Best Buy Can Bite My Ass.

The BBQ Pit
1

We needed to buy a refrigerator. We just moved into a new house, and for the first time, there was no refrigerator provided (as we have normally lived in rentals with appliances provided, or at home). After a week of living out of a cooler, we finally had the money and the time to shop–ready and willing to bolster the economy with our large appliance purchase.

Best Buy is the closest appliance store to us. We pretty much know exactly what we want and our budget, and we find the refrigerator that is perfect for our little home. And, wouldn’t you know, it’s right next to the cashier’s desk…

So where the hell is a sales representative?

Ok, I understand this was a holiday weekend, and they seemed to be pretty busy. I mean, I saw about two dozen other customers lolling around looking for a sales rep, too. After a few minutes, someone relatively official looking comes to the cashier’s desk, and shouts on the intercom, “service to appliances… service to appliances,” then walks off in a rush.

Fine, I think, even though he doesn’t glance even once at us. Someone should be here in a minute or two to help us.

Another sale representative comes into the department, takes a look around, mutters something into his walkie-talkie, and then leaves. Not a word, not a glance directed to us. Hmmmm, I think to myself, this is getting somewhat annoying.

Another ten minutes pass.

Finally, we see a sales representative in a familiar blue shirt walking towards us. The drooling idiot cockpuppet takes one look at us and walks past without a word to help another couple. No “I’ll be with you in just a minute,” or “let me see if I can call someone else to help.” We were just blatantly ignored.

After spending a very unfruitful thirty minutes in that store, we left. So, I say to you, Best Buy: I hope your company falls to shambles with its poor reputation and that all the stores are burned out in riots in all the major metropolitan areas. I hope that those assholes that ignored us never work a better job than retail (after spending 4 years of my life working retail, I can think of no greater hell). You will never see a dime from me again.
(There is a happy ending to the story: In the parking lot, I suggest going to the Sears down the road. Once in the appliance department, we had a sales associate helping us within two minutes. She found us almost the exact refrigerator we had picked out in Best Buy, and in ten minutes, it was purchased.)

2

My husband and I were once similarly ignored in a computer store. We thought we had become invisible. How do these places make any sales??

3

Very interesting, Java. Do sales associates require one to stuff cash into their G-strings to get their attention?

I also recieved a royal snubbing, at a local furniture store. I had decided to completly redo my home, new beds, dining room, computer desk, living room, the whole works.

I entered the furniture store, alone, wearing my ‘day off duds’, jeans & Tshirt. I found many items I liked, and would have purchased, if the snotty, be-suited, skinny-tie wearing salesman would have given me the time of day. He was so busy shmoozing the better dressed customers, that he never acknowleged my presence. I left in a huff!

The following day, I went to the store, dressed to the nines. The very same salesman was all over me, like a mosquito on a hemophiliac! I made a point of asking for another salesperson, and didn’t elaborate as to why. I made my initial purchases, which totaled nearly $15,000.00.

What a shame I don’t have video of the spurned salesman; curled into a fetal position, sucking his thumb, saying “Momma told me there would be days like this!”:slight_smile:

Glad you got your 'fridge! There’s a lot to be said for ‘voting with your dollars’.

Oh dear, this is in the Pit. I fear I have used a smiley! Let me rectify that by saying: Effing salespeople are supposed to sell us effing merchandise that we effing want! Gosh darn it! (I hope my profanity wasn’t too over the top)

4

Well, you see, Best Buy makes all it’s money in Home Entertainment, accessories, installation, and delivery. They don’t really care about the big items such as refridgerators.
Each individual store gets budgeted to have a certain amount of people in each area. Plus each associate is expected to spend at least 1/2 hour with each customer. That means, in an hour, if 5 people come in and there’s only one person, 3 people are lost in an hour. That’s not an acceptable loss to them, but they just have to deal with it, because they aren’t making a lot of money in that area. And all the departments are short staffed.
They sell the big items just above cost, that’s why Best Buy is affordable in most areas. However, they sell all their accessories at a HUGE mark-up.
To give you an example, when I bought my cell phone, I wanted a vibrating battery with it. It was marked at about $80. My fiance works there, so he gets everything at cost plus 5%. It cost him 20 to get the battery.
The moral of the story is, they are concerned with your need for a fridge, they just don’t have the budget for the personnal to work those areas.
This is not just a Best Buy situation. My fiance has also worked in K-mart and Gottschalks. It is the exact same situation. They simply are not given the money to hire a lot of staff. And since they don’t work on commission, they can take a “first come first serve” mentality, or simply pick and choose who they want to help. It’s all the same to them, they’ll stil be getting their 8.00/hr whether you walk out with a fridge, or the guy before you walks out with a freezer.

5

I’ve had salespeople ignore me in favor of the better dressed customers in the past. Usually at furniture stores, but occasionally lately at department stores(Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, Rich’s).

Dressing up is for work and church, and not always for church. I also look young, which doesn’t help at all. So I’ve learned which stores treat me best, and those are my primary shopping places.

And Best Buy? I don’t shop there. I find their prices to be high and the service incredibly bad. So I avoid them-if I’m going to go to an electronics store, I’ll go to Circuit City. I’ve never had them ignore me.

6

When we needed a new computer, my mom and I first called all of the Best Buys within an hour’s drive from our house to see if they had what we wanted. All of the people who answered were very helpful over the phone. Then, we went to a store to make our purchase. When we got there, all of the employees in the computer department were standing around playing solitaire. There must have been about five of them playing that stupid game. My mom finally marched right up to one and demanded he help us. As it turns out, they didn’t have what we wanted (although 30 minutes ago on the phone they said they did).

A week or so later, we made the phone calls again, and we found a Best Buy that turned out to have everything we wanted. We bought it, took it home (they even helped us load the car!), and started putting it together. We found out that they forgot to sell us a few essential items, so we had to make another trip back. <Sigh>

7

Well I attempted to purchase a 55" big screen TV from best buy about 14 months ago. One was on sale I liked, I wrote them a check, they set a delivery date of about 5 days later (explaining it wasn’t at the store but at a regional warehouse, this I understand).

I get a call to confirm I will be home to accept the delivery the night before, no problem, I took time off work to do it. 2pm comes and goes, 3pm, 4pm. I call the store, get the rep who sold me the TV and he says he will check on it and call back. At 630pm he calls me back saying the regional warehouse has not returned his call but he will keep checking.

Next day…

I call from work at 10am when the store opened. Give the person my order # etc they look it up and say, oh there was a problem with the delivery and it is coming today. I tell her uh, no I’m not going to be home. So I make arrangements for the next day.

Next Day…

Once again 1, 2, 3, 4 hours after planned time of delivery, no truck. I call, I get the same “problem with the delivery” answer. I ask to speak to a manager. They hang up on me.

I go to the store and find the little geek who sold me the TV and semi politely tell him if he can’t give me a straight answer I want a refund. He scurries away and returns with a manager.

The manager then proceeds to explain that on the first planned delivery day the TV was dropped in the process of loading and badly damaged. They were supposedly scrambling to replace the TV but mine was the last one on hand and it was being sent from elsewhere and would take a few more days.

I ask why someone made delivery arrangements for a TV that didn’t exist. Her answer “I don’t know”

I asked what she was willing to do to compensate for the fact that I had missed 9 hours of work waiting for this item. She picked up a report of “competitor prices” and told me she could give me $32 off (citing their price matching of a circut city item) I told her $100 off or I wanted a refund ($1400 item by the way) She turned to the sales geek and said please arrange for a refund for this gentleman and walked off.

What pisses me off was that apparently this kid knew the TV was dead meat when I called and was lying about the regional warehouse not returning his calls. They were stalling for time trying to find a replacement. They failed miserably. I have never been back in that store since and I used to buy alot of my puter games there. CompUSA has since been more than happy to accept my game business.

8

I feel the same way about Radio Shack. I had a wonderful old computer that I needed a new cable for. I went in the store with my (now) husband, and the salesman just completely ignored me and started talking to him! Now, since I was the one with the computer and I was the one who needed assistance, I spoke up and told him what I was looking for, actually forcing him to acknowledge my presence. He said, “Now why do you want that?” I told him so I could use my old computer. He told me to get a new computer. I said, “Well, that would be easier than you buying a new personality.” I left and have never returned.

The Radio Shacks back home were the same way. I was treated as inferior and stupid because I was a woman. Why did I think it would be any different down here?

Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I don’t know jack shit about computers, you fucking moron.

There. Now it belongs in the Pit.

9

Huh. The Best Buy in my town just had the roof ripped off by a tornado. Good work, ** JavaMaven**!

10

Why didn’t you tell him? I think it would be far more satisfying telling him why you snubbed him and gave someone else the commission.

And as a person who has worked with the public as a representative of a company (O.K., I was a bartender, but still) you should have told someone what took place. Oftentimes it doesn’t take much to get an employee fired or reprimanded.

The idea of keeping your reasoning secret from the employee and the company is baffling to me.

11

I walked into a hi-fi shop in a pretty affluent small market town (Wetherby)looking to shell out for a Bang and Olufson system.

True I was wearing my cycling clothes but it wasn’t the skin tight lycra stuff, just clothes suited to the job.

I walked in there were no other customers at all and looked at some items and started asking which bits went with which.

I got some bullshit, being a bench technician at the time I knew more technobabble than this tosser could imagine, and then he left me standing there, just turned his back!

So I left, and returned a month later with a receipt for the stuff I had bought elsewhere and showed it to the manager.
I told him that’s how much trade he lost by being so rude, it was for the then hefty tag of £1500, and that was for just two items.

Then I just turned my back, and walked out.

12

This happened to my husband and me a couple of years ago. We were in the market for a new sofa & loveseat. We went to a furniture store close by (Value City) and there had to be six or seven salespeople milling about. Not a freaking one of them acknowledged us. We were dressed in summer clothes–shorts & tshirts, and had our then 2-year-old daughter with us. We walked around that store for a good half-hour. No service AT ALL. As we were leaving, someone finally approached us and said “were you able to find what you were looking for?” I said “NO. We’ve been here for half an hour, and not a damn ONE of you people offered to help us. We’re going somewhere else.” She stammered and stuttered a bit, and I just said “Goodbye!”

So, we went to Art Van. Within about 30 seconds, someone was there, offering to help. When we told her that we just wanted to look around a bit first, she backed off, and told us that when & if we needed anything, to have her paged, and she’d be right there. We found what we wanted, paged her, she showed up immediately, and we got everything all set. No problem. Nice as nice could be.

I’ve not gone to the other store since, and I take every opportunity to trash them.

13

I forget where it was, but my sister bought a hard disk somewhere, and the saleman actually said “Do you have a boyfriend or somebody who can help you install it?”

14

Absolutely. Remember the scene in Pretty Woman when Vivian goes back to the shop on Rodeo Drive where the snooty salesclerks snubbed her? Now THAT’S priceless (apologies to MasterCard).

15

They can bite your ass!?!? Wow! That store can do anything!!!

16

I went to Best Buy to buy a fridge a few years ago. I knew exactly what I wanted and wouldn’t let the shithead talk me into the fancier model. Everything was cool until I tried to actually purchase the damned thing: it was my husband’s Best Buy credit card, so they wouldn’t sell it to me, even though I showed them my original marriage license (I can’t remember why I had it with me).

My salary was significantly more than my husband’s and my husband had only been able to get the card because I’d cosigned for him. Then, as now, my credit was far better than his.

I told the buttmunch behind the counter: “Texas is a community property state, right? So if my husband and I were to divorce, I would have to pay fifty percent of anything he charged on this card, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Then why won’t you let me use his card? Call him if you want. Ask him if it’s okay.”

They refused.

Yes, Best Buy can bite my ass, too.

17

Holly, if it’s a store’s policy to do or not do something, no amount of logic and common sense helps.

18

I loathe our local Best Buy, for the reasons mentioned. Too little staff available, dumb attitudes when you do get helped, misinformation over the phone.

We bought our fridge and big-screen TV and washer and dryer from a place that is locally owned. It’s got the hokey name and the hokey sign, but I knew of them because they were on contract to supply replacement appliances at the apartment complex I used to work for. That’s why we stumbled in there (albeit with low expectations at first). Maybe we could’ve done better price-wise at a warehouse type place, but they gave us a pretty good discount for buying so much from them at once. At any rate, I can’t adequately express how nice it was to be waited on politely by someone who knew the products so well. I get the feeling that the workers in home appliances at Best Buy are being punished for something, and they’re bitter about being stuck in the least-sexy sales department. You can bet that our next purchase will be from this same place, and they’ve gotten loads of word-of-mouth referrals from us too.

19

Holly,

I had the same problem in reverse. They wouldn’t take my wifes card when I was setting there with $2400 worth of computer and assesories. I demanded to see the manager. He came. Still refused to accept the damn card. (I am an authorized user.) Mind you, if they had just scanned the damn thing into the reader, VISA would have accepted it. I asked the manager in a very loud voice: “You mean to tell me that you refuse to accept my wife’s credit card?” WHen he said yes. I said (Still loudly: “Fine, I’ll take my business around the corner to CompUSA.” Left the stuff at the counter, walked around the corner (same strip center) and proceeded to buy everything at CompUSA without any trouble. (They did call VISA to make sure I was an authorized user, but the call took all of thirty seconds.) I spend probably 5-10 thousand dollars a year for the many different organizations I work for. Best Buy managed to lose all of that because they were assholes.

pepperland girl,

Your comment about the sales people being expected to spend 30 minutes with each customer is part of the problem. When I bought my car, I didn’t tie up the sales guy for 30 minutes total the four different times I went to the dealer. Occasionaly there will be a person who has no clue about what they need and needs someone to explain all of the options availble. However, like Javamaven, most people buying big ticket items know how much they want to spend and what they need for their money. All they need is someone to explain what the differences between the “GE” or “Fridgedare” in that price range. If you can’t explain that in 5 minutes, then you need to get someone else in that area.
Even if the profit margin is very low. If they are getting only $10 dollars for every fridge sold, only one missed sale an hour will pay for an extra “associate.” Not to mention the lost goodwill. Most people judge a store more heavily on how they handle the big things than the little ones.
“They treated me well when I bought the washer/dryer, I’ll keep going back to them for the software, games, vcr’s, tapes, etc.”

20

I remember when I was a teenager, I saved up for a special TV Band radio/tape player and got it at Best Buy. Had to drive a ways to get it, as there was no local Best Buy at that time. It turned out that it had a faulty plug. So I returned it and wanted an exchance. It took WEEKS AND WEEKS for them to get a replacement in. Probably a month or two. Bear in mind, I was a kid and this was a big purchase for me, so the wait was agonizing. Finally, the replacement radio came in. When I came to get it, they tried to charge me more for it, because during the wait, the price had gone up! I started to become seriously outraged (the 2 month wait was enough to put me in a foul mood) so they backed down. But they gave it a shot - trying to charge me more for the damned thing because it took so long for them to find a replacement!