Future shop employee suckage

[MergedLoki]

Bit of a gripe here.

ok.. best buy and future shop are owned by the same damn company. so why is it I love best buy and refuse to go into future shop... The employees!.

My buddy wanted a digital camera and knows little to nothign about tech things. I'm no expert but I do know more than he does.

Anyways I suggest best buy as i've found (at least in my local store and all my personal experiences) the employees have been pretty helpful and knowledgable in their own departments and aren't pushy etc.

My friend opts to go to future shop.
Now keep in mind my friend is NOT the quiet type. He doesn't really have an 'indoor voice' and an outdoor voice it's all just one fairly loud VOICE.

so were in the camera section he sees one he's interested in but there's no price tag so he wants to ask the price. There's a group of about 3 or 4 employees about 15 feet away doing NOTHING. (talking amongst themselves, joking/laughing, we could hear them clearly and im 100% positive they could hear us as well).

So my friend is actually being polite (even though I think im pissed enough for the both of us as we've been totally ignored in the 30 or so minutes we've browsed and despite numerous attempts to get an employes attention). so he's saying stuff like 'hey guys excuse me?' etc.

finally i just yelled out 'HEY!' Cue employees FINALLY noticing that people are here* and i point out that 'yea we have questions about this camera'

and the employee that sauntered over to help us looked all pissed that i'd *gasp* raised my voice.. WEll sorry, pay attention next time and don't make us spend 10+ minutes trying to get anybody's attention and you wont be shouted at.

This happened a bit ago, but I mean it annoyed me, store wasn't busy, the employees weren't busy doing anything work related etc.

I'm all for joking around, chatting it up at work... just not when there is WORK to be done.

[chikenlady]

I've had a similiar experience at Best Buy and have never had the problem with Future Shop.

[Willis]

IKEA is notorious for this. I've gotten attitude just for asking for help. I'm talking just saying "excuse me" without raising my voice and have gotten dirty looks because I interrupted an employee conversation on more than one occassion. Unless you're buying an entire kitchen or bedroom set or enough things to redecorate a room IKEA employees have a tendency of turning their noses up at people.

There are a few good ones that pop up here and there but the majority of employees I've ran into don't seem nice.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I didn't know that they were owned by the same company... Just over the BC/AB border in Grande Prairie there's a Best Buy within spitting distance of a Future Shop (they are just one building apart).

But I have noticed that the Best Buy employees seem to be more customer-oriented than the Future Shop guys... except for one guy who is a fellow gamer, it's difficult to get help at FS.

[MergedLoki]

I dunno. maybe it's just my area.

but we have a best buy and future shop across the road from each other and another future shop maybe... 15 minutes (drive time) away.

yet the very few times i've gone into the future shop(s) with a friend or because someone bought me a gift card etc.

the staff have been just utter crap. Rude, not even a little helpful.
and i've had the opposite at best buy.

so I guess I lucked out and the local best buy hired decent people who WANT to do a good job. (possibly helps that having worked retail i'm aware no one REALLY wants to be there so I try to be a good/poilte/friendly customer as well).

[wraiths_crono]

....Future shop? Hmm either they do not have em out here, or I have never seen em....

[Broomjockey]

No, ML, it's not just you. I refuse to do any major purchases at the Future Shop 4 blocks from me, no matter how convenient it is, because any time I'm trying to find something specific, every employee in the place is suddenly very busy walking away from me. I've heard Future Shop's structure differs from Best Buy in regards to commission, though I can't remember how. That might have something to do with it.

Chrono, I think Future Shop is mostly Canadian, so it's not a wonder you've not heard of it.

[MergedLoki]

No, ML, it's not just you. I refuse to do any major purchases at the Future Shop 4 blocks from me, no matter how convenient it is, because any time I'm trying to find something specific, every employee in the place is suddenly very busy walking away from me. I've heard Future Shop's structure differs from Best Buy in regards to commission, though I can't remember how. That might have something to do with it.

Chrono, I think Future Shop is mostly Canadian, so it's not a wonder you've not heard of it.

Future shop is ON commission. therefore you would think the employees would WANT to bug the hell out of you to sell you shit so they can get a commission.

Best buy, which has no commission, has always had great staff service (IMO anyways).

[Broomjockey]

Future shop is ON commission. therefore you would think the employees would WANT to bug the hell out of you to sell you shit so they can get a commission.

Actually, they probably don't bother with anything that isn't "their area" or with little margins for them.

[MergedLoki]

Actually, they probably don't bother with anything that isn't "their area" or with little margins for them.

Oh yea another kinda not good thing about future shop.

I had a buddy in college who was a total technophone. knew NOTHING about computers, didn't use email etc. wouldn't use the 'net nothing like that.

He had a job at futuresuck, and he was in the audio dept. which was fine with him since he knew car steroes and music etc. He liked being in that area.

One day his boss moves him to teh computer section. he pointed out that he knew NOTHING about computers. Boss keeps him there anyways.

He said he learned to READ the specs on the box at warp speed in order to answer customers questions.

So customer would be like 'does this video card have 'x''
friend: *super speed scan of box, all teh while somehow NOT letting customer notice him doing this* 'yes... yes it does have 'x'*

i'll stop this cuz i could probably fill multiple posts with all the crap i've seen/endurded at the store

[evilviolentj]

Best way to get attention at Future Shop, go grab something big and expensive like a computer or printer and start walking towards the front. You'll have an employee on you in seconds.

[LillFilly]

Employees at Best Buy did that to myself and the boyfriend a few years ago when he was looking to buy a laptop. We go to computers, talking about what type of laptop to get. There's 2 employees talking to each-other, 2-employees talking to a group of what seems like friends about a party, and 1 employee on a cell phone engaged in a personal call. Every time we tried to walk up to any of them they ducked their heads, turned around and kept talking. We addressed cell phone guy directly and he turned and walked off. We finally said "I guess we'll buy our computer from ....." and walked out. We haven't been to a Best Buy since.

[wolfie]

Quite a while back, I'd buy their "white box" 5 1/4" floppies (with the "lifetime warranty"), and take back any that formatted with errors. Naturally, they'd take their sweet time (and one of their people asked me "why are you the only one who has trouble with these?" - maybe I'm the only one who can be bothered bringing back the defective ones for replacement).

One time, while I was waiting for them to bring my replacement disks, another salesperson was showing 2 computers (IBM PS/2 models 25 and 30, both 8086 8 MHz machines) to a middle-aged couple. He left to check something, and they figured that someone in a UBC Engineers jacket might know something about computers, so they asked me which computer I'd recommend. Naturally, I gave them an honest answer - a generic 80286 16 MHz, for a lower price than either of the systems they had been shown, from the clone shop down the street where I bought mine. A speedy exchange on the disks would have got me out of the store before the other customers had a chance to seek my advice.

[Mike Taylor]

Employees at Best Buy did that to myself and the boyfriend a few years ago when he was looking to buy a laptop. We go to computers, talking about what type of laptop to get. There's 2 employees talking to each-other, 2-employees talking to a group of what seems like friends about a party, and 1 employee on a cell phone engaged in a personal call. Every time we tried to walk up to any of them they ducked their heads, turned around and kept talking. We addressed cell phone guy directly and he turned and walked off. We finally said "I guess we'll buy our computer from ....." and walked out. We haven't been to a Best Buy since.

I'm sorry that you had to deal with that, as it reflects poorly on the rest of us Blue Shirts. I certainly hope you at least made the effort to talk to a manager or call the customer service line, otherwise people like this keep on doing it.

This goes for those of you having problems at our sister stores in Canada as well. Each time I hear about bad service from my coworkers, it makes me unhappy.

Now while I can't always bring my A-Game, I do my best to make sure my customers are taken care of and I try to be as truthful and knowledgeable as I can.

As to the Extended Warranty issue brought up by patiokitty, I'm not sure what Future Shop's policy is on it, but with Best Buy, while we are supposed to offer and explain Black Tie Protection, we're not supposed to try to force them on customers. It's generally understood that if the customer doesn't don't want it, they won't buy it. And that requiring Patiokitty to pay $100 to reformat the floor model is just stupid. When we sell our floor models, they're wiped and restored before they get put up for sale. Sounds like some folks may have been less than forthright.