best buy policies (1 Viewer)

[Dan Belina]

Went to BB looking at TV's...brought along a couple DVD's to see how how they looked on a couple TV's seeing as I'm new to this stuff. Idiots at best buy said they weren't allowed to hook DVD players up to any TV in the store. WTF?

So I went to Circuit City and they gladly obliged....they'll get my business when I get paid next week.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

On another note, I just heard today that CC is going to discontinue carrying VHS formatted movies in their BandM locations.

Go DVD go!!!
(Down with DIVX )

 

[Brian Glaeske]

Did you remind the salesperson of their insipid ads showing people playing with all sort of stuff in the store.

Tag line to the ad is "Play all you want".

Brian G.

 

[John Royster]

LOL. Please for the love of god support your local HT/audio shop. You'll pay less.

 

[Jed M]

"Because we know at Best Buy playing with it is half the fun"
Playing with what?

 

[dave_brogli]

I think best buy sucks.. half the people dont know what thaeyre talking about, and the other half are paid to sit there looking stupid. Do I really want to buy a tv from a girl thats only 17 and dressed in abercrombie and fitch? No way. Thats why I am thankful to this forum and all you guys. No more dealing with idiots that have no idea what the hell is going on! ( I went in there 3 days ago to buy a hd receiver off of another 17 year old idiot and luckily I knew my sh!t, he tried selling me some monster s-vid cables for better picture quality.. i laughed and said my tv's better than that.

 

[Allan Jayne]

You mean they would rather you took the TV home and tried out the DVD's and then return it if you were not satisfied?
Actually a salesman told me just that a few years ago when I was shopping for VCR's, I forget which store but it was similar to a BB or CC if not one of them.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Adam Bluhm]

I can relate to Best Buy ignorance. I saw a Weezer display with their newest album cover on a huge piece of either thick cardboard or flimsy plastic. I needed to get it for my brother as he's a huge Weezer fan (he does the site Link Removed , the biggest unofficial site on the net). I asked when they take them down and if I could have it. He asked a gal and came back to reply, "I'm sorry. I cannot give it to you because we throw them away after we're done with them."

I was shocked. I then replied [stutter, stutter in shock], "You throw them away?!"
He comes back with, "Yeah. Sorry."
I was beside myself! Anyway, I later asked a fellow to connect a DVD player to a Toshiba television, but he didn't have cables on hand. He was willing to, but wasn't prepared.
A while before, a lady gladly hooked up a DVD player to a Panny through S-Video at Circuit City. That made my day

 

[Jack Briggs]

The way I look at Best Buy, it's one of the places to go when you already know what you want. When I bought one of my DVD players from them, I already knew specifically which model I wanted. No yammering from one of those sales clerk automatons would mean anything to me. My only question to them would be, "Do you have what I want in stock or not, and if so, how much is it?" Anything less than a straightforward answer means I walk on over to good guys! or CC.

 

[Huzefa]

Exactly, you should never go to BB without knowing your stuff. Just gotta go in there, pick it up, have your ad ready if you're pricematching, and walk to the counter. If you get in and out real fast, you don't have to worry about them forcing any PSP's down ur throat (not that they ever have). It's the last place you go to get info on items.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

(To play Devil's Advocate a bit..)
I'm answering questions weekly about the best way to hook up DVD players in the Basics area. It's not always obvious. Discount stores like Best Buy who have no training programs probably have a policy AGAINST having sales people hook up anything electronic.
These are not electronics experts. They are discount-store sales clerks with a bit of surface knowledge. Dont be mad at them for not being more.

 

[Charles J P]

I agree with Bob 100%. Best buy is the electronics section from a K-mart, Target or Wal*Mart pulled out and expanded. Dont expect anyone in there to know the products any better than the people at Wal*Mart know about products there. On one hand, it frustrating to walk into an "electronics" store and no one knows what they're selling, on the other hand they're just a big chain discount store, who happens to specialize in consumer electronics.

 

[jeff peterson]

Best buy is the electronics section from a K-mart, Target or Wal*Mart pulled out and expanded. Dont expect anyone in there to know the products any better than the people at Wal*Mart know about products there. On one hand, it frustrating to walk into an "electronics" store and no one knows what they're selling, on the other hand they're just a big chain discount store, who happens to specialize in consumer electronics.

I have to disagree a bit. When I'm at K-Mart, Target, or Wal-Mart; no one approaches me, explains that they're not on commision and wants to discuss product. My point is that at Best Buy, the salesfolk present themselves as experts.

Actually, I wish they'd move them from the salesfloor to the registers. I don't know how many times, the one register that was open had a huge line while blue-shirted people were standing around talking with one another.

 

[Jason Caudill]

It is ridiculous that you guys are spending so much time talking about how incompetent people are. Granted that most of the time people at Best Buy and other retail stores do not know their product as well as they could but then again you are not paying for it. Best Buy has 500+ stores, if they were to take say 20 people from each store and train them for a week at a rate of $7.50 / hr that would cost the company $3 million (not including materials, trainers, people who make more than $7.50, etc). Now to maintain that training would cost even more. You get the idea. And Best Buy is not going to do that because they already have a big enough market share that the investment would not yield enough profits to justify that kind of expense.
Now I have been into high end shops and talked to people who did not know about their product as well. I guess my point is don't shop there if it is such a problem for you.
Jason

 

[Dave H]

Do your own homework and decide what you want to buy. Then go to Best Buy. This way hasn't failed me yet.

 

[Charles J P]

if they were to take say 20 people from each store and train them for a week at a rate of $7.50 / hr that would cost the company $3 million (not including materials, trainers, people who make more than $7.50, etc). Now to maintain that training would cost even more.

And the kind of people that frequent this board would probably still not be happy with their level of knowledge.

 

[Steve_Tk]

explains that they're not on commision and wants to discuss product

I'd rather buy from someone that was on commision. Someone on commision is going to tell you the truth, because they take a loss if you return it because you were lied to or it doesn't work like they said. Best buy always says to me "i'm not on commision". Why do they say that? It's like they are taking a defensive stance from the get go about CC commision. And commision sales staff at CC have never once tried to get me to buy more expensive things, I just tell them what I want and they would talk about it. I do like everyone else, go to best buy, pick it up off the shelf, leave. It's like the Walmart of electronics.

 

[jeff peterson]

most of the time people at Best Buy and other retail stores do not know their product as well as they could but then again you are not paying for it

I guess my point is that they present themselves as being knowledgeable of their product lines when, so often, they are woefully ignorant or misinformed.

 

[Jason Caudill]

explains that they're not on commission and wants to discuss product

Best Buys strategy as a company is to help people feel comfortable buying something they know nothing about. Recently I bought an engagement ring for my fiance and I know nothing about jewelry. I have to admit I was a little nervous sitting in front of a salesperson who is making their living based on what I buy. While I did not go to a non-commission jewelry store (is there such a thing?) I did find one where the salesperson put me at ease. That is what they are trying to do with that statement.

 

[Marty M]

It is a bit scary that to the average person, the clerk at Best Buy is an expert. These shoppers are looking to these clerks for advise, and unfortuneatly, bad advise is being given to these people.