Okay, so Best Buy employees always claim to me that they do not work on commission. However, they sure do become pushy the moment they mention the “Best Buy Replacement Coverage” for $49.99 or whatever price it is after you do decide to purchase an item.
It always seems that after recommending a product based on quality and features and all that jazz, the minute you decide to purchase the item, they start spouting off statisticis of breakage and costly repairs…obviously the selling point of the replacement coverage.
So, should I believe them when they say they don’t earn any commission? Has anybody ever worked at Best Buy before and know for sure how much $ , if any, these kids make when they sell a replacement coverage policy?
They get bonuses for every “Best Buy Replacement Coverage” thing they sell. That’s where Best Buy makes it’s real money, that and “add-ons”. (Video cameras are cheap because all the accessories are marked way the hell up.) So all the employees are strongly encouraged to sell the warranty plans with incentives.
My roommate, “William,” was buying an X-box from Best Buy and the cashier tried to get him to buy the extended warranty. Like pepperlandgirl said, this is where Best Buy makes their money off products like this. William politely said no, but the cashier pressed on, giving him the full spiel (you’ve probably heard it–it takes a while to get through it) about why he should get it. My roommate, getting frustrated now, firmly stated that he had no desire to get the extended warranty. Now the cashier adopts an incredulous attitude, like “I can’t believe you’re not going to buy the extended coverage!” William again plainly states that he isn’t interested. The cashier then began to proceed with the checkout, but they must have some kind of signal because one of the store managers then showed up and addressed my roommate, “Sir, I understand you’ve chosen not to exercise your option on the extended warranty.
May I ask why?”
:rolleyes:
At which point, William says in a loud, angry voice, “Look, I’ve already told this guy three times that I DON’T WANT YOUR FUCKING WARRANTY!”
William is a big guy and can be pretty intimidating. The manager didn’t say another word, just backed away. The rest of the customers in line got really quiet.
I’m always too nice to do something like that, but I think Best Buy and other stores are way too pushy. I tend not to go there anymore if there is another option.
I had a similar Best Buy experience this past weekend. While buying an “All in one” printer/scanner/copying machine for my teacher fiance, the salesman told me that the ink cartridges that came with it were worth naught and I should buy a $75.00 replacement cartridge. He then told me that cables were not included and tried to sell me the most expensive cables ($49.00/set). Then he went in on the warranty crap and actually said “Alright…but if something goes wrong with it you’ll have to pay to get it fixed”. It has a 1 year manufacturer’s warranty he neglected to mention. At this point I told him to fuck off and saw him run up to the cashier, who did NOT give me the extended warranty lecture when I left.
Everytime they try to sell me the extended warranty I ask them, “why, are you selling substandard merchandise that is going to fall apart the moment I get it home?”
The response is usually, “no.”
Then why the hell would I want to pay you an extra hundred bucks for it?
As another data point on the markup of accessories, I recently bought a cell phone at Best Buy. With the rebate, it came out to be free. I went to get a car adapter for it, Best Buy wanted $29.99! I couldn’t believe this, so I went to Radio Shack where I bought an adaptor for the proper voltage, and one of their “Adapt-a-plug” plugs that would fit the phone. Total cost - $13.99 if I remember right. And it works great.
Yep, I’d say they make their money off the accessories.
Oh, and the Best Buy salesman tried to sell me the extended warrantee for the phone too, which I thought was ridiculous. You mean you want me to pay $39.99 (or whatever) to cover damage to a FREE phone???
The lady in front of me did buy it. I had to chuckle a bit.
From what I have heard, I believe they aren’t paid on commission. I do know Circuit City employees are paid solely on commission though.
Those warranty offers always drive me nuts! I once walked right out of the store after the person ringing me out at the checkout line at Best Buy asked me if I wanted it. She just looked at me in disbelieve as I walked though the doors.
The same thing happened to me a week ago. I bought a clock radio with CD. After telling me what a great clock radio it was, the cashier asked me if I wanted the extended warranty. She stopped after I politely said no. The way I handle persistent clerks who won’t shut up, is to act like a broken record. I smile a lot and say, “No thanks, I only want to buy my radio”. I don’t make eye contact with anyone else.
I had a Best Buy employee actually tell me to get the camera there and go to another store for certain add-ons. He was right :). Did me a service though I bet Best Buy would can him for it if they find out.
When they ask me, which takes them a bit of time to write out, I just say that my credit card gives me twice the guarantee so I don’t need more than that. BTW, Visa card longer guarantees are way cheaper than the store guarantees, you can buy those too from visa.com
Bought my laptop from best buy - got their extended warentee for 1 yr past manu.
I dropped it on to concreate - screen had lines across it, batrery would not charge, the whole thing felt loose, the screen would not stay up with out holding it. Was too embareassed to bring it in myself so I had my wife do it. She said her husband used it but didn’t know what happened.
They repaired everything and upgraded the screen to the newest active matrex one (from their lowest LCD display) all included in the ext. warn.
Then i extended it to the max thorught compaq which they replaced the batt and fixed the mouse button if that matters.
I bought an eMachines PC from Best Buy a couple of months ago. What an ordeal.
The fast-talking sales jerk said I should buy the extended warranty because (and I am not making this up) this model PC had a 42% failure rate. I (obviously) declined. We squabbled about a few other things[sup]a[/sup], and then the real fun started at check-out time.
I gave him my credit card, and he then asked for my home address and phone number. “Why do you need that?” I asked. He said I automatically got a free 90-day subscription to AOL with the purchase of this computer, and that he needed the information to start my account. I said I already had an internet provider and definitely did NOT want a !@#$% AOL account. He said I had no choice! “Then I don’t want the damn computer,” I said. He then begged and pleaded for my address and phone number, and even called me “paranoid” for not providing it. The computer was a good deal, so I kept repeating over and over that I was not going to provide it. He then called the manager over (!), and asked him if he knew how to ring up the order without opening an AOL account for me. The manager tapped a few keys, and adios AOL.
I’ll never shop there again.
[sup]a[/sup] [sub]The asshole also tried to get me to buy an inferior system at a higher price.[/sub]
When my husband worked at Best Buy, we got a pretty good discount. Cost plus 10%. Didn’t make much difference on DVDs, games, and larger appliances…but when I bought a cover for my cell phone, I only spent $5.00. Retail price? 35.00.
I recently purchased a PS2 from Best Buy because I heard the prices are usually better. The price was exactly the same as Toys R Us, Babbages and the other places so I decided to get one there because it was close to work and any more shopping around would’ve taken up more time. Walked in, snagged a box and went towards the counter when I heard someone panting and running to catch up to me. This guy was telling me about some deal where I’d pay a hundred bucks more for accessories that I would not need and wouldn’t tell me what it they are. I politely declined but he persisted and I declined again giving him the nastiest look someone my size can give then walked away.
He shouted after me, “You can’t do a lot with just that!”
“You can if you have friends. You should see about getting some.” I shouted back.
Thankfully the cashier knew no meant no and I was out of there ASAP. I bought my memory card over at Babbages since it was on the way home and it cost a couple bucks less than what Best Buy had to offer. Best Buy is now going to be a last resort when it comes to shopping for me.
Commission or not, the staff will also be pushing warranties simply because their managers are breathing down their necks on this issue. Each store will have its own warranty targets to meet, and the staff have it drilled into them that they can’t let the team down.
This is one of the things that pissed me off when I worked in retail. We were given a 10% commission on warranty sales, but even then I preferred not to push them - it annoys the customer, and the warranty provider we used was, IMHO, a wee bit dodgy to boot. However, my non-compliance got me a lot of flack from my manager, who was desperate to boost warranty sales in order to please her boss. Even the rep from the warranty company gave us grief over it, hence why we all used to hide out whenever he walked into the store.
In the end, our sales paperwork was altered to include a section which the customer signed to confirm that we had offered them a warranty. The managers would check our dockets to make sure every single one was signed - if not, it was assumed we didn’t do the spiel, and we got our asses hauled up to their office.
Thank god I got out of that place and left that bullshit behind.
I have walked out of Best Buy leaving merchandise on the counter because the cashiers will not listen to me when I tell them I do not want to listen to their sales pitch. One gal even told me she could be fired for not telling me about the extended warranty.
