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Best Buy Sells Used Phones As New

consumerist.com — When he got home and found addresses saved on the phone and a few scratches he was understandably annoyed

Who dugg this? Made popular Sep 5, 2008

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  • Andrewe1, on 09/05/2008, -1/+42So it happens on one phone and one best buy and suddenly ALL best buys sell used phones as new? Cry me a ***** river, Ive had that happened at wal mart and target too, in both cases I got my item replaced, no questions asked... And here best buy is offering a 120 dlls gift card AND the option to return the phone for a refund? Come on, just shut your ***** mouth and do it and do not write and unnecessary article.

    If best buy would had given you the finger and made you keep your used phone, THEN I would make an article crying about it.
  • eternal464, on 09/05/2008, -4/+35It is not store policy to resell returned phones, I know, i used to work there(dont remind me). Best buy gets a lot of crap here, but this is a joke. store policy and company contract requires these phones get sent back to wherever it is they go. Now, in busy circumstances, i've stashed a phone under the counter with new ones for security purposes, but at least i was smart enough to mark it somehow.

    This is nothing more than likely a college student working for best buy mobile making a mistake. As a whole the company has policies that are very reasonable and prices that beat most retail competitors. Obviously if you are on digg, you know it can be found cheaper online as online stores avoids most of the overhead, but if you dont like best buy, cut your bitching and don't shop there.
  • ElAmo, on 09/04/2008, -6/+34pretty much what i would expect from best buy
  • haikuFU, on 09/05/2008, -0/+20Walmart sold me used condoms. But at least I got a low price guarantee.
  • Ajajadude, on 09/05/2008, -0/+14Yeah! Screw the free gift card and being treated right by a large company once they know of their mistake!

    You're the kind of person who is never happy with anything, huh?
  • charlie55, on 09/05/2008, -1/+11i have never seen a consumerist story that wasnt complete *****.
  • 9bpm9, on 09/05/2008, -1/+9"I have to use up my Saturday morning to go to the metro, pay $5 (round trip) and ride the metro approx 30-45 minutes to Pentagon City, walk to the Best Buy - approx 15-20 minutes, and return the used cell phone Best Buy sold me"

    I want to claw the eyes out of people who use that excuse. It's the weakest reason someone can come up with, because you're probably saying this even though you've wasted over an hour and a half on the phone with customer support.
  • VBShadow, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7All the consumerist posts anymore are anti Best Buy stories. My guess is that someone there forgot to buy a PSP and got pissed when it broke 1 day out of the manufacturer's warranty and they wouldn't fix it.
  • suttin, on 09/05/2008, -0/+7And he gets to return the phone for a new one.

    So he gets a new phone for free.
  • Speed, on 09/05/2008, -0/+6Funny you should say that. I work at Superstore (Canadian competitor to WalMart) and someone tried to return a box of condoms because they were too big.
  • conkers209, on 09/05/2008, -1/+6Something Best Buy did was good? Anyone that runs a business, you have to treat your consumers right. Best Buy knew that if they said take the $50 gift card or leave it, they knew not only he wouldn't shop there again, but this news getting out to the internet for everyone to see. A $120 gift card is a small price to pay to not only treat the guy right, but showing people on the internet that reads this that yes, we do want to treat people right. That alone is worth the price, nice job Best Buy. And yes, this doesn't happen in every Best Buy, it's like every other store you go to. I bought a 1st gen Jawbone for $80 when the 2nd version was out, it was the last one and the package was beaten up, but they told me that it's new and even told me that if for any reason I don't like it, I can return it, no questions asked. That's good service right there and I'm being truthful.
  • skeptic42, on 09/05/2008, -0/+4The Consumerist always generalizes like this.
  • samimnot, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3The Irony...
    Best Buy sells him a used Phone (we have to assume by accident because there is nothing proofing otherwise) then offers to exchange the phone and give him $50 for his trouble.
    SOUNDS LIKE GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE
    Then this guy turns around and "rips Best Buy off" by not accepting...till they increase it to $120. He's the one being a thief, in this situation...and personally, I question if the phone was used to begin with, now.
  • dvsbastard, on 09/05/2008, -1/+4I agree. If your time is so valuable, why would you waste even more time bitching and moaning about it?
  • Cuchanu, on 09/05/2008, -1/+4Radioshack used to do this as well. And probably most other smaller retailers.

    Still there is no excuse. At least there could have been naked pictures in the phone or something.
  • shawnanigans, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3That takes huge balls. Luckily his tiny penis makes his balls look bigger.
  • citirae, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3Geek Squad only pays a college student level salary. If you're technically inclined to the point of offering better service than most locations currently offer, then you're most likely making more money somewhere else.

    We only ever see the special cases on digg, but 70% of what comes into our store is hardware installs/ crashed hard drives/ failed power supply issues/ and your-son-is-downloading-pron viruses. It doesn't take a genius to figure those ones out.
  • cdigioia, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3Ironically, it must have taken pretty big balls to have been truthful about returning them.
  • Enthwar, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3Wow. Just because one douche bag gets on the internet to bitch and moan, the title is now "Best Buy SELLS Used Phones as New."

    It should be "Wow an employee ***** up and didn't take the time to double check, big deal." Seriously, it's obviously not any retailers practice to do this. Again, one person ***** up and this guy shat his pants. He could of just switched the phone out the next time he was nearby. The other phone may of been slightly used, but it still worked.

    So instead the guy gets a free phone and then gets away with bashing a retailer cause it's cool. Grow the ***** up, ***** happens.
  • J3EBS, on 09/05/2008, -0/+3I used to work at a Best Buy (albeit in Canada) and have never heard of nor seen any practice like this being carried out in the store. I'm not promoting them, because as you can probably imagine from me having workED there, I have my complaints. But this is not a chain-wide issue. This is a case of someone with a slight mental issue being hired by a company with a lot of coverage. I guess the reason I hear of this kind of thing coming from the States more than Canada is the larger population. There have been a few here, but not as many as down south. However they own the Canadian equivalent (Future Shop) and I've heard some stories from that place..

    This is why, as an employee, I made a point of waiting for the customer to purchase the product and then opening it up to ensure they weren't getting something used/broken/defective. It was necessary to wait until after purchase because that way there's no risk of "Hey you opened it, I get it half off now" going on. Not the most convenient way, but hey it beats having to take a bus/train/boat/carrier pigeon back to the store and returning it on a Saturday.
  • itignition, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Amen brother.

    I wish DiGG would stop assisting political parties at communicating with youth and go back to gadget reports, hotkey articles and great "how to use a pop can as an 802.11. It's clear the recommendation engine is flooding articles from accounts with hidden political agendas.

    I wish DiGG would make, tech DiGG, so I can finally ***** off and read stuff I like...
  • itignition, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2I actually try buy the "open box" items. They are usually cheaper and 9/10 they were returned because of impulse buying and not defects. I got a 80 gig ps3 for $310 last year ( yes when they were 499) that has worked flawlessly. I also applaud their no questions asked policy on return because I cant navigate through all the features of a product whilst browsing in a store. If the product doesn't serve my application as expected, I bring it back.

    Best Buy has a great business model DON'T change a ***** thing please.
  • Ajajadude, on 09/05/2008, -2/+4Being in retail, I can't count the number of times I've heard that tale of woe before. Although, with my customers, it usually involves a 5 minute drive in their luxury SUV.
  • smoothlou, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2I took my gf to buy an iPhone at the AT&T store last week and we walked out with a "new" 16GB White iPhone. I don't think that they thought that I would try and browse for apps before plugging it in to her computer, and it had another guy's e-mail address already listed on there! This was a box sealed with plastic folks. I would have brought it back, cause I go nuts about this type of thing, but my girlfriend said not to worry about it.

    ...for $300? I'm worried about it. But she paid, so whaddyagonnado.
  • snareguy17, on 09/05/2008, -1/+3I'm not really surprised by this, and sadly I'd rather see a story like this than something about the RNC.
  • belac88, on 09/05/2008, -1/+3it's been awhile since I've seen a good best buy bashing post...
  • Lith25, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Geek Squad suffers from the same faults that Best Buy does: incompetent employees.

    It's not necessarily Best Buy or Geek Squad's fault.
  • slimjim5107, on 09/05/2008, -1/+3I completely agree! I also work at Best Buy and all the bitching I see on Digg makes me feel kinda bad for working there
  • Kazaki, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Product Service Plan. They'll think you're talking about a video game system.
  • microview2007, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1I had this happen to me at a large camera retailer, (*cough* kits *cough*) where I purchased a high-end Nikon digital SLR. The salesman refused to open the box and let me handle the only one in stock stating they would then have to sell it as "open box" instead of new. Whatever, I bit. Leaving the store and hanging out in the mall while the wife shopped I thumbed through the manual to find pages marked with hand written notes! I marched back into the store and loud enough for the other customers to hear I shouted how dare you sell me a used camera as new! As I pointed to the written notes. They quickly refunded my money. :)
  • xavier42, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1conusmerists is full of crap stories of people crying over simple mistakes. best buy offered to make things good with the customer, what more can anyone want in that event? american consumers are pricks for the most part.
  • Yage2006, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1They have done this with external hd's as well .
    Not surprised at all by this.
  • MickJT, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1From reading the article, I don't think that's what happened. I think the phone was replaced by using the gift card, and he didn't make a $120 profit.
  • Sacrifice, on 09/07/2008, -0/+1While I agree with you, the title on Digg deserves the blame. It changes the title from "phone" to "phones". The actual article is fairly positive towards Best Buy's response and doesn't insinuate that Best Buy is purposely selling returned "phones" as new.
  • Vidalsassgirlie, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1Am I the only person that thinks this guy is a greedy *****? Best Buy made a mistake and sold him a used phone. Not only were hey going to let him get a new phone, but they offered him a $50 gift certificate. Then he said no because he wanted more? Screw him. All they had to do to make it right was apologize and give him a new phone.

    Why is greed commended? There's a difference between trying to fix a situation and trying to profit off of it.
  • inactive, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1My Insides Hurt!
  • MedHead, on 09/06/2008, -0/+1I used to work for Ritz Camera, which has the same owner as the store you were referencing (he's got a thing with using a bunch of names for his stores). It's standard policy to resell used products in my area (Metro Detroit, MI), as long as they aren't damaged. This does not include the box: that's up to the manager to determine what is or isn't good enough for reselling.
  • qwertydvorak, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1i know a bit about the logistics of cell phone distribution and repair. companies like verizon, best buy, and the phone manufacturers use an intermediary company (solectron) to build, ship, repair, and yes repackage cell phones.

    new phones go out. they get used by a customer of say best buy or even the verizon store and the customer decides they don't like the phone, service, or whatever they can return it during the allowed return time frame.

    if the phone has less than X amount of total time used the phone is reset and repackaged as a new phone. it is then shipped back to a store as a new phone with a shipment of new phones. if a phone has over that X amount of total time used, it is then repacked and used as either an open box, or as a warranty replacement phone.

    phones that come in for repair under warranty are repaired, repacked and become warranty replacements also.
  • MickJT, on 09/05/2008, -1/+2J3BS, if you did that to me and opened the package after I bought it, I'd be demanding a refund. First of all, once I pay for it, it's not yours, it's mine. You don't have the right to open it, you just have to give it to me because it's now my property, you haven't received any permission to do anything with it.

    I also get pissed off when I buy a music CD and they've put it in some slip cover behind the desk, grab the CD, put fingerprints all over it before they put it back in the CD case.

    I also don't like hotel employees unscrewing the lids on a bottle of a coke before or as they bring it out to me. The whole reason the seal is there is to check for tampering. If it's opened before I can check, then how am I supposed to know it's not "second hand" (even if just slightly).
  • xavier2010, on 09/06/2008, -0/+1damn smacky flaming much eh?
  • Sylenus, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1All retailers do this, it really shouldn't be a surprise.
  • VBShadow, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1Actually, they're obviously activating/unbricking the phones for free, even without the accessory package. And as far as the setup goes, yeah, that's *****. However, you have to realize that not everyone is as tech savvy as diggers. Some of these people would honestly get confused at the home screen.
  • samimnot, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1So what you're saying is that AT&T went through all the trouble to "re-shrink wrap the box" but wasn't smart enough to clear data and/or reset the default settings?
  • zeblith, on 09/05/2008, -1/+2Agreed. Best Buy is only as good as the employees that represent them.

    I also have to say how much I loved going in there to buy a new computer and send $1300 their way, to have the guy I ask to help me purchase the computer(which I even INDICATED. It wasn't just "Can you help me?" it was "I'd like to purchase this computer."), who clearly works in that area, tell me "NOT NOW!" and storm off. If he was busy, he could've easily asked one of the other five guys sitting around behind the counter to help me, but nope... just ignored me.

    Their loss. Newegg had it and saved me $250. And I didn't have to deal with any indignant employees.
  • WELLDOITLIVE, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1Shut up smacky
  • karmon3, on 09/06/2008, -0/+1Are you stupid? Of course it wasn't already opened.
  • twister17e, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1@ zeblithzeblith: I agree with your statement, "Best Buy is only as good as the employees that represent them".

    Obviously, that employee handled that about as poor as you can. However, employees that "clearly" work in a area may not. Warehouse employees have to wear the same uniforms as any other employee. I ran into this when I bought a computer for my dad. The employee worked in merchandising and said that he would love to help us out but his gm wouldn't let them sell computers (he was helpful in finding somebody that did work in the computer department though). After that we were offered everything under the sun and had to fill out a "contract looking" form to purchase the computer.
  • friz, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1Got a few questions. First, how does an Instinct cost $120? Unless he got instant savings of a lot and signed a 2 year agreement (original price is $450). Secondly, did he just email help@bestbuy.com? Did he call and they give him the email address of someone high up instead? I am just curious to know these things for future reference. Grats on getting your money.
  • MedHead, on 09/06/2008, -0/+1Oh look, another annoying customer who finds yet another way to be gravely offended for a trivial mistake. It must be a Consumerist article! Blustering about a minor issue sure is fun!
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