Sad day at Best Buy

[John O']

I purchased a Q500 4K in a Best Buy Store in New Hampshire. New Hampshire does not charge sales tax. Did not have an opportunity to open the box and check everything out until I got to San Antonio, TX for a holiday visit.

When I got to San Antonio I finally opened the box and went about getting the unit ready for it's maiden flight. Unfortunately missing from the box was the ac wall wart to charge the controller. I packed everything up and headed for the local Best Buy hoping they could either provide an ac adapter out of another unit or exchange the whole package.

The Best Buy staff were not very friendly in trying to assist me with my problem. After 3 people inspected the entire package it was finally agreed after 25 minutes that I was correct and the ac wall wart for the controller was indeed missing. They got another unit from the stock room and said well "before you leave let's make sure this one is intact". The attitude I sensed was that they thought I was trying to pull some sort of fast one. Great idea I said "let's do that". When we inspected the replacement package I noticed that the white programming cable was missing from the small zip lock bag. I pointed it out and after some long sighs and being red faced because their package was also missing an item and some more deliberation it was decided they would take the cable from the unit I had brought in and give it to me.

OK now I have a complete Q500 4K. I'm getting excited because this is my first drone and I'm quite anxious to get it up and give it a try. The guy at the customer service does his bar code scanning thing. He scans my receipt, the bar code on the unit I brought in, and the unit I was taking.

He than says ok that will be $98.92. Wait... What .... $98.92 dollars for what?

Well, Texas does charge a sales tax. 8.25%. I said "I'm not purchasing anything. All your doing is exchanging / replacing a defective item". He says "I am just telling you what the system is saying". I asked for the manager and the guy behind him says "I am the manager and if the system is asking for money than that's the way it is. I said you can't tell the "system" it's wrong? Manager says "nope".

Bottom line... I told them fine I'm returning the item. Credit my Best Buy Charge Card for the return. Now you've lost a $1200 sale.

I will purchase another Q500 4K when I return home. I very much doubt it will be from Best Buy. This has left such a bad taste in my mouth I might very well stop being a Best Buy Customer and cancel my charge account after I pay off the remaining balance from all the purchases this valuable customer has made.

OK, I got that all off my chest. I feel better now

John O'

 

[wedbster]

A kind of .... Little Britain ....

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[Fleamac]

Well that sucks.

That's another reason I used Amazon. Arrived in 2 days and was complete.

Be patient, you'll get one soon.

 

[Yuneec_Usa]

John O,

Sorry to hear about your missing items. Please give us a call for missing items. Were open till 5pm PST today. And open half day tomorrow 6am-12pm. 844-898-6332

In the meantime if you have a apple or android wall charger for a tablet/smart phone you may use that to charge your transmitter. Did you get the USB to mini USB wire? I apologize for the inconvenience.

 

[Fleamac]

Tim, he returned all of it...

 

[Buddy Collins]

I purchased a Q500 4K in a Best Buy Store in New Hampshire. New Hampshire does not charge sales tax. Did not have an opportunity to open the box and check everything out until I got to San Antonio, TX for a holiday visit.

When I got to San Antonio I finally opened the box and went about getting the unit ready for it's maiden flight. Unfortunately missing from the box was the ac wall wart to charge the controller. I packed everything up and headed for the local Best Buy hoping they could either provide an ac adapter out of another unit or exchange the whole package.

The Best Buy staff were not very friendly in trying to assist me with my problem. After 3 people inspected the entire package it was finally agreed after 25 minutes that I was correct and the ac wall wart for the controller was indeed missing. They got another unit from the stock room and said well "before you leave let's make sure this one is intact". The attitude I sensed was that they thought I was trying to pull some sort of fast one. Great idea I said "let's do that". When we inspected the replacement package I noticed that the white programming cable was missing from the small zip lock bag. I pointed it out and after some long sighs and being red faced because their package was also missing an item and some more deliberation it was decided they would take the cable from the unit I had brought in and give it to me.

OK now I have a complete Q500 4K. I'm getting excited because this is my first drone and I'm quite anxious to get it up and give it a try. The guy at the customer service does his bar code scanning thing. He scans my receipt, the bar code on the unit I brought in, and the unit I was taking.

He than says ok that will be $98.92. Wait... What .... $98.92 dollars for what?

Well, Texas does charge a sales tax. 8.25%. I said "I'm not purchasing anything. All your doing is exchanging / replacing a defective item". He says "I am just telling you what the system is saying". I asked for the manager and the guy behind him says "I am the manager and if the system is asking for money than that's the way it is. I said you can't tell the "system" it's wrong? Manager says "nope".

Bottom line... I told them fine I'm returning the item. Credit my Best Buy Charge Card for the return. Now you've lost a $1200 sale.

I will purchase another Q500 4K when I return home. I very much doubt it will be from Best Buy. This has left such a bad taste in my mouth I might very well stop being a Best Buy Customer and cancel my charge account after I pay off the remaining balance from all the purchases this valuable customer has made.

OK, I got that all off my chest. I feel better now

John O'

Tough tale but I'm not surprised when Best Buy is involved. Give this guy a call, he even answers the phone! Service I'm sure you'll be happy with even after the sale. Frank Farray @ Carolina Dronz.
Shop All Drones & Accessories
PS, I'm not a Salesman or anything, just a Happy Customer.

 

[Exsystem]

I order mine from Best Buy last month with the price match guarantee. I just called in and said there was a sale for the 4k online for $1,150 and the lady looked it up and said she sees it for $1,049. I didn't argue and thats exactly what I paid. I was very happy with my purchase!

 

[AErcen]

Tim,
I hope HIS story and others who have posted similar stories regarding the "CONTENTS" of what is supposed to be in the boxes and what all are missing and how important this is to someone like us who are new to the hobby catches someone's attention. I hope it also help lend some credibility to my reporting of MY experiences with Customer Service. When I tried to contact you about my experiences I really wanted to be able to tell you in person on the phone rather than post it here and get caught up in the email thread mill. I wasn't able to reach you via phone.

Many of us bought a Yuneec with very little knowledge of what we are buying. We placed a heavy emphasis on "Good Customer Support" your company has over others who have Horrible Customer Service.
I hate to see that advantage squandered away.

I am STILL waiting for my missing parts and I have emailed the CSR and have added Neck strap and the Cradle as another missing item. I trust they will all show up in short order.
I understand the skepticism and .concerns when someone calls and says I am missing this, this and that. I can understand the possibility of abuse. However it wasn't like we are calling in and complaining we did not receive a high value item like a $100 battery. The benefit of doubt should be given to the customer no questions asked when it involves a $3.00 cable that renders a $1200 Drone completely useless.

As angry as I have been over this, I honestly do not take to the forum to inflict any damage to the company I support. I am hoping I can help get you guys to have someone more competent to answer the phone calls and empower them to make such decisions as a replacement cable without an lengthy (63 minute total) phone call only to talk to a supervisor after all that to get it resolved.

 

[HyTech Drones]

This is were doing business with a credible dealer would help save any headaches. I would send my own parts to you to use until you received yours, if we didn't have them in stock.
Please let me know if I can help you in the future.

Steve
Buy Camera Drones, Multicopters, UAVs and 3D Printers | HyTech Drones

 

[jimgpayne]

Actually, Best Buy is completely correct in this case.

There is no such thing as an "Exchange" in big box retail. The process is that you do a return and then you do an immediate repurchase. In this case, your return was for the amount you paid originally - which apparently had no sales tax.

The resale has to have tax on this. It's not a Best Buy thing; it's a State Government thing. Your issue is with the sate of Texas.

And the Manager was completely correct. It is illegal for him to try to override the sales tax in any way.

 

[FlyboyFunk]

California is the same way HOWEVER, what happens here is the return will also charged sales tax so you end up getting the tax refunded, even though you may not have paid it.

On override can be done to not refund the tax but since you are re-buying the product in a tax state, you will always pay for tax. In many cases the refund will come with taxes too so that when the purchase is made again, as a sudo exchange, the costs are flat. So long as a refund and repurchase is the desired result, the manager should be able to make it flat by allowing the refund to be issued with tax to keep it flat.

Where it gets tricky is where people try to get over by going to buy something in tax free state and then return it in a taxed state for the purpose of getting more money. It happens a lot here where we have county based tax percentages that change by as much as 2%.

 

[AErcen]

If I read his story correctly, he didn't buy or exchange anything. He asked Best Buy to hand him over few missing items free of charge since they were missing in the box he ALSO bought from Best Buy, There is only one Best Buy, even though there are many outlets,

The box with the missing items could have been returned back to Best Buy warehouse.distribution center and THEY could have waited for the missing parts from Yuneec while the customer went flying.
Here I am some three weeks later still waiting for missing parts that should finally arrive this week, Also a Best Buy Customer,

 

[jimgpayne]

If I read his story correctly, he didn't buy or exchange anything. He asked Best Buy to hand him over few missing items free of charge since they were missing in the box he ALSO bought from Best Buy, There is only one Best Buy, even though there are many outlets,

The box with the missing items could have been returned back to Best Buy warehouse.distribution center and THEY could have waited for the missing parts from Yuneec while the customer went flying.
Here I am some three weeks later still waiting for missing parts that should finally arrive this week, Also a Best Buy Customer,

You're completely missing the point.... It doesn't matter what he asked for.... He also asked to have them remove the sales tax; which is illegal.

Just because you ask for something, doesn't mean you know what your are doing.

Big Box retailers *will not* open the boxes of items that contain serialized products to give you missing parts. Period. You already knew this firsthand; because you are *also* waiting for missing parts.

Like you said; there is only one Best Buy. And *all* Best Buys are expected to handle this same situation the way to was handled for both him and for you.

The bottom line is that BB will gladly exchange the drone dozens of times until you get a box with all the parts - *if* they have them in stock.

As for him trying to get out of paying sales tax - its like Benjamin Franklin said - "in this world nothing can said to be certain, except death and taxes."

 

[AErcen]

ummm.No.

Yuneec told me to take it back and get a replacement. They GAVE me a replacement.

The replacement also had parts missing. That is what I took back. When I returned the replacement unit for the missing parts, they were more than happy to open up another box and give me the replacement parts but THAT TOO did not have the AC wall charger and the second battery, so they were not able to do that. THAT is why I am still waiting for the missing parts not because Best Buy was giving me the cold shoulder because I didn't buy the defective unit at that store.

If you are replacing an item with a similar value item, there is no sales tax, If you are handing over a missing cable and a wall charger worth $10 the most they could charge in taxes would have been $1,00 at 10 percent. Not $98.00
Having been in retail almost 26 years I do have a fair grasp of what exchanges and refunds and taxes are supposed to be. I have more than one occasion opened up a box and handed the customer a lens cap, or a camera strap or a lens filter only to have them replaced by the manufacturer at a later date. It was alright for ME to wait for the missing parts instead of the customer.

By the way, the Best buy units were the ones without the fancy case and they were in white cardboard boxes and surprisingly they are NOT sealed with adhesive tape, They are OPEN to begin with.

I don't understand why this is so difficult. Have you never bought a car and have the dealer grab a set of floor mats or owner's manual from another vehicle because yours were missing?