Best Buy closing 50 stores

Noitca wrote in post #14326258
I remember going through "training" in the Home Theater department about selling the Monster Cable fiber optic cable, and why that was better than the Best Buy brand.

I all but told the guy that he was full of crap, and I refused to push that product.

PC/HO was a nightmare, especially for someone that knew most of the products were either crap or highly overpriced. We were required to push a little hand cart filled with a 100 dollar surge protector, a ream of crap printer paper, a gold-plated printer cable, canned air and a bunch of other garbage with every PC sale.

After that, you had to try to convince them that they need to buy a service plan for another 200 bucks because your expensive new PC will probably break. They just do that, you know.

I didn't last long after I called out the GM in front of some customers.

My bad experience from them was when I was helping a friend buy a laptop. The rep said they did not have any in stock according to their computer. I said alright no biggie and looked for a different one. Then I looked at another laptop and noticed they had laptops under the displays in a locked fenced in area so I looked and I found the laptop she was looking for. I told the rep it's there and I wanted it. The rep said it cannot be sold since they are not in stock. I looked and said to the rep, your computer is wrong because it's right in front of me. The rep said, it cannot be sold because the BB bloatware crap isn't on it. I said that is BS and I want a manager NOW! A manager came over and said the same thing but if I did want it, they would have to charge me an extra $100. I just said very loudly, "it's in front of me and your not going to sell if to me, this is CRAP, and your going to charge me extra $100 for that model that didn't have BB crap on it. This is complete crap and this is why no one should buy anything from BB. No where in the ad does it say it cannot be sold without BB crap on it" We went back and fourth for a few seconds and he just ended up selling it at the advertise price. He then said to me, there will be no backup and we will not be able to remotely support it. I just said, GOOD!, less software for me to uninstall and none of the annoying pop crap to deal with.

I only go to BB is I know what I want and if they have it in stock according to their website or unless the deal is great. 85% of the people working there have no idea what's going on. They couldn't tell me differences between the T3i and 60D before I bought it except that the 60D has a faster FPS and a different lens.

Even worse now days lots of house brand flash drives come preloaded with crapware too. You have to be careful about anything you buy now days it's pretty sad.

Virto wrote in post #14325908
Lol, yhea. We were required to upsell you on a double-shielded gold-plated cable that cost 49.99. Not that it makes any difference whatsoever, especially back on some model year 2000 bubblejet. We were actually told to take the regular cables off the rack and hide them behind the counter, so people would be forced to buy the gold-plated cables for 10-20 dollars more, unless they specifically asked if we had any others.

Ha! We had to try to figure out if they were buying the service plan before we "checked" to see if the item was in stock... HORRIBLE.

It is. I don't mind what SanDisk since they come with a nice utility for backing up.

Ah, good ol' Theft Buy (will rob you of your money)... oh well... I only ever went in there for hands on if they had the camera I was interested in...

Ron Bailey wrote in post #14306702
The internet hatchet claims another head.

No, I'd say it's mismanagement, poor customer service, unrealistic prices, and until recently the restocking fees (that they discontinued too late).

I still shop locally for lots of things. The good stores have competitive pricing, knowledgeable staff, and I don't mind paying 6% tax for convenience. A lot of "internet" stores are local shops with a good Internet sales strategy (BB also has Internet storefront but they suck at that, too).

tkbslc wrote in post #14313166
Sales tax law has a lot to do with it.

Not really. The sales tax in MI is 6%, not such big of a difference for something you're getting right away. The biggest differences are pricing and customer service.The customer service experience with an "impersonal" internet store is often way better than with a local B&M one. The ability to get a decent, clear, experience based answer to any item-related question is much better with an internet store. And if you ever have a problem with an item, in my experience negotiating with an online store (which has a reputation to maintain) is easier than with some $12/hr shift manager who's been miserable for the last 20 years of her life and doesn't give a sh1t anymore.

Amamba wrote in post #14338496
No, I'd say it's mismanagement, poor customer service, unrealistic prices, and until recently the restocking fees (that they discontinued too late).

I still shop locally for lots of things. The good stores have competitive pricing, knowledgeable staff, and I don't mind paying 6% tax for convenience. A lot of "internet" stores are local shops with a good Internet sales strategy (BB also has Internet storefront but they suck at that, too).

Agreed. Nothing like buying and paying for something online, getting charged and then getting an email 6 hours later, just before you leave the office to head to the store for pickup, saying that they're all sold out. That's great, and then you get to wait 3 days for them to refund your credit card.

Like so many big chains, individual branches were horribly mis-managed, and the sales teams became less and less knowledgeable as they struggled to fill positions with anyone that could walk in off the street.

Sales tax is not a killer for me, as I'll happily go to the store and plunk down the extra if I want something in my hands right away, but BB often has high base prices, which make it unattractive to shop there from the start.

Amamba wrote in post #14338603
Not really. The sales tax in MI is 6%, not such big of a difference for something you're getting right away.

I didn't say sales tax was the ONLY reason.

A recent report said BB was about 4% higher priced than Amazon on average. Add another and you are talking $50 per $500 difference. That's a lot. Most can easily wait 2-4 days for Amazon or newegg to deliver.

I do think they need to vastly improve their online shopping and store integration, though. No excuse there.

Glad to see I am not the only one who hates Best Buy! I read they were closing stores a few months after my self imposed boycott and thought, "gee, I did that!"

I'll look through their ad and see whats on sale but rarely go in there to buy something. The most recent thing I have bought from them was my GPS that I needed and couldn't way since my old one crapped out on my a few days before I had to go away for work.
I thought about buying online but after shipping overnight, I would of broke even if I bought it at BB. The guy did try to sell me to the bigger one which is a bit more expensive but I travel too much to carry a bigger one around but after I told him nah, he stopped. But usually, they seem to upsell a lot when I go in there.
Upsell in a bad way though.