Best Buy

It seems to me that lots of people use the internet as a way to vent. They take to the blogosphere to complain about bad service, bad products, bad experiences. I want to go the other way.

Last summer we switched cell phone service to another company, but instead of buying the phones directly from the cell phone provider or online, we went to Best Buy. We had T-Mobil but they didn't have a tower near my home or something because we couldn't use our phones in the house and they didn't work at my daughter's school, either. When our contract was up, we switched to Sprint.

We bought our phones at Best Buy. Their prices were better than the cell phone provider store and their staff seemed to know what they were doing more than the staff at the other store. Plus they had live demo models that they just handed us to try out while we shopped. It was a really unusual experience. We went out for dinner and afterwards we went to the Best Buy near the restaurant, signed up for a family plan, bought four phones, took out the Best Buy service plan on mine and my daughter's phones and went home. We were the ones who always had phone problems. I hate to admit it but my husband and my son take much better care of their phones than we do.

My family all got Androids and I decided to try one too. But I have long nails which precludes me from using a touch screen easily. I found it very frustrating, and the phone wouldn't sync with my email. It just wasn't working for me so the next day I went to the Best Buy around the corner from my house and returned my phone. I was a little anxious about it, the return line was always long and slow moving. But I didn't have to get in that line, I just had to take it back to the cell phone department.

While I waited for someone to help me, I noticed that the phones my family had bought the night before were half the price at this store. A few minutes later I was waited on, and with no fuss at all a credit was applied to my account for my family's phones and I swapped my Android for a new Blackberry. All was good.


About 5 weeks later I noticed my battery started running out by midday. It was driving me nuts, I wasn't doing anything different than I ever did with my phone and I couldn't figure it out. I called Sprint and they said it sounded like the battery may be defective. They had me make an appointment at a Sprint service center half an hour away for the next night. Instead, I went back to Best Buy. They showed me how to check and see what programs I had running and it turned out that the UberTwitter app was constantly updating and the bluetooth was seeking and I don't remember what else but they cleared it up for me. I told them what Sprint had said about the battery and they told me that the warranty on batteries was only 30 days, and that had passed. With my service plan I got one free battery but I didn't think that I should have to use it a mere 5 weeks after purchase!

The tech who was helping me talked to the manager. Next thing I knew they opened up a new Blackberry and pulled the battery for me. Then they told me that it never happened and have a nice day.

Over the Christmas holidays my daughter told me her phone kept crashing. We went to Best Buy and a nice young man named Kevin helped us. He took her phone and found that she had over 5000 text messages stored on it. That was causing the crashing. He had to clear off some games, downloaded some apps to help clear it up and literally spent three hours working on her phone. She went off to play video games while I sat and read on my Kindle. He got her phone working and we were on our way. I was impressed with his patience, but especially with his kindness. Plus he explained what he had done and how she should take care of her phone to avoid another problem.

While he was working on her phone, I mentioned that I was having a little problem with my phone, nothing major, just that the "Y" key was a bit sticky. He worked on that for a little bit and it seemed better when we left. But a few weeks later and the "Y" was sticking again and I finally took the phone back in on my day off last weekend.

A nice young girl named Allison helped me. Again I sat reading my Kindle while she worked on my phone. Next thing I knew she was asking me for my drivers' license and home phone number and reams of paper were coming out of the register. I asked her what she was doing and she said I'm giving you a new phone. I was amazed - a new phone because one key was sticky? Really? Brand new. Unbelievable.

The Best Buy service option was about the same price as the plan from Sprint, but it covered so much more. And boy has it paid off.

So hats off to Best Buy in Boca Raton. Your techs are awesome, they are kind and patient and smart. Your service plan really works the way us customers imagine that it would, but usually doesn't.

Bottom line? I wouldn't buy a cell phone anywhere else.

And for the record, I do not work for Best Buy, I don't know anyone at Best Buy, I am not a stockholder and I have absolutely no motive to share my story other than the fact that I can. It makes me feel good to do something nice for a store that has been so good to me.