Buying high-priced electronics with cash comes with a price at Best Buy: Not getting cash back if you ever decide to return them. In a viral video, one Best Buy worker repeatedly explains this policy to a customer as the customer expresses frustration.
The video takes place at the register of a Best Buy store, and the camera remains on two Best Buy workers for most of the time. The customer says they bought three computers with cash and would like to receive a refund in cash. They emphasize that all the items they are returning match up on the receipt and don’t understand why they can’t just receive a cash refund.
The video has reached more than 1 million views and over 5,000 comments. It was posted by the TikTok account @sarah_conner1, a page that reposts customer service interactions at various stores.
“If it’s over $1,000, they have to mail you a check,” insists the worker, who also says she’s a supervisor. The supervisor goes on to say that this Best Buy location doesn’t even have $3,000 in their registers because “everybody pays with card now.” However, she also mentions that besides this, “no Best Buy is allowed to give you cash. It has to be mailed,” and that going to another location wouldn’t have helped.
@sarah_conner1 fustrated Best Buy customer who paid cash($3000) for his items argues with employee he wants his return in cash #bestbuy #returningitems #ipaidcash #customerserviceproblems ♬ original sound – 🩷SarahConner🩷
As much as it sucks to leave a store $3,000 short and without the items you paid for, the Best Buy worker did follow the procedure listed on Best Buy’s support page and communicated this to the customer.
“If you paid more than $800 in cash or more than $250 by check or by a debit card without a major credit card logo, we will refund you by check within 10 business days,” states the Best Buy support page.
“It says that any refunds over a certain amount is mailed, so I’m not sure why he’s shocked,” underscores a comment.
Avoiding large cash returns is a common policy at many stores. According to Fraud.com, cash returns are a common way thieves take advantage of stores since cash payments and returns eliminate a paper trail.
“I had a similar situation working retail. They don’t understand we DONT hold large amounts of cash incase of robbery!” mentions another comment.
“What’s more suspicious is he’s returning 3 computers,” another says skeptically.
While the Best Buy employees in this video followed procedure, other Best Buy employees have been recorded giving inaccurate return information to customers. For example, one customer was barred from returning a damaged television even though a support page says Best Buy can accommodate issues with damaged purchases, as previously covered in a Daily Dot article.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @Sarah_conner1 via TikTok and Best Buy for comment via email.
