Goat3001

No they don't. Catering to the 1% is never the way to run a business. Does it really make any sense for them to seal up their dvd cases for the 1 out of 100 that cares?

And since when doesn't the little place card in the front of the TV tell you which connections the TV has? I bought a TV from BB recently, didn't look at the back, but needed 3 HDMI ports for my various stuff. Right there on the card it told me that the TV I was looking at had 3 slots.

Tarantino

You're a real charmer.

Timber

Chances are he's going to find it quicker than the staff there so why even attempt it?

davidh777

I was once with a girl when she was shopping. She walked into the store, went straight to the front desk, and asked where ___ was. I myself always attempt to find it first, but I guess that's like a men-not-asking-for-directions thing.

Texan26

Shrink Stomper!!

fujishig

Was this at a Best Buy, or, for example, a clothing store? It may be more unfamiliarity with the product.

davidh777

Could be. It was a fabric store and she might not have shopped there a lot.

Chrisedge

Rewards Zone adds a little to the discount, 36 months no interest (I will use their money) and the warranty. If the set breaks, I get it fixed or replaced easily. I also wanted to pick it up myself. I didn't want it delivered.

Amazon is great for CD's, Books and DVD's. I would not buy a 55" TV from them.

Maxflier

Speaking of Best Buy, maybe one of you guys that work there can tell me what is up with the latest trend I have noticed. I will look up a particular DVD or CD online and verify that it is available in the store I want to go to and it is but when I get there it is nowhere to be found. So I check on a kiosk and it says to see a sales associate for assistance with that item. Is that a new way of forcing interaction between the customer and the associates or what? I am one of those people that don't want to be bothered because I know what I am looking for and where to find it in the store, and for the record I love Best Buy, but stuff like this is really annoying.

Maxflier

From everything I have heard, if the website says it's in-store that means there are 3+ on-hand. And the things I am usually looking for aren't any new releases or something that would sell all 3 in one day.

Obi-Wanma

Look, if I'm looking at a major purchase, like a TV for example, chances are I'm going to have a question or two, but I still would rather browse by myself for a while and check things out without someone hovering over me.

And if I'm looking at Blu-rays or video games, I don't want or need your help. I am quite capable of browsing an alpabetized shelf by myself. Asking you to help me find it would be a waste of time (yours and mine).

If I need help, I will ask.

Goat3001

Doesn't justify giving a dickhead response to some teenager that's just trying to do his job.

Obi-Wanma

How is "Thanks, I'm just looking" a dickhead response?

EDIT: Wait, I think the confusion might be coming from the lack of quotes in my original post. This is what I meant

Better?

Goat3001

yes. Sorry for the confusion.

Alan Smithee

Went out looking at TVs tonight. Went to Fry's first, though the store was overlit so I couldn't really judge picture quality, they had a Blu-Ray player out which they let me hook up to all the TVs I wanted to try out. All the TVs had their remotes available too. I talked to one salesguy for a while but the rest of the time nobody bugged me.

Went to Best Buy next. Not a single remote was out, had to ask a kid to go look for one that would control a Sony I wanted to look at. Didn't see any Blu-Ray or DVD players out, I asked if they would bring one out at least when I was ready to buy and the kid there said "I guess so." We got to talking about a few brands and I mentioned I wouldn't consider a Samsung because they're not PAL-compatible. I asked if he knew about PAL and NTSC and he said "No." He would have failed my job interview! (Some bimbo tried to sell me DirecTV too- she was too young to remember when MTV actually played music. To be fair someone at Fry's pushed it on me too, but they were more quick to agree that I wouldn't be happy with it.)

I'd definitely go out of my way to buy from Fry's given they had an infinitely better store setup. I'd buy from Best Buy if they had a model I wanted that Fry's didn't carry, but I'd feel at least a little bad about it.

Tarantino

I would have failed your job interview because he didn't know what PAL was.

Timber

If you're "selling" TV's though shouldn't you know that? Shouldn't you have even some basic knowledge? Not saying you should know details about every single TV but some general TV knowledge would be good I would think.

Goat3001

Question: Why did you feel the need to ask this kid working there about this? Obviously you're knowledgeable enough about what you're looking for that you didn't actually need his advice. Did you just find the need to ask to make him feel "dumb" so you can run and post about it on an internet forum?

The Cow

I wouldn't say that would fail a job interview at Best Buy. But if Best Buy did hire him to work in the TV department, they should train him to be knowledgeable about what he's selling. And I think that would be something to at least know a bit about.

Goat3001

I wouldn't consider PAL and NTSC basic knowledge. I have no idea what they are either. Most people that walk into the store want to know if a TV is plasma/led/lcd or if the tv will hook up to their dvd/blu/video games. That's it.

And also the thing is that Best Buy hires teenagers for a reason. They're cheap labor. This helps keep the prices competitive.

Deftones

why is that funny? if you are selling a product you should know all the features of it. that's like a car salesperson not knowing how to explain the function (or non-function) of a feature on a car.

Josh-da-man

PAL vs NTSC isn't really common knowledge at all. I'd wager that less than one in one thousand people even know what the terms refer to.

This is very specialized knowledge that is only going to matter to a small handful of collectors who are going to import media.

To 99.9% of the country, it's irrelevant.

JeffTheAlpaca

I hope they don't close the store in Milpitas, CA

I remember back in 2004 I would spend maybe 2 hours browsing their selection of DVDs and fantasizing about what big screen TV I wanted to own.

Pizza

It sounds like he asked him because it came up in the conversation. Granted that some customers can be jerks but I've been hassled by bored sales help. I had 5 different sales people come up to me in TV at BB in less than three minutes. ( they were obviously having some fun with me.) I told them all I was fine and just looking. The last kid literally challenged me, though I don't know why. He really got in my face and said "so you know everything about all these TVs?" I kept asking him to leave me alone, to walk away. He wouldn't and scared the crap out of my wife who was standing next to me. So it goes both ways. Both customers and store employees can be jerks. The difference is the employees are earning a paycheck so I'm usually amazed when they get rude unless dealing with unreasonable customers and even then they should keep it professional.

Timber

Damn, got best buy'd again. Against my better judgement I order a Blu from them that Amazon has yet to price match. It's in stock for store pickup but not available for delivery. I place the order and 5 minutes later get an e-mail saying they are unable to locate the item in the store. So I guess they don't have an inventory system? Or they do have an inventory system but they still mark items as available even though they have very little listed in stock? Either way whatever they're doing sucks.