So today was the last day I will ever purchase anything at Best Buy. I recently bought the Canon Vixia HF S10 camcorder but had to exchange the first one I got due to sand underneath the lens. The instant I saw the sand under the lens I put it back in the box and brought it back. That exchange went down with no problem. I get home, review the manual, and realize the camera does not have the option to record time lapse videos, a feature I was looking forward to.
There was not much response about this video online when I bought it so I could not see whether or not any website told me if it had time lapse. All I had to trust was BestBuy.com and that was obviously a mistake. Their website specifications of this camcorder said that it did have time lapse. I brought the camcorder back in when I had time a few days later, expecting no problem when trying to return it and not pay the restocking fee, due to a misleading specification for the camcorder. What I got though was not at all a fair treatment of a customer.
For the first 20 minutes I stood in silence while a young man intensely looked over the Canon Vixia HF S10 with it powered on. Next came 25 minutes of more silence while he read over the manual. After that was 20 more minutes while he looked online and opened up the manual on the computer so he could search the text easier, in silence. He then left, and returned 5 minutes later and finally spoke...
He told me he did not believe that I wanted the time lapse feature. He said it was a feature more commonly found on cheap cameras and not high definition camcorders, and that it was not a buying point when I made my purchase. I was then told how he thought I was just trying to find a reason to return it. I told him this was not the case. I named him the camcorder I had my eye on now, which was the Panasonic HDC TM300. He went over to his computer and began to search again in silence.
A few minutes later the manager came out to "greet" me. The first thing I was told was that if I exchanged the camcorder already why would I want to return it now? Why was I unhappy with it now? I told her that I had very little time to mess around with the camcorder, and I had put it back in the box when I first saw the sand under the lens. This was not the correct answer for her obviously and she repeated her statement of questions again.
The quiet man then spoke up again, to tell her and me that the Panasonic camcorder I was interested in is not being manufactured anywhere yet and does not even have a time lapse feature. This is completely false, Panasonic's website has had the product on sale since April 15, 2009, and the PDF manual for the product has time lapse as one of the main features. I have also already seen time lapse videos from the Panasonic HDC TM300 on YouTube. I had even told them I would be purchasing this product from them, although that did not seem to help because they were under the impression that this Panasonic was never going to be manufactured.
I tried to tell the quiet man and the manager this but was ignored completely. The manager told me they only waive the restocking fee for malfunctioning products only and that she was doing me some sort of favor, even though I bought the camcorder with intent of using a feature Best Buy lied about it having on their website. She told me they would never allow a waiver of the restocking fee for me or my family ever again (She had just read to me the names under the reward zone card my parents have). I finally received my full refund, without having to pay the restocking fee, after 1 hour and 40 minutes, just a few minutes before closing time ironically...
I walked out of Best Buy today knowing I would never purchase anything from them again. They crossed the technical boundaries I had based my return upon and into moral ones when I was accused of using time lapse as just a way to avoid the restocking fee. I was flat out told by the quiet man inspecting my camcorder that time lapse was in no way a buying point for me and that a high definition camcorder should not be expected to even have that (despite Best Buy's website telling me otherwise).
I have become deeply disappointed in Best Buy's customer service department today. They lost themselves a very eager and loyal customer.
Matt
