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

[JustADude]

Go Circuit City, they're generally cheaper AND the service has always been better.

[Imogene]

Okay, I have Best Buy Stories as well...
So, let's set the scene for the first story:
Myself and Dad were in a nearby Best Buy, looking at computers for me, since I had just gotten a nicely paying job, he and I had decided on a computer that would be good for me, but Dad wanted me to be the major buyer for the loan so I could build up a credit rating. Seeing as Dad had driven that day, I did not have my wallet on me, and thus, no ID. Dad was talking to the woman doing the loan approval thing, and she said I needed ID here to start the process. Dad was like "Well, I'm going to be on the loan as well, can I give you my ID, and you can start the loan while we run home and get his ID?" No, no, no, a thousand times no. Dad and I left, went to Circuit City across the street, they approved me in no time. Dad swore he would never set foot in that or any Best Buy ever again, which I keep reminding him about whenever he goes into one.

A couple months later, my brother and I are in the same Best Buy, as I had a wad of cash in my hand, and wanted to buy a nice tv for my video games. He and I looked around a bit, found one I liked, got a sales guy, told him I wanted this tv. Guy says okay, it should be out in a few minutes. Bro and I wander off to do other stuff while we wait. Ten minutes later (I swear) I wandered back to the tvs, ask on the status of the tv I wanted. "Oh, it's behind some refridgerators..." Okay... off I wander again. Another ten minutes, I check again. "That was the wrong tv." Repeat. Seven more times. An hour and a half after my brother and I walked into the store, they finally brought out the tv I had asked for. Stupid me, I could've complained and probably gotten it cheaper for waiting so long, but no, I was never that rude.

Best Buy used to own the store I worked in, for about three years while I worked in Chesterfield, Best Buy employees would walk in, look around, and come up for their discount. This has a two fold story to it. If I walked into the Best Buy on my way to work, as soon as they saw my shirt, they refused to help me find anything. I never once got bothered while in the store. And, after Best Buy sold us, we had employees come in (some up to a year later), come up to the register, ask how much the employee discount was, and I'd get to say "Where do you work?" "Best Buy." "HA HA! YOUR DISCOUNT IS ZERO!" "What?" Best Buy doesn't own us any longer, as such, you are entitled to nothing."

[LostMyMind]

You can get USB 1 cables almost dirt cheap but USB 2 cables cost around $30.

Do you really need that "paper" to print 3 secs faster?

[trunks2k]

Aye, USB 2 cables cost an arm and leg (just like those "special" IEEE parallel cables that fancier printers used before USB). Unless you reallllllllly need the speed of USB 2 cables, the dirty secret of USB is that majority of the time USB 1 cables will work just fine (just slower).

That's a dirty secret? When I first read about USB2 coming, out, that was a selling point.

[LostMyMind]

Aye, USB 2 cables cost an arm and leg (just like those "special" IEEE parallel cables that fancier printers used before USB). Unless you reallllllllly need the speed of USB 2 cables, the dirty secret of USB is that majority of the time USB 1 cables will work just fine (just slower).

[JustAGirl]

wow that much for a usb cable? THE NERVE... I woulda returned it right away and had a chat with the 'salesperson'... whoa

[Becks]

My impression from the story is that you and your mom were looking at the receipt out in the parking lot. Is that the case? If so, you guys should've returned that cable right then and there.

[ArenaBoy]

I don't even shop there anymore, they are rude about the return policy, (Sold me an overpriced flash drive.) and they are like you said, not the most technically adapt either.

[Crosshair]

I now remember why I hate Best Buy. Pushy as hell salespeople who say anything to make a sale and don't know a PCI slot from their butt. (Now I think I have offended everyone who works at Best Buy, so on with my story from today.)

My grandma can't see very well and needs large font on her computer to see. The only problem is that IE will only let you make the text so big. Grandmas computer is a Pentium 60 with 32 MB of ram, 500MB hard drive, and runs Windows 95 so there is really no chance in hell of upgrading it and it is already slow enough. My family decided to bite the bullet and buy grandma a new computer. We see Best Buy has a E-machines bundle for $300. It is nowhere near top of the line, but it will work just fine for grandma. I could build a computer for grandma, but my family seems to like store bought computers. I build my own PC's and have my A+ Certification.

My mom and I go into the store and find the display of the system we want. We flag an employee down and tell him we would like to buy this system. He says OK and gives my mom a sheet to fill out and goes to get the parts. We look at the sheet and see that it is nothing but showing the services they offer. I want to know how much a service plan on this system will cost, however, that is nowhere on the sheet. The guy comes back with a cart that has the computer and monitor on it and says he will be right back with the printer. He comes back and sets the printer and a 6' USB cable onto the cart. My mom asks, "What is that cable for?" The mans says, "It's for the printer." OK, we have the computer, lets go. However the guy has the slip giving us the discount on the bundle. I manage to get him to tell me that the service plan is $150 for 3 years. OK, so we arn't getting that and we ask to go to the checkout and but the system. NO, we have to wait until he goes over the available service plans with us and two other customers. It becomes quite clear that only one of these people actualy has any interest in the garbage this bafoon is spewing out.

Two of us are buying the $300 system and one girl is buying a laptop. Both of us with the $300 systems want to get the fark out of there. So we stand there for 10 minutes listening to his rambeling about how wonderfull the service plans are. I would have pointed out all the errors in his pitch (Like how people get viruses all the time while playing video games.) but I wanted to get the hell out of there. I saw my mom give the guy her, "I'm gona rip your head off and use it as a football." look. I finaly took the initative and started to push the cart to the front and the guy finaly came and helped us check out. We kept looking at the total on the register and it was comming out as $357, way too much for a $300 system + tax. My mom asked if that was correct, the cashier said that it would go down once the sale was finalised the the bundle price would take effect. (At this point my brain is in power save mode and I'm just standing there like an idiot.)

We finish the sale and go outside to load the system into our car. The sun and fresh air melts the brain freeze I am in and we start talking about the price. My mom looks at the slip and finds that the USB cable that the salesperson put onto the cart was $34. We both look at each other in shock at what this person just did. He deceptivly sold us an overpriced piece of cable (That I could get for less than $8 at the mom & pop store we have in town.) while we where under the impression that it was part of the bundle. We had had enough at this point and my mom vowed to return it this week when it wasn't so busy.

GRRRRRRRR, I can't believe he did that to us. Bored us to death with his drivel and then lied to us about the cable being part of the bundle Good news is that I got the computer setup at my grandmas and it works good enough for what she uses it for.

/Sorry to all Best Buy employees.