Best Buy is Crazy! (1 Viewer)

[Sean Dayton]

I have found the service of Circuit City to be just as bad as the service found at Best Buy. For big ticket items, I always shop at my local appliance and television stores. The staff is always more helpful and you do not get hassled when trying to price match a item and you don't keep getting the extended warranty pitch when you said no the first time.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I really like the service at SoundTrack (Ultimate Electronics). The staff is usually quite knowledgable and the first thing they offer you is a bottle of water or a soda. They encourage you to bring in your own demo material and let you test and tweak and play all you want. Unfortunately they tend to have higher prices but I think I will end up picking up an RPTV from there instead of BB or CC even if it cost an extra $100.

The folks at my CC are just as bad as anyone else, especially the folks in the computer section. Last year I caught a guy stealing a $1000 receiver from there. Turns out he stole around $50,000 worth of stuff from quite a few CC stores as well and they never got an ID until me. The police caught him a few hours later in another CC store. I still couldn't believe that this guy just grabbed a big receiver off the floor and walked right out the front door with it under one arm. No one noticed a thing. One of the many problems at CC, no front cashiers.

 

[Ed Auth]

It's been a few years since I frequented this forum, but I'm back now since I've started an A/V consulting business. I just thought it was amusing to hear so much praise for CC, the company who was practically boycotted by this forum during the DIVX disaster. I guess grudges don't last forever.

 

[John-Miles]

Ed I think you are misintepreting things, i dont believe its that people love CC, just that they arent quite the lord of darkness... merely the prince

 

[Lewis Besze]

I just thought it was amusing to hear so much praise for CC, the company who was practically boycotted by this forum during the DIVX disaster. I guess grudges don't last forever

Funny,that's what I was thinking too.

 

[CodyL]

These salesman stories always make me laugh, probably because I spent 2 years managing stores all over the country before I went back to school (i am not giving the name, but you've probably been in one at least once or twice) and always had the same problem - our salespeople didn't know diddly about our product. Frankly, it isn't realistic for them to in some cases because the technology changes quickly, most of them are not career minded with the company or industry, and we expected them to sell "high-end stereo VCR's" to one customer and washers to the next. We would see a product rep maybe once a year. Then BB came along advertising their policy of non-commissioned sales staff (am I now talking about the old days) and I thought, great, now a company is all but saying "our salesman couldn't care less what you buy, they're not getting paid anyway from you buying anything". Which more or less turned out to be true.

As for warranty, we made A LOT more on service contracts than product sales. A LOT MORE. Another company I worked for gave each store manager a new car for the year if the previous year's service contracts per sale were at a certain percentage. Can you imagine the profit there must be to do that! I did buy my first computer at best buy and not knowing about computers bought a $300 3yr service contract. Mainboard went out 2 years later and I called best buy and was told they needed to send it to somewhere out of state and the minimum return time would be 6 weeks. By now I knew a lot more about computer components and pulled the main board and asked if they could just ship a replacement and I would save them the labor. No way, I was told. I went to PC outlet or somewhere and bought the replacement model mainboard - now obsolete and on the sale rack - for $12 and fixed it myself. I am typing on that computer now. I will NEVER buy another service contract!

Educate ourselves. That's our only protection.

 

[RomanSohor]

It is definately a hard job working in any of the departments at Best Buy where you need to "know stuff" Home Theater, Digital Imaging and Computers come to mind.

you would be shocked at how many people come in wanting stuff that have done no research at all, and have no idea what they need. We were helping someone with a digital camera the other day and they didn't own a computer. It boggles the mind. I understand you can use a digicam without a PC but...

With cables, they are definately pushing the Monster because they have 80% markup. I never force Monster on anyone - I tell them it is a "better" cable than the AR and in some applications it may work better for them - I for one never force the issue, because I know better.

Most of the people in the stores don't know better though. They make you look at PowerPoints and answer quetions on a computer. Thats the training they get.

I send our customers to HTF all the time.

 

[John Alvarez]

Recently in our news,there was a local guy who spent $4200.00 on a new plasma set at BB. He gets it in the box puts it in his truck and gets home and the glass is shattered. Goes back to BB with it and they say too bad you should have checked it first before you left. We'll give you a $200.00 credit for a new one if you want....

 

[Mort Corey]

My last purchase at CC was a digital camera for my daughter. I did my research and had decided on the make/model I wanted and CC stocked the item at a good price according to their web site. Went in to the store and the price was higher than their web site. It was a PITA to get them to price match their own price. They had to "order" it on line for in store pickup.....go figure.

Mort

 

[Allan Jayne]

(how do you quote?)
>>> Went in to the store and the price was higher than their web site. It was a PITA to get them to price match their own price. They had to "order" it on line for in store pickup
I remember, decades ago, going to my local Sears store and found the same merchandise was priced higher compared with the catalog. This was back in the days Sears had these two inch thick mail order catalogs. If I wanted the lower price I had to go over to the catalog order desk and place an order and come back in a few days or whenever to pick up the order. One of the stores local to me had a large catalog stock warehouse on the upper levels, if I ordered before noon some orders would be ready late that afternoon.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[andrewPeterson]

ignore

 

[Tim Jin]

For big ticket items, I much rather go online and buy it without the hassle. If they have the same model at Costco, I much rather buy it from there than anywhere else.

I bought my washer and dryer at BB. How much "homework" do you need to do to pick out a washer... The saleperson kept stressing on the service plan. "What if's???" I finally told them to knock it off or I be gladly go to Sears and pay $50 more for a washer.

BB and CC are okay. You sure don't go to them for answers. Their staffs are okay. Some better than others, but I know what I want. So, its just trying to get it at the right price.

Fry's has the worse sale people ever. I will never shop at Fry's other than blank media. They grease up their hair, wear that cheap tie, and "act" like they are "working". Fry's is so awful that I dread going in for anything. If you want to return anything, you much rather do your taxes than dealing with their people.

 

[Shad R]

bought my Toshiba widescreen at Best Buy. 42 inch for about 1200. It was a good deal a few years ago. But, I looked for info, and knew what I wanted before I went in.
CC sucks. The ones in Denver and Ft. Collins suck, it's like a hastle.
Soundtrack, though, is great. That's where I bought the rest of my equipment.

 

[John Alvarez]

UNBELIEVABLE....After reading this thread yesterday the wife and I go to BB to pick up a PC. We talk to a kid for 10 minutes then decide to walk around and talk about it. We decide we're buying something. I see the kid and he says he's off now but would get someone else. We wait 10 min. and a guy walks by and wants to help us because he knows pc's but it's not his dept.. I ask him about the pc and he is all over the place. He doesn't know shit. My wife is laughing because I'm asking really hard questions like does it take pairs of memory or can you add a stick at a time...Then I ask about the Gateway..."We don't seel Gateways" I said "what is that behind you"? I do have to admit the Geek Squad has been very helpful any time I have needed it.

 

[Yong Chan]

Fry's has the worse sale people ever. I will never shop at Fry's other than blank media. They grease up their hair, wear that cheap tie, and "act" like they are "working". Fry's is so awful that I dread going in for anything. If you want to return anything, you much rather do your taxes than dealing with their people.
Do not get me started about Fry's. Worst place ever. If you want to return something, you go to return desk where you wait forever. The person files your transaction and then waits for the Person In Charge who ok's your transaction. Then, you take your receipt to the regular line to receive your refund. Worst customer service ever...in fact there are multiple sites devoted to hating them....http://frys.sthomas.net/
http://www.doofus.org/frys/
Oh yeah, don't get me started on the bag check as you leave the store. Illegal search and detention...you can refuse and just walk out..

 

[Dmitry]

While I agree in general that Fry's staff is for the most part worthless (I've seen one or two exceptions in the 13 years I've been going there), some of the things have changed. If I need to return/exchange, I go there between 9 & 10 in the morning on the way to work and there's almost no line. And some time ago they started automatically crediting my card rather than issuing a gift receipt, so I no longer have to go "cash it in" later.

 

[dan fritzen]

Funny, there are no Fry's stores in the MN aread, but I read a few years back in USAToday how horrible customer service was but back then that is where you went cause they had PC parts.

Ultimate Electronics is good but going bankrupt. They seem to have the best deal lately on DVD's price plus a $5 gift card.

CC asked me if I wanted a warranty on my $15 DVD purchase, my expression was a YEAH RIGHT YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

I prefer the guys not on top because deals are usually better.

 

[SteveBro]

they are definately pushing the Monster because they have 80% markup.

Not true. The markup is higher on the other A/V accessories BBY carries, and very few of those, if any, are that high.

 

[Paul D G]

I had the same problem with BB a couple weeks ago. Web site said the local store had the printer in stock, drove over, but they didn't have any. Noticed the price was $7 more than the web price. Went home, called the next closest store to make sure they actually physically had the printer (yes). asked about the price. Was told I had to order it online for in store pick up to save the $7. This was about 90m to closing. Ordered and fortunately the confirmation for pick up came quickly. Drove to the store.

I kid you not, it took over 15m from the time I got to the counter to the time they handed me the printer. I dont know what the deal was but the guy kept walking away, coming back, looking at the screen, walking away, standing with a group of other clerks (just STANDING THERE). I would have paid the extra $7 just to avoid this.

Next day, the Sunday ad had damn thing was on sale even cheaper so I had to go back to the store and wait in that same line to get credit. And because I ordered via the website it wasn't so easy. The girl was nice tho, she just "returned" the printer, then rang it up new.

-paul

 

[craigDeguz]

Hey guys,
Yea I understand what many of you are saying. I currently work at best buy in the home theater department and as you can see, I do my research when it comes to home theater equipment. For the most part, its wrong to generalize about the employees in best buy because my store in particular, we have a number of guys that know tons of stuff. I actually know a good deal as well. I handle tons of people that come in for big ticket items and we take care of them.

craig