Best Buy Infuriates Me. - Page 3

I think part of the frustration is that the majority of the people here on AVS are not the same type of customers who walk in to a best buy store. As someone stated before, the selection is a business decision. Do you really think it's profitable for them to have every AVR on the market fully functional, attached to a massive switching board with speakers, and all with HDMI runs to a TV so you can see the OSD? Of course not, especially when most people think that $500 is a ridiculous amount to spend on a 5.1 surroundsound with built-in blu-ray. People who walk in to a best buy store would think you are stark raving mad for thinking about dropping 5 grand on a pair of speakers. When it comes down to it, we are not Best Buy's target market. We are the target market for Magnolia Design Center, but because we tend to stay away from Best Buy it's hard for them to get us into their store.

Then maybe a small seperate magnolia store that isn't pushed in the back of every best buy...:)but a stand alone building catering to us...especially with proper demo rooms...

those exist...got one about 20 minutes form my house.

At least some of you guys have stores near you with Magnolia corners. lol. Every store near me simply has a random setup in the middle of the store.

My girlfriend bought me a camera a few years ago for valentine's day. The only way to charge it was by USB connection to a computer (this was years ago before Ac to USB plugs were common for phones). We were on Vacation in California and the battery started to die. Went into a BB and ask one of the sales guys if I could plug the camera in to one of the laptop for a few minutes while we bought a charger for the camera. Guy said sure that was cool. Found the charger came back and the manager was standing in front of the laptop where my camera was. He rather forcefully unplugged the camera and tossed it to the side and said that I couldn't plug anything into the computers. That was when I tossed the charger on the counter and told him we wouldn't be buying anything from there today. Went to fry's bought the same exact thing for about half the price and really haven't bought whole lot from there since.

Last time I returned an item at best buy was back in 2007, and yes it was a PITA, took more than 30 min to 'fix'. Yes actually online stores are very helpful (monoprice, Amazon, AVS store etc). Returns are easy to Amazon, they email a return slip and send UPS a call tag. Item is picked up the next day and usually (item damaged or wrong item) Amazon usually ships it to me 24 hrs later (on their dime btw). If it 'feels' good to you to shop at a Best Buy than good for you. My whole point is that I am buying X (tv, avr, amp, bd, wires, pj etc) and not buying a store or 'shopping experience' at BB, only the item.
Edit:
Don't want to forget to mention this forum. This place is a wealth of knowledge and by reading the threads on this forum I even saved money (my 4311ci bought at EE, monoprice), discovered new ID subwoofer companies that offer performance with price in mind. I do not think you would find that at a Best Buy.
Edited by BornSlippyZ - 1/29/13 at 5:54am

Gotta be profitable. Why do you think so many of the small hi-fi shops are closing? It's next to impossible to make money by only catering to the AVS crowd. Also, Magnolia Design Centers are as close to a hi-fi shop that you'll find in a B&M store, only 29 iirc across the US. There are i think 3 stand alone MDC locations left but most of them are getting moved into best buy stores for that exact reason, it's just not profitable to have a stand-alone hi-fi shop anymore.

It really depends on the area. Our mom & pop A/V shop that has been around since 1973 is doing more business than ever, especially after Circuit City closed, and the fact that Best Buy in our town is ran like a Mental ward, with the patients running the show.

Also our local mom & pop computer shop is doing even stronger, since BB and places like Officemax, depot, staples no longer carries the gear that they used to.

This is my point... Its the location and the products they would sell...

Honestly not every AVS member is dropping 5 grand on a pair of speakers. The inexpensive and well regarded Andrew Jones Pioneer speakers I got from Best Buy fit my budget perfectly.

This is true. I have the Pioneers and I got them from Best Buy. I think this may be a luck move for Best Buy though, as they had no idea these speakers would've been so popular.

At the same time though, when I went to buy these speakers I wanted to hear them in store. I searched for an employee who could help out, because these speakers weren't connect to the AVR. The most helpful person I could find simply agreed to let me connect them myself. After connecting them and listening for a bit, I decided to get them. Despite the employee not knowing how to even connect the speakers to the receiver, or even attempting to bend down to take a look at it, he tried selling me speaker wire and an HDMI cable after the fact.

As with a lot of businesses, employees play a big part whether you have a good experience, or not. This weekend my wife and I went to a local BB that has a Magnolia and looked at the TV selections. We actually drove another 10 minutes to get here instead of the closer BB which does not have a Magnolia. This particular store had a guy that everyone went to, sometimes just to say hi. Unfortunately he had a heart attack about 6 months ago and has since retired.

One of the other guys in the Magnolia store helped us. He's friends with the guy that had the heart attack and you could see Wally(heart attack) had trained him and picked up his love of things audio and video. Very knowledgeable and helpful. He took the time to demonstrate a few of the TV's. I went in looking for the 80" Sharp and the 75" Samsung caught our eye. We looked at the 70" Elite as well. The Sharp was getting a TV feed which looked terrible. He took the time to hook up a Blue Ray player and put the same demo disc that was playing on the Elite. He also went in and changed some of the settings that really brought out the best in that TV.

With BB's price matching, interest free financing, and employees...When we're ready to buy, we're going back there.

Even though this thread has, sort of, been beaten to death, I'll add another story that just sprang to mind. When I was about 16-18 years old, can't remember, exactly. I went into my local Best Buy, which is a location I still go, on occasion. I walked in the door and, immediately, went to the music CDs, just to browse around, within one minute of being there, the security guy, who I had seen during previous visits, standing by the door, was in the aisle with me, standing within a couple feet, with his arms crossed, just watching me. I didn't think much of it at first, but after about five minutes of browsing in the aisle, it came to my attention that he must have assumed I wanted to steal something, being as he was so close, I was certain he might start making out with me at any minute.

I'm not really sure how he reached the conclusion that I was going to steal as he followed me straight to the aisle within a minute of me entering the store. I was a normal looking teenager, I didn't dress ghetto or grungy looking, not that looks matter, but I was a totally, average looking teen. It's like I walked through the door, he saw me and decided, this kid is a thief, I'm going to follow him and just stand over him until he leaves. Quick end to the story, I ended up leaving with nothing. I had money that day and had intended to purchase something, but I didn't want Mr. Bad Ass door guard following me around for my whole shopping trip. He did a good job though losing his company a few sales that day. Just one of the many positive experiences I've had with that company.

I could go on and on about the poor customer service, unwillingness to help when a product, prematurely, fails, etc, etc... But, with all the posts in this thread, I think people get the idea.

I've had just the opposite experience at Best Buy. I've probably have spent 20k over the years @ BB. From plasma televisions to Denon 3808ci and kitchen appliances...video games and consoles in fact when my Xbox 360s went bad I just picked one up from the aisle and did a swap. My son was diagnosed with stage 4 testicular cancer a couple years ago (all clear now ) Best Buy was the Make-A-Wish store. It was during closing hours and the whole staff was cheering and had signs made up and giving my son high fives. Awesome experience, way to go Best Buy. I'll never forget that. He recieved around $5500 in electronics.

You may just be the 1% lol

I don't get why ppl are so focused on the fact that most BB employees "don't have a clue". Who cares? The mere fact that we're a member of this forum should indicate that we probably know what we want, what we're looking for, and have a good base knowledge to make an informed purchase.

I don't have a BB in my city but I have a Future Shop (part of BB) and the staff also have no clue. Bought a Pio receiver couple years ago and the employee proceeded to tell me that he though that a 7.1 was better than a 5.1 because it's got better, and I quote, "linearity" between the speakers . Don't bother me, I know what I want. Plus, you can negotiate with them, usually end up going down 10 to 20% which bring stuff up to fair price.

The selection does blow though. But then again, every time I go there, there's more ppl over in the HTIB section than the component section.

That's true. I really don't have much of a clue. Pretty much look to the web for all info anyway.

They have great financing deals and now match prices from other major stores so I really don't have much to complain about. The more I think about it, I hope they don't go away like circuit city.

I think some people wield their knowledge like a big stick and a green salesman makes a good target. Of course some people have legitimate beefs, but some folks go looking for a fight.

This happened to me many times when I was that age as well. The fact is the majority of shoplifters are young males. The guy just singled you out for belonging to this demographic.

Let me start by first saying that I really like purchasing open box items from BB. In most cases, you get a brand new item or one that was unboxed, used briefly and quickly returned and you can save a lot of money if you're patient. BB also likes to negotiate on open box items because they need to get them off their inventory quickly. I have also bought new items at BB and usually happy with the purchase.

In any case, I picked up a Sony HTCT550W soundbar last weekend for my bedroom, an open box item that had been marked down to $271, which the store then let me have for $250. The only problem was that the salesperson told me it supported bluetooth, a feature my wife was insisting on. I got it home and set it up, but when I went to pair it with my iPhone nothing happened. I opened the manual to see what I'd done wrong only to discover that it didn't actually support bluetooth. It would be easy for me to blame the salesperson for not knowing his products, but in fact I really hadn't researched it as thoroughly as I normally would. And it's possible that the salesperson confused it with the HTCT260, which does support bluetooth.

Either way, I returned it yesterday to a different BB store and exchanged it for another open box soundbar, a Toshiba SBX4250, which supports both bluetooth and HDMI for pretty much the same price. Brought the Toshiba home last night and lo and behold, the box contained the bar and subwoofer but nothing else. No remote, no cables, not even a little foam wrap. The subwoofer was scratched and fingerprinted and the power supply was still connected to the soundbar. So basically someone had returned it like that and BB simply threw some tape on the box and put it up for sale.

So who to blame in this case - the scumbag customer who returned it in such poor condition and missing important parts, BB for not bothering with even a routine inspection of the contents before repackaging it and selling it to me, or me, for not inspecting the contents myself before paying for the item and leaving the store with it? I think the blame can probably be shared equally three ways.

One lesson learned here is that BB is far from a perfect retailer but they do try to do the right thing and sometimes they get burned by a-hole customers who abuse the liberal return policies. That sometimes spoils it for the rest of us. The other lesson is that you have to be a smart customer. Do your research. Know what you're looking for. Write down model numbers and features. And yes, check the contents of open box items before you buy them.

I'll be taking the Toshiba back to the store today to see what they'll be willing to do for me. I have had similar issues with BB in the past (an open box blu-ray player a couple of years back purchased from the same store that also didn't have the remote), but they have always made good. In that case, they gave me a brand new player for the open box price. I'll be interested to see what they do with this situation. I'll report back with the results.

Update: Best Buy did indeed make good. Not only did they give me a new-in-box soundbar for the open box price, they "price matched" it, giving me a few more dollars off for my incovenience. The store didn't have one in stock, so I had to pick it up at a different location, but it was on my way home anyway so no big deal. Once again, a satisfied customer who will continue to shop at BB.
Edited by jonny-zed - 1/31/13 at 6:21am

Today was the final day for me at BB, it does not matter I dropped over $1,000 there within the last Month. I blocked all their spam mails, have one $25 reward certificate to burn, then it's over.......... The management is so fooked up, they deserve to go under. I bet the chief's who arestill left (afterTuesdays cuts) are gonna put that place to rest while raping the last penny out of her. They have a good bunch of kids working there, it's those hidden ass-hats who call the shots, what a bunch of pricks....

Talk by whom?

Oh, no doubt that Brian Dunn was terrible for the company. The years from 2009 til 2012 will go down in history as the Dark Ages for BBY. The Frenchman (Hubert Joly) is making some changes that, in the short term at least, are making Wall Street happy (like not losing as much margin as analysts predicted when price matching online retailers over the holidays).

Time will tell, but for now he seems to have stopped the freefall.

Speaking to the assortment question, I can offer some thoughts. Depending on how many square feet your local BBY's are, and how specialized your shopping habits are, you can certainly run into situations where that store won't have what you're looking for. By and large, a retail store - especially an electronics store - has to give floor space to that which sells quickly, and/or that which vendors provide substantial kickbacks on. Google wants to feature their new Chromebook? Google pays for a highly-visible end cap that features that Chromebook. Same goes for individual items throughout a store. If these trends don't match your shopping plans on a given day, you could certainly find yourself not finding what you're looking for in your local BBY store.

BBY stores will be downsizing when possible (less square feet), or when not possible reducing their assortment to match the new policies of Hubert Joly. The thinking is that BBY got oversaturated in many markets, having too many stores in too small a population area. I can attest to that, as there are two BBY stores within 5 minutes of each other in my area, both right off the same interstate highway. When/if they close stores or reduce assortment and staffing at these stores, think of it within the context of this strategy. Also think of it as growing pains. Will it be frustrating sometimes to go into a store that used to have 4 aisles of CDs to browse only have a 4 foot section of same? Yeah, and I'm a music lover.

One thing BBY will benefit from is the changing thinking that online shopping has ingrained in us - we've come to understand that a delay for shipping is an acceptable tradeoff for being able to get what we want at the price we want. eBay, Amazon, Crutchfield, apple.com, etc, all have taught us that over the past 15 years.

Apparently the Atlanta Design Center is a thing of beauty.

Do you see what I see, since when does any store teach us? This is what is happening, corporate america has learned how to dictate to us. The sheeple need to learn how to say see ya......

The bold is currently what Amazon is doing/trying, getting the stuff quicker (same day shipping) to it's customers. I would love if Amazon had some 'will call' warehouses where you go and pick up your stuff after you order the product. Like Service Merchandise or Best stores of the past.

I won't comment on the good vs bad experiences; level-headed vs emotionally charged debates here — frustration and the act of being infuriated happens in all walks of retail today...Best Buy is no exception. But insofar as matching goes, they match the following online: Amazon.com, Apple.com, Bhphotovideo.com, Buy.com, Crutchfield.com, Dell.com, Frys.com, hhgregg.com, HP.com, HomeDepot.com, Lowes.com, Newegg.com, OfficeDepot.com, OfficeMax.com, Sears.com, Staples.com, Target.com, TigerDirect.com and Walmart.com. They also match a lower price between their own stores and on BestBuy.com.

To me at least, this covers many/most of the current big-name electronics and 'home' players. It took, IMO, far too long to get there, but it's here; and I could care less why they arrived here (they had to), either. And no, I don't think anyone so-called deserves to go down in flames. There's just too many variables at stake, especially the human element in all of this. I suppose it's true: if you don't like it, don't go there. I suppose it can be annoying if sales associates pester you and ask if you need help with anything, but what's the alternative? Either you get asked too often for help or not enough/at all. Either way, someone is going to complain, somewhere. It certainly shouldn't discourage one from entering a Best Buy. Some are great, some aren't. I could say the same about entering a Target store or a Home Depot...but then again, I guess it's way more en vogue to pile on the daily onslaught of dissatisfaction plaguing the ailing giant. Agreed, though, that as one member pointed out, most of us here already know a vast majority of things concerning electronics, and even more importantly, already know what we want going in. If they don't carry a particular item or brand of preference, I can only assume you knew that already before you stopped there. So the point seems moot. As for not carrying what you feel they should, provided you don't need it right then and there, I would simply ask if another location has whatever it is I need, or order it for me so I can pick it up or have it shipped to me or whatever. It only takes a couple of days, at most. And for good measure, I'd ensure that whatever price I'm paying isn't lower elsewhere, otherwise I'd be sure to point out the matching aspect. At this point, I have no doubt they'll accommodate wherever they can.

You haven't experienced their reward zone nightmare.

I've got $35 in rewards zone bucks and plan on spending it b4 they go belly up.

FYI: The Adminisratrion SUCKS!

What's the nightmare about reward zone? You know what's interesting, for the past couple of months people can rack up FREE points using the rewards zone facebook app. First it was 25 points per daily poll, now it's 10 points. There are a couple of other activity where you can gather points. As you can imagine people would complain because they had to spend 30 seconds taking a poll to get free points. When the points when from 25 to 10, the next round of whiners started crying. Unbelievable.