[TideRoll]

I'm glad you've got a resolution you can live with, Carlos. I patronize Best Buy only when I get a gift card there. Their prices are rarely "best buys" and their return practices and unreasonable "re-stocking fees" are becoming legend.

Reading of your issues with this matter, I was reminded of an experience with a Lowe's home improvement store. My wife bought a nice stainless JenAir outdoor grill as a gift for me a year or two back. Seeing as it was rather large and she had no way of hiding it until the day, she had my neighbor pick it up for me with his trailer. Upon seeing what they loaded onto his trailer, she was rather upset, however. They had given us a display model up that had a number of scratches and dents in it. Considering the cost of that sucker, I shared her concern. I stopped by the local store she bought it at, the manager at the store that evening was not on top of it and was giving me a run-around and I was not pleased. I sent an email (reasonable, polite but clearly displeased and framed in terms of long-term business and how this didn't match with my past experiences with their organization, etc.) to their corporate office at 9:00 PM, and at precisely 9:00 AM the next morning the general manager of the local store called me and apologized, and insisted on sending out at no extra cost the next years model, which was just coming in and that had a nice IR searing unit and which was $150 more expensive. By noon, they had the new model delivered and the old one off my back porch, along with a complimentary tank of gas.

Like you, I followed up with a letter to corporate letting them know I was pleased with the disposition. That manager or someone above him recognized that a problem with a customer also represented an opportunity. Some managers get it, some don't.