It’s really sad in the current economy, with things as bad as they are, when a store makes you wish it’s competitor was still in business. I’m talking today about BestBuy, and the indifference to customers they seem to have.

A month ago, I braved Black Friday to purchase a Nikon lens that was available locally, to avoid waiting 3 or 4 days for a delivery from one of the main retailers online. Figuring it was Black Friday, I paid for it online, so I’d only have to go into the store and pick it up. They even emailed me on my way to the store to tell me it was ready.

Once I got there, I went back to the camera department, thinking I was supposed to pick up my lens there. Brandishing my receipt, I was told to head over to customer service, as they would have the lens at the desk already. Excellent. I walk over, wait in line for a few minutes, and get to the front of the queue. The guy behind the desk looked through all the little cubbies looking for my lens. Finally, he called back into the inventory guys, and asked where it was. We started waiting.

Over the course of the next 40 minutes, he called Inventory back a few times. Finally, someone ran from the back of the store – from the direction of the Camera department – with my lens in hand. This whole time, the checkout lines were moving smoothly, and a number of sales reps had walked around casually behind the Customer Service desk.

It gets better.

A few days ago, the last of the extra earbud covers for my headphones came off, and I begrudgingly admitted that it was time to get a new set. (After going through all four sets of earbud covers over the course of the last 14 months, and having paid $18.00 for the earbuds, I can’t say I was disappointed – I got my money’s worth.)

So, I went into a BestBuy near my house to get a new pair of headphones. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted, but I had cash in hand, and I was determined to leave with a new set. I wanted to spend a bit more – between $35 and $50 – to get a set that would last longer than a year, and would be comfortable to wear for longer periods of time. I walked in and looked around for a sales representative.

And looked.

And looked. None were to be seen. This is on a weekday night between Christmas and New Years, around 6:00 PM. You’d think there would be some staff, somewhere, to help customers out. Nope.

Well, I’m smart guy, so I figure I can find headphones. How hard can it be? After walking through the stereo/speaker section, the TV/video game section, the phone section, the MP3 player section and having started to walk through the racks of DVD’s, I finally notice some sales reps helping a customer over in the Computer department. Three guys, one customer. One of the guys was on the phone, the second was staring at the first, and the third was leaning against the wall. They hadn’t been there earlier, but whatever. I ask the guy leaning against the wall where the headphones are. He just stares at me. The guy on the phone stops talking into the handset, looks over at me (without putting the phone down) and says: “What kind of headphones?”

“Regular ones, I guess?” I reply.

“Well, the wireless ones are over there” he says, as he gestures to one part of the store, “and the normal ones are over behind the MP3 display, over there” and waves his hand in another direction. Then, he goes back to his phone conversation. The other two guys don’t react at all. So, I walk over, alone, to the rack indicated, and look at my options. There is a lot of really cheap looking SkullCandy stuff, a few pairs of overpriced Sony earbuds, and a bunch of wildly expensive (but nice) Bose noise canceling sets. Nothing mid-range at all, nothing that really looks comfortable for the long haul in the $35 – $50 range.

After a few minutes of staring at the rack, I realize I need something, so I grab the least offensive Sony earbuds, and head out. The only other BestBuy employees I see are one carrying a huge load of boxes, and the cashier, who I must say was very friendly and quite pleasant to talk to. She was probably the only useful person I dealt with in the store.

As I was walking out, after paying, I realized I missed Circuit City – whose employees had a reputation for being pushy salesmen hawking overpriced goods. They may have been pushy, but they knew what they were selling, and would engage a customer to try to meet his or her needs. BestBuy has never done that for me, ever. They have shown me total lack of concern or attention. Thinking back, even when I was buying flat screen televisions or hundreds of dollars of stereo speakers… I never really got decent service. In this economy, how can you afford to operate this badly, with this kind of distain for your customers?

I returned the headphones Sunday night. At this point, I’m only going to shop online.