Best Buy Ethical Dilemma...

[DanielNS84]

Okay, so this is specifically for those who've had experience with the Best Buy returns process in a manner similar to this...I have a lot of experience with buying and returning things with them for work but this is a first...

 

On the 9th of this month I started a return for my R7 5800X CPU because I sourced a R9 5950X from a local Micro Center, this went smoothly and I'm currently using it. I pulled up the return label on the Best Buy website, realized I was out of ink for my printer, ordered a cartridge on Amazon for next-day delivery, and closed things up for the night. The next day my ink arrived and I went to pull up the label and it wouldn't show it to me again no matter what I tried...the link to do so was just not there on the website like it usually is so I opened a support chat and within 15-20 minutes they had provided me with a new label (With a new tracking number) and I was printing it out...no problem, right? I thought so too and packed it up/shipped it out that day (May 10th). The following timeline is how things went from here (I may have contacted them a few more times but these were the important ones where they were giving me information):

 

May 12th, 10:00am: Package arrives in Sheperdsville, KY at the Best Buy warehouse.

 

May 15th: I realize the status on their orders page still shows they are waiting for my item, I open a chat with them again and they say it's likely no problem, they confirm this is normal.

 

May 16th: No change in status, concerned, I open a chat again and insist that this usually updates as soon as they get the product and they say they will make a note to update the status.

 

May 17th: Same status, I call this time and spend over an hour on the phone with them, they casually mention the tracking number at one point and crucially they say the old tracking number which worries me...they claim to change the tracking number in their system and say it should update soon.

 

May 18th: Tracking number still hasn't updated on my orders page, I call again and spend well over an hour trying to figure out what is wrong, they say the old tracking number again and I correct them, then I elevate the issue to a supervisor. I go back and forth for a while and they confirm they have received the product, checked it, and will forward the request to issue a refund within 24 hours. They tell me that I will get an e-mail confirming within that 24 hour period.

 

May 19th, 11:32am: I get an e-mail from them as shown below saying they have the product and have started the refund process...all done right? I thought so too!

 

May 23rd, 12:25pm: I send a quick e-mail to them as a reply because I still haven't seen anything update and it's getting close to the end of the return period...

 

May 23rd, 3:44pm: I receive this crazy e-mail as a reply stating that now I haven't gotten it because the box was empty when it arrived and they're sending me my empty box back...now at this point they had received the CPU 11 days prior, had checked the item several times, and had claimed that they had already issued the refund so I was very upset.

 

May 23rd, 3:45pm: I immediately call Best Buy and spend an hour and a half getting to someone with the power to do anything at all and I speak to a very nice supervisor and she explains the situation. She says that the warehouse now says that the box is empty despite being way past this point in the process and then states the following:

1: She would totally issue a refund if she could, but she can't.

2: I will need to wait until tomorrow when the empty box arrives and file a claim with UPS if it is indeed my box to see any sort of refund, which would come from the insurance via UPS.

3: She can do nothing further to help me.

At this point she tries to "Have a nice day" me and I lose it...I had said nothing unkind or lost my temper during this conversation or any prior conversation but I felt that this wasn't an acceptable answer...I tell her that the only reason to shop at Best Buy instead of going and getting something used or ordering from some shady online site is specifically to avoid situations like this. Considering I'd been whatever the highest tier of member with Best Buy is for the better part of a decade without anything like this happening I told her I thought she should go ahead and fix this immediately since UPS is their contractor, not mine. At this point she (no joke) issues that refund she said she couldn't do earlier and I get an e-mail about it right away...the funds were in my account within a few hours.

 

Now, I thought this was over, seriously I did, but the package arrived today (my "empty box") and I was surprised by what was inside. I opened the outer box (which was not the box I originally sent them) and inside was an R7 5800X box, I opened that box expecting nothing since the hole where you can see the CPU was empty but when I did I looked down and there was a CPU sitting there...now, whoever initially checked it in the warehouse put the CPU back in the plastic forcefully backwards which bent several of the corner pins and shoved all of the items inside the box into the bottom of it so it's been bouncing around in transit unprotected. I'm a relatively handy guy with a lot of PC repair experience so I take it to my workbench, pull out the iFixIt kit and my magnifier light, and carefully fix the edge pins so they all visually line up, it looks like none of the pins broke despite their best efforts.

 

Now, the TL:DR is the following:

I have my money back.

I have a potentially working R7 5800X.

I spent a good 8-10 hours over 11 days dealing with this return and am over it.

 

 

Now, the reason I asked for input from people who've dealt with something like this is because I don't know if calling them and telling them the situation would

A: Jeopardize my Returned Funds

B: Consume Another Few Hours of My Time

or

C: Both

 

Do I call them back and tell them I have this thing? Do I throw it on a shelf and forget about it? Can they do anything crazy like yank the money back when I call them and tell them I have this thing again despite trying my best to give it back? Am I obligated to do anything but throw it in the trash and never call them again? I'm way over this nonsense and don't particularly want to involve myself in this further. Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

Edit: Added info, I wrapped the entire original package in tape to make sure it arrived (which is why I doubted the package was empty even if we weren't waaaay past the "make sure we have it" part of the return process) intact and I didn't put any info about what was in it on the outside so no one would be tempted to steal it.

 

Also Edit: Thoughts of the community so far...

Keep it, don't call them: 10.5

Call them and continue this madness: 1.5

(One person was 50/50 on it)

Edited May 25, 2021 by DanielNS84

[Middcore]

Keep it and never contact them again. You've done way more than most people would have already. If they are incompetent enough to issue refunds for returns where they believe they never actually received the returned item, it's on them. 

[WhitetailAni]

As stated above, keep it. They gave you the money without validating that they had the item, sent it back to you (albeit in a damaged state) and in their eyes, everything is fine and you scored a free CPU.

 

You could:
Save it for a rainy day (like if you're troubleshooting and need to make sure your 5950X is not the culprit)

Sell it, making sure that it works

Toss it in a grinder and watch the sparks fly

[DanielNS84]

2 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

As stated above, keep it. They gave you the money without validating that they had the item, sent it back to you (albeit in a damaged state) and in their eyes, everything is fine and you scored a free CPU.

 

You could:
Save it for a rainy day (like if you're troubleshooting and need to make sure your 5950X is not the culprit)

Sell it, making sure that it works

Toss it in a grinder and watch the sparks fly

This is the only system I have here without a full set of spare parts so it's not a bad idea...for my daughter's 9900k system I have an old 8086k, I have spare RAM and SSD's, etc...it would be nice to have a second AM4 CPU that I can build out at some point if I'm bored. I was thinking about upgrading my motherboard to a workstation model and if I did then I could potentially use this CPU in it...I'll have to put some thought into it.

 

7 minutes ago, Middcore said:

Keep it and never contact them again. You've done way more than most people would have already. If they are incompetent enough to issue refunds for returns where they believe they never actually received the returned item, it's on them. 

I definitely see your point here...normally I'd return it without a second thought but the amount of pain I've gone through already talking to them to explain the same things over and over make me hesitate big time. I'd consider dropping it off at a Best Buy if there was one within an hour of my new house but that's not the case so calling these villains is my only option if I wanna try to "do the right thing" here...if that even would be doing the right thing considering they sent it back lol.

 

Thanks to you both, duly noted!

[CerealExperimentsLain]

You were totally honest with them and they made the mistake.  It's a GIANT corporation, no hard working low wage individual will lose their job as a result of this and you committed no crime.

Enjoy your 5800X, might I suggest building a nice secondary gaming PC for your TV? :)

[NineEyeRon]

Shelf it as a memento, using it or selling it doesn't seem quite right but it can make a good decoration. 

 

Maybe make it into a piece of art or something?

[Flannelist]

Depends on how strong your guilt is. But I would 100% say this is on them.

It may end up being a whole lot more effort to make this "right."  It once took me about a month and a whole lot of stress to return 19 airpods which were mistakenly delivered to a former employer.... (Got a case instead of one single airpod) And I would have much rather taken a sledge hammer to them than do that again.

And you've already invested a ridiculous amount of time in getting this taken care of in the first place. I would just keep it.

[Ankh Tech]

I'm gonna be honest, you hit the lottery ticket, albeit you had to suffer through this.

Ethically, tbh, I would return it.

But in today's situation, I would keep it, use it as a spare, or build a nice secondary system

[DanielNS84]

Oh snap, bunch of responses...thanks! Also yeah, upon further review it's difficult to find a story of this going well for anyone who kept trying in this case and ended up doing anything but wasting a lot of time (beyond all the original lost time). Seems like there's a consensus forming. If I were to call it would be tomorrow morning but it's not looking likely at this point unless someone thinks of a good reason to pursue it further. Thanks again!

[DanielNS84]

28 minutes ago, comander said:

From an ethics perspective, you've made a reasonable effort, you sent a working product for a return and you more than check the box there. They sent you back a potentially defective product of questionable value. 

 

I would hang onto the product for a while longer at this time. After ~30 days, assume the funds in your account are yours. 

Do you have a paper trail. I would call and say that you received your "empty" package back with the product inside, damaged and unusable/unsellable where it HAD been good and working when sent. Inquire about next steps. Document this. 

After that, assume you basically got a potential freebie. 

 

check with local laws and regulations for further guidance. The above is not legal advice. 

Yeah, I’ve been documenting/photographing since they mixed up the tracking numbers since I got a bad feeling about it immediately. Not sure if it’s because I’ve done thousands of transactions and probably hundreds of returns (mostly in-person with unopened products but at least 40-50 online) and this is the first time it just didn’t update on my orders page or if it was because of how the support staff were acting confused about everything but the paper trail doesn’t say anything about an empty box until after they said the return was complete and to watch for the funds in my account so I knew that wasn’t possible and that they probably just didn’t put it back in the box once they checked it. Not sure what string of mistakes it would take to type up a note and email saying the box was empty, tuck the note next to the non-empty box with the CPU inside, and ship it to me though. That’s without considering why someone would smash the pins of such an obviously delicate item without noticing it was backwards (it would have taken a lot of pressure for that) in the package. I’ll take a picture of the pins after my repair shortly (to see if anyone has a guess at the chances that it would work still) but I’ll look up any applicable laws on this when I get a chance as well. Thanks!

[DanielNS84]

Oh wow, I just e-mailed myself the CPU pin pictures and when I opened my e-mail I saw a message stating that they've "investigated" and confirmed that they indeed received an empty box (The one they just sent me...with a CPU in it). Now there's an added motivation we need to consider..."owning someone who says they investigated when they obviously didn't"...I'm feeling a strong desire to do this to be honest...not sure how to go about it though and some part of me is saying I should let this stay where it is. Thoughts? E-mail as follows:

 

Edit: Note, this is the "investigation" that the supervisor started when she was telling me that she couldn't do the refund and that I'd have to do a claim through UPS.

[HerrKaLeu]

Test if it works and keep it if it does.

 

the state it is in they can't (or shouldn't) sell it as a new CPU anymore (bent and straightened pins, multiple strangers potentially touched pins while not grounded etc.) and woud have to dispose of it.

 

And remember, they tried to cheat you first and tried to withhold the refund and lied to you and gave you the runaround. 

 

Sounds like you are a professional. So each of your hour cost $100+. If I follow above timeline, you more than paid for that CPU with your time. 

[DanielNS84]

Maybe I'm overthinking this haha, given how drastically one-sided this is I should probably just let things sit as-is for a while. It's super depressing that they did this to a CPU a lot of people would like to have right now, maybe I'll build out a cheap system around it and give it to a family member or something...just built a PC to give to my cousin so maybe my sister is next. Not sure I'd feel right selling it given the situation but rescuing it from them to give to a worthy cause seems fair enough. I'll post here if everything goes okay and I get it running in something. Again, thanks a ton for all of your input!

[MadAnt250]

Tell them and ship it back. You got your money back, so there is no need to make more problems.

[Triggeravus]

Lol I can't wait for Best Buy to pull a Circuit City and be gone.  Garbage company. 

[Purgent]

I can't believe OP spent all this time complaining about his time being wasted and dragging Best Buy, only to then have a moral crossroads after his situation was made right.

 

Smfh

 

 

[DanielNS84]

6 hours ago, Purgent said:

I can't believe OP spent all this time complaining about his time being wasted and dragging Best Buy, only to then have a moral crossroads after his situation was made right.

 

Smfh

 

 

The point was about them fucking up again after I thought it was all over (several times actually) and asking whether to re-engage with them once I should be done (again). In any case, I grabbed a B550 motherboard (from Best Buy lol) for delivery on Thursday and am gonna test the CPU (Since I hadn't thought about this but if I send it back now they could assume I broke it), if it works then my sister might have hit the jackpot if I don't send it back (or maybe I'll just grab a 3400G (Edit: Isn't there a 5700G now? Are those still OEM only? Anyone know where to get one? I'd be interested in trying one out even separate from all this) since she doesn't have crazy needs although she is an amature photo editor and it takes her forever to do things on her laptop). She's a new mom with financial issues so I figure she deserves it. She doesn't have Internet where she lives and only had a work laptop (that was genuinely horrendous) until I gave her my 6th-gen i7 laptop with an SSD in it but she's due for an upgrade. I'll also try to find an Internet solution that works in rural Alabama besides besides Elon Musk's StarLink thing. Also, pictures of the pins in their repaired state:

This is the clamshell they put it into upside-down...as you can see it has edges that are rounded off so it only fits one way (unless you force it).

 

And the Pins:

 

2nd Angle:

 

And a Close-Up:

 

Unless the act of bending the pins itself can damage the CPU it should probably work, regardless I'm sure I can find a use for this B550 board for something if it doesn't and I'm always looking for a new project to occupy my off-hours once my daughter goes to sleep or before she wakes up every day. Thanks again for all of your advice guys! I'll update things if I hear anything else.

Edited May 25, 2021 by DanielNS84

[Ankh Tech]

well, bent pins on cpus  could make them not work, but if you can carefully bend them back you really hit the ackpot this time

[Intoxicus]

" I told her I thought she should go ahead and fix this immediately since UPS is their contractor, not mine. At this point she (no joke) issues that refund she said she couldn't do earlier and I get an e-mail about it right away...the funds were in my account within a few hours."

In general the person that paid for the shipping handles the insurance if something goes wrong.
She must have been corrected by someone that actually knew how things worked.

I say keep it. 

[DanielNS84]

So the B550 board showed up today, I threw it together in an old case and stuck a Quadro in it and it seems to work better than it did before...not entirely sure this is the CPU I sent them. The IF also goes to 2000 on this one just fine whereas I had issues before. Maybe a difference between motherboards but this one is a lot cheaper so I’d assume that’s not it. I’ll run some more tests besides just cinebench later.

[TetraSky]

On 5/25/2021 at 5:06 AM, DanielNS84 said:

(Since I hadn't thought about this but if I send it back now they could assume I broke it),

Very plausible that this would be the case.

They won't admit to bending the pins themselves, since, as they claimed, the box was "empty".

As such, even returning it would be useless by now.
Seriously, just keep it if it works.