Today’s tale involves a inconvenient inventory and website tandem tragedy that actually starts out with promisingly good over-the-phone support.

“June” calls Best Buy’s 800 number to have a few questions answered about buying an appliance online. After a nice conversation with the friendly CSR, she proceeds to check out some fridges on Bestbuy.com

She proceeds to purchase a fridge on their website.

Some time later the delivery people show up unannounced after the warehouse fails to notify them of the appointment (kind of a big deal for a fridge, not so much for a microwave or a smaller appliance or… well, something smaller).

The fridge is moved to the front door and all is going according to plan (in a manner of speaking) until there’s a slight problem.

By some form of a careless mistake, the measurements of the fridge on the website are incorrect. The fridge won’t fit through the front door. Oops.

The delivery guys take the fridge back to the warehouse and then things really get messy.

June calls the 800 number again to process the exchange for the fridge. Slight problem though, the warehouse didn’t update the delivery status for the fridge. So, as far as Best Buy’s records go (which we saw yesterday aren’t exactly the most accurate on the planet) June took possession of the fridge and everything is peachy-keen.

According to her

It took over a week of talking to customer service representatives at least once a day to get the whole mess straightened out

Or so she thought…

At last the order for the new fridge was placed and the delivery date was set (for a full month after the original fridge had been purchased)! Then Best Buy calls to deliver the great news that the delivery has been postponed two weeks for no apparent reason (at least from what they told June).

I’ve tried contacting June to get more details on her story, so I’m not sure if she was without a fridge this entire time or if they were just being proactive and ordering a new one. Once she gets back to me, I’ll have an update for you.

Imagine though if she went a full month-and-a-half without a fridge! I can’t even imagine it!

Best Buy sometimes has struggles with even one of the most basic tenants of business: keeping appointments and promises they make. It must take a lot of effort to keep all of it coordinated (especially since the order wasn’t placed in the store) but, nevertheless, Best Buy keep your promises, especially when it comes to the only section in your store that provides necessities.

Another great tale courtesy of My3cents.com, username tactilla