What do you think of Best Buy?

I find BB to be no worse than any of the other big retail chains. At least I can usually find someone to help me at BB when needed, at the Circuit City near me it's nearly impossible to get any kind of help.

I generally go into these stores with low expectations & already knowing what I want. I don't usually rely on the employees there to actually be helpfull or have a clue.

I buy DVDs there when they're priced as loss-leaders (so they don't make any money off me), but because they keep playing a squeezed 16x9 picture on their 4x3 TVs, I will NEVER buy a TV from them.

I don't have any problems with them. If they have the best price for what I want, I pick it up, pay and go home.

As long as you're not trying to redeem any coupons, they're usually fine. But trying to get them to process one of their own coupons correctly is harder than getting a Twinkie away from Sally Struthers.

I find that BB isnt really a good store to wrok at. From people who work there they say that management is pressuring the employees to sell. They make a sale but they do not collect anything in return. Other then not being harrased by management that day.

After going to good guys I found that BB's selection is very limited to the bottom line of all major brands. Sure they have some good brand names in the store but their selection is very limited to the lower end models. Its up to the buyer to be informed before going shopping. Find what you want and hear it in the store. If you can get a store to match the price that you find online then do it. Other wise I would get what I want at the cheepest price available. Its my hard earned money and I'm not going to give it away.

good luck shopping.

who would actually drop 10,000 grand at best buy for a home theatre system.you would have to have your head examined. stick to a spectialty shop for that price bracket. they are good for dvd's and cd's but audio no way. frank

Best Buy is about one rung above Wal-mart on my chart. I find the home theater selection at almost all of them to be cheesy at best. KLH abounds at the BBs I've been in...that about says it all.

I always found it funny their employee name tags say "Team Member Since" with the year on them-- and 99.9% of the time it always says the current year!

It's like, why do they want to advertise their high rate of employee turn-over?!?

I used to like Best Buy, but recently it seems like the store has become worse and worse. Go to this site for others that hate Best Buy http://www.bestbuysux.org/

I rarely ever have problems with Best Buy, but most of my purchases there are DVDs and CDs. When I do have problems, they are resolved rather quickly.

I have a part time holiday job at Best Buy now in the Video department. The reason why many employees seem like they are doing customers a favor when they help them are because most customers either know absolutely nothing but want to know the most minute details about a product, and then say they don't know what that is and buy the KLH because it's the cheapest, or they are customers that are knowledgable and are belligerent because they think Best Buy sucks, and we're all trying to rip them off.

I work with plenty of A/V equipment and am probably significantly more knowledgable than the average BB employee, but I don't get why customers are so rude to the people that work in the store for no reason.

I, for one, don't push service plans too hard on things like $75 DVD players, because to the average customer, it's just too hard of a sell. The reason Best Buy stocks mostly lower-end stuff is because people freak out when they see too much of a variety in prices. I get the "OH MY GOD why is that Samsung HD-DVD player with DVI output and 720p conversion over $250 and this Sony one I want (because I LOVE Sony!!!) is only $89" question a hundred times a day. And it also gets really tiring listen to people say "Man, I bought a Betamax for $800 and then I had to buy a VHS for $500, and then they tried to get me to buy the big DVD's that looked like records. And now I want to know why this DVD/VCR combo is only $100 dollars and it copies my VHS to DVDs, and this DVD recorder (which I want to use to pirate movies from Blockbuster, of course) costs $700?"

Sorry... just the holiday season at Best Buy getting to me! :-)

I try to treat everyone nicely, and am always SO THRILLED to help someone that either knows what they are talking about, or seriously wants to learn about the stuff.

I also point a lot of customers to this forum for reviews of stuff.

i had no issues with Best Buy until their recent raising of DVD prices about a week before Black Friday. it seems they raise prices $1 for every 10. 9.99 DVDs are 10.99, Rivers Edge that was 9.99 is now 17.99 (3 bucks above retail), 19.99 ones are 21.99, and some like Natural Born Killers is $25.99 (1 buck above retail)

luckily Circuit City hasnt raised their prices and they sure are getting alot of my business this season. ive been spending hundreds of dollars per week there on DVDs since Black Friday. unless theres a good ad price at Best Buy, which there hasnt been for quite a while now, im done with them.

i have had a mcdonalds/best buy $1 coupon for a couple months and i havent even been able to find something worth using it on. its still cheaper at CC.

its also too bad that they dont price match their website because they do have some good deals there sometimes. 7.99 CDs on the website are 12.99 in store. its pretty funny that i can order it from the site for IN STORE PICKUP about 20 feet away and get the 7.99 price but they wont match the price and cut out the middle man. silly business. bye bye best buy.

PS- i see their new slogan on their Best Buy trucks says "NO PRESSURE". i guess that started after i bought my computer a couple weeks ago where they had a station in the back of the store where they started the pressure, and then again having 2 people at the pickup station pressuring to buy extras and service plans, complete with the "we dont get any commission" line right before they tell you how everything you just purchased is a piece of crap that will break soon. the one particular guy was smart, he proceeded to tell me, i had one of these computers, THOUGH I DIDNT BUY IT HERE, and it broke down very quickly. clever little twist. i let him finish his whole speech, if i had to wait in line i didnt mind him waiting with me, and the look on his face when i still said no when he got finished was priceless.

rambling over, thanks.

I have not spent much time at best buy, but I see the same issue there as there is at CC or Compusa...some items are best price while others are worst price. I can go to Walmart to spend the least on a USB hub, or go to best buy to get the best price on an mp3 player.
When I was shopping for an HT receiver, I used the HT specialty stores to review hardware in my budget, then went to the Internet to get the best price. BB had lower prices on Sony than CC, but no selection on speakers other than pioneer.

Unless you have an unlimited budget, there seems no one place to get the best deal for all HT needs.

The same here!

To avoid long stories, I will sum it up by saying that Best Buy is among the worst because, among other reasons, they won't stand by what they sell. Heaven help you if you have a defective disc. My family and I spent an obscene amount of money there each season but no more!

I've exchanged defective discs several times with no problems.

As have I.

I buy most of my media there (CDs DVDs PC). Have had no problems with them at all. The displays of receivers, CD players and other audio equipment look like a bomb went off in them. What always amazed me is the fact that they carry $10K plasma TVs yet none of their receivers seem to be above the $700 price point. Not to mention the fact that they only recently started to carry Klipsch speakers, the only speaker there that I would even consider buying.

Two thoughts

$10,000 Plasma is still considered a niche product, so the fact a large retailer would carry it is noteable.

In the the past, $700 was a mere starting point at which a quality HT receiver was offered. With the prices coming down, Best Buy's market doesn't need costlier products. $700 should buy the average shopper everything needed in an HT receiver. There are plenty of specialized vendors for HT in the 4-figure range, and BB wouldn't give the sort of attention it requires anyway.

Ever notice that the majority of HDTVs at BB, CC, and the like are all connected to plain old video DAs? You can't even see their quality on the floor.

Locally, you can hardly get them to answer the phone. When you do, it's usually a minion with an attitude (for making them answer the phone). Maybe symptomatic of the economy/job market.

Price wise, anything that's popular or in demand is marked at MSRP. If something I want is on sale, I'll consider BB. But *only* if it's on sale.

Vote with your money. Practice conscious consumerism.

I love Best Buy here. No problems with exchanges at all. Had to exchange Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back several time. People are pretty courteous on the phone, and the staff is friendly as hell. But that may just be a localized incident. Or just a Kentucky thing.

Hey I worked at that Best Buy Dome!

My experience there as an employee was not a good one. Of the many jobs I have had in my life, I could never say I really hated going to one. Well, chalk Best Buy up as the first and only job I absolutely dreaded going into.

I worked with some great people there, but the atmosphere is pretty much management against everyone else. The average worker must sell service plans because their managers demand it on everything a customer purchases. And why do they demand this? Because good numbers = raises and free trips for the management team. What do the sales people get? Absolutely nothing!

I would only try to sell service plans on products I thought might warrant them. For example, RPTVs. But it is just stupid to expect customers to buy a $40 service plan on a $50 DVD player.

I specifically remember one instance when our PSP (Product Service Plan) numbers were so low that our supervisor demanded that we not let another TV leave the department that day without one. We were informed to tell people who wanted TVs without a service plan that their desired TV was not in stock (even if it was). Needless to say about 2 weeks later I turned in my walking papers.

As someone who loves home theater and loves to help people in getting into this great hobby, I always loved selling people the product. It was just the other shit that drove me insane.

About the only thing I buy at Best Buy now are DVDs and CDs. I would never make a huge purchase there as the hounding on getting a warranty is just too great. Like others have said, stick to the specialty shops for your HT gear needs!

I have had good experiences with them on the limited merchandise I get from there. I got a Toshiba TV there (a Xmas present from my parents) and most of my DVD's that I can't get at Target. I had a pleasant salesperson on the TV sale: he asked ONCE if I would be interested in an extended warranty and didn't pressure me when I declined. I have had to return DVD's twice, with no hassles. I purchased "Dead & Buried" yesterday; it was priced at $19.99, but scanned at $22.99. The cashier promptly fixed it. (Although I will say that their DVD prices are getting to be more expensive that CC, but this store has a much better selection.)

FWIW... my cousin works @ CC and does not know $hit about anything he really sales.

He tells people that Full Screen DvDs are better then Widescreen dvds. I try to correct him, but he refuses to listen.
I feel sorry for the customers that he sells products to. I am sure that is why CC and BB has a lot of returned items... do to there careless information that they provide to there customers. Sad!!

When I go to either store I get what I need and I am out. The only good thing the BB reps are for is to know where the items are at or to get something from the back. I call them runners

I really enjoy Best Buy.When they don't have the cheapest price I just have them to match with their competitors.I also like Best Buy because I get to use the reward zone card which I get a lot of reward certificates from.It may be since I only buy dvd's from Best Buy but I usually have a good experience.

Well here is my "horror story" from BB. My friend asked me to help her purchase a Home theater in a box. We went to the BB closest to us (40 miles)and the nice salesperson spent over an hour showing us all the HT's they had and everything we needed to get extra.(cables surge protectors) When we finaly made a choice on a $900.00 rig, the salseperson discovered they did not have any in stock. But he called another BB that did have the item in stock, gave us the name of the person to see and sent us over(another 20 miles) to "pick it up". When we got there and looked up that salesperson, he pulled the item from the shelf and then began a high pressure sales pitch of how we needed a high end surge protector. I told him we already had been over thoes items and we just wanted to pick up our machine! He then proceeded to tell us how "sorry" the cables were that came with the system and they were only in there because they were "required by law"!! I could not belive how this person was trying to BS me, He even went as far as telling us the first salesperson we talked to "didn't know what he was "talking about" I told that Best Buy salesperson where he could put that $900.00 system, looked at my friend, and said "lets get the hell out of here and buy that Onkyo system online from Crutchfield" Which we did!

Let me tell you a story about Best Buy

First there DVD's are at almost full retail-see other post about buying DVD's

Twice I tried to buy a computer and couln't find anyone to wait on me. When I finally got someone they couldn't or wouldn't accept my discount coupon. All they care about is selling you an overprice warranty. I wound up going to Comp-USA. I also tried to buy a big screen TV and couldn't get anyone to wait on me or answer any questions. I went Soundtract and had my TV delivered the same day. I will not buy anything at Best Buy unless it is an emergency and everyone goes out of buisness

Sometimes a warranty is great for shoddy consumer equipment. I bought a panasonic dvd 3 years ago, and it stopped working almost as soon as I got it. Because I had a second machine, I never got around to talking it back until a week ago. The extended warranty covered all the costs, and BB called me today to say it was ready to be picked up. If it doesn't work perfectly, I still have two weeks left to take it back again.

For the most part I think the store is "okay" at best. Most of the staff is clueless about the product they sell. The one's who do have half a clue about the product, know just enough to try and "BS" you into buying an extended warranty for whatever and the rest of them really don't want to be there and wish you weren't either.