Best Buy Vita BS

[The 1 2 P]

Be warned: angry rant ahead.

So, I preordered (and paid $325 for) a Playstation Vita from Best Buy in early November. I did this with the intention of receiving the console on release day. Turns out that some time after this Best Buy (or Sony) had a pre-order offer where you could walk into the store, put down a $5 deposit, and get your system on Valentine's day. I was NEVER notified of this, and never given an opportunity to take advantage of this offer. I had no idea about it. I figure that if I spend $325 on a product, they should keep me notified of things like this.

So for some reason I can pick up my preordered Wipeout game tonight, and I go in there and ask the big question: where is my console? They basically look in the computer and concretely and robotically told me it'll be fulfilled on 2/22. I talk to everybody, a manager, online customer service...NO ONE can explain to me why, when I ordered the product before all the people who took advantage of this offer, I get it a week later than them. Not to mention that pretty much 100% of the people I talked to about this were rude and dismissive to me about it. The manager just said "sorry about that." He had no intention of explaining any of this to me. He was basically telling me to fuck off. Hell, if they'd at least have sincerely said "wow, that really sucks. That is bullshit." or something to that affect, it probably would have diffused me. But they had no intention of putting ANY brainpower into this or making ANY attempt to assess the justice of the situation. They were perfectly happy with me leaving the store pissed off.

I'm going to call customer relations tomorrow. If they can't get me a console ASAP or comp me on something, I'm not shopping there anymore. I pay WAY too much for stuff, deal with new releases arriving in me mailbox a week after release date, and put up with lines and clueless sales staff all because I'm a premier member and I get cash rewards there. You'd think that since I've been spending thousands of dollars a year there for some time, they'd want to take care of me.

Okay, whew, that's off my chest.

So, anybody else pissed at them?

G

If they don't help you out after calling customer relations cancel your preorder, get your money back and get the system somewhere else.

That's some rewards program they've got too, $5 off for every $400 you spend. As soon as you save up enough points for a coupon it's issued immediately and has an expiry date, you can't save up your points like with every other rewards program in existence.

I'm a premiere silver member, which basically means I'm a Rewards Zone member with a credit card. It doesn't take $400 to get a $5 gift card, it takes 250 points. When you use you credit card you get double points and they also run several promotions wehre you can get triple points or some amount of bonus points. So I could spend $125 and get that $5 off coupon or only spend around $70 or $80 while taking advantage of their many deals. You will be hard pressed to find other rewards programs from electronics stores offering you a similiar or better deal. And for the record, I can save up my points and issue them when ever I like. But again, I realize that you are talking about non-premiere members.

But their program is one of the best ones I've seen. The worst is Toys R Us. They issue your certificates immediately and you have a mere two weeks to use it before it expires. On top of that atrocity you are not allowed to use your certificates on any video games, consoles or accessories even though thats what I used to get the certificates in the first place. Best Buy lets you use them on almost anything in the store besides gift cards and a few other things. And the certificates are valid for atleast 3-5 months so you aren't rushed to use them like TRU.

[Graham Mitchell]

If they don't help you out after calling customer relations cancel your preorder, get your money back and get the system somewhere else.

I'm so glad I posted on here because that's a brilliant idea, and that's exactly what I will do.

@gameguy: I probably did get some stupid piece of spam about this, but can they really expect me to read every piece of shit they shove in my inbox? If it had to do with my order, they should have sent me another email that said something like "UPDATE ABOUT YOUR ORDER" so I could distinguish it from spam.

[Emperor Megas]

I'm not trying to be that guy or anything, but if I prepaid for a video game system from a store, I'd make a point to read every piece of email I received from them until I got what I paid for. Also, I think that Best Buy has the best customer rewards program I've ever used.

[Flashback2012]

Save yourself a call. Go get your money back. When they hand your money back and the verification receipt showing your cancellation, then go and call and raise hell. Either that or burn them by taking the survey (or do both ). Is anyone still accepting pre-orders for the units still?

[Dangerboy]

Without seeing the Best Buy ad...

$325 , if tax is included, sounds like the $300 3G Model releasing on 2 / 22. The same day as the $250 WiFi model.

There was a third bundle, the "Early Edition Model" - this was $350 *before* Tax, and also included little deviants, a memory card, and a carrying case.

This third bundle, the Early Edition, was released for pre-orders only on 2 / 15. Hence the 'early edition'. This may be what is causing the confusion. (A Midnight release for this would have been Valentine's Day).

However, the 3G Bundle releasing on the 2 / 22 will now include a 8g Memory Card and some free stuff from AT & T.



That all said, I know some game stops may have at least 1 Early Edition for walk-in. Mine did the other day. You can either try and snag an E.ED. for the $350 as a walk-in, or just wait a week, keep your pre-order and get the free 8g Memory Card and AT & T stuff.

[swlovinist]

Get you money back


Then


Take a picture of you buying your system at a competitor attach reason why and


Send that in an envelope to the District Manager of Best Buy

[Trebuken]

The sku for the Early Edition bundle was probably not in the system when you preordered. This happened to me at Gamestop, except that I caught it in time. They did not inform me, though they may have in store if I did not beat them to it.

I imagine they would not have upgraded you to the more expensive Early Edition automatically since it cost more. They probably did not appreciate your eagerness for gaining the console one day one. Non-gamers are often callous and non-understanding like this.

[kainemaxwell]

Get you money back


Then


Take a picture of you buying your system at a competitor attach reason why and


Send that in an envelope to the District Manager of Best Buy

Even better, submit the photo and story to the major online video game news outlets.

[Bojay1997]

Without seeing the Best Buy ad...

$325 , if tax is included, sounds like the $300 3G Model releasing on 2 / 22. The same day as the $250 WiFi model.

There was a third bundle, the "Early Edition Model" - this was $350 *before* Tax, and also included little deviants, a memory card, and a carrying case.

This third bundle, the Early Edition, was released for pre-orders only on 2 / 15. Hence the 'early edition'. This may be what is causing the confusion. (A Midnight release for this would have been Valentine's Day).

However, the 3G Bundle releasing on the 2 / 22 will now include a 8g Memory Card and some free stuff from AT & T.



That all said, I know some game stops may have at least 1 Early Edition for walk-in. Mine did the other day. You can either try and snag an E.ED. for the $350 as a walk-in, or just wait a week, keep your pre-order and get the free 8g Memory Card and AT & T stuff.

Correct. While I am sympathetic to the OP, it was pretty widely reported in the gaming press that there were essentially three options for the system available. The OP didn't order the early edition bundle which frankly wasn't as good a deal as the one he did preorder which will include an 8GB memory card, a month of 3G service and a download of Super Stardust all basically for the same price of $300 of a plain 3G system. The Early Edition bundle is a 3G Vita, case, 4 Gig memory card and Little Deviants game for $350 meaning with California tax he would have been at roughly $375. Here is that bundle.

http://us.playstation.com/psvita/sys...on-bundle.html

Best Buy for better or for worse is not Gamestop and other than automated e-mail messages, they aren't going to call you or hold your hand through the preorder process. While Best Buy could have been nicer about it, the OP got what he preordered and assuming he walks into Best Buy next Tuesday, he will get his Vita.