Another stupid shoppng story

That's a silly question, because I know that if you live in the civilized world, you do. I also know that I can't be the only one who has watched the decline of customer service with horror.

Something happened today that made me angry. Not stomping up and down, throw a hissy fit in the store angry, though. Here's what happened.

I went to Best Buy to replace my DVD player. First, the Panasonic I wanted was out of stock, but I was willing to spend an extra $50 for a Toshiba model that had decent reviews. I waved off the nice floor guy who tried to get me to take the service plan, because I'm not a complete idiot. I stood in line and paid my $261.00, then was told by the cashier that he didn't have a bag large enough to hold the player; I told him that was fine if he'd just hand me the receipt, which he did.

I showed my receipt to the doorman and walked over to the parking validation stand in the middle of the mall [1]. The gentleman in the polyester blazer who sat behind the counter seemed to be a fairly recent immigrant from some African nation. He looked at my DVD player and the receipt in my hand and told me that he couldn't validate my parking if my purchase was from Best Buy.

"You're kidding." I said.

Apparently he had not yet learned to kid. So I walked back to Best Buy with my box in hand and asked if they validated parking there in the store. The doorman informed me that they did not.

I walked back to customer service, returned the DVD player and asked for my $261 back. I tried to explain the reason for my return, which happened less than five minutes after my purchase, but the young woman behind the counter didn't seem to understand my problem.

"Parking isn't free." She said.

Well, yes it is. Facilitating customer access to your store is a cost of doing business. When I go to a store that has a parking lot, when the lot has a sign instructing me to take my ticket inside for validation, I expect validation to happen when I have made a purchase. Is that so unreasonable?

I do not know where to place the blame for this situation, but at the root of it is corporate greed. The company that operates the mall sees that their garage and lot are always filled to capacity, from that they conclude that controled access is critical. However, the management company does not require each merchant to provide validation, and those that do validate may validate at different levels. Some, such as Best Buy, choose to opt out, presumably at no cost.

This mall is located in an urban area, just a stone's throw from the Pentagon. I don't disagree with the controlled-access parking lot, anything else would leave no space for actual customers. However, it does not make sense to me that a management company would penalize shoppers.

I'm not sure what to do about this. You can be sure I'll never shop at Best Buy again. The list of places I can shop is getting shorter and shorter, but it's not like eliminating Best Buy will have much impact.

I may contact Best Buy's corporate headquarters, and I will definitely contact the company that manages the mall.

My conclusion is that it may be time to be satisfied with fewer consumer goods, and support companies that make good customer service a must.

The upshot is that I came home, ordered the player I wanted in the first place online, and came out ahead. I'd rather wait until tomorrow than permit Best Buy to save money with its consumer-unfriendly policies.

[1] Pentagon Centre is sort of a strip mall, in that all the stores are big box stores, and some of its stores are accessible without entering the mall part. Others are not, which is where the sort of comes into play.

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