An Open Letter To Best Buy Regarding the iPhone X, and Anyone Else Who Fears Our Robot Overlords Bobby Smith Follow Oct 30, 2017 · 22 min read

And no, this isn’t a b**** fest about the price gouging.

So I’m a technology geek. I grew up on Mario (yes, I have a Switch). I remember waiting in line with my grandpa the night that SMB3 came out at our video game rental store. No, it was a local shop, not Blockbuster. But I had a membership at Blockbuster. I was in the line when the iPhone 3GS was released, I have a DSLR camera with all the latest gadgets and whistles — when I travel, I carry no less than two portable batteries, my Macbook Pro 2016, an Asus MB169c (portable USB-C monitor), etc etc etc. I could bore you all day, but the point is technology is my hobby and my passion.

It’s also my job — I’ve worked in software for more than 10 years, and when I was lost in college I simply remembered that I loved everything about computers — I loved building them, I loved playing games on them, I loved typing essays on them, so I naturally gravitated to the thing that I knew best. I haven’t looked back since, but needless to say I eat, breathe, live, and get paid to do this stuff.

So naturally I’m reliably on the Apple iPhone upgrade cycle, and of course even though I upgraded last year to an iPhone 7 (a great phone, by the way — the best yet), I knew the iPhone X was the next shiny ball I just have to go after.

I also have to fund all of these massive technology purchases, so I work really hard to do that. But I also have to have somewhere to purchase them, too. For better or for worse, I just don’t like the Apple Store. I don’t exactly like how sanitary or mechanical it feels, I mean every time I’ve had an issue with an Apple product (there haven’t been many), the store is a great place to get guidance on what to do (or replace) next. Dongle gate rings a bell, I don’t know how many last minute dongles I lost, picked up, lost again, and rushed to the Apple Store to buy because it was the only place in time who had them. Fine on you, Apple — I’m a fan of you for your products, anyway.

For better or for worse, I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon. But I’m also pretty impatient. And I’ve also returned a lot of stuff on Amazon. So small things are fine, but I usually just don’t trust really big ticket purchases to Amazon, so that’s out.

Best Buy has always been a win/win for me. In my eyes they were always the small guy, the guy getting steamrolled by technology but a hold out from the 90’s — the days where you shopped at Circuit City, or maybe a Microcenter for your goods (hey, they’re still around!). Best Buy was the evil empire of these guys, but still, heck they’re not Amazon. Their not eating the world with their software or ordering systems, but they’re a survivor that employs real people with real personalities at real storefronts. I’ve had my share of what the crap experiences at these storefronts, mind you, but I really, really, really want someone like Best Buy to exist in the world of today that’s ever gravitating towards automation faster than Donald Trump is working himself out of the presidency.

And Best Buy has an excellent price match policy. They were price matching verified Amazon sellers before anyone else. They’ve also got a membership rewards program. Buy a bunch of stuff, get points, get gift certificates, etc. They were one of the first to have a good one of those, too. I also have a Best Buy Credit Card. When I buy really expensive stuff on it, they have great promos with 0% APR for 6 Months, or lots of extra points. Yes, they have plenty of reasons for me to shop there.

And they also have real, tangible stores. Again, with real people. So I’m one of those that have tried and might occasionally order in from something like Uber Eats, or get my groceries through Instacart. I am an on-the-cusp millennial. Just in that place where people say it could swing either way. I know what M*A*S*H is, but I also know what Kim-moji is. I listen to Led Zeppelin to get in the mood for a road trip, but I might gravitate to some Kanye (MBDTF is one of the greatest albums of my adulthood) when I get a frisky on the road. But I always, always, go back to eating out at a restaurant. I like talking to people. I’d rather shop at the local grocery store, and complain about the waits, or complain that they’re out of stuff, but hey, it’s the experience I’m craving. I’m an introvert, but I do crave social interaction with other people.

And people, for better or worse, drive technology. There’s real heart and soul in the things we’ve chosen to build over the years. The hardware has made games look outstanding, but time and time again history has shown that Mario is the work of hundreds of engineers with real passion into what they’re doing. When they see the smile on a player’s face, that’s what they live for. They live and die by their work, ready to unleash it onto the world. They understand that it’s all about the experience. They understand, that the customer is always first.

So yeah, I still believe in people, even though things like what we’re going to do about the ever increasing tide of automation are on the tips of everyone’s lips. Ever heard of the concept of Basic Income? I have. These are some real social issues that I find really, really interesting. And really important. I believe that humans are destroying the planet, but I also believe that we genuinely want to do better, and that well-funded innovation will drive the path to a better future. I do believe, by the essence of our existence, that humans actually care. We do actually give a shit.

Now that I’ve been rambling a while, let’s move this story further. The title of what you’re looking for was probably another “no, not another rant about Best Buy price gouging the iPhone X”. Yeah, that’s a funny story. This article wasn’t originally supposed to be about that. Remember, I want the small big guy to win. I want to have stores where I can still pick stuff up. I want to have loyalty programs, elite silver status tiers, I want to wait in long lines at midnight to get the next best, shiniest new thing. It’s what’s made me tick forever.

This is not that story, but it is a story about how I’ll never spend another penny at a Best Buy store, or Best Buy online, ever again. And that comment breaks my heart, but I’ve decided I just have to speak with my wallet.

The night of the preorder for the iPhone X — I’ve done this rodeo before, but I almost never go directly through Apple. This time though, with the promise of an ever short supply of iPhone X’s, I decided I would prepare the way everyone else was recommending. I downloaded the Apple Store app, on both my and my wife’s phones. And our iPads. I made sure our Apple Wallets were up to date with reliable credit cards that never get declined. I even called American Express to triple check that I wouldn’t have any issues with an unusually large purchase — two iPhone Xs, and two Apple Care+ plans. Fully paid in cash, because I’m not an Apple Upgrade Plan member, I’m an AT&T customer. I’ve never bought a phone out right before, I was always one of those who went with the 200 bucks up front and you keep the phone after two years (those contract agreement things). But most of those have gone away, and now you pay a monthly installment and you can potentially keep your phone, or after a year trade it in for a new one and continue to pay 50 bucks a month. So I paid both of our iPhones off a few days in advance so we could keep them and give them to my grandmother and my mother-in-law. Yeah, we’re one of those families. Three generations of iPhone strong.

But this time with the shortages and the need, the desire to be first — I decided I’d just go ahead and pay the phone off. No complications, just buy it out right, easy, right?

So 3:01AM, EST arrives, and I’m ready to go with double-fisting iPhones in my hand (this is a sickness, do you see where this is going?). I load the Apple Store app. Please try again later, the store is closed. So I close the app quickly — with both hands! I’m ambidextrous — and again — and again — and again. 3:03 is here. Then 3:04. Then 3:06. So at this point, the store “isn’t back up”. I’m worried. My palms are trembling and shaky. This isn’t gonna happen, I’m just not going to get this phone.

So I start to think about other options. I’ve bought six iPhones directly through AT&T before, on those contract agreements that have since gone away. Maybe I should shift back to old reliable. So I go to the AT&T website, armed with my credentials, log in and put the phones in my cart. Go through the wizard to answer what type of purchase it would be. But, I could never get submit to work. I tried again, and again, and again. The page just wouldn’t submit my order to the final checkout page. 3:15AM. Strike two, that option seems to be out.

So hey, no sweat. I’ve stood in line for an iPhone before, several times. Back when preorders were crushing the internet. I’ve waited at the Apple Store before. I’ve waited at AT&T before. 3AM, 6AM. So yeah, it looks like another wait is in my future.

But then I remember my unsung hero, big guy of a little guy’s world, Best Buy. It’s not that crazy, why not? I have 6 months 0% APR on my Best Buy card with my name on it. So maybe I should try, why not? I’ve bought game systems from best buy on launch day. I’ve bought Macbooks, cameras, all of the things you can think about. Best Buy is reliable. They have a great return policy.

So I launch bestbuy.com on my laptop, fired up and ready to go. 3:19AM. I select the full price option, add some Apple Care+ to my cart. $2600 and change. Damn, wow. That’s a lot of money. But look! Delivery of November 3rd. Yes! Score!

So I click on my address. I’ve just recently moved to the Boston area from Atlanta, so I’ve had to change my address on all the things — credit cards, utilities, etc. Best Buy was probably the last thing on my mind. And man, was I tired. But I was absolutely sure to use the correct address to fill out my order. The Boston address. No problem, because it’s the same address as the billing address on my credit card. No, not the Best Buy credit card, but my good old reliable American Express that I’ll use to make this purchase, because I know it’ll go through. No fraud alerts for big purchases.

Except, the order is declined. Damn! Well, I’ll just use my Bank of America credit card with a massive credit limit. Declined. Okay, my Best Buy credit card. Declined. My Bank of America Travel Rewards card. Success!

Four credit cards later, and the order goes through. It’s almost 4 in the morning by now, but the order says delivered on November 3rd. I’ve stayed up all night, but I also have a work deadline tomorrow and I’ve done some multitasking, so I might as well just stay up and finish this off. Hey, it’s Friday, I can work from home anyway.

So I get back in the zone and belt out some code, and at around 5:30 I receive an email from Best Buy. We cannot authorize your purchase. Damn! I though this was taken care of.

But you didn’t cancel my order outright, Best Buy! I have 24 hours to correct the problem. So I ring up Bank of America on the phone and explain the situation. Yep, that’s a fraud alert — Apparently a ton of fraud tripping on Best Buy on this night of crushing iPhone preorders, but *click* *click* *click* and bam, try the charge again! Thanks Bank of America, you’ve always been swell.

So I go back through my email and click on the link to bestbuy.com to update my billing information. Low and behold, success! Order tracking shows that everything has gone through, and now I just have to wait for the next delivery stage, fulfillment to be shipped.

Except, wait a second, what’s this? I’m going through the order summary. Four items. Two iPhone X 256GB Silver, and two AppleCare+ plans. Check. Three of the items have a shipping address that’s the same as my credit card billing address. But one of the items, the iPhone for my wife, has a delivery address of my old-old Atlanta address. The one I’ve updated several times in Best Buy’s systems but still occasionally nags me in the store when I swipe my card. They swore they fixed that, didn’t they? I haven’t had anything shipped to that address in years.

But you know, it’s 6 in the morning, I probably had little sleep, and maybe I made a mistake. Strange it would only apply to one of the four items in my cart. Which is one order/purchase. But there’s a single item that has the wrong address, so I’ll need to call and have this fixed ASAP.

So I call bestbuy.com thinking I’m about to have this resolved. Yes, I’m in the home stretch. No problem. But no, that’s not the way things were about to work out. It’s okay that I’m on hold for over thirty minutes. I reached a real human being who would understand my dilemma — this should be squared away no big deal. Except it apparently was a big deal. The person on the phone told me that, under no circumstances what so ever, could she change the order delivery address for the single item without having to resubmit the order. Therefore, pushing back my delivery date to well into December.

I told her it was the incorrect address for just one of the items, and while I don’t think I made a mistake, I need to have this resolved. I mean, with the tens of thousands of dollars of purchases I’ve made over the years with Best Buy, I’ve rarely had a problem. I’ve been a super-satisfied customer. This couldn’t be that big of a deal, right?

So she tried to help. She said, “one moment”, and placed me on hold for five or ten minutes. After that ten minutes, she comes back really excited. “Yes! Here’s what you can do. You can let the order be shipped to you, but when you receive your UPS tracking number, you can contact them to just pick the item up at their delivery center, or just change the shipping address.” One part of me thought this answer was a little sketchy. You see, I’ve worked in customer service before as well (at the very beginning of my software career, and in high school and college, I worked in IT at a local Office Max. You see, there’s a reason that deep in my heart I want the Best Buy’s of the world to win). I knew this kind of sounded like passing the buck of proverbial responsibility to another third party vendor. Hey, if they screw it up, it couldn’t possibly be Best Buy’s fault.

But I was so tired. Logic was out the door. I had about 4 hours of sleep the night before due to a deadline. I just had flown in the morning before after an interesting two weeks that had me flying from Atlanta, to Boston, to Atlanta, to Chattanooga, back to Atlanta, back to Chattanooga, and finally back home to Boston. It’s been a long two weeks, it’s time to collapse. I know that Super Mario Odyssey is awaiting me on the switch. I had already put in a couple of hours earlier in the night, but I was all out focused on iPhone now. So I relented, reassured by her excitement. I grabbed my things, thinking I had won the day — packed my laptop into my backpack, placed the Switch back on its dock, and went and slipped into bed next to my wife who had to get up in about 30 minutes. 6:35AM now.

And I slept until about 9:30AM, when my super cute little Beagle-Jack Russell mix, a peppy little 15 lbs, climbed into my bed, sat in my face and farted. Yes, it was time to go outside, buddy. I get it.

I dragged myself out of bed. But still, this nagging feeling was in the back of my head, that for some reason my plan of having an iPhone X on launch day just wasn’t going to come to fruition. Something was going to get screwed up. I’d have to fight with UPS. And Best Buy. And maybe Bank of America. Dammit, something just wasn’t quite right.

Zoom forward a couple of days. It’s Sunday, and I’m sitting around with absolutely nothing to do. Except load up Wired and check out a review bashing the new Sonos One. Well, not bashing, but just talking about the bugs in the Alexa integration.

So yeah, I’m also a Sonos fanboy. And Bose. I travel a lot for work, so I have a pair of noise cancelling QC-35’s I can’t live without. And at home, I’ve got a pair of Play:1’s paired with a PlayBar on the big screen, and two more Play:1’s, one for each of the bedrooms. A harmonious wall of sound, all synchronized pretty incredibly by a groovy iOS app. Except I can’t get it to work with my damned TV remote control. And sometimes I have problems with it working with my Apple TV. Hey, bugs, right?

But I love technology, as I’ve spurted off many times. And I’ve really wanted to get into the Virtual Assistant ecosystem, but I just haven’t jumped full steam ahead. I don’t have an Echo. I use Siri, but it’s more of a novelty than anything.

Until I bought the Apple Watch 3, that is. The one with built-in LTE. I went for a long walk a couple of days after buying it without my phone. I ordered an Uber without my phone. For once, Siri was a viable away to navigate the controls of my virtual connection to the reality that is the internet. I was finally sold on the terminal of the future. Bring on the chatbots.

So yeah, back to my obvious illness — Sonos One. Lukewarm review, but it works with a virtual assistant! God, my wife’s going to kill me. But it’s okay, I’ll put it in the Back Bathroom so she can talk to it and load her favorite playlist while getting ready for work in the morning. My plan for world domination is working, before you know it we’ll have 3 more One’s in the house and everything will be swell.

But I really want to pick one up today. So what’s my option. Best Buy, the big little guy in blue, comes to my rescue once again. I fire up bestbuy.com. Click click, saved credit card, checkout. Bam. Pick up in store. Good to go in a few hours, no problem.

So my wife and I head out to do our Sunday errands. Groceries. The local Patel Brothers and Whole Foods. Maybe a trip to Costco, need to get a new rug for the living room. Ever since we moved our cute little face-farter, the wonder pup, has been missing having a rug in the living room. And last but not least, before heading back home from the Neverending Journey Part Four, to Hobbiton and back, do not pass Hogwarts and collect 200 Rupies — we’ll stop by Best Buy and pick up that Sonos One. I casually mention to my wife, yes dear, just one more quick errand.

So I walk into the store, up to the counter. My local Best Buy in South Boston. This really nice guy, Jay, is standing at the order counter and thirty seconds I’m ready to go. Except that I’m not, because I first had to go back to the Nintendo aisle and pick up a Link Amiibo. And also a generic IR remote control so I could work around that pesky Sonos bug trying to get the Apple TV 4K remote to control the volume without having to launch the Sonos app all the time. First World Technology Problems.

So yeah, back to the counter with Jay to pick up my order and check out. Credit card, ID, tap tap tap, verify and do you want your receipt, no, just email it to me — all squared away. But right before I turn to leave, that voice in the back of my head knowing that my iPhone X order was about to go all sorts of sideways wrong — I aim to misbehave — I decide to approach the topic with Jay.

“So yeah, you know I preordered a couple of iPhone X’s. Had a bunch of credit cards get declined.” “Yeah, I heard about that from everyone.” “Yeah, you see the funny thing is, I bought four things, three of them had the right shipping address but one of the iPhones had the wrong address. Something I haven’t even used in years. I don’t know why, I don’t think I screwed it up.” “Is that right?” “Yeah, anyway, I called BestBuy.com and asked them to change it, but they said they couldn’t do anything about it unless they had to cancel the order and I’d have to pre-order again. So this nice lady told me to just call UPS when it ships.” “Oh, she said that?” “Yeah, and I was just a little concerned, that didn’t sound right.”

“Oh yeah, they won’t change your address. Not on that.” “Oh, yeah see! I thought that sounded a little suspect. So what can I do, anything?” “Well, you see those people who sit in the call-center in Minnesota, they don’t really deal with customers or anything like that. So they really don’t know.” “Oh.” “Yeah, but you see I can change the address right here for you. What’s your phone number?”

“Ok. Great. So I just changed your” *click* *click* “address right here, and deliver to Boston, ok. Done! You’ll receive an email in like 20 minutes updating you.”

“Awesome, that’s all I had to do!!?” “Sure thing, you should be all squared away.”

So yeah, that was painless. Big blue small guy, Best Buy is always to the rescue.

You know, I wasn’t even mad at this point after reading how Best Buy completely took advantage of me, at 3AM in the morning, fueled on fumes, not realizing that the cost of my carrier-less iPhone X was $100 more than MSRP. Yeah, that one pissed me off, too. It made me think about cancelling my order, for all of 5 or 6 seconds. But hey, I’m a sucker. $200 bucks I didn’t need to spend more for two launch day iPhone X’s. I’m insane. But I wasn’t even mad right now, because this fella right here Jay just took care of everything.

I hop into the car, and my wife rolls her eyes as I try to elaborate on how I had saved the day. Oh, and that Sonos, don’t worry about that I’m just going to play with it and return it dear, I promise. But I saved the day!

So we pull up into our building, unpack the groceries out of the car and while waiting for a few secs for the trunk to open, I open my email.

“Best Buy — Your Shipping Address has been updated.”

Great!

“Best Buy — Item(s) cancelled.”

What the f***?!?

So I open that second email after we get upstairs with the groceries.

“Robert, we canceled item(s) from your order. Unfortunately, we were unable to verify your information, so we cancelled item(s) from your order.”

Not a phone. Not a phone and a protection plan. Not the one item that had the incorrect shipping address. Best Buy cancelled the entire order.

So I call up BestBuy.com immediately. I get someone on the phone after about 15 minutes. “Hi, how can I help you?”

<long winded explanation of a story> “So can you help me?”

“I’m sorry sir. <something something something>. So when an order is cancelled, there is nothing we can do. It failed validation, so I can just escalate it to the validation department.” “Ok, can you transfer me there?” “Oh no, they will email you back in the next 24 or 48 hours or so.”

I hung up the phone. I went back downstairs, got into my car, and drove back to my local Best Buy. I was aiming this time to speak to Jay and get to the bottom of this.

Jay had since left. But Sharma (who was really nice!) was ready to help.

<long winded story, novel of the year>

“Okay, yeah, let me make a call and figure out what’s going on. So the billing address is the right address, the one where the stuff you want to go is located?”

“Yeah, that’s right, three of the four items were right.”

“Ok sure that’s strange, let me see what’s going on.”

She gets on the phone and calls someone. Silence. Then another call. More silence. A few minutes later, she starts speaking into the receiver.

“Uh huh. Yeah, so I have this customer who …”

<long winded story, but she got every detail of it right>

“Ok.” There was a look on her face like she was really, really, really about to disappoint a customer. “Oh, so nothing else you can do, right?” “Hmm, ok, thanks.”

She hangs up the receiver. *click* “So yeah, this automated system, it failed to validate your address, but that makes no sense I mean right? So when my manager, Jay, changed the address in the system, and it just let him change it, well the order processing failed to validate something. I’m not sure what it was. But my order technical support rep from BestBuy.com says that the system automatically cancelled the order, so yeah, there’s not really anything we can do.

Wow. Okay. I had to let that sink in and process it for a second.

She walks over to another computer terminal. “Yeah, I mean okay if I go in and try to place the order again, it looks like a December 15th order date. So yeah I have no idea, it sounds so strange. I mean your address was the same as your credit card address, right? It wasn’t like your card was declined or anything. They’re just saying the system cancelled the order due to a validation or something like that.”

“So there’s nothing you can do?”

“No. Unfortunately not. I mean I text messaged my manager Jay and asked him, and he said that basically we’d have to place the order again.”

“Okay. So what’s next?” I will have to admit, my face was pretty red here. Even in times of stress or anger, I tend to speak pretty softly, but my words were something like this:

“But basically, it was you guys who screwed up, right? I mean, not like you, or Jay or whatever, but Best Buy screwed up. I mean I get it’s the cloud or whatever, the software that cancelled the order automatically, but you own the software, and by you I mean Best Buy the company, not you, but yeah, I’m not sure I see why — I mean, isn’t there someone else you can talk to? Do you guys not have anyone you can talk to when stuff like this happens?”

“No, I’m afraid not. I mean, I really understand that this got really screwed up. . But there’s not really anything I can do.”

Ok. Think fast. “Ok, so I mean, won’t you guys get any phones on Friday? I mean, I can stand in the line all morning. I mean, I think at least you guys could hold two aside if they haven’t been preordered.”

“Yeah, the thing is I have no idea. I mean I can’t tell you that. I mean, I will be there on launch day, yes! But we have no clue what we’re getting. I couldn’t possibly guarantee you a phone of X or Y or Z, I have no idea if we’ll have any 256’s at all. Or silver or black. But I mean, if I have them, I would definitely hold them for you. No problem. I mean, I’d even give you some free accessories you know, if it would make you happy.”

“But, you’re not sure.” “Yeah of course I can’t tell you that.”

She writes down my name and number on a sticky note. “But I promise if we have some, yeah, a little later in the day I can definitely even hold them for you. I just don’t know what we’re going to have.”

“Ok, so that’s it? There’s just not anything else I can do?”

“No, unfortunately not. I’m so sorry.”

And she was genuinely sorry. I mean, it’s not like it’s her fault, or really even Jay’s fault. . It’s not like he meant to intentionally cancel my order, just to piss me off. These are real people, who work in a real store, with real feelings. I’m sure they want their customers to be happy. I can totally see that look on her face right now.

“But you see, yeah, it’s the system. I mean yeah, the system cancelled the order. There’s not even anything my technical support guy can do on the other end, you know?”

So that’s why I’m not going to shop at Best Buy, or BestBuy.com, any more. I shredded my credit card in a fit of mindless rage, just to step back and have my wife say “honey, it’s just a dumb phone.”

Best Buy completely screwed up my order after price gouging me an extra $200 bucks, that I wasn’t even mad about. But because “the system” in the cloud screwed my order up, and because customer service isn’t empowered with the right tools to make sure the person who’s paying the money is happy, I just won’t shop with Best Buy again. Because it’s the software that’s in control of the process, and not the people. So why purchase from the big box retailer that employs people any more? I should just order from the system and play by it’s rules.

This is why, unfortunately, the Best Buys of the world will probably not survive too much longer. Not with the rampant threat of Amazon on the horizon. Amazon are the experts at process automation. So when exceptions happen, they fix them. The customer is always right, but the customer usually just deals with an automated system that self-corrects, that learns from it’s mistakes with really great test input by it’s programmers and creators.

Best Buy, however, has real stores with real people. The thing that should above all else distinguish the experience of shopping in a real store, with real people, is the customer service. These people tried their best. But the system, and automation, win the day. If a human never had to touch my order — If I didn’t maybe screw up the check out cart, or did I — or I didn’t call the call center twice, or maybe three times. If I didn’t bring up the topic in the store, and have someone try their best to do something about it. If I just would have given Apple a little more time to get their website back up, I would have probably had an iPhone X a few days after launch day.

But in 5, 10, or 20 years from now, replace the iPhone X in this story with Health Care. Or Driverless Semi’s cruising down the highway. Or facial recognition not working at the airport, and now I’m a criminal. Or maybe because the camera caught someone who looked like me in all of my features, but hey, it was just a glitch in the system, maybe I’m going to jail. Or maybe I did click on the wrong button on my bank account and I traded away my life savings.

It’s just the system’s fault. There’s nothing we can do about it.

TL;DR — Holy f***. It is just a dumb phone. What the f*** has society become, when the preorder craze has the ability to completely screw someone up like this? We’re all completely screwed. And I’m not shopping at Best Buy again, but it’s probably just because of a bug in their software. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it, apparently.

I’m going to go toss a frisbee with my dog now.