best buys employees suck and so do they

a reply to: CardiffGiant

I hate the Best Buy at the mall you went to. I went through the same "out-of-stock" run around 2 summers ago when I went to buy a Kindle. I ended up in Sandusky rather than Avon, though. Just last month I tried doing the whole order online/pickup in store thing, but of course Elyria was out of everything I tried. I officially gave up on Best Buy then. Staples and Amazon for me now.

That's why we buy most things from Amazon. Plenty of information available on the products there plus you can read the reviews. We have Amazon Prime and usually get our stuff the next day or two. Never leave the couch. I've also have never had any trouble with returns or exchanges with Amazon.

a reply to: halfpint0701

Well good to know you neighbor. Pretty cool someone from my town is on here. Im done with that elyria store.
This is off topic but its my thread so its ok.
You ever get to amherst? If so you know the plaza with the goodwill and sears hardware across the street from pat catans. Its on cooper foster. Anyway that chinese buffet opened again and everyday till 3:30 its only 5 bucks and they have killer food. Dinner is only 7 bucks.
Just a heads up since you live in town

Best buy has forced me to do something I said I would never do....Go to Walmart!

Friend Best Buy and give them a load of their arrogant attitude back.

I'm sure they still remember me at the Best Buy in Austin. I bought a refrigerator from them and it stopped working within a month. It was under warranty and so I called them up and told them about the problem.
Over the course of three weeks I took off work three times to be at home when a repair man came.
Pretty much all they could figure out was "Yep, it's broke."
After 3 weeks of not having a refrigerator and being told they were going to send another repair man next week I lost my temper.
I picked up the fridge, by myself, and hauled to my truck, smashing a fingernail off on the door jam in the process.
I drove to Best Buy and backed right up to their front doors. I unloaded the fridge and set it on the floor right at the entrance.
I told the manager I was not leaving until they gave me another fridge.
He threatened to call the police. I told him to go right ahead.
I was back on the road with a new fridge within 5 minutes.

None of my family will go with me to BB any more, I tend to get into arguments with the employees on the 'facts' they spew about the items they sell.

I do everything myself now, just using websites to locate products. Even that simple task seems too complicated for in-store. I have run into a couple employees that werent too bad, but its inconsistent.

Monoprice.com and partsexpress.com for cable needs, much better pricing. You can even use it as a distro center, of sorts, install for a customer, and with parts/shipping/labor give the client 50% cheaper solution than anything a big box store offers.

I've found alternatives to buying at any store you can find in a mall.

Newegg and Amazon are my go-to for electronics.

People wonder why we don't want to pay high wages for kids out of school.
Because a consumer society relies on a high profit margin that comes from a shrinking worker base.
Fast food and high margin consumerism is not the basis for economic stability.

You end up with two extremes, ineptitude and greed.

if i were getting payed $6.99 per hour I would suck too.

My boycott of Best Buy is going five years strong now. Horrible customer service. I'm glad there shutting down all over Phoenix. I drive by one everyday on my way to work and its always dead. Wont be long before that one will be a Dicks sporting goods or empty lot. Good riddance.

originally posted by: PLAYERONE01
if i were getting payed $6.99 per hour I would suck too.

I don't know what they pay today - but in the mid nineties their starting pay for hourly was between nine and fourteen an hour based upon experience.

a reply to: CardiffGiant

I was at Pat Catan's and saw that it had reopened! I already told hubby that we're hitting it when he gets back home lol

It's very cool to discover that someone I've replied to in various threads turns out to live right by me lol

a reply to: Hefficide

Whoa yeah it's definitely not that high now. You also got to figure in inflation which puts that between 14-21 dollars an hour.



I worked for Best Buy this past year and while I had my issues with the company (low working hours) it actually isn't the worst company to work for. The discounts are nice, you can win stuff by doing leanings, and pay is a bit more than other retailers (although nowhere near 14-21 dollars an hour unless you're Geek Squad). Now yes Best Buy has some serious issues with getting product in stock, I don't know how many times I had to tell customers we didn't have an item. It's not the sales employee's fault though a lot of it has to do with the manufacturer and distribution.
There was one tablet the ASUS Transformer tablet that we didn't have in for a good couple months because there was so much demand for it the manufacturer couldn't keep up.

I have to defend the customer service and sales employees because I've been there and know it's not as simple as people think. First and foremost most people aren't working there as a career choice most are part timers with two jobs or students. Second there are hundreds of products Best Buy sells it takes hours of e-learnings to begin to have a good grasp on the technicalities of each product. Products also change frequently which causes problems because then you have to learn about a whole "new" product even if little has changed (Apple I'm looking at you). Of course not every employee takes the product knowledge serious and don't even have an interest in electronics and I find that sad. They should just quit and open up full time positions for those who do.

Overall it's not really the store employees fault as much as it is the corporate guys. Corporations care more about profits than anything and that is definitely reflected in Best Buy among other corporations.

a reply to: asmall89

The way i look at it though is its a store that is open to the public. Not getting items in cause of distribution is not my problem. If they dont have the item in the store then it shouldnt be on display for sale. If i wanted to buy it online i would from my comfy couch. If im at the store i want to buy it and take it home. Half the tablets they display are not in stock. Thats a # way to operate and certainly not the customers fault.

About product knowledge. Again the hassle the employee goes through is not customers fault. Im not buying how hard it is to learn product either. E learning... boo hoo. When you sell a product you should be familiar with it. I sold new cars for a while. Same dealership had chrysler and gm. I had to learn it. I took literature home and learne. Best buy sales guys could fo the same. They can read it all online while at home or on break. Thats whst people do with work. At least they used too. I guess now they dont get psid enough or the hours of learning take too long or there are too many products.
Lots of excuses to why these people suck at their job.
silly me for wanting decent service and a sales guy to know his product and to have the item in stock if it is on display.
fits my theory of they dont want to work and have this air of entitlement.
im wondering why the actual store is needed. Maybe i will research and see if i can get an internet campaign started to boycott the store and only buy online. Maybe then the stores will start to close and these uber employees will be out of their cush job. Let them sling has at chipotle. Place is always busy. St least there they would be busting ass

originally posted by: CardiffGiant
a reply to: asmall89
About product knowledge. Again the hassle the employee goes through is not customers fault. Im not buying how hard it is to learn product either. E learning... boo hoo. When you sell a product you should be familiar with it. I sold new cars for a while. Same dealership had chrysler and gm. I had to learn it. I took literature home and learne. Best buy sales guys could fo the same. They can read it all online while at home or on break. Thats whst people do with work. At least they used too. I guess now they dont get psid enough or the hours of learning take too long or there are too many products.

What do you think they do? Every week I was short on hours (which was most of the time btw) I made up by doing learnings. I did hundreds of them. I got pretty good at knowing my products but still I did not know everything. I bet it was the same way with your job selling cars (I did that as well). No matter how much you think you know about a product you will always get that offbeat question that you wont know. Elearnings weren't always something you would choose to do either, every month we had a set of learnings to complete.

Also these companies (and dealerships) put people on the floor before they're ready to sell. It's all about making money and profits. I was constantly told at the dealership I worked at that product knowledge doesn't matter only selling skills which is BS. That's what these companies are making their employees think, priority is given to selling skills rather than product knowledge.

You're right it's not the customer's fault and I sympathize with the customers I served. The not having a product in stock was a constant issue which I had no control over. I agree that there are some serious issues that need fixed, an emphasis on product knowledge is definitely one. However I have to defend the place because it was better than most places I've worked, but of course far from perfect.

I get sick of people thinking that my generation and younger are nothing but entitled brats. I'm not perfect, I have my issues and vices as we all do, but I try and so does most everyone else. The corporations, government and materialistic focused society are more to blame.

a reply to: asmall89

Things must have really changed a LOT. Back when I worked for them getting hours was not a problem - getting home long enough to eat and shower was though. Even though I was management, the company had paid for a computer system that did "demand based" scheduling - deciding how many people had to be "on deck" at any given time and then filling in names automatically.

Management had no control over which names went where. Including our own.

I cannot count the times I was scheduled "close" then "open". Back then closing meant doing all the freight, all the cleaning, and all of the front facing. We were lucky to get out of the store by 1-3 AM. Opening manager due to back at 6 AM. Many were the times I would leave work, take a shower, sit for a bit, then throw the blue back on and head back to unlock the building without a wink of sleep.

That was before training - which in those days was to have a rep show up, before store opening, to train specific departments about that companies products. Oh and monthly employee meetings on Sunday mornings.

Yeah, hours were not a problem. Well they were, but in the opposite way. LOL

a reply to: asmall89

First, for the most part the people just entering adulthood and the 20 somethings do have this air of entitlement about them. Of course not all and you may not be that way but for the most part i think im right. I see it all the time with employees of that age wherever i am at.
Again, its not all but its there. Its the full time attitude.
That generation you can tell. Big ass smart phones on their hip. People on the register hardly acknowledge you cause their face is buried in their phone. Im at the pharmacy trying to get my meds and im at the counter wsiting. The 2 techs can see me but i had to wait 5 minutes while one showed the other her new iphone.
Why should a customer have to wait for that?
It seems like its always as little effort as possible and it gets old.
About the product training. I know there will be those hard unusual one but im talking basic tablet knowledge. These people dont know # about wwhat theyre selling and thats on them.
Wjo cares if u cant e learn on the clock. U get online at home and learn it.
What it really is is places are changing the way they operate. They expect to staff as little as possible so labor is low.
Both times i was there there were no clerks by the tablets. Im wondering around and nothing. Whatever happened to the employee being in the area to at least greet you? Those days are gone.
All the box store. I have to go find people to help me and as a customer i shouldnt have to.
Why is it wal mart has 30 lanes but only open 5 for checkout?
Customers just love that.
Everything about shopping for any item sucks cause its like that.
im not an a hole to them. Not demanding respect and wanting to be called sir. Could care less.
It would be nice if before i drop a couple hundo they at least acknowledge me. Be there to answer s couple questions.
Even 10 years ago it wasn't like this.
I dont want to and shouldnt have to find people to help me. Would be nice if they actually did their job.
those times are long gone. Retail has always sucked but now its a nightmare

a reply to: Hefficide

Yeah it must have changed big time. The full time positions are almost impossible to get, all I'm getting offered is a part time position and I am definitely qualified for a FT position Lol. I don't know what the deal is I suppose it's because of Obamacare.


a reply to: CardiffGiant

Oh I know how it is to get helped on at Best Buy and other stores. My own parents came in to buy some stuff and it took me a while to get over to them. Just to help my own parents! Lol. That's the way it is though we were generally short staffed except on Black Friday. Trust me I wish it wasn't this way, I wanted work, I liked my work for the most part. Elearning is also paid for which is one reason why I did so much of it, but there were plenty of hours there I didn't log.

I just have to defend my generation because a lot of us are being dealt crappy hands because of the economy and the good old college lie. Yes some are entitled and I admit I am probably viewed that way because I live with mom and pop but you don't know someone until you've walked in their shoes. We all have our struggles.

Anyway here's an awesome video by Peter Schiff that pretty much sums up the majority of my generations situation.