Just shut up and sell us the computer. Bad time at Best Buy

[LostMyMind]

I've never had this problem at the best buy in my area. I had this problem at circuit city. I see the best buy just making sure you had all the stuff you need to completely set up your computer (or whatever you're buying).

However the "extra warranty" crap, gets pushed at the register at my local best buy. And the cashier couldn't care less if you buy it or not.

[Lehk]

Our bosses are not commissioned.

weird i would have thought policies like that would be corporate wide. maybe different districts have different rules?

[tenaciousb]

Neither Best Buy nor Circuit City work on commission. I know circuit city used to years ago. Almost no big stores do anymore. Never worked for either of those companies myself.

I know at the electronics section at my store, the attitude is, if its the end of the month and we already hit budget for the month, and you come in and buy a lap top without the plan, we wish you never came in at all. Because all you did is screw up all our hard work to get a good attachment percentage for our service plan number. We could care less.

I remember some impatient lady a few months back came in who admittidly knew nothing about computers wanted to buy a laptop for doing basic shit. So I sold her and inexpensive one. She shot down the service plan (rarely do I hear any good reason why not unless you yourself can fix what you would be buying the plan on) Thats when we tell someone its a 14 return policy and we are not lenient with it if the merchandise is broken because we know at our store if its something big like a laptop that we have to get out of lock up for you, there is no way at least two different people didn't tell you about the service plan. (people try and deny it later when they come back with their broken products and it gets real fun when we remember when we sold the merchandise to that person) She shot down almost every attachment, mouse, carrying case, anti-virus software. So then all she has to do is wait for the manager who is helping other customers to come and get the computer out of lock up. She starts threatening to walk out the door if we don't help her soon. I'm just laughing to myself, wishing she would because again all she is doing is screwing over our service plan number.

Generally that sale sucked because she called ahead to ask about the computer and I thought she would get the plan because usually old ladies understand things break and they don't have any clue how to fix them. Its the young people that are hard to sell to because they still have the attitude that they are untouchable and nothings going to happen to them.

My store has never done it but sometimes I'll get calls from other stores in our chain, wanting to see if we will hold something for a customer who is coming down to pick it up. We say yes as long as we can confirm we have it, because the computer database we can both check might be off. Then after I get off the phone, if its something expensive, I'll check the stock and it'll show that store had two or three of what the customer wanted. They sent the customer to our store because they didn't want the service plan.

I've heard a story that my gm slammed someones pda box against a counter on the way from getting it for them when he was already having a bad day and they said they didn't need the plan and was a douch bag.

Like I said people always have shitty excuses for not wanting the plans. And my level of service always goes down a notch when someone says they don't want it. Oh you don't want it? Well forget about me carrying out your furniture to your car then. Unless your an old lady you can do it yourself, no curtesy for you football players out there.

Cable and ink and paper, and all that is also part of the goal to attach and is all tracked whenever the items ring out on the same receipt. Are you sure the guy didn't tell you needed it to use the printer? Thats generally what I tell people. It is required unless its an all in one printer and all you want to do is fax and copy. But yeah stores rape you on the printer cable. A $20 six foot usb cable is literally 90% profit for the store.

The motivation we have to sell isn't monitary, it is not to get our heads chewed out by the manager for not reaching the goal. Becuase that makes the sales manager look bad, and holds back their oppertunity for advancment since its generally their career. Hostility drives us all. Thats corporations for you.

[Lehk]

the attitude is, if its the end of the month and we already hit budget for the month, and you come in and buy a lap top without the plan, we wish you never came in at all. Because all you did is screw up all our hard work to get a good attachment percentage for our service plan number.

...

I've heard a story that my gm slammed someones pda box against a counter on the way from getting it for them when he was already having a bad day and they said they didn't need the plan and was a douch bag.

Like I said people always have shitty excuses for not wanting the plans. And my level of service always goes down a notch when someone says they don't want it.

where do you work? so i can make it a point to never set foot in such a crappy place to shop.

service plans are a ripoff, instead of buying them set aside the cost it would be and be your own service plan, that way if nothing does end up breaking you get to keep the cash.

BTW: i have no problem with places selling service plans, but treating people like crap because they don't want one is completely out of line and unprofessional.

[tenaciousb]

oh we don't treat them like crap, but we are like an airplane, the people in first class get the best service because they spend the most; they deserve and get our priority

slamming the pda, which I heard second hand, was a removed incident, people don't deserve half the shit they get that come in to our store

service plans are not a ripoff

if you bought them on logical products you would make out in the end

the reason stores sell them, and make money on them is because most people forget they bought them and never make a claim; but the price of warrenty pays for itself in one repair yet is limitless for whatever time period you buy

[lordlundar]

I apologize to the people who work at BB in advance. I actually work in the sister company (the clown horn store)

Depending on the store, The staff are complete MORONS!

When the BB near us opened, they pulled a few of our staff temporarily to help set up and orient the store. Why? Because everyone there was a fresh hiree. From the SM down. Not a single one of them knew anything about what they were selling. It's a tradition in that store to this day.

I actually went over there recently to quiz a few of them (their gaming "experts") on the PS3. To say they got even in the double digits of a score is generous. I almost pounded my head into the nearest wall.

When they were opening, we were worried that customers would get the info from us, then go there so they didn't have to deal with "pushy salesmen". They then found out that they were worse than us and our intake was higher!

And to stay on topic, I hope you have better luck on the Emachine then I did. My died on me after two years.

[Lehk]

the reason stores sell them, and make money on them is because most people forget they bought them and never make a claim; but the price of warrenty pays for itself in one repair yet is limitless for whatever time period you buy

failure within the time frame of the manufacturere's warrantee against defects is already covered by the OEM, now for someone who doesn't know how to clean up spyware from their 13 year old kid downloading porn or how to wipe and reload windows even with a recovery CD i can see them as useful on computers. anything else is just a rip off. most things fail early on, or far out in the future. IIRC it's either the first month or the device will likely last for at least a few years.

a few years and the purchased warantee will be no good

first few months and the OEM covers it.

the only things i can see getting a plan on are computers as i already mentioned, or very expensive stuff based on unproven technology.

for example years ago my father bought a projection TV and the plan he bought covered a blown cylender that would have cost $800 to fix otherwise.

for a $300 TV or even a $1500 computer it just isn't worth it to get the store plans. OEM extended warrantees are good but with a store service plan what if you move and now the nearest store to your house is 300 miles away.

[Seanette]

where do you work? so i can make it a point to never set foot in such a crappy place to shop.

service plans are a ripoff, instead of buying them set aside the cost it would be and be your own service plan, that way if nothing does end up breaking you get to keep the cash.

BTW: i have no problem with places selling service plans, but treating people like crap because they don't want one is completely out of line and unprofessional.

I agree, and I too will make a point of never going near ANY store affiliated with the one tenaciousb works for. Not if their staff are so rude, arrogant, and sleazy. If you *know* the product is such crap that the service plan is *needed*, why would an *honest* person sell it? If the service plan is not truly needed, then slamming it down a customer's throat the way tenaciousb describes qualifies as a ripoff bordering on extortion.

[tenaciousb]

haha extortion

hard for me to consider it that when I buy it on stuff I buy there

a chair, calculator, printer, camera

people get holier then thou when you explain them general wear and tear and accidental damage is covered on furniture, thats why I bought it on that chair of mine

They assume they are incapable of ever doing anything wrong to their property; thats why they call them accidents; people do fucked up shit to furniture and almost everything is covered on the protectionm plans, it's redicolous. They also have onsite service so they come out to you and repair stuff.

I've had printers die on me before just after the year manufacturer warrenty expires. So I looked at it like my new printer was going to break. Except instead of me having to foot the bill another $100, I'd pay another $30 now and know I was going to have it for 3 years.

Only times I wouldn't buy them on something is if the bracketing pricing plan that determines the value of the replacement plan based on the price of the equipment doesn't add up in my favor.

Like my cheap laptop I bought on clearence for $350; at the time their was no plan for a cheap latop it was a laptop going from $0-$800 was $200. For the person with an $800 laptop it would have been good, but not for me.

There is no end to some peoples stupidity though. One time I was helping one customer and I saw this guy come in and buy our most expensive digital camera and due to shortage a guy who worked another department who was only covering mine, got him (so he wasn't very good at selling plans) With cameras, there is no bracket for really expensive cameras. So a guy that buys a $200 camera can get a two year plan for $50 and so can a guy that buys a $800 camera. It was redicolous to hear that guy turned down the plan. Just to prove how it is beyond our control to persuade stupid customers sometimes... There is so much that can go wrong with a camera, the lcd, the lens is sensitive glass, internal motor if it has optical zoom which most do) We even had this promotion one time where on many of our popular HP brand printers (I consider them the best brand for the money) you got a free two year service plan. Our sales manager actually had a customer refuse to take it. Its fucking free. (our store still got credit for our numbers so thats why we still cared about pushing them) BTW we didn't let our sales manager forget that one....

Don't think I haven't gotten your though process before though, when selling, I rarely see anything new anymore. They are the breed that says, well this is only $100 its so cheap I'll just replace it. My response would be if I had no niceness, UMMMM thats why its called a REPLACEMENT plan. If $100 can be thrown around just like that, why not pay the $10 now and be done with it. Another good one to buy them on is shredders. They jam all the time due to overuse and overloading. And manufacturer warrenties suck. If they deem you went outside their specific 10 page long clarifications and stipulations, then you are screwed. Our store doesn't state that if you overloaded a 6 page shredder, then your on your own.

And to answer your question. If you move away, even internationally it doesn't matter. All you have to do then is call an 800 number, they ship you a prepaid box and you send it to them. And thats generally only on stuff over $100. If you bought a plan on something under a $100 what they usually do is tell you just to keep the item and then they will send you a cash card for the value you paid for the item. Not worth their time and money for shipping and repairing. Which is great because the customer can just upgrade or grab the same model if its still being sold at that point. Its based on the honor system, if a customer really wanted to they could cheat the system and get a free cash card on relatively inexpesive items.

To some this all up. I've bought these things myself on several products. I know what they are and what they cover. I know them in and out. And I buy them. To the customer out their that wants your help making a descision for 30 minutes for a telephone and wants to know everything there is to know about its features and operations. Meanwhile your the only person on the floor to help customers, and break down load, and clean up the store before close so everyone can go home at night at a decent hour, and change signs for the next week. Yet the customer doesn't have 30 seconds for you to explain the service plan... I say. Whose making the informed decision. You or me?

If you wanna know where I work I'll pm you. While I tell you flat out I think its funny there are people saying I'd never shop an entire chain again because of isolated incident or story I got with one employee at a store that I'll hold the whole damn chain responsible. But if your the type that under no circumstance wants our protection plan, then I'd be happy to tell you where I work if you promise not to buy something their that effects the stores attachement number and protection plan %. Like I said, your doing them a favor. Spiting them would be to go in and buy a laptop with no attachments. They make very little on the actual machines. The manufacturer gets all that money. Especially ink cartridges. I group these types of smart asses that think they know more then us about our equipment with those that come in, want our help, tie us up, then leave and buy it off amazon for less. I usually avoid taking too much time with these cusomters because I smell them coming a mile off. Although I do try and talk to everyone and I never hassle people that don't want help. Far from it. We always have things we need to do, if a customer can shop by themselves all the better for us. I hoping to give you a better background of why I despise those customers. Even if this all sounds a little random.

Funny I just transferred to another store (all my previous tales regard my old one) and they focus more on customer service. In the past few weeks I've seen them bend over backwards and take it up the ass from customers in general, but especially with returns thats our company policy states we have no reason to take back. They really try and hit a home run on customer service and go and above and beyond. The other key difference between my old store...

The new stores back room is a mess. Price signage is off. There are too many holes out in the aisle when they should have already been stocked. Not so organized, blocked or fronted shelves. They choose to spend their time trying to do everything they can to keep the cheap skates around, and pleasing those they you will never see again. My old store focused on the intangibles of a store. The product you want is there when you want it, right where you remembered it being. Take your pick.

Now don't get me wrong. I see your getting the idea of wrapping up all the horror stories of bad shopping experiences and eqauting them with my store. Which is unfair. We still have to take it up the ass more then our fair share in the name of "customer service", but not as much as some do. We still go above and beyond your everyday store in walking customers to products, and being helpful and curtious. Not to mention being knowledgible of said products. Believe me I go into other typical retailers and rarely seen anything close to what we give to our customers. (I also realize that your experience is more based on that stores particular management style. If you have a problem with a stores policy, thats when you should decide never to shop at any of them again.) But thats why it pains me so much to see customers give us nothing back in return. I might hate the guts out of customers, but I'm certainly more liberal in stating that openely here then I ever am to their face. It's the little things I begrudge them while they are there that helps me stay complacent when I work. Like my chair carry-out policy I mentioned earlier.