Friday, June 27, 2008

Astonishingly Bad Best Buy Experience

So I live in Colorado and have a data center in Northern Virginia. I need to upgrade a Dell server to 8 GB of memory in a hurry - overnight shipping won't do. Dell provides me with the exact Kingston memory part number I need. All I need to do is find a store near the data center that has it and I can get it delivered to the facility - by courier if necessary.

I call the Best Buy in Sterling. Press "3" to talk to a Sales Associate. Wait about 10 rings and get an answer. I explain that I need Kingston part number KTD-WS667/2G. He checks the system and says we are sold out - I have nothing here for KVR-WT....

No, I say that is KTD-WS667/2G. He says we just had a sale on it and I think we are sold out. No I can't find that part number in the system. We have nothing matching KLS-66 etc.

Hmmm, I say, you keep mentioning the wrong number, maybe you have a different number in your system or something - why don't you Google it so you can see which one I am talking about - I am looking at the Google results for it right here.

Ok, he says...Google returns nothing. Well, I'm looking at results here, I say. Maybe it's my Proxy he says, I'll try the Kingston site.

Cool, so I repeat the part number. That's K as in Ken, T as in Tony, D as in Dave, etc.

Well I can't find anything under WLR-KS67 at all, he says.

By now I am sure that either:

a) He is a complete moron.
b) He is completely f***ing with me.
c) I somehow got lost in Idiocracy.

I politely say, well I guess you don't have it, I'll try one of the other Best Buy stores.

So I call each of the closest Best Buy stores in turn pressing "3" to speak to an associate each time. No answer whatsoever. One just goes click after 20 rings and leaves me in oblivion. At this point, I am convinced that this guy is answering the phone for all the local stores and won't even pick up the 303 area code he sees coming in on Caller ID.

Wow. I'm speechless. But as this post attests, not wordless...
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