Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Some Best Buy customers are scrambling to buy last-minute holiday gifts after a back order flub by the company.
Thousands of customers who bought Best Buy items online on Black Friday and Cyber Monday received an email this week telling them that their orders had been canceled. Many of the items were on back-order and due to lack of supply won't get to the customers.
One Minnesota man says he got the runaround for weeks. Robert Turinske thought he could pick up a computer he bought online from the Best Buy store on Dec. 6. But then Best Buy emailed him and said it wasn't available yet but would be in seven to 10 days.
Then on Dec. 12 another email from the store said the computer was still back ordered. This past Monday, Dec. 19, the man received another back-order extension. At that point he was fed up and called customer service.
"They couldn't find that computer in their system, and so he offered me another computer. But it was a lower end computer, didn't have the same specifications," he said.
Two days ago the man got another email from Best Buy saying his order had been canceled. In the email, Best Buy admitted it didn't have the computer and wouldn't be getting it.
These aren't an isolated incident. Thousands of people across the country have the same complaint.
On the KSL 5 Facebook page, several Utahns said that they had gotten the runaround and had orders cancelled as well.
"I purchased a video game from them online, and the next day got an email saying that the order had been canceled "per my request," wrote Shae Winward Hansen.
A West Valley man just found out he wouldn't be getting his purchase Friday.
"They emailed me a giftcard this morning with their apologies," said Chris Wickhamshire Neal.
Best Buy released a statement saying it had "an overwhelming demand of hot product offerings" that affected redemption of some customers' online orders. The company says it's "sorry for the inconvenience" to the customers.
Turinske feels that the company's actions were enough to quit shopping at the big-box store.
"I'm just not going there. I'm just not purchasing there anymore," he said.
While thousands of customers may feel the same as Turinske, many say they're still going to shop at Best Buy.
"I don't know where else to go to look for what I'm looking for," said Joyce Zumwal. "I've looked online and that's where I saw the good deals so that's what I'm looking for."
Another Friday morning Best Buy shopper agreed.
"You think they would have their business in line so people could get what they wanted on Christmas, but I've been very happy with what we've done here this morning," said Benjamin Pykles.
Best Buy has been offering people who have had their items cancelled have been gift cards, but with Christmas only two days away, it adds some extra pressure for them to finish up shopping and replace those items.
----
Written with contributions from Shara Park and Randall Jeppesen.
