...can't wait!

Thank you best buy!

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So a little update.

After the Best Buy rep and manager agreed to hold the camera for me over the phone they sold it last night.

My family (with a 4 month old and 2 year old) and I drove 4.5 hours to get to the store and basically have nothing to show for it. I knew they sold it last night about an hour from the store when they called my cell and told me. I haven't had my blood pressure that high in a long time, I had to pull over and take a breather. We both took days off from work and loaded our car to get to the store ASAP. I decided to drive all the way anyways so I could speak with them in person...It was a dissappointing experience, they said "it's a really in demand camera". I didn't know how to respond.

I'm most dissappointed they didn't give me a call and tell me to have someone else pick up the camera. I have several friends in a 5 mile radius from the store who would have happily picked it up for me.

Seriously upset...

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I am so sorry for your experience.

Hopefully, they can find you another one & make it right.

Good luck for a happy ending!

Laura

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That is absolutely ROTTEN. Sorry for you experience. Hope you can bag another soon.

Beck

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500 miles round trip, $200 in gas, and a waste of 9 hours driving total.....

I should've listened to my intuition and had a buddy pick it up however she said she would absolutely hold it.

I am going to call the best buy svp and give him my case study in how not to treat your customers.

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The manager tried to make things right and offered me the Canon mark 3 or a great deal on a tv... Talk about not knowing your product or customer base.

Honestly I don't even care about the camera, its the general lack of regard
that is really upsetting...

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I am very glad this happened to you.....


and not to me. Because police would have gotten involved, and I'd be doing time for a felony.

I would have taken the 5DMk3 and then stomped a hole in it in front of the manager. And then probably stomped a hole in the manager.

Ohhh...myyyy.. GOOODDDDD.....




>So a little update.
>
>After the Best Buy rep and manager agreed to hold the camera
>for me over the phone they sold it last night.
>
>My family (with a 4 month old and 2 year old) and I drove 4.5
>hours to get to the store and basically have nothing to show
>for it. I knew they sold it last night about an hour from the
>store when they called my cell and told me. I haven't had my
>blood pressure that high in a long time, I had to pull over
>and take a breather. We both took days off from work and
>loaded our car to get to the store ASAP. I decided to drive
>all the way anyways so I could speak with them in person...It
>was a dissappointing experience, they said "it's a really
>in demand camera". I didn't know how to respond.
>
>I'm most dissappointed they didn't give me a call and tell me
>to have someone else pick up the camera. I have several
>friends in a 5 mile radius from the store who would have
>happily picked it up for me.
>
>Seriously upset...
>
>

------
Webpage: http://www.ptfphoto.com

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This is a horrific story !! I hope that karma falls your way soon and you not only get a D800 soon, but that you also are gifted a 24-70 for all your trouble and insanely responsible reaction. Like PF ... I'd be guilty of agravated assault!

You will have your camera soon ... Tell me they offered to send you the very next D800 they received and thre in free shipping.
___________________________________________________________

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. - A. Einstein

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One thing I always keep in the back of my mind when dealing with most staff a big box stores. The chances are pretty darned good that their last job entailed asking if you would like fries with your order. As a Master Plumber and a Plumbing contractor I share this wisdom with my clients when they hand me the following line " Well the salesperson at lowes/Homedepot said" LOL. I think the only bonafide way that BB will hold your item is to make the purchase on line then pick it up after they email you confirming said order for pick up.

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And Best Buy wonders why they are having to close stores and are losing all of thier business to the internet! Sorry about your trials...

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Why would you drive there with babies? Especially with a 4 month old?

Sucks that you had a bad experience. Try to look at it from a good angle - maybe it saved you from getting a faulty camera and you are going to get a good one next? That's how I looked at it waiting for few months being #1 in one of the stores. I found out later than they got few cameras and I got mine last. Ah, well.

Alex
http://www.yermakov.net

Just awful. I will let my friends know where not to shop and why.
-------------
Please visit my galleries: Reza Gorji Photography

As awful as this was, I don't think you can toss every Best Buy under the boss for what one STUPID manager did.

>Just awful. I will let my friends know where not to shop and
>why.
>-------------
>Please visit my galleries:
>Reza Gorji Photography

------
Webpage: http://www.ptfphoto.com

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So why did you say you were getting the D800? This tells me that you had paid for it or put a deposit on it. Did this not happen?

That's a bad deal.

Was there a deposit on it? If not, well, retail runs on 15 day cycles, goals, and paying at least something is the only way to hold onto it until you arrived.

RM

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Regarding the deposit. I offered for them to take my credit card information once they told me they had a unit available.

She declined and mentioned that they wouldn't need it and they would hold the camera with my name on it. Just to come in and ask the door attendant where it was upon arrival.

The problem is they re-negotiated a mutually agreeable situation in midstream (3 hours into my drive) and never gave me an opportunity to find anyone else to come grab it.

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Hi, sorry for your problem. I would have done the same thing as you. I still believe that people hold to their word. And yes, I have been disappointed a few times. Good luck on getting a D800 and hope it is perfect.

Virge

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Very sorry this happened to you. Best Buy is a large company and will have a few mess ups. I got my D800 from them on March 29th. They were very nice to me. I called the store near my home and asked if they had one. The store manager asked me to come to the store that day and pay for it. They said that they would have it in one week. It happened as they said.

Just figure out which car is the manager's and set it on fire. Then call it 'even'.

-Alex Rosen
www.flickr.com/photos/klrbee25/

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What about suing in small claims court for breech of contract?
The verbal contract is valid if the parties behave as if it was in force by honoring the terms. In your case you acted as if the agreement was in force by driving all that distance, which never would have not been done if a contract was not in force.

I know that manager is dirt but the chain also has some very good policies and employees. I got mine in short order due to a super attentive employee who went way beyond her duties to find one for me.
They have probably put more D800's into new owner's hands than any other source.
Stan
St Petersburg Russia

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I'm generally a pretty big Best Buy fan.

Never had any issues with them aside from yesterday.

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I was thinking about the possibility of Small Claim Court as well. However, how could you prove that this "verbal contract" took place? Knowing you are going to suit them, everybody in that store would have clam-up.

Next time, record your phone conversation? But as far as know, secretly recording phone conversation without other party's permission is also illegal?

Similar thing happened to me in the past, just not nearly as this bad. I thought about it, then gave up. Well, ran a half-marathon to vent off the next day. But I kept my sanity.

superfly

Pookoo, I'm sorry that happened to you. It had to bite that you drove all that way only to find out they sold the camera right under you. That said, I don't think you have any cause for a civil suit. The reality is is there was no signed contract, or any explicit guarantee the store wouldn't do what they did. Yeah it bites, and it's a rotten deal, but there was no obligation to hold the camera. And if I had to guess I would bet the camera was already in store for another customer and the manager botched it by telling you one was available when in reality it was already sold (on hold for someone else).

And not to be insensitive but I would have made darn sure they knew I was making a long distance trip immediately to pick up the camera, and before leaving, made sure they had my CC info. If they refused, I would have let them know I couldn’t take that trip without some type of guarantee the camera would be there when I got there.

Honestly it really comes to a verbal he-said she-said with a lot of miscommunication. Unfortunately you came out on the losing end.

At any rate they should have at least, as a good faith gesture, given you something for the major inconvenience you suffered. Perhaps you could call the district manager and explain the situation and have them find a camera for you, maybe even through in a SD or CF card(s) for your inconvenience. It's all in how you plead your case - as in "look, i'm still willing to spend 3k with you if you find me a camera, and throw in someting for my time, I did drive 500 miles to get a camera your people said they had" - something along those lines

Anyway I’m in the market for a D800 to so I feel the pain on lack of availability.

Good luck.

There is a long developed foundation of verbal contract law. If the store promised to hold it and you acted in good faith to comply with the agreement, and their reversal of the agreement cost you real losses, there are grounds for compensation to make you whole again.
The evidence is the phone record of the call they placed to the OP's mobile, the fact that a reasonable person would only drive 9 hours if there was a strong assurance that store staff was going to abide by the agreement, and their offering to placate the OP for losses by offering a deal on another camera...one that the store probably does not know it a piece of junk in comparison, so was a sincere effort to atone for their improper actions. All that adds up to a reasonable expectation that a verbal contract was in place, upon which the OP was acting.

At the very least, a strong letter to the national headquarters saying how distraught the OP and his entire family is, along with samples of posts on influential camera web sites which suggests the possible results of a major PR blunder that the store manager made. A list of consumer rights groups and news media to whom the OP will likely have to turn to if the company does not do the right thing, could be included for additional motivation for them to do the right thing.
Stan
St Petersburg Russia

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>There is a long developed foundation of verbal contract law.
>If the store promised to hold it and you acted in good faith
>to comply with the agreement, and their reversal of the
>agreement cost you real losses, there are grounds for
>compensation to make you whole again.

I've dealt with them at the Richfield VP level, yes, generally a customer service oriented company, especially at the store manager level (not the department folks who can be swapped around the store).

RM

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Robman, can you get me VP contact information?

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