the situation as he was a minor. Frank came down and started cross examining them. The "manager" was not even a manager, just some schmuck that they had sent down to ward us off. The former officer demanded to speak to a real manager, and in the mean time continued to ask questions to the employees. Two of the employees agreed that only one door was unlocked, but couldn't agree on which one. The fact that only door was unlocked rules out Andrew leaving it unlocked, because as you should know, those keychains will lock and unlock BOTH doors, not just one. They had the only key. Also, they tried contacting Diablo, but he could not be reached.
The manager came putt-puttin in, and the former officer asked for his business card. The manager left to go get one out of his office. I never realized how huge these Best Buy stores were, but they most be gargantuan since it took the manager 20 minutes to go to his office, get a business card and come back. When he came back, the manager gave Andrew a choice of doing nothing or filing a police report with the Lynwood PD. Andrew chose to file a report, and called the Lynwood PD who sent two officers down. After Best Buy learned that the police were on their way, they tore up Andrew's contract and lease paperwork, of which they had never given him a copy. The officers arrived, doing the standard cross examinations, basically finding the same information as the ex-cop. They gave Andrew a case number, but that was all they could do.
Andrew went back inside to talk to the manager about a replacement deal, and the manager said that he would give Andrew a new amp at "Cost" value. This means that he would charge Andrew the amount of money for an amp that Best Buy pays for it. As you know, stores buy at cost, then sell at retail. Andrew went back several days later, when he had the money, plus a Best Buy Giftcard worth $50 that he had received for Christmas. He asked for the manager, but the manager would not see him. Instead, he sent down a "Best Buy 10% off coupon." Well, we all know that the difference between retail and cost is more than 10%. With a retail chain store like Best Buy selling expensive electronic equipment, the difference between retail and cost can get as high as 30%, and that is very likely the figure. So, Andrew had enough of this circus, and just took the coupon and bought his amp, buying it from Diablo. He had it installed there, but demanded to be in the garage while they were installing it.
This is how Best Buy screws you. What better way to make money than to steal your product that you were paying them to install, then charging you for another one and charging you to have it installed? What do I think? I think that a coincidence is fine, but coincidence after coincidence is no longer a mere coincidence, it's a conspiracy. Get Screwed. Shop Best Buy.
Credits: Thanks to Mark for his skills in photo editing to help me put the image as seen on the top of this page together in a fast and minimally painful manner. After the countless minutes of searching for a quality homosexual image, we constructed the "Best Buy Censor Bar" and added it to the image, then spent a long amount of time looking at pictures of women to cleanse our souls.
