Best Buy Infuriates Me.

ok.

so don't shop there...

BBY stands for "before battle of Yavin" duh

Tell us how you really feel.

Best Buy has over 1100 stores, Fry's has 34. Fry's wont be taking over the market any time soon.

Actually they may not be for too much longer. There has been talk about bankruptcy for a while.

+1

But I agree they have a good selection of TV's but audio is horribly slim and the sales people don't know ****, the avr's aren't hooked up for video so you can't play with the menus only audio. They wont let you adjust the picture on the TV's, they just tell you to buy it and bring it back, like ok I'll just buy all 6 TV's im looking at and them bring 5 back, yeah right.

Plus I constantly hear them miss informing customers about LCD and LED, refresh rate etc. telling customers that LED is "better" and that any TV over 46" will look like crap with out a 120hz or high refresh and that videogames wont be playable... hello TV is only 30hz and they no nothing about input lag.

I kinda miss Circuit City, Sun, Silo, etc. Their audio departments were at least equal to the TV side. I remember when I was a kid going into a Sun store and putting the new Metallica Justice CD in a $1000 or something Pioneer receiver and cranking it. I'd do it a few times a week but they never gave me a hard time.

That is because they are barely hanging on by a string. Went into our local BB a week ago, and you can tell they are cutting back on stuff, and spreading shelves out, and such. It is getting to the point that they are nothing more than a visual catalog, so you can find it cheaper online, but see in person first.

BB brick and mortar stores will be a thing of the past in a few years. They are already downsizing in the stores and have already closed some stores. I know someone that has several family members that work there. One of them was in management. They are reducing management positions as well. She was forced out of her management position and no longer works for BB. They are going to go under. I don't understand some of their new changes. Such as reducing their movie section while bringing in B&W speakers and $8000 Samsung TV's that they can't sell. This just seems like a total lack of product management.

I did give them $99.98 for a pair of Klipsch kb-15 bookshelfs yesterday though. Hell of a deal.

It's evident to me that BB has been in decline for a while now. Their audio selection used to be ok for a big-box store. The BB store in my area has a Magnolia section and even though they still display B&W speakers they don't actually keep anything in inventory. They have to order it for you. The most likely reason is that the typical BB shopper doesn't even know what B&W or any of the decent audio brands are. They're there for TVs and maybe the occasional blu-ray.

Give me Service Merchandise baby! I loved their salespeople. I loved watching my goodies come down the conveyor belt as the service tech loaded up my truck.

Oh my God Service Merchandise ruled. I remember waiting for my Omega Supreme Transformer and Pitfall II for Atari to come down that belt. The suspense was like anticipation for Christmas! I was maybe 8 when it was replaced by a Chuck E Cheese and I was so pissed off.

I had a swell experience today.

They matched 7 items from amazon.com which saves me about $180 and I received 18mos interest free financing! Awesome!

I should specify that this was over the phone...never would happen in store!

I could have sworn that they price match places like Amazon now. I'm sure I've even seen it mentioned in their Sunday newspaper ads.

Yeah...don't even think about wasting your time with the tools at the stores. They are useless!

Plus most stores don't have what I want anyway.

They match amazon and amazon only (technically) for online retailers but you still pay tax where from amazon you don't (kind of the government screwing them)

If they had knowledgeable people they could cater to more in tune people like us on forums (not full blown audiophiles but close) and not just the average person that doesn't know anything, doesn't care and just wants to be told what to buy regardless if its true or not.

Like there current sharp TV commercial "you get crystal clear TV anywhere in the room" so you telling me it has better off angle viewing than a plasma? Then people discover they were lied to and never shop there again.

How ever I don't think it will go under it's the only big electronic store left they don't really have any B&M competition, but they really neet to stop charging top retail for every thing and saying thats it is a sale with $XXX of MSRP. Like there Denon AVR 1913 for $580 no thats not a sale and last week $530 wasn't a sale either because everywhere has it for $530 and it can be found for $500 but you want $580 for it now.

Exactly. Where I'm at there are no other decent electronic stores. They need to work on their pricing a bit and invest in better staffing for their stores.

Does best buy sell over priced junk (cables and the like)?...Yes!

Are the associates the best source for gaining knowledge on various equipment and set ups?...No!

Can shopping at best buy be a good experience?....Sometimes.


Below are a couple of good experiences I have has at best buy in recent times:

I frequently buy more and more blu-rays and cd's at best buy ever since amazon starting collecting sales tax in CA (for the states not getting taxed on amazon/online, it will come soon enough). I have purchased many catalog and newer releases there in the past year or so with most of them being from the "bargain bin" paying about $7-10 per movie....similar to amazon prices. I also pre-oredered 2 or 3 films there in the past year for their exclusive extras. I have also purchased more then a few CD's there, mostly $5 or so. Not too long ago I got a Queen box LP box set that had 5 vinyl albums with one cd packaged together in a nifty box. Price tag said $10, when rang up at the register it came up as $1...score!

Not too long ago I wanted to replace by ps3 as my primary blu-ray player.....got sick of the fan noise. I also wanted something to be able to play back SACD's and DVD-A's, as I never really explored either format much and was curios. Oppo players were on my list, but since I was I intending o connect everything with hdmi or spdi/f I wasnt too keen on dropping 5 bills on one of their players. I went to one of my 4 local best buys to check out what they had on the shelf. The manager of the magnolia department helped me out. I explained what I was looking for and he happily demo'd both blu ray play back and sacd playback of a denon 1611 blu-ray player. Grateful for his assistance and time, we started to discuss pricing. He checked his computer and the price was currently at full retail (something like $450 or so cant remember exactly). While he was checking his computer for the price I brought up the denon player listing on amazon on my phone. Showed him the price (listed at $260ish if I remember correctly). He happily priced matched no problem, and even gave me a little bit more of a discount (paid less then $250 out the door).

At another best buy when I was TV shopping almost 2 years ago I was able to play with multiple sets in the magnolia section. The associate helping me allowed me to adjust all tvs I was interested in and even allowed me to demo blu-rays on them. Before purchasing I explained that I intended to go to frys and see what they had as well. He implied that was probably a smart thing to do. At the end of the of the demo session, he thanked me for considering best buy for my purchase and gave me his business card and told me to call or come back to see him if I had any questions. I did go to frys to check out thier tv's and it was hard to get anyone to help me and I couldn't demo the tv's properly. However I did end up purchasing one of their floor models due to the excellent discount I was able to get on it. However before the tv was delivered I was informed that it had been damaged in the delivery truck. After receiving a full refund I found a better deal on an open box set from tigerdirect and purchased from there. At a later date I was back in the original best buy I was demoing tv's in and the magnolia associated remembered me and asked how my tv hunting was going. I relayed my experience and what I ultimately ended up doing. He was impressed with the deal I ended up with from the on line retailer. When ever I go back there and he is working he says hello. I actually impulse bought an open box sony 300 disk cd changer from him one day...he even marked it down a tad more for me too.


All in all both experiences for me were very good from a customer service stand point. I find dealing with most of the magnolia associates to be fairly positive. I have been able to play with some of the high end tv sets (elites and the 75 inch samsung model). Never any pressure, never any bad info relayed to me. One time me and the magnolia manager at the best buy closest to me (the bby in the first experience section) were talking cables, and he right off the bat said he knew high dollar hdmi cables were a waste of money for consumers and he didn't like the pressure to push them on consumers. Very upfront and honest.

I have run across a few ditzes here and there at bby, mostly the non magnolia associates and mostly in the computer and tablet sections. I dont make many high dollar purchases at bby or brick and mortar stores in general. I mostly just buy media and occasional accessory or the rare item costing $100 or more...but this is few and far between.

I do see the writing on the wall for consumer electronic stores and am responsible for helping it along by making most of my purchases on line through amazon and newegg and others, and I will be sad to see bby and the remaining consumer electronic stores go, but unless they can figure out a way to profitably compete in the new market, they have to go, that's just how business works.

Best Buy is very hit or miss from store to store. The one closest to me doesn't even have their receivers plugged in, let alone hooked up. They only seem to care about selling the HTIAB's.

I have two stores around our neighborhood. Their customer service has always been pleasant. Ever since they started amazon price matching - there is no incentive for me to use other stores for electronics purchases ( top that off with 18 month financing, reward zone point etc)

However, I would not use them for anything audio ( excluding media) or accessories ( monoprice rules)
Edited by jaymalya - 1/27/13 at 7:06am

To be fair, you can't really expect too much out of their employees. As a former Best Buy employee, i can tell you that there is literally no useful training for their employees. they give you an online certification that is based on products and technology at least two years old and provide little to no one-on-one training. If you happen to have a store with a Magnolia Design Center, not to be confused with magnolia home theater, you should have a completely different experience. In design centers, they should have at least up to B&W 802D with MC601's, Summit X with MC205, and Cremona M's on Marantz reference. They are also full C4, Lutron, AMX, and soon to be Savant dealers.

I still keep in contact with some friends who are in district management and they've said that the Magnolia Design Centers are one of the few parts of Best Buy that is thriving.

Sears is the same way. Either you do not get the time allowed to do the training, or the training is done by working alongside another co-worker, who may be as clueless as you, when it comes to certain things. These days though, having the Internet available in a way, that there is more info at a person's fingertips, than there was ten years ago, makes it better for someone to educate their own self, more than the kid at the local B&M.

I have found that kids are good if you want to know what game system, or game is good, but anything else, forget it.

funny you mention that, the best (perceived) most knowledgeable retail sales associates I have run across in recent times are the kids who work at Game Stop.

The reason they are in business is because most of the people that shop there buy the Bose crap.

The Best Buy by me has a Magnolia theater in it and recently I have became a customer again there. My family has saved about $600 from matching Amazon recently with no hassles. Also I work at Sears and I told my dad to not use my sears discount and buy his TV at Best Buy because of the offers and better service.