Best Buy Restock Fee

Claim: Best Buy ’ s U.S. stores charge a 15 % restocking tip on returns of some non-defective trade .

	OUTDATED

Example: [Collected via e-mail, May 2008]

Reading: Best Buy Restock Fee

BEST BUY, MY FOOT
BEST BUY, MY FOOT Best Buy has some bad policies… .
normally, I would not share this with others, however, since this could happen to you or your friends, I decided to share it. If you purchase something from, Wal-Mart, Sam ’ s Club, JC Penny, Sears etc. If you return the item with the receipt. They will give you your money back if you paid cash, or credit your account if paid by formative .
well, I purchased a GPS for my car, a Tom Tom XL.S from “ Best Buy ”. They have a policy that it must be returned within 14 days for a refund ! therefore after 4 days I returned it in the original box with all the items in the box, with newspaper exploit and cords all wrapped in the e formative. Just as I received it, including the receipt .
I explained to the dame at the come back desk I did like the way it could not find memory names. The dame at the refund desk said, there is a 15 % restock fee, for items returned. I said no one told me that. I said how much would that be. She said it goes by the price of the detail. It will be $ 45.00 Dollars for you. I said, all your going to do is walk over and place it back on the self ! then charge me $ 45.00 of my money for restocking ! ! She said that ’ s the storehouse policy. I said if more people were mindful of it they would not buy anything here ! If I bought a $ 2000.00 computer or television receiver and returned it I would be charged $ 300.00 dollars restock fee ! ! She said yes, 15 % .
I said OK, just give me my money minus the restock tip .
She said, since the item is over 200.00 dollars, she cant give me my money rear ! ! ! Corporate has to and they will mail you a check in 7 to ten days. ! !
I said “ WHAT ? ! ” It ’ randomness my money ! ! I paid in cash ! I want to buy a different brand..Now I have to wait 7 to 10 days. She said well, our policy is on the back of your receipt .
I said, do you read the front or back of your acknowledge ? She said well, the front ! I said so do I, I want to talk to the Manager ! .
So the director comes over, I explained everything to him, and he said, well, sir they should ld of tell you about the policy when you got the token. I said, No one, has ever told me about the check refund or restock fee, when ever I bought items from computers to TVs from Best Buy. The alone thing they ever discussed was the despicable extended guarantee plan. He said Well, I can give you corporate phone phone number .
I called corporate. The guy said, well, I ’ thousand not supposed to do this but I can give you a 45.00 dollar give circuit board and you can use it at Best Buy. I told him if I bought something and returned it, you would charge me a restock fee on the item and then send me a check for the remaining 3 dollars. You can keep your give wag, I ’ molarity never shopping in Best Buy ever again, and If I would of been bright, I would of charged the whole thing on my credit menu ! then I would of canceled the transaction. I would of gotten all my money back including your stupid Fees ! He didn ’ t say a word !
I informed him that I was going to e-mail my friends and give them a heads up on this stores policy, as they don ’ thyroxine tell you about all there little caveats
therefore please sink this on. It may save your friends from having a bad experience of shopping at Best Buy.

Origins: This e-mail about the restitution policies of the Best Buy chain of retail electronics stores began making the rounds in early on April 2008, with many of its earliest copies signed with the identify “ Dave Dillon. ”
A the meter this detail began circulating, the Best Buy chain did indeed deduct a 15 % restocking tip from refunds made to U.S. customers who had purchased and returned certain non-defective items. however, as of 18 December 2010 the electronics retailer changed that policy and immediately entirely applies a restocking fee ( of 25 % ) to limited order products. ( Returns of damaged or defective trade are handled differently ; no restocking fee applies to them. )

– < br The Best Buy “ Refunds & Exchanges ” web page states under its “ Restocking Fee ” section the surveil information about returns of in-store purchases :

Restocking Fee
A 15% restocking fee will be charged on opened notebook computers, tables, projectors, camcorders, digital cameras, radar detectors, GPS navigation and in-car video systems. A 25% restocking fee will be charged on special order products, including appliances. These fees apply unless the item is defective or damaged, you received the wrong item, or the fee is prohibited by law.

The Best Buy FAQ page which addresses the question of returns of on-line purchases ( “ What is BestBuy.com Return Policy ? ” ) states that :

A restock fee is applicable in some merchandise categories, unless you are a Reward Zone Program Premier Silver member, the detail is bad, or the fee is prohibited by law. The restocking fee charges are :

A restocking fee is applicable in some product categories, unless you are a Reward Zone Program Premier Silver member, the item is defective, or the fee is prohibited by law. The restocking fee charges are:

25% for Special Order Products, including appliances

15% for opened notebook computers, projectors, camcorders, digital cameras, radar detectors, GPS navigation and in-car video systems

10% for Apple® iPhones

– >
It is still Best Buy ’ south stated policy to issue refunds via corporate bridle for cash and debit menu purchases over $ 500, and check purchases over $ 250 :

Refunds for Best Buy Store Purchases
Your refund will generally be in the same form as the original payment. However, when the item was purchased with cash or with a debit card without a major credit card logo for more than $500, or with a check for more than $250 the refund will be in the form of a check mailed to you within 10 business days. If the item was purchased using debit and the debit card has a major credit card logo, refunds under $250 will be issued as cash; refunds over $250 will be credited back to the card.

Some retailers charge restocking fees on the revert of non-defective merchandise, and some preceptor ’ thyroxine.
– < red brigades Best Buy is one of those retailers that does.
– >
Those retailers who choose to apply such fees even when there ’ south nothing obviously physically wrong with the items being returned do thus because such vendibles much can no long be sold as newly once the packages containing them have intelligibly been opened, thus causing other electric potential buyers to avoid them like the plague. ( For exercise, any device which stores data in memory might potentially retain personal or offensive information left behind by a former drug user, and even apparently intact and fresh equipment returned in its master promotion might still be lacking a drug user manual, a distant control, a magazine, or some early little part removed by a previous buyer. ) Absent a restock fee, those retailers would therefore be left holding the bag for trade that was returned on short more than consumer notion. A restocking tip passes along some of this loss to the person who caused it ( that is, the buyer who changed his mind about owning the detail ) .
besides, restocking fees work to discourage those intent upon using retailers as trade lend libraries. Absent such fees, person looking to have the function of a camcorder for a wedding, for case, could buy the item on Friday, use it on Saturday, retrieve images from it on Sunday, return it on Monday, and get all of his
money back. A close examination of the items Best Buy applies restocking fees to ( notebook computers, projectors, camcorders, digital cameras, radar detectors, GPS/navigation and in-car video recording systems ) reveals that each of these items is of the “ would like to have the use of for the weekend or for the length of the annual vacation ” like. Imagine a kin heading off for a two-week road travel — absent the imposition of restocking fees on these items, they could load up their sport utility with a notebook computer, camcorder, digital television camera, radar detector, GPS navigation organization, and in-car video recording organization on their room out of township, then pass back the whole lot on their return for a wide refund, thereby making the retailer the trip ’ south unwitting subsidizer .
Another purpose for restocking fees is to discourage customers from engaging in after-the-fact comparison shopping — buying an item, using it, and then ( after discovering they could have purchased it more stingily elsewhere ) repackaging it and returning it in order to buy the same thing at a lower monetary value from a different seller. Some retailers advertise that if a buyer can find the lapp item elsewhere for a lower price, they ’ ll refund the difference, but others expect their customers to do their comparison denounce in advance of purchase .
All of this, you might think, would be merely the retailers ’ headache. Yet that is a naive view : Retailers don ’ triiodothyronine altruistically absorb such losses ; they pass them along. To you.

While at first gear blush it might seem the better naturally to patronize stores that do not charge restocking fees on items purchasers return merely because they change their minds, it could well be that the inverse is the more prudent choice. Retailers who don ’ triiodothyronine impose restocking fees on frivolous returns pass along their losses to consumers through higher prices. Should you not be person who buys and returns things on notion, you might find your pocketbook better served by business entities that stick the inconstant with at least some of the costs associated with their capricious demeanor .
Barbara “ restock in trade ” Mikkelson
Last updated: 17 December 2010