There should always be a Best Buy ranting thread.

Best Buy, whose idea was it that your receipts have to go in this stupid envelope? Was there not enough wasted paper for you, that you hadd to add this to the crap I get?

Never mind that your so-called coupons are also a waste of paper. When they’re not misleading, they’re useless. “Get 1.5% off nothing you want between 6:02pm and 6:04pm on one day out of the year!”

Sadly, in my podunk town, you’re my main option for new games and music, even though you suck at actually getting both of those. If I want the new They Might Be Giants, I’m shit out of luck, because we can’t have that release taking up valuable Staind space.

What’s that you say? The new computer game that lots of people are looking forward to didn’t come in? And you don’t know when it will? Oh thank you for being so helpful. If only I could have purchased it at one of the two checkout lines that is open, despite the 500 customers. And then, after giving my money to Surly McEyeroll, the cashier, I could tell her that I don’t need an envelope for my receipt and have her sigh about that as well.

No wonder people like online shopping.

That’s why it’s called Best Buy and not Best Service.

Online shopping is, if not God, a close relation.

Sure, the days of insane cheap bargains have largely passed away (but not before I built the majority of my DVD library! Thank you, thank you, online retailers for letting me dance and cackle in your gouting financial lifeblood!), and with shipping and handling the cost difference is now usually zero. But–the difference is only zero in terms of dollars alone. Opportunity costs, well there’s no comparison.

The bargain lies in never having to deal with the bovine-staring surly clerks. (Has anyone worked at Circuit Buy? Does the training actually involve chomping into a lemon before heading into the public area of the store? I swear that it must.) Never having to wend your way through an aisle of unwashed humanity.

Plus, retail establishments usually frown on it if you shop there wearing only your underwear. God bless online shopping.

Actually, I’ve always found the people at Best Buy and Circuit City to be most cordial and helpful. I’ve just not always found them.

Best Buy went a couple years ago in my town. Great. At the time, I was workign at Target. Best Buy opened up across th street and recruited at Target pretty heavily. The net result? I know most of the people working there don’t know shit about what they’re selling.

Case in point. My in-laws want a computer, so we go comparison shopping. At Best Buy, I’m asking some standard questions, like, “What warranty comes with this system?” He responds by trying to sell me the 50-year extended super duper parts-labor-and-a-blow-job deal. “No, I don’t want that. What warranty is included?” “Sir, for only umpty billion dollars, you can get blah blah extended yada yada in home blah blah…”

I swear, these salespeople are just programmed with canned responses to keywords. I shudder to think of them in real life.

President Bush: “We’re monitoring the situation in Afghanistan.”

Best Buy dork: “Mr. Bush you can, for a limited time only, upgrade to a 59” flat panel LCD TFT AC/DC EIEIO monitor for the low, low price of $89.95 a month for eight years. Sign here."

Jeesh.

The two computer games I am waiting for… CivilizationIII and Renegade, can be pre-ordered at Best Buy.

This Saturday, I was wandering Best Buy trying to find something for my Brother’s birthday (Me: "Screw it; I’ll just send him some Aggie stuff’) and I saw two shelves of CivIII and Renegade boxes.

Could it be? I ran forward, and, of course, it wasn’t.

Just some pre-order gimmick. Slightly smaller boxes that you “Buy now, bring back, and you get the game!”

I swear Best Buy is trying to drive me mad.

I went to Best Buy yesterday to buy my husband Unreal Tournament for his b-day. It wasn’t there, and nobody was there to help me look for a similar game that he would like. I mean, I don’t know anything about computer games, I’m not even entirely sure what Unreal Tournament is. All I needed was a little help.

When I lived in Minnesota (the corporate headquarters of BB, I do believe) I loved Best Buy. They had the best selection of CD’s and the cheapest prices. (The classical selection was thin, however). I liked BB for consumer electronics because the salespeople were not on commission, and therefore had no reason to be biased towards one deal or another. I think commissioned salespeople tend to be more knowledgeable about merchandise and matching products to a customer’s needs, so at BB one has to do a little homework before making a purchase. My biggest beef with BB is that same complaint I have about other big corporate superstore chains like K-Mart. The wait at the check-out counter. Awful at times.

I only go to Best Buy when I know exactly what I want…or I want to take advantage of their six months same as cash program (requires discipline, but I have used it to my advantage). And …for the tenth time, I don’t want the extended service plan!

I’m gonna give BB a semi-thumbs up for my last purchase there. I was looking to pick up an over the stove microwave oven. Best Buy was the only place around that was actually open and had the things in stock. The local appliance stores have lousy hours for people who actually work, and the other places don’t keep them in stock for some mysterious reason. Of course BB didn’t have the exact model I originally wanted, so I paid a few extra bucks for the better model, but I walked out of the store with it, thank god!

I went into a Sears, and the asshole in appliances wanted me to come back “during the week” when he would have more time to chat with me about the installation. As if he wasn’t just standing around talking to a coworker at the time. You know there’s something wrong when a guy (at another Sears) tells you that you have to wait for that guy because he only handles refrigerators.

I will be making another purchase at Best Buy soon, car stereo, since BB offers free installation on any purchase over $100, so we’ll see how they do with this.

Lego, I am firmly on your side with regard to Worst Buy, but in Surly McEyeroll’s defense (I worked many years in retail), there was probably a weasly manager-type person watching somewhere who attacked poor Surly as soon as you left with, “You didn’t put that customer’s receipt in the envelope, I saw it, you didn’t do it, why not? It’s Store Policy to put all receipts in the envelope, this will count against you for your review…” and so on. You wouldn’t believe the shit that must happen because it’s freaking Store Policy.

So I get my mega tax refund for $900 last spring, and the one thing I really really want is a CD player for my boat of a car. I spoke with several friends and created a list of questions to ask. I price-shopped a bit online so that I knew what I could get for my price range. I reseached different systems in my price range and had a list of ones that would work for me. I walk into the store the day I get my check with $300 in my pocket.

I look at the CD players, pick out a few I am interested in, make sure they sound it okay, and seek out a salesperson to help me.

I find Sassy McSasserfass, who is determined to NOT sell me a CD player. I guess he thought I didn’t deserve one. Every one of my questions was answered over the back of his shoulder. He barely answered them, just gave me the vaguest notion of what I wanted to know. He made it seem as though my wanting to spend $300 at his store was an inconveniance. In the middle of me asking him a question, he walked away to help another customer who had signaled to him for help. I was enraged.

Finally, I said, “Dude, I have $300 to spend on this thing. I am going to buy one today. You need to be a bit more helpful if you want me to buy it here.”

His reply: “Lady, I don’t give a fuck where you buy it.” And he said that over his shoulder too.

Now I work in retail. I know it sucks. I know it’s hard to be cheerful. I was exceptionally polite in the face of his rudeness for, oh, about 15 minutes. It’s not like I irritated him to the point of rudeness; he was rude from the start. It’s not like he was busy, he was doing something with Best Buy plastic bags; he was clearly the guy working in the Car Audio department. He just did not want to help me.

Well, I found the manager and totally lost my cool on him. I explained that I work in retail and I would be fired, or at least written up, for being so blatantly disrespectful and cursing at a customer. He offered to help me himself, but at that point I was so riled up that I swore I would never step foot in the store again. And I haven’t.

Cocksuckers.

Back in April, I related the story of how The Evil One Whose Name is Not Spoken In My House lost my brand new computer. It WAS replaced after much bitching. A couple of weeks ago, they called to let me know that they found it! They wanted to know if I wanted to bring my replacement computer back and claim my old one.

It was all I could do NOT to tell them where to cram it.

Yes, you can tell they aren’t on commission. Go to appliances at Circuit City (commissioned sales, unlike home and auto electronics departments) and they offer discounts, oral sex, AND a free ice maker to make the sale. That’s shopping!

I don’t know why the morons at BB push the extended warranties so hard. They don’t even get a spiff! Christ, at Rat Shack it was like 30%! We WANTED to sell warranties.

Because the GM and Store Managers Bonuses are based upon moving a certain number of them (or so I am told).

So the Store Managers lean on the employees to make their numbers. Any wonder service isn’t the “Best”?

The other reason they push the “warranties” so hard is that they are obviously high margin (I’ve heard on the order of 60-80%).

I’ve really only experienced one Best Buy store, the one in Annapolis, MD. (Nacho4Sara, take note.) The service has been good, and I’ve rarely had a problem there. The checkout lines are almost always short, which says a lot, considering that I’m usually there on a Saturday morning. When I was networking my computers, and got crossover cables instead of the regular kind, they gave me no hassle when I returned them, open box and all.

I buy stuff at Best Buy. I try not to ask questions at Best Buy. I try not to be asked questions as Best Buy. If I don’t know exactly what it is that I’m getting before hand, I will not endter Best Buy.

Don’t ever, ever have to go through the customer service line at Best Buy. For one, as many of you have pointed out, they are clueless… for seconds, most of the people in line (at least at the store near me) are moronic hill-jacks who couldn’t figure out how to hook up the DVD to their cable-ready toaster, so it must be broke, so they return it and get a dif’rent one, with the $6000 monster-gold-plated-ionically-shielded cable to hook it to their septic tank.

we got one in the “big city down the road”. generally have to agree with most of the rants here. service is pretty shitty, but i dont care. i alway know what i want and dont want help anyway.

i bought the wife a big old tv in feb. BB advertised free VCR with any big old tv purchase. of course, they were out of stock. waited. waited. waited. finally, 5 months later and a million phone calls to customer service (what a waste of time) i was pushed to the point of bitching to the REGIONAL MANAGER!! he told me the vcr was discontinued and he would give me something like, 10% off (whoopee!) next purchase. i badgered him till he offered a $25 gift certificate. i continued badgering till it got to $75.

funny thing is, i didn’t even want the damn vcr! used the gift certificates (and coupons from BB + .79 out of pocket) and brought home 4 new CDs and a cordless phone with answering machine for the wife.

My experience at Best Buy has been pleasant, though occasionally frustrating.

The service is usually terrible, but NOT because the clerks/salespeople are rude. On the contrary, most of them are very nice- they just don’t know anything about appliances! The guys working there could just as easily be working at Wal-Mart, Target, or Home Depot.

If all you need is someone to tell you where this-or-that stereo component is, they’ll help you quickly and courteously. But if you have a question about that stereo component, you’re likely to get a blank stare.

So, I agree completely with Tretiak. Best Buy is a fine place to go if you know exactly what you want. You’ll find it there at a good price. But if you need advice from someone who knows what he’s talking about, look elsewhere.

I usually go to Best Buy when a new movie, CD, or game comes out and they have a kick-ass price on it in their circular. My Best Buy excursions are usually surgical strikes with me knowing exactly what I want.

But whenever I have to ask anyone a question about stuff, they are rarely helpful. I remember once asking them when NHL 2001 would be in stock, and the guy looked at me and said “I don’t know when we are getting that or when it’s coming out.” 10 minutes later I took one off the hands of an Electronics Boutique employee who had so many copies he couldn’t fit them all on the shelf.

Customer Service has been ok. My only experience was returning The Rock Criterion Collection because the second disk was scratched to hell. Easy switch, no problems.

Props to Best Buy for this: I’ve now gotten two $5 coupons attached to my receipts in exchange or doing a brief survey.