Best Buy makes me cranky

[dennis thompson]

I promised my granddaughter a new computer for Christmas. Best Buy had one advertised for $450 on Sunday. I checked online on Monday & the two stores near me both said they had it. So I went there on Monday for it. They told me they were out of it but had one that was "set up " for $520, I told them I wasn't interested & went to another Best Buy & got the same story. At this point I'm fuming & on the way out the Best Buy employee at the door asked if I found what I was looking for, I told him no & said I thought Best Buy was running a scam. To my great surprise He called a manager over & they sold me the $520 computer for $450. So I got the computer I wanted, but still feel that Best Buy was less than honest &,not for the first time ,they left a sour taste in my mouth.

[Richard Wagner]

I hope that you really got what you "wanted". Without having seen the computer that "you wanted" when you left home to go shopping - you'll never know. The only thing known for certain is that "Best Buy" is happy; they have one less computer in inventory and more money in the bank.

[Phil Thien]

To my great surprise He called a manager over & they sold me the $520 computer for $450.

Correction.

They sold you the $450 computer for $450.

What they were attempting is a bait and switch.

There is no need to pay Best Buy $70 to "setup" a computer. That is nonsense.

The manager sold you the computer for $450 because he was concerned you would complain to whatever state agency monitors truth in advertising where you live.

The fact that two stores only had machines that were already "setup" indicates (to me, at least, just my opinion) that the problem is systemic and comes from the top.

Think about it, how are you going to "setup" a computer (which would require personalization) without knowing who purchased it?

Just watching CNBC this morning and they had a poll they were running about the drop in Best Buy sales/earnings this last quarter. But many of the responses coming in were about how the respondents wouldn't shop at Best Buy any longer because of the way they were treated. These responses were coming via E-Mail, they just started getting a flood of them, they said.

[dennis thompson]

Phil
You're absolutely right, $70 to "set up" a computer is ridiculous.
I heard the reports on CNBC too, can't say I was surprised.
Dennis

[Larry Norton]

I will never set foot in any Best Buy after the way I was treated with a camera my wife bought there as a gift for me. I still have the defective camera that only takes blurry pictures, but got a Panasonic that I love to replace the Fugi. I didn't buy the Panasonic from Best Buy.

[glenn bradley]

I shop Best Buy like I shop Sears; I know exactly what I want and get that only. If its not there, I leave. I do not care for BB's practices but, they can be a resource. Sears practices are OK if they would just hire people smart enough to follow them. Rant off.

[Jerome Hanby]

Best Buy may not be the greatest place to do business with, but when you pop a PC power supply in the middle of the night on Friday they are open and have replacement supplies on Saturday morning. The Mom and Pop computer stores seem to be open pretty much whenever the mood strikes them, CompUSA died a lingering, ugly death, and 3-4 days is a long time to wait on a new supply for the PC that serves up media all over the house.

Personally, I no longer trust what their website says about availability. If it doesn't say online only and it looks like the store might have the item, I call them and make them lay hands on it before I go get it.

[Bryan Morgan]

This is a big problem with Best Buy. The consumerist is loaded with stories like this and I have one of my own when I was trying to get a notebook for my wife. The advertise something but they never actually have it in stock and only have the Geek squad "optimized" ones for over $100 more. I work in computers/networks as my day job, and a fairly high level at that.... the Geek Squad is a huge joke in the tech industry (which is sad, because when they first started they were actually quite good... corporate ran them into the ground, like all corporations do...). You pay way more than the service they give you. Circuit City did this too though not to the almost criminal extent Best Buy does. I ended up buying it at Staples which didn't have or even try to sell any extra "optimizations", for less money for the same notebook (and that was their normal price, not an advertised sale!). All I was really interested in was the hardware as I format and load what I want with every computer I touch anyway... I usually play dumb when I buy things like this just to get in and out. When Best Buy treated me like junk and tried to pull one over on me with the notebook thing I actually made the sales girl cry and completely shut down their salesguy "know it all" that was there backing her up. Every company needs to make money, thats why they are in business... but blatantly scamming people and being dishonest to me I will not allow.

The way I look at it, Best Buy is trying to sell you used stuff (they opened the box and ruined it with their "optimization") at brand new prices. They should be offering a discount for all the time you are going to take removing all their junk anti-virus and whatnot they load on there, as well as breaking the factory seal.

And whatever you do, NEVER buy their extended warranties. I watched some guy almost beat the tar out of some employees after they refused to repair or replace his phone. He brought his contract and was acting very polite. They were jerks to him and told him the contract has changed. He asked politely to see the new contract that he signed. They just laughed and told him he needs to call some 800 number. He continually pointed to the signed paper he had in his hand that said if the phone breaks he could bring it to the store and get it fixed or replaced. The Best Buy people wouldn't budge and the guy started going nuts. I was on the guys side and would have backed him up if there was a throwdown :)

The only time its worth setting foot in there is if they have a ridiculous sale on something (other than computers).

[Dave Lehnert]

The laptop I am on right now came from BB. I saw it advertised for $599. I went to check it out but the display was gone. I was kinda wanting a laptop at the time but was no big deal they were out of stock. Some kid came over and asked if I needed help. I said "That Gateway was a great deal, Bet you sold out quick" He said "You want one? we have them" Got one for me off the top cap. They had a few. He proceeded to ring me up then gave me the scoop on the extended warranty. What they try to sell you first is the "In home service" insurance. Opt for the carry in service at it was only like $99.

I am not much on the extended warranty. Electronics keep getting lower in price. Have a problem and most likley you can buy a replacement for what you paid for the warranty in a year or two. Another thing, If you buy the warranty, have a problem and they give you a new unit. The warranty is done. You have to buy another warranty for the new unit. A friend use to sell electronics years ago. An extended warranty that retailed for $100 to the customer cost the store like $18.

[Dan Hintz]

Another issue with the warranties on computers is it doesn't guarantee your data... in fact, with Best Buy, you're almost guaranteed not to get your data back, as their idea of solving a software or hardware issue is to format your hard drive and reload a corporate image.

[Matt Meiser]

I love to shop there. I look at the options, decide what I want, scan the barcode with my Android phone and a day or two later (depending on whether I pay the $3.99) Amazon delivers one to me for less money. No standing in line, no concerns with restocking fees on returns, no concerns that the Geek Squad doofus has opened the box and messed--err--set it up.

When I used to work at a place that hired interns from a local university it always cracked me up when the kids would put Best Buy sales or Geek Squad experience on their resume. That was an almost sure way to not get hired.

[Jerome Stanek]

I did buy the 4 year extended warranty on my first laptop and the way itworked for me was that when they could not fix my laptop after about 3 1/2 years because the mother board was not made anymore they gave me a credit for a new laptop the credit was for the full price of my original laptop minus the Extended warranty. I used that for a new laptop including a new warranty. That was only a 3 year warranty that laptop needed to go in for service 2 years later and they broke it so I ended up doing the same thing. I ended up with 5 laptops with no more cost to me than the first one. I know that I was lucky because i bought my daughter a laptop and they kicked up a big fuss when hers was broke.

[Chuck Saunders]

Best Buy...somewhere else

[Darius Ferlas]

Phil
You're absolutely right, $70 to "set up" a computer is ridiculous.
Dennis
Dennis, it depends on what they mean by "set up". If they actually do some custom work on it the $70 might be very good price. If by "set up" they mean the hardware configuration the PC comes with then I'd look at the differences - bigger drive? more memory? extra software?

I don't buy at BestBuy of Future Shop since it's been a while since they had decent machines with non-glare screens. All I see there lately is mirrors with keyboards. They call them laptops.

[Kevin W Johnson]

Likely, the sale price on a computer is at, or very close to cost. The "optimization", then becomes their profit. I don't really buy anything in there, but it is funny, sad actually, to listen to the garbage that spews from the sales people trying to make a sale.

Back when Circuit City was in business, i heard a girl tell someone that unlike all the other computer companies, Acer was an American company. I thought to myself, what? Did she really tell him that? Like most foreign companies, they have an American division.



Anyways, I have always built my own desktops, and will continue to do so, sadly the option isnt the same for laptops anymore. Custom laptops was a very small segment, mostly available to small mom & pop oem's, but thats pretty much non-existant anymore.

[Callan Campbell]

They're probably going to get worse since they've survived the fall of their fellow competitors like Circuit City and others. I have a friend who swore off Best Buy and now only goes to Fry's. I did get great service from them on Black Friday last month. I wanted a new monitor to replace the dead Gateway unit on our aging tower home PC. The unit I wanted was out of stock, but a saleperson directed me to a stack of Acer 20" wide screens in the middle of the floor[those were "out-of-stock" too at the on-line site] and I promptly bought the $89 door buster that I had written off when I started looking on-line at their web site the day before. They're like Target, stock listings are NEVER right, even when someone calls the store and it's looked up in inventory on the computer. But my Acer monitor works great, so I'm really happy with the Hi-Res picture/screen.

[Dan Hintz]

Darius,

BB's "set up" is similar to Dells in that they promise not to install company-specific crap like AOL dial-up installers (with their requisite icons on the desktop), toolbars, etc. They also, I believe, install some junk 30-day eval of a poor antivrus. It has been reviewed and mentioned many many times before on tech sites, if they wouldn't load that stuff on the machine in the first place, there would be no need to pay someone to remove it.

[Bryan Morgan]

They're probably going to get worse since they've survived the fall of their fellow competitors like Circuit City and others. I have a friend who swore off Best Buy and now only goes to Fry's. I did get great service from them on Black Friday last month. I wanted a new monitor to replace the dead Gateway unit on our aging tower home PC. The unit I wanted was out of stock, but a saleperson directed me to a stack of Acer 20" wide screens in the middle of the floor[those were "out-of-stock" too at the on-line site] and I promptly bought the $89 door buster that I had written off when I started looking on-line at their web site the day before. They're like Target, stock listings are NEVER right, even when someone calls the store and it's looked up in inventory on the computer. But my Acer monitor works great, so I'm really happy with the Hi-Res picture/screen.

I could rail on Frys for hours... One of my best friends worked there for quite awhile. BE CAREFUL with anything you buy from them. He still remembers serial numbers of devices that were faulty that were returned many many times and repackaged as new.

[Bryan Morgan]

Darius,

BB's "set up" is similar to Dells in that they promise not to install company-specific crap like AOL dial-up installers (with their requisite icons on the desktop), toolbars, etc. They also, I believe, install some junk 30-day eval of a poor antivrus. It has been reviewed and mentioned many many times before on tech sites, if they wouldn't load that stuff on the machine in the first place, there would be no need to pay someone to remove it.

Or you could just run PC Decrapifier (http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/) and not pay anything and be done in a few minutes. :)

[Dick Adair]

You guys are making me nervous about a camera we bought for our granddaughter for Christmas at Best Buy. It is a Cannon Rebel Ti2. When the sales person brought the camera to the counter, I questioned why it had been opened previously. I was told someone just checked to make sure everything was OK. I looked at it closely when I arrived home, but have no way of telling if I bought a new camera or someones reject. The packaging look decent, but I'm concerned now. I'm tempted to return it and buy somewhere else. They insisted on the warranty option but I refused.

[Jim Koepke]

You guys are making me nervous about a camera we bought for our granddaughter for Christmas at Best Buy. It is a Cannon Rebel Ti2. When the sales person brought the camera to the counter, I questioned why it had been opened previously. I was told someone just checked to make sure everything was OK. I looked at it closely when I arrived home, but have no way of telling if I bought a new camera or someones reject. The packaging look decent, but I'm concerned now. I'm tempted to return it and buy somewhere else. They insisted on the warranty option but I refused.

I will never accept an item in an opened box unless I am the one who opened it. I would have insisted on an one that was not checked by one of their employees. Of course, some retailers have the shrink wrap equipment in the back.

I do not open a boxed item unless I plan on purchasing. Had an occasion just recently to open a box with a clerk to check an item. She was not about to let me just go and purchase it with out resealing the package. It took a little doing, but I finally convinced her that I would rather not have to open it again when I got home and I did not need to take one that was factory sealed.

She was trying to do what she thought was best for me. An unusual circumstance for a store that is part of a large national chain, but I find it a lot in that store and it is one reason I continue to shop there. They also have a money back policy if the customer is not satisfied. When talking to the employees there I get the feeling they are a pretty happy lot.

That would be our local Fred Myers store, a division of Krogers. Talking to a manager, I was surprised to learn they actually make some of their own products. Most retailers in their position are resellers and not manufacturing product.

jtk

[Matt Meiser]

I too wouldn't ever take an open box without a big discount on electronics. Especially at Best Buy. The last major purchase I tried to make there was a digital camera and case. They couldn't tell me if the case I was looking at would fit and wouldn't let me open the box. They told me I had to buy the camera, take it out of the store, open the box, then bring the camera back in. Even at Lowes I don't take the open package unless I opened it because I've gotten burned too many times getting home and finding some critical part missing. On the other hand, it seems like you almost have to open a box anymore to see the item because the pretty pictures and specs on the box don't actually tell you much. Like the sump pump I just bought my parents that failed to mention how long the cord was or whether the check valve pictured was included.

Jim, Kroger is actually a pretty large manufacturer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kroger#Manufacturing

[Bryan Morgan]

You guys are making me nervous about a camera we bought for our granddaughter for Christmas at Best Buy. It is a Cannon Rebel Ti2. When the sales person brought the camera to the counter, I questioned why it had been opened previously. I was told someone just checked to make sure everything was OK. I looked at it closely when I arrived home, but have no way of telling if I bought a new camera or someones reject. The packaging look decent, but I'm concerned now. I'm tempted to return it and buy somewhere else. They insisted on the warranty option but I refused.

If I were in your shoes I would take it back and go buy a factory sealed one from someplace else, and then have them open and check it right in front of you.

Having said that, there are two instances where I made the employees open and verify the contents of the box. One, I bought a modem at Frys (remember those? :) ) It was a USR Sportster 14.4k and cost me about $200. It was shrinkwrapped and everything. Looked good. I get home and open the box only to find an old dusty USR 2400 modem in there. I took it back and made them get me another one off the shelf and verify I'm getting what I paid for. You have to be real careful at Frys, they love re-shrinkwrapping everything. Luckily these days the factory has those special tamper evident stickers they put on everything so shrinkwrap or no, you can still see if its been opened. The other time was at Circuit City. I bought a new ATI 9700 Pro video card (remember those? :) )for over $400. Looked like a factory sealed box. Get home only to find some old crappy Rage 32 or something in there. I took it back and made them verify the contents of a new box. My mom bought my little brother a N64 video game way back when that was the cool console to have. This was for xmas and it was a hot game that he wanted. Well he opens it on xmas day only to find instead of the cartridge, there was a pack in Nintendo playing cards!

[Anthony Whitesell]

Here's a wonderful Best Buy story from a few years back

I went to Best Buy on Father's Day Sunday to buy a new hard drive for him as a gift. I was there when the store opened, ran in, found a well priced one on sale, purchased it and placed it in the gift bag I had waiting in the car after sticking the receipt in the box. While at my parent's house, I noticed their sales flyer. The drive I just purchased also had a rebate on it. I had not received the rebate form. On my way home, I stopped at the store I purchased the drive from and proceeded to the customer service desk to ask for the rebate form. Here's a synopsis of the conversation:

Me: I'd like the rebate form for this drive. I purchased it first thing this morning. (pointing to the drive in sales flyer)
Clerk: I need the receipt.
Me: Why? I'm not trying to return it, I just need the form. It didn't print when I made the purchase.
Clerk: I need the SKU number.
Me: The SKU is blahblahblah. (reading it from the flyer)
Clerk: I need to see the receipt.
Me: why? We have the SKU.
Clerk: I need to make sure you purchased the item.
Me: What do you care if I purchased it or not? You're not giving me the money, just the form. It is a manufacturer's rebate anyhow.
Clerk: I'm sorry I need the receipt.
Me: I don't have it with me. I will have it when I send in the form. May I plase have one.
Clerk: The forms print from the computer when you make a purchase, that's why a need a receipt.
Me: I don't have it. Just print the darn form. (now the customer service manager comes over due to my raised voice)
CSM: May I help you?
Me: Yes. Please teach this associate how to print a rebate form.
CSM: OK. I will need to see the receipt.
Me: I don't have it. Just print the damn rebate form.
CSM: Please watch your voice or I will call the manager.
Me: Whether you call him or I do it is not going to matter. I will be speaking with him.
CSM: (calls manager)
I explained all the events to the manager and that once I get the rebate form I will not be returning to his store for any future purchases. I finally got the rebate form and explained that (at the time) I purchased $10k+ in computer hardware per year for my employer via a business credit card all retail. I told him that not only had his customer service lost my personal business of $500-1k per year, that he also lost the $10k per year. They were closer than Circuit City by about 5 minutes (not that far out of the way). I rarely go to Best Buy and have NEVER been back to that location since (12 years). ptttth to them.