Best Buy today just took the axe to Reward Zone and Reward Zone Premier Silver status.
The programs are being replaced with “My Best Buy“, with Elite and Elite Plus replacing Premier Silver. The minimum purchase cutoffs are $1,500 and $3,500, making it easier for people to get premium status, versus Premier Silver’s $2,500 cutoff.
Unfortunately, the deal is much weaker. Gone are 60 day return periods. Elite Plus nets you 45 days, Elite nets you 30 days. Standard return period stays at 15 days.
Elite Plus does gain free Expedited (2-3 days) shipping, and both Elite and Elite Plus get you a 24/7 Customer Service phone number, but it’s not clear if that’s for ordering 24/7 or just My Best Buy questions. It might be beneficial if you could place a phone order when the web site isn’t working on a midnight deal, but I suspect the 24/7 phone number is limited to My Best Buy queries — in other words, making it practically useless.
In all, I’m pretty disappointed, but not surprised. It’s clearly a drop-down in benefits unless you spend between $1,500 and $2,499 per year at Best Buy… then it’s a moderate step up. There is a small benefit to those that buy primarily online and use free shipping, but if a Best Buy retail store isn’t nearby, you’re more likely to shop with Amazon Prime to begin with for expedited shipping.
I suspect Best Buy tested this pretty carefully in the post-going-private-attempt era. The 60 day returns benefitted people who were likely to buy at Best Buy anyways, to take advantage of the long return period and price-matching potential during that window. Only Costco and Sam’s Club are competitive in return periods, and their selection certainly is not competitive.
At the end of the day, as long as Elite Plus stays atop Amazon, Best Buy knows customers are likely to go retail to lock in the longer price-match and return windows.
The silver lining for Best Buy, is the improvement in branding. Reward Zone always stunk like a skunk in terms of branding. I don’t want to feel like I’m in the endzone at a football game when I shop for technology. Reward Zone sounded cheap and lame. Premier Silver added to that effect… the short-lived Premier Black never left the testing launchpad.
I could see Best Buy extending out My Best Buy to higher tiers, so “My Best Buy Elite Black” could re-emerge for those spending, say, $5,000+ per year and get 60 day return periods back. I just don’t see it happening until long after the dust has settled.
Personally, for some big-ticket items, I could see myself defecting to Amazon. I don’t have to show ID when I return stuff that is defective, and I don’t have to spend an hour trekking to the store. Now that I’m only getting an extra 15 days in return period on most items, it’s certainly not a net-positive from my end.
It’s worth noting that there’s some evidence that the reduction from 60 days to 45 days may have been a late change. The My Best Buy login panel has opened up, and refers to the increased $3500 cutoff for Elite Plus, alongside 60 day return periods (erroneously):
“Experience the highest level of rewards. Members who spend $3500 earn My Best Buy Elite Plus status with enhanced benefits like a 25% point bonus.
Extended return policy Elite Plus members: 60-day return and exchange policy on qualifying Best Buy and BestBuy.com purchases.”
I am a RZ Silver for many years.
I stopped shopping at BB earlier this year, after they constantly harassed me regarding returns.
60 day returns mean nothing. Someone needs to do a class action against their false return policies in order to get sales.
They tell you that the third party return verification company says I can’t return even 1 week old.
And the manager I spoke to wanted to escort me out of the store.
I spent over $10k last year at BB.
Amazon, Costco, and Sams get my business now…
This really pisses me off.
I just purchased a new 3D HD TV and a TV cabinet from Worst Buy. After many years of declining the cashiers’ offers to obtain a Reward Zone card, I thought, since I’m spending enough money to qualify, I might as well reap the rewards with a Silver Premier membership. I read all about the SP benefits just two weeks ago, before making my purchase at a physical store and signing up for Reward Zone.
Typical for Best Buy customer service, no one bothered to inform me of this significant change.
Thanks a lot, Worst Buy!
So, are the Geek Squad services (e.g. home TV calibration, Harmony remote programming, etc.) no longer offered with these premier memberships?
I called in for a Geek Squad TV calibration earlier in the week, 23 September 2013. It is and soon to be, was, a perk of Reward Zone Silver Membership to have your television calibrated once a year for no extra charge. I was told by the voice on the other end of the phone that the end of October 2013 is the end of in-house calibration service. I did not think to ask whether the calibration service was being totally phased out or if one could drag their 50+ inch television into the local Best Buy store for the complementary service.
Every two to three years, I normally purchase a new Flat Panel Television due to the increase in picture quality during that time. I will no longer be shopping Best Buy for televisions. I purchased 3 televisions this year as presents for various family members. The least expensive was $430 US dollars (USD), the most expensive was $2700 USD. Even if I have a local Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) professional technician come to my house to calibrate my next television, the amount that I save by purchasing on-line will more than cover the cost of the professional calibration.
I also discovered that the new Best Buy Extended Warranty on cell phones will soon be less worthwhile than the cellular phone carrier’s own extended warranties. I do not purchase those warranties, but I consider it worthwhile information for those who do.
Hubert Joly, the current Best Buy CEO, is really helping to raise the stock price of the company, but I think that Best Buy will fail in the long term because of the extremely customer-hostile policies that it has adopted, unless new corporate management is introduced.