I ordered an air purifier from…Best Buy made an undelivered order practically impossible to cancel
I ordered an air purifier from BestBuy.com on July 18 while vacationing in northern Michigan during heavy wildfire smoke. I chose Best Buy because it promised expedited delivery by July 21, and I paid an additional fee. On July 21, the order was delayed, potentially until August 5, so I called Best Buy to cancel. A representative eventually told me he would process the return, and I ended the call believing it had been handled. On July 25, I learned that the order had not been canceled. A manager said the earlier representative’s notes stated only that he would “try” to cancel it. The manager then gave me a FedEx tracking number and told me to contact FedEx. FedEx could determine only that it was a validly formatted number. It was not yet recognized as a shipment in FedEx’s system, so FedEx could not access, cancel or modify it and directed me back to Best Buy. I called Best Buy again. A representative said she had contacted its “Back Office,” which could cancel the shipment. No cancellation occurred. On July 28, the package went out for delivery after I had left the vacation property, which would be unoccupied for about a month. FedEx then told me that Best Buy’s shipping restrictions prevented me from canceling or redirecting it. No signature was required, so the package could be left outside an empty house. Best Buy failed to provide the expedited delivery it sold me, repeatedly failed to stop the shipment, and gave me conflicting information throughout several calls and chats. Its system treated the order as effectively uncancelable before FedEx even recognized the tracking number as a shipment. I spent hours attempting to resolve something that should have required one cancellation request. I would not rely on Best Buy for a time-sensitive online purchase.