Gonna have to gripe about something here folks…

The 36 inch high-def Toshiba television that had faithfully served me since 2008 has given up the ghost. Well, it turns on okay. But the sound level goes WAY up on its own before it loses picture entirely. I decided it was time to retire it. In keeping with that whole “new life” theme going on with my life lately: new job, new car, new iPhone, new collar for Tammy… lots of good stuff happening.

Well, I thought that Amazon might have a good deal on a new TV. I went looking and quickly found one perfect for my needs. Not the biggest or fanciest, certainly not the smallest, but ideal for my situation. It definitely has a lot of high ratings on Amazon. I added it to my cart and checked out. Amazon told me that it would be here in another five or so days. Which was no problem.

It barely registered with me that the seller was Best Buy. A company I worked for a long time ago. I generally like them. Generally. Maybe not as much anymore, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

I was on break at my job on Sunday night and found an e-mail from Amazon, saying that my television had been delivered. A few days ahead of schedule. Which, I hadn’t seen it on my front porch when I left to go to work. Maybe it had been dropped off after I left for “the office” (my new job involves lots and lots of robots doing, well, stuff). Whatever, I was looking forward to getting home and bringing my new TV inside.

I got home Monday morning and there is no package next to my front door.

I went to Amazon’s site and reported a problem with my order. The site said that sometimes an item is listed as delivered but it might take another 24 hours to actually arrive. Which bothered me. I worked for Amazon for six months, I like the company. I trust Amazon. And telling me that it might not have really been delivered when the site told me that it was, well… that’s not good.

I waited until yesterday morning. Still no television.

I went to Amazon and took a look at my order. It said “delivered”. It gave a delivery time. It said that it was delivered by “Roadie”, whoever the hell THAT was supposed to be.

Here’s the long and short of it my friends: my new television set was indeed delivered from Best Buy by Roadie on Sunday afternoon. It was placed outside my front door. And apparently it was very quickly after that heisted by a “porch pirate”.

Neither Best Buy or Roadie made any attempt to camouflage the product. They simply plopped a brand new television set in its box screaming out to the world what was within it, outside my door. Without knocking or making any other attempt to notify me that it had arrived. And it was soon stolen from my premises.

I sent a complaint to Amazon. It was directed to Best Buy. Best Buy said that I was out of luck. They had delivered the television, had even taken a photo of it outside my door. They couldn’t be held responsible for its theft. Best Buy said to contact the authorities.

I told Best Buy that they shouldn’t have left a new TV box sitting outside like that waiting for someone to come by and steal it. And that’s when they ended the conversation.

Amazon said that my order is ineligible for their refund policy.

I filed a report with the sheriff’s department. Things are looking up for my case. Which is all I should say for now.

Seriously though, what kind of reputable retailer does something like that? They should have wrapped the box, I’m sure it wouldn’t be that difficult. They should NOT employ a delivery “service” that is more like DoorDash and less like FedEx (in the past 24 hours I’ve heard a LOT about Roadie and how unreliable it is, and that there are even cases of its drivers stealing the very packages they have contracted to deliver).

Thank goodness it wasn’t a PlayStation that I had ordered. I can just see it now, sitting unopened in its box, crying out to the entire world for some thief to come along and take it.

This is corporate irresponsibility and a failure to understand basic human nature. It is absolutely disgraceful. I can’t recommend shopping with Best Buy, if this is the extent of their customer service. I definitely will not say to expect good service from Roadie. I’ve heard horror stories about the Italian mail service, how it’s impossible to expect delivery of packages to and from that country. I now feel like I know a bit about what it is to be Italian.

Best Buy, I’m let down by you. I had a good experience working with you twenty-five years ago. I expected better from you. But you took the quick and easy path. And it’s going to cost you a lot of the goodwill you had built up with me. And maybe others also.

And Roadie? You can drive straight back to Hell.