zoomgirl

So I was in BB the other day buying Boardwalk Empire and I was asked if I wanted to buy a plan in case anything went wrong with my blu-ray which I declined. But he couldn't let it go and tried to do the hard sell. Are they that desperate for money? My boyfriend told me that last week they tried to sell him a plan when he bought The Thing.
Has this happended to anyone else or are we the lucky ones?

DVD Josh

Actually yes, BB is not doing very well. In fact, many analysts are predicting them to be the next big company to fall.

reverie

I'd say they ask me about 80% of the time. Heck- they asked my wife awhile back when she bought a wheel for MarioCart Wii, and that's just a hunk of plastic!

bunkaroo

I always laugh and just say no.

DonnachaOne

Best Buy staff are required to pitch at least three additional items at any given time to customers. It is all their job is.

The media is sold at break-even to loss in order to get you in, where they try to get you to buy accessories (overpriced cables, racks, DVD cleaners etc), services (CinemaNow), maintenance offers (the service plan), the best buy credit card, and usually another sponsored offer. They are required to pitch them all to whatever guest they talk to, and random guests are polled by exit staff to make sure staff are itching everything.

It is more important to BB to sell those additional offers than to cultivate a healthy customer relationship. Staff are encouraged to lie to make the sale, especially with service plans. If they get caught not making offers, or if the polled customer says they didn't get offered anything, the staff member can be terminated. There's always someone else who can do the job.

Naturally, there are some exceptions. Car audio and computers, given the vast cost and sensitivity of the technologies they work with, usually have more knowledgeable staff. But they still have to make those offers.

So, whenever some desperate kid comes up offering to "help", I tell them I'm not interested and that if I'm exit-polled I'll tell them they did well. Honestly though, I can't remember the last time I wasted my time going to Best Buy.

RonG617

I know a lot of people that won't go into a Best Buy because they hate being hassled when they are just trying to buy something. I stopped going in my local Blockbuster when it was still around because they annoyed me by pressuring me to buy candy and other things when I just wanted to rent a movie. I think the upsell causes more customer loss than they could ever gain by the one person in a hundred who takes them up on one of the deals they offer.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, all of the hard-selling is really off-putting. It's annoying at best and downright insulting at worst... these guys will look me in the eye and tell me such whopping lies that it pisses me off that they seem to think I'm that stupid.

When I bought my last computer there, back in 2000 or so, I had a manager pull me back into his office try to sell me a UPS (unlimited power supply) because if I didn't have it, it would destroy my BIOS. At which point, I decided to fuck with him and tell that I already had one. Of course that didn't stop him, and he assured me that the one I had wasn't good enough. All of this after I practically had to beat the salesperson who was trying to get to buy a service plan off of me with a stick.

Needless to say, I left the store with a new computer, no service plan, and no UPS. And that was the last major item I bought at Best Buy. It was just loss-leader CDs, DVDs, and blu-rays after that.

SterlingBen

I usually just say no to all when they start their pitch and no one usually says anything after that.

g

I was just at walmart.com and it wanted me to add protection plan for a DVD for a dollar. Bestbuy isn't the only one.

Shannon Nutt

The only purchase I bother with an extended warranty on these days is a car. Every other extended warranty isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Ropes Pierre

you can offer them a protection plan. In exchange for a five dollar bill you can promise not to whip them with an HDMI cable.

"retail is a dangerous line of work. Boxes fall off shelves onto blue shirts all the time"

Kmical

"It would be a shame if one of those forklifts were to go out of control, strike you from behind, and sever your spine. A real shame ..."

Peep

I've bought at least 50 movies over the past year in various Best Buys in the West LA area and have never once been asked for an upsell.

Toys R Us, on the other hand, always asks me.

Superdaddy

Yeah, strangely no one bothered me when I was there during my last few visits, including Upgrade and Save.

A buyer protection plan on a BD is pretty funny. If I get a defective copy, I can presumably just exchange it for another one. And as to damage, the anti-scratch coating actually appears to be pretty good on these discs. My two year-old got a hold of a BD of Alvin and the Chipmunks movie for a while, which after cleaning bore only a few barely noticeable hairline scratches that did not affect play in any way. If it was a DVD, it would have been gouged.

drmar35mm

I got the pitch when I bought a Panasonic flatscreen before Christmas--to be expected for an item like that. Of course, I said no. But I've never been asked if I want an extended warranty on DVDs or Blu Rays. As someone noted, that's just irritating and counterproductive for the store. Makes the staff look like doofuses (not that some of them aren't to begin with).

wz42

Yep. That's one of the reasons I've stopped shopping at Best Buy. That and the general customer service has gone down the hill generally.

Funny thing is for Boxing Week I went into HMV Canada and at the cash they tried to up sell me on 3 different things (iirc buying a PureHMV iTunes like gift card for their estore, being "offered the chance" to buy a selection of 4 movies for $5 each since I spent over $20 and a third one I can't remember since I was on autopilot saying no at that point).

This was all when there was a line behind me with all our time being wasted and a customer who just cashed out complaining that she was short changed at the till (they said there was nothing they could do).

You can always tell whose slowly but surely going under - it's almost like watching entropy in motion.

Josh-da-man

I wonder if anyone has ever paid the $2.99 for the DVD/blu-ray protection plan and tried to use it?

I can see Best Buy doing everything they can to try to weasel out of honoring it.

cultshock

A few months ago I bought a frigging $20 hair dryer at Walmart and was asked if I wanted a protection plan for it. This is getting ridiculous.

Abob Teff

I don't mind a logical suggestive sell (such as concessions at the video store). However, one suggestion, one RELATED item (batteries IF my purchase needs them).

Best Buy fails by my criteria.

Groucho

I guess this might be useful if it covered double dips.

thetao

To add a little fuel to the fire, I found a CD purchased at "The Wall" in the mid 90's ("The Wall" being a stepping stone between its predecessor, the much better "Wall To Wall Sound and Video" chain, and today's FYE) and received a lifetime (make up your own joke!) guarantee for free. Even though it was a mall store, I didn't pay more than $13.99...because that was always my cutoff, excluding double albums and imports...which isn't much more than CD's sell for today. How times have changed...

Abob Teff

So ... they say "It covers everything." What if I crack open the case before I leave the register and snap the disc in half? Can I get my replacement right then?

SethDLH

I remember The Wall haha. I wonder what it would be like trying to bring that in to FYE today.

Speaking of FYE, and the point of this thread, I picked up 2 clearance bin dvds from there a few weeks back for a total of $5 and change. They offered me insurance on both for $4. I laughed and said I'll pass.

Tarantino

Not true at all.

Sorry you've had shitty experiences at Best Buy, but don't make shit up to try and validate your points.

Josh-da-man

They may not be "encouraged" to lie, but they still tell some whoppers.