Best Buy Review

So this is my experience with Best Buy in Gresham Oregon, I wouldn't say it was great.

I purchased an IPOD Touch for use in a raffle, and taped the gift receipt to the back, intending for it to be drawn and given away.  Unfortunately no one won the prize and so I had to return the Ipod.   I returned the Ipod in the exact condition I purchased it, sealed from the factory, no wear or tear on the product, in fact I am sure they put it back on the shelf for repurchase.

I paid for the merchandise on a credit card and really wanted to just have the funds returned on the credit card.  Best Buy has a policy that you can't put the returns back on the credit card without the receipt.  I of course had taped the the gift receipt to the back of the package.  Because it wasn't the receipt with the credit card number on it, or the amount paid on it they refused to put it on my credit card, which I had with me of course.  They claimed that they couldn't be sure it was going on the correct card.  Here is the deal of course, if they pull up my account, they can tell every purchase I have made at Best Buy for the last 10 years.  It took a half hour to get to the point that we were at at this point.  I was running out of time, and so rather then pushing to have him go through the records to credit my credit card, I allowed them to give me an gift card with $180 dollars on it.

I don't need 180 dollars worth of merchandise from Best Buy, but I figured I would use it somehow.  Fast forward a week or two later, I decided to give my employees gift cards from Best Buy so that they could use them, I was going to split them up into 4 $50 dollar cards and everyone should be happy. 

I walk into Best Buy in Gresham again get through the line and had over my 180 credit, with an additional credit card to cover the balance.  They will not break up the denomination of the gift card for me.  They won't allow me to purchase gift cards for my employees using the credit I already have with them.  Right now Best Buy has $180 dollars of my money in their accounts, and has had it for a couple of months.  The lead manager on shift basically said that that is their policy and there is nothing that he could do.  I was not pleased with his lack of concern at all.  So I asked him for the Store managers name and number.  He provided me the store managers name, and the 1-800 number for their online sales department.

I spent about 40 minutes on the line most of the time on hold listening to hold music while I was cut off three times in the course of the call.  When I finally got to customer service I explained the situation, and was put on hold again for another six minutes while she talked with her manager.  When she came back on line she apologized but said they weren't going to do anything to help me out.

I am sure their corporate policy makes sense at some level, but I for one will not be voluntarily spending any additional money at this location in Gresham Oregon, nor will I be inclined to use Best Buy as my electronics purchase point.  Id rather drive 20 miles to Fry's in Wilsonville.  I guess Id give them 1 star out of 5 for customer service.

Workplace Safety Culture (Mild Humor, Valid Information)

 Always some fun things to be shared.  You ought to check out the forklift driver in the video.  He is actually lucky he walked away without any injuries.

http://www.workplacesafetyforyouonline.com/forum/workplace-safety-culture/

I teach a powered industrial truck (PIT) / Forklift Safety course, and I am pretty sure this is in the do not do this section of the material.

KM

One of the things that I have done is gone to Wordpress for my new website.  The new website is www.workplacesafetyforyouonline.com which is a long web address but you know, there is someone out there with www.workplacesafety.com that bought it, doesn't use it, and wants to sell it.

Here is my latest entry for the safety blog.

Are your workers compensation insurance costs to high?

Workers Compensation Insurance is specifically based upon your work classification and your history of safety.

Workplace safety programs directly affect a company’s safety experience which in turn affects it’s experience  modification, which in turn helps determine workers compensation insurance costs.
The workers compensation experience modification (experience mod) process  helps insurance companies charge your company for your insurance program based upon your historical loss experience more.....

So this has been one of those watershed years, where a lot changes.  My father  passed away in June at the age of 73.  He was a good man and I miss him.  I retired from the National Guard after 27 years of varying degrees of uniformed service.  Most recently my grandmother passed away at the age of 92 after living for several years with dementia in a nursing home.    There has been a fair amount of stress in the last several months, some of it self imposed some of it just imposed.

Life as a civilian in Portland, Oregon

I had stopped writing about my life experiences when I returned because I felt that they were not very exciting. Frankly, they are harder to write about than observations from a foreign land where we have a mission and comrades are issued rather than chosen.

Coming home while not hard certainly causes you to face different challenges. When I arrived home, I attempted to go back to my civilian job. They were willing to take me back, however I have spent years developing my job skills as a safety and loss control consultant, and that job description was no longer being employed by my employer, my options were to work in either payroll production or possibly sales. Given that the location was 44 miles from my house, and my ability to do payroll is questionable at best, and might result in my joining the institution that provides pink rubber walls for safety, I chose to say thank you to my employer, and with their kind assistance, and contacts started out on my self-employed venture.

I currently own and run Strategic Business Services Inc. in Portland, Oregon. I am coming up on 5 years in business. I assist companies with their safety programs. You know a company needs assistance like mine when they think their workers compensation costs have gone through the roof, or they may not be able to stay competitive in their business unless they fix their safety record.

I have decided to resume writing and share some of the trials and successes that I have had or observed in fellow soldiers, as well as have a discourse on some ideas that have intrigued me over time. I hope people find this entertaining; it is certainly therapeutic and useful for me. I will spend the next couple of weeks catching this blog up on some of the high lights of the last couple of years. Again, I hope you enjoy.

Keith