Our Best Buy is Closing

Hardware
1

I was going to send this to @ismh but I thought some others might enjoy it too.

Our local Best Buy announced that they are closing at the end of the month. A few days we went looking to see if we could find a TV for my freshman-in-college son.

1 Best Buy - TV Section
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Unfortunately, this is a picture of the TV section. The only ones they had left were 70-inches. No thanks.

I decided to check out the “Apple Section” which was always anemic and pathetic, but this was even worse than I imagined:

2 Best Buy - Apple Section
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Just a couple of MagSafe chargers and… wait…what is that?!

3 Best Buy - Apple Close Up
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Wow. Someone call an archeologist because I just uncovered an absolute fossil … and still selling at full price, too.

Sorry, buddy, I have one of your siblings at home, and haven’t used it since… …(thinks) … I can’t remember when I last used it.

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I still use mine from time to time when I discover Apple Music has replaced music I’ve ripped with less desirable versions.

Sorry about your Best Buy. I guess too many people use them for show rooms then purchase online.

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Hashtag: Dorm room IMAX.

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Is it this one?

Amazon must be smiling right now.

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I could not contain my curiosity! :smile:

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Immediately the most popular person on the dorm floor

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It happens everywhere. I got a food processor from Walmart once with dried chunks of onion adhered to various parts of the blades & inside of the bowl. I took it back and the customer service person started getting upset with me because I was returning it in that condition.

I had to get a bit cranky with a manager to get that sorted out.

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And that’s why I hate Walmart with a passion!

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What’s ironic is that Amazon no longer even attempts to get things to us in 2 days (despite me continuing to pay for Prime) so since COVID-19 I’ve often done the opposite: I find something on Amazon, and then check to see if my local Best Buy had it. Frequently they did, and if the price was close (it usually was exactly the same) I’d just go pick it up that day.

Filed under: “Things my son does not want to be.”

Like his father, he enjoys being around people… and then he enjoys being able to get away from them.

That being said, he no longer has a roommate, so the spare bed could hold a large TV…

…but no.

Nope. We’re in New York.

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Especially considering that Best Buy is selling stuff through Amazon now:

Screen Shot 2021-10-18 at 05.31.29
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I could even order it via Amazon and pick it up at a local Best Buy (well, relatively local).

I also saw several “Insignia” brand TVs, and that is Best Buy’s store brand.

Very curious.

In related news: I just bought myself a new TV to replace the 10-year-old 1080p one in my office! :smiley:

I figured with Amazon’s return window valid through January 31st, if I find a better offer between now and then, I can just return it.

(I promise there won’t be any bits of food in it!)

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That’s long overdue!

Is it a 4K television?

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There are multiple Amazon fulfillment centers within 40 miles of me so my prime delivery remains good. I’m not a fan of Bezos but I use Amazon.

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Hey hey. I’m a responsible adult, I tell you, and I just bought a 77" OLED to replace our 12-year-old 46" 1080P TV in our rec room (we moved to a bigger place, as you can probably guess). It’s been a few weeks, but now I think 77" is too small and wish I could have afforded something larger (or had the space for a projector).

That being said, dorm room me bought the 46" TV in 2009, and you can imagine how much of a jerk everybody thought I was then.

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In a related note, I’ve found Amazon’s behavior when they fail at their delivery promise is less-than-stellar.

Looking for an item. “Get it tomorrow if you order in the next 5 hours & 32 minutes”. I’m logged in, so they have to know where I am. There’s literally an Amazon fulfillment center 40 minutes from here, and the place I live is a regional shipping hub. This isn’t an implausible claim. So when they say “next day”, that number should be possible…right?

<Clicks “Buy”>
<Clicks “Orders”>

Expected delivery: 2 or 3 days from now. NOTE: this isn’t several hours later - as soon as I gave them my money, they decided that the delivery estimate they’d made 60 seconds ago was wrong.

Fast-forward to “expected delivery day”, 3 days after the order, for a “next day” item. Shows “shipped”, but not “out for delivery” yet. Message customer service at 8:00 pm to ask whether or not they’re going to make their stated delivery date. Long conversation about how it could still be delivered in the next 45 minutes (spoiler: it won’t), and then they basically say “well, if you don’t have it in the next week let us know and we’ll look into it”.

If this were an item I’d paid shipping for, they’d refund the shipping. But since shipping was “free”, I didn’t actually pay shipping as a line item on the order - and they’re not inclined to credit me anything. And of course if I were to return it because I actually needed the item sooner than a week and a half from the order date, that would count against my return limit. So I’m disincentivized to do that.

I get that COVID is messing with things - but I would think that if any company could make good guesses, it would be Amazon. And if nothing else, they have the metrics to show they’re missing these deliveries - so they could just stop making promises they know they can’t keep.

Of course it’s not just Amazon. Everybody is messed up. I’ll semi-routinely order things that are listed as “in stock” on websites, presumably things that are “just-in-time delivery” type items, and then get a notice that it’s unavailable after I’ve placed my order. Sometimes the item will still be “available” on the website; sometimes they’re smart enough to list it as “out of stock” at that point.

I really, really appreciate retail stores that have things on the shelf.

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Amazon used to offer “guaranteed delivery by X” on certain items. I got some money back from them when things were late (didn’t even have to ask, it just showed up on my account). They stopped offering that pretty soon after the pandemic started.

Honestly, as long as I get my order eventually, I’m inclined to be forgiving on this. Things are messed up in the entire supply chain, the labor market is very tight, and I’m sure their warehouse staff and delivery drivers are even more overworked than usual.

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The problem might be that the fulfillment center 40 minutes from you might not be the one where the goods your ordered are. The logistics are very complex.

When I’m staying for an extended time in the U.S., I find that stacking my orders for my “Amazon Day” is the best bet that everything will arrive. In the U.S., unfortunately, when Amazon hands orders over to the USPS then all bets are off. I hate to say it, but I think the USPS lies about everything it does. Not that other countries are stellar. Many online stores that I buy from have entered notes in my record to never ship USPS – I find that many sellers understand the issue and are glad to accommodate.

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hmmm the local bb here in pasadena ca has like eight trailer parked in front for a job fair.

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Granted. But my note that there’s a fulfillment center near me and I live in a regional shipping hub are just substantiating that “next day” isn’t a completely unbelievable statement.

I’m fine not getting an item for a week if that’s how long it takes. But Amazon knows the logistics. They know where the things are. They have mountains of data regarding shipping timeframes and how long things have been taking.

Which brings me to…

For smaller websites, I’d be fine with it. With Amazon I was even very forgiving in the earlier days of the pandemic. And I’m inclined to be much more forgiving if something I could typically get from Amazon overnight now takes a few days or a week, IF they bothered to tell me that when I ordered. I’m even fine if “2 day shipping” gets revised to “3 day shipping” or “4 day shipping”. If I need it right away, and Amazon will take a few days, I’ll just drive to the store. No big deal.

But there’s a larger problem here, and this isn’t a single order - this is very consistent behavior with orders routinely taking 2-3x longer than their given delivery timeframes. For a company as data-heavy and automation-driven as Amazon, that (a) certainly knows these deliveries are being delayed, and (b) constantly updates their website based on real-world analytics in hundreds of different ways, it’s borderline inexcusable to me that they push people to make orders knowing that their timeframes are wrong.

And this is a completely different issue from taking it out on warehouse staff and delivery drivers. I don’t fault them at all, because they’re working their butts off, and deserve a lot of credit for keeping things together. But honestly, a huge part of the stress they’re getting from angry customers is due to the exact same problem I’m having - Amazon promising delivery timeframes that are just outright impossible.

That’s the issue, in a nutshell. Amazon has the data - they just refuse to use it.

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Yup, I bought the one in the screenshot above.

4K, HDR, Dolby Vision

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How is this for irony?

Amazon, who hasn’t made a 2-day delivery since March 2020, is delivering the TV that I bought “from Best Buy at Amazon.com” … tomorrow. I literally ordered it this morning. Overnight delivery.

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