sfsdfd

I do a lot of business at Best Buy (36" TV, three DVD players, digicam, iPaq, $1,00 home theater system, etc.), so I know the ins and outs all too well. For example, I know that the salesmen will tell you, "I don't make any commission off the sales," but of course they don't tell you that they do make commission off the sale of product service plans (PSP's).

My parents needed a new printer the other day. We went up to Best Buy and wandered into the printer section, where we immediately got pounced on by this dork. "Can I help you?" "Um, no, just looking," I said with brush-off tone. He bumbled about 10' away and proceeded to watch us idly.

My parents started looking at printers. They wanted to know if toner cartridges for some manufacturers had more capacity than those made by others. I couldn't answer this, so (before I could stop them) they shot the question over to the dork salesman.

"How many pages can one of these toner cartridges print, on average?"
"It depends what you're printing," the salesman mumbled, his eyes filled with that glazed, I'm-too-dumb-and-lazy-to-give-you-a-meaningful-answer look.
"We're just printing normal text," my parents said. "How many pages can one cartridge print?"
"It depends what you're printing," he repeated in monotone, barely containing his drool.
"Thank you, thank you," I said with twice as much brush-off tone as before, guiding my parents away from dork-boy.

They looked everything over for a while and took my advice. I started to pick up the printer box, and dork-boy practically came running over (as fast as the spare tire around his waist would allow, anyway.)
"Do you need a product ser-"
"NO, THANK YOU," I said.
"Wait, we might need a service plan," my parents naively interject.
Dork-Boy cranks up into full sales-pitch mode. "The PSP covers three years, full-"
I drag my parents away and give them the low-down on the service plan. "It's useless," I tell them. "It costs 1/3 as much as the printer, and it takes them two weeks to poke around inside and return it to you with the problem unfixed."
They didn't take my advice. "OK," I said, "at least let me handle the warranty plan part. Meet me up front with the printer." No way in hell would I let my parents' cash end up in this dip-wad's pocket.

They split and I wander back to the printer aisle. The second I reach for the form, Dork-Boy waddles over again.
"I can fill that out for you," he says.
"No, thanks," I said.
"But you need someone to fill it out! It won't be valid!" he says, this time failing to contain his drool.
"The cashier will fill it out," I respond coolly.
He shoots me a look of death before waddling away.

Informed consumer - 1. Predatory salesman - 0.

- David Stein

D.Pham5GLTE (>60GB)

sad thing is, i don't even think BB people are on commission

UAIOE

They aren't.

Employee's dont get squat for trying to talk people into buying a service plan. I should know i used to work there.

Employee's are required to "offer" service plans and replacement plans to customers so that the depatments in the store can make numbers...selling this amount of stuff with a service plan attached. The more plans sold the more money made and the better the numbers.

The only ones who get anything out of the PSP's and PRP's (service and replacement plans) are the schmucks who are department heads and managers. And they dont get money out of it they just get a pat on the back and corporate off thier back for another day.

Best Buy forces thier employee's to sell those things. I think a better catch phrase for the place should be:

Best Buy, Commission sales without the comission!

calhoun07

I am really curious....if sfsdfd has such animosity towards Best Buy employees, why does he spend so much money there?

CaptDS9E

When i go to BB i usually go because i know what i want and do research ahead of time. I never buy the Warrenty . The price of DVD players, VCR's and so low these days your better off just buying a new one. The only time i ask a BB employee for help is when i cant find a dvd/game that i dont see. Even though the store i go to in Westbury, NY isnt that bad. The Employees have never have bothered me there

capt

D.Pham5GLTE (>60GB)

well, having to offer one is different then forcing it down people's throats

Rypro 525

this is off topic but about best buy employies. they are actualy helpful, i was looking for the indiana jones vhs version, and the clerk shows me to the widescreen version. (the full screen version was next to it). so at least they know something, widescreen is better than full screen.

UAIOE

Offer is just the nice way of saying "get them to buy it or your manager will rip you a new one"

POWERBOMB

I have a PSP and/or PRP on every single item I have ever bought from Best Buy (that you can buy them for). Since then I have had numerous appliance and tv problems fixed at no charge to me. I have had a no lemon return on a computer and used the money to buy a faster computer. I have taken most all my electronics in yearly to have them cleaned at no charge to me.

The employees, including the dept heads and store managers do not get any commissions off the sale of these items. However, Best Buy as a company does make revenue and profit from these items. (Imagine that, a company who is securing it's position in the market place by making a profit! What a concept!)

So they offer it to you, so what? You turned them down. Great for you. I can only imagine the dozen or so people who I see arguing in the returns line because their product is out of warranty and doesn't work & they didn't buy the PSP. Now they are stuck with a worthless product. Gee, maybe 2 weeks isn't too long to wait for something to get fixed at no charge to the customer.

D-Ball

I can't answer for sfsdfd, but I buy a lot from Best Buy but can't stand their employees. I avoid them like the plague. Best Buy has good prices which is why I shop there. I can only be asked to sign up for MSN internet service and Netflix so many times. If they had as much knowledge about the products they sold as they did about all their other offers, I would be a happy customer. But they usually don't. I don't blame the employees themselves since they are only doing their jobs, but that still doesn't mean that I will listen to them.

UAIOE

You've pretty much hit the nail on the head. Not all are useless when it comes to knowing stuff on products but most are clueless.

Creek Rat

Yeah.....It's called doing their job.

"Do you want fries with that?" "No Thanks"

Now was that so hard?

POWERBOMB

Exactly.

LavaLamp27

I used to work at Best Buy and I hated the pressure. BB workers do not receive any commission except a check based on how much stuff ISN'T stolen. And as for the service plans, they are pretty good on some big ticket items, but not on video game controllers, etc. If it breaks, they fix it or give you the money back....wow, what a scam!!!

These kids working there have so much pressure on them from management that the last thing they want to do is deal with crabby customers. If you haven't noticed, the stores are overcrowded and management will not hire enough people to work with them all. Don't blame the employees because they don't know every spec about every product. I used to hate people who thought I knew every single CD and DVD that we carried and if the DVD was fullscreen or widescreen. Sorry to disappoint you crabby customers, but these people have school, work, family, lives outside of work and don't care about your "shopping experience" It's not being rude or mean, it's just real life. Before you complain, work at Best Buy for 6 months and see what people would write about you.

UAIOE

Have you worked at Best Buy within the past few years?


I must be a terrible person when i want to help a customer find what they want and giving them information on products.

I worked in the CD department and all i ever heard fro the higher up's was "how much storage did you offer/sell, how many PSP's did you offer/sell" It got to the point where they made us babysit the storage aisle just so we could write down how much of that crap people walked off with.

Nevermind the fact that i presented myself as a helpful, knowledgeable employee. Nevermind that i knew what i was talking about when people asked me about DVD's & most CD's.

Because i refused to whore myself out to selling service plans on $25 CD players or that i didnt always try and talk the person into getting a $130 walkman i was a bad employee. Because i didnt offer that internet to that guy buying the latest Korn CD, i was a terrible employee.

My job as a "Media Product Specialist" was to answer peoples questions about CD's DVD's and computer software. I dont think that such a title requires me to cram MSN offers down thier throat when 99% of the people i talk to come in to buy a single CD or DVD.

calhoun07

PREACH IT LAVA LAMP!!!!! I actually think the people who go into stores and actually believe the employee there should have seen every movie they carry and listen to every CD they carry are bigger morons than the worst customer service rep in any store in any corner of this world. Do they go to the grocery store expecting the stocker there to have eaten every item of food on the shelf? Do they go to the clothing store expecting the employees there to have tried on every article of clothing there? These people are there to sell the stuff, not give you a consumer report on the crap you want.

The most unbelieveable experience I had was this guy came up to me while I was working at my part time job in a video store. I don't mean to turn this into something racist, so no offence is intended, but I am white and this guy was black. He is asking me about all these movies that is clear he would be interested in, movies obviously marketed to an African American demographic. He wanted to know how all these movies were and had seriously expected me to have seen each and every one of them. He finally got mad at me when I kept telling him I honestly didn't know anything about the movies he was asking me about and he wanted to know what I was getting paid for! Not to watch your favorite movies, I will tell you that! Too look it up in the computer? Tell you if we have it? Tell you where it is? Yeah, I got that covered, but I am not Roger Freaking Ebert.

UAIOE

Happened at your store too?


Even been really understaffed on a Sunday night only to have management chew your ass out because 2 people couldnt do a job that required at least 4 people to do effectively?

LavaLamp27

Of course, it was always me and one other person to close Media and work from 11am to close on every Sunday. The Media Sup hated me because I made her look lazy like she really was and our Senior was this drunk who didn't care what we did. My old manager threated my job and another media boy's job one night because we weren't offering MSN. He asked if I was and I said "I won't lie, No."

A few weeks later, district came in and fired him. Sweet revenge right before I quit...it tasted so sweet.

UAIOE

I got around that whole Sunday thing.

After a entire year of bitching about being understaffed on Sunday's i just requested Sunday's as the day i was unavaible.

I did that for two reasons.

1. i was sick of trying to tell those asses that we were understaffed

2. i was hoping that my not being able to work on Sunday's would drive home the whole "not enough employee's working on Sunday" thing.

Sadly they never did "get it".

Sominex

Spoken like a BestBuy emplyoee!

If I don't want their worthless, hassle making service plan, that simply in lay terms means "I DO NOT WANT IT" MY FAVORITE is when I tell them no, and they keep hounding me and hounding me...

Why do I want a 3 year warranty on something that is SUPPOSED to be reliable?? And they say "I guess you like paying $50 an hour to get something fixed, don't you sir??"

I say back to that "So, are you selling faulty products?? Am I DEFINITELY going to have a problem with this item?? So, you want to charge me, the customer EXTRA MONEY, just so I can take it back here to get fixed, MAYBE in the next 3 years?"


What a friggin waste of money

I have and DO buy warranties for some products (My DirectTivo fo example)

But when it gets to the point that the very mentlaly challenged person working at BestBuy tries to FORCE a service plan on me, and then have the NERVE to ridicule me when I do not want it, I just put the product down, tell his manager the service I got, and let them know I will be shopping at their competitor for that item



Not all bestbuy employees are like this... but a VAST majority of them are...

Creek Rat

First off, I have NEVER worked at Best Buy. There's nothing wrong with someone working there and as a teen I had my share of bad jobs just not that bad job. I don't think BB was even around when I was looking for a minimum wage job.

My comment was only directed at the complaint that people have about being offered service plans they may or may not need. I know that these are for suckers but I also understand that the guy/gal has to ask and I politely decline.

But since you brought it up.....YOU ARE AN EMPLOYEE. You do what your employer asks you to do or you are free to find somewhere else to work. If it is your life goal to dispense advise about CD's DVD's and software and you don't like BB then there is a world of options available to you. You can work somewhere else, open your own store, stay at BB and rip them anonimously, you can stay at BB and try to get them to change, you can sit in the park and wait for people to ask you a question, you can hang out on web forums and answer questions....the endless options of America.

Next time I go to Burger King and to get a Whopper and the "Potato Product Specialist" asks me if I want fries with my order I will give her a wink and say "Power to the people Baby!" because now I know it's killing her a little every day.

LavaLamp27

You need service plans. Yes I am a former employee but here are some simple facts:

XBOX and PS2 (more so the xbox) have histories of malfunctions

Big Screen TVs - Mine went out after 6 months (I didnt buy it at best buy though so I live with a crappy broken TV)

Sony TVs - Most are crap and will break.

Computers - Why not unless you are a computer whiz. My friend is glad he got the service plan for his.

Digital Camcorder - Just a good idea

Anything else - not needed

It's not that they are selling faulty products, it's just that things are made poorly nowadays...and get screwed up in the shipping process. And yes shipping from the dealer to Best Buy warehouses and to the stores. Most TVs and big items in Sony warehouses or whatever are never touched by human hands and instead are loaded into trucks via numerous conveyor belts. If something falls off...guess what??? It goes on the truck anyway.

The point of the service plan is to not get the customer pissed off if technology fails them like it usually does. The employees are more than forced to sell this crap. Their jobs are threatened with it. And don't say..."Work somewhere else". The pay is decent and it is hard to find a job as of late so teens don't want to jeopardize the job they already have.

I quit about a month ago from a store in Michigan, and no I am not brainwashed. I hated working there but just did it for the money. My point is, don't harass the employees. It just makes YOU look stupid. If you want to complain, go complain to the manager and tell them how full of pressure shopping at BB is. But don't get the employees in trouble, they are just trying to make a living. Walk a mile in their shoes.

UAIOE

WAS...

Past tense.

The basis for my complaints towards the "offering" process is a longer story than needs to be discussed on this board.

LavaLamp knows what goes on inside a place such as best buy and its worse than just having your boss threaten to fire you because you didnt offer some MSN or storage to a kid.

And i think Sominex is expresses what is only going to be the growing complaints that this compoany gets.

Creek Rat

All excellent points. I agree that if I were buying a high ticket, black magic item like a big screen or digital camcorder I would buy the extended plan if reasonable. But I would also take the chance on a sub $300 item as long as I felt it would reasonably last a year or so. After that nearly any item there would be out of date and a more advanced one available.

But I also stick to my assertion that as an employee it's not unreasonable to be asked to sell you don't like within reason. The customer will take care of Best Buy over time. The hard sell is what turned me off Curcuit City and if Best Buy tries this their customers will decide on its success with their dollars. The only down side is that most people (customers) are both stupid and cheap; a bad combination.

It sounds like you did the right thing by leaving. The market will force BB to either accept lower quality workers or treat future workers better to attract a high level of quality. There is no reason for you to stick around while they decide which way to go.

calhoun07

I also agree that PSPs are a good idea in certain situations. I bought an expensive stereo system from BB about ten years ago, bought the PSP and amazingly, I used it. I had three different problems, three times it was serviced on, and the last time it was serviced was the month before my PSP ran out on me. And tho I didn't have my original receipt anymore, an employee was nice enough to locate the original copy of the receipt in the back (this was before they could look it up on the computer) and I really appreciated that. Since then, my stereo has given me nothing but ten years of great performance. I did get the value out of my PSP that time.

I've also bought a computer from them and got a PSP but didn't ever use it so the second computer I got from them I didn't get it and had no problems with it. Of course, I know more about computers so I can take care of them myself, but I've seen people use their PSPs on computers for everything they are worth and then some.

I think people should get PSPs on high ticket items. If you're spending that much money first off, what is it going to hurt you to squeeze an extra fifty dollars or so out of your pocket? Get it, you never know if you will use it. The only thing I got it on that I now regret is my DVD player. I am going on three years having that and it has yet to give me a single problem. Tho I have known people who did have problems with theirs and was able to get a free replacement after BB could not fix theirs three times.

BB may seem like a place filled with morons and bad people to the majority of you, and I have had my run ins with idiots there myself, but unless you're looking to antagonize them because you just have to feel better about yourself, most of the time they are all right to deal with. If they don't know what they are talking about, get over it and leave them alone. Just ask another employee and get on with your life.