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Best Buy Express Kiosk Acting Very Differently Than It Was Supposed To
That was news to David Popler, the Senior VP/Sales at Zoom (who handles media inquiries), who said he thought the kiosks always had the same return policies as the stores. Apparently, no one told that to the kiosk at this airport Hilton in Chicago.
“But Best Buy Express machines have a pretty hard-nosed return policy: you can return a gadget only if it’s unopened or defective, and then only by calling a toll-free number and waiting for a prepaid shipping label,” McCracken wrote. “Buyer’s remorse isn’t an adequate excuse. And as my receipt put it, ‘Items purchased through Best Buy Express™ MAY NOT be returned to Best Buy stores or through BestBuy.com.'”
When we asked Popler about the experience at that kiosk, he was very helpful, but had been instructed by his customer (Best Buy) to have me talk with them. He didn’t know, though, who at Best Buy I was supposed to speak with. After reaching out to several Best Buy people, I heard from Best Buy spokesperson Jeremy Baier.
Baier promised a statement detailing what had happened with the kiosk. The statement sent, though, didn’t go into specifics. “We’re taking the time to reexamine our processes around the Express kiosks, but have nothing further at this time to share with you,” he wrote.
We seem to have three issues here. First, Best Buy has to decide if these kiosks are to be treated as another Best Buy channel, alongside mobile, E-Commerce and in-store. If so, then the chain needs to maintain identical policies. Yes, that means items can be returned to a Best Buy store and the return rules can’t be any different than if an item had been purchased at a physical store.
By the way, a standalone machine in the middle of a hotel needs to have more generous return rules. These aren’t candy bars. When the products are expensive electronics, there’s a lot of customer fear to overcome.
Second, somebody—Zoom, Best Buy or some third party—needs to check that the machines are indeed playing by the agreed-upon rules. And third, typos are a fact of life. If the programming assumed no one would make a typo and have to correct it (E-mail systems are really picky), someone skimped too much on real-world testing.
Cards issued by European banks when used online cross border don't usually support AVS checks. So, when a European card is used with a billing address that's in the US, an ecom merchant wouldn't necessarily know that the shipping zip code doesn't match the billing code.
-Marc
