“We’re hearing a few interesting things about Best Buy these days, especially when it comes to selling iPads,” John Biggs reports for CrunchGear.
“While many of these are isolated incidents, they all point to a general nastiness on the part of Best Buy employees and management who know a good thing when they see one,” Biggs reports.
Biggs reports,” First we have Best Buy employees holding back iPads 2 during periods of high demand and now we have managers essentially blackmailing customers into paying for service plans before they’re allowed to touch available stock.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Just the other day, a MacDailyNews reader told us of having to wait for over half an hour just to be allowed the chance to buy an iPod nano (locked in a case) after being passed off by four Best Buy employees. The customer just stood by the case, waiting, for over 30 minutes! When finally approached by an employee willing to help the customer, they asked to speak to the manager who subsequently told the customer “we’re busy,” without apology. This was midday and the store barely had any customers in in. Needless to say, the customer left that Best Buy and purchased their nano at a nearby Target. Do you have any stories about Best Buy service or lack thereof? If so, let us know. Thanks.
My Best Buy service story:
I went into a Best Buy last May, asked the first sales person I saw for an iPad, had it in my hand in about 5 minutes, bought it and left the store.
Are you a best buy employee?
BB troll. 😉
If you’re ever pushed in to buying the extended warranty from BestBuy, there are a couple of things you can do:
1) Talk to the store manager and ask if they are allowed to have tie in sales with the warranty.
2) If you really have to buy it, buy it, return it the next day, or at another store. The warranty is like any other product. It can be returned. (something they avoid telling you)
And in some states, illegal to do what they did.
I’d say sure to the warranty. Get up to the counter with it and say “I changed my mind about the warranty”
Then again… I’d go to the apple store, not BB.
I’ve been hearing stories like this about Best Buy for years. Having been a BB customer in the past, I don’t doubt there’s some truth to them. Service plans are their bread and butter. They try to force them on you at every turn.
There are some good Best Buy employees, but I tend to avoid the store. In some ways it reminds me of the now defunct CompUSA. As an Apple customer, I never really felt welcome and comfortable in that store and the displays were often in sad (non-functioning) shape and often way out of date. I also dislike the checkout process.
Who says CompUSA is defunct? We have two in Orlando and a thriving website. They may be owned buy Tiger but I have nothing bit positive experience with them.
Sorry, Bob. The CompUSA near my home in SE Houston went out of business years ago. I mistakenly assumed that the whole chain went under since that one was located in a pretty good retail area.
I am glad that you have a better opinion of CompUSA under Tiger ownership. I stand by my assessment of the (former) CompUSAs in Houston, which did not provide a very good shopping experience in general, and especially not for Mac users.
I am a frequent Best Buy customer and have always received prompt and very helpful service from the two store in which I usually shop.
I went to BestBuy to get an iPad 2 the night after launch and was told by two BB employees that they sold out “hours before.” Finally, a BB employee told me to go talk to the Geek Squad and I asked the guy there and he told me that they were out of stock. Then, when I told him that I had looked at their store inventory online AND talked to someone over the phone merely 30 minutes earlier and the lady said that they had a “limited” supply of iPad 2’s still in stock, all of a sudden the Geek Squad rep finally “remembered” that they had some black 64 GB VZ iPad 2’s locked up in the back! I bought it and left happy but I couldn’t help but feel like they really didn’t want to sell those few remaining iPad 2’s. Very strange behavior indeed Best Buy…
Makes you wonder if they are auctioning them off on eBay at a profit? They wouldn’t be the first employees to hoard a highly coveted item that is selling outside of the retail environment for higher than the MSRP.
Let’s be realistic! You don’t go to Bestbuy for good service or bright retail sales help, you go to BestBuy for PRICE. And with Apple products, they don’t offer a better price – So why go to BestBuy for Apple products unless you have no other alternative. They are understaffed and uneducated.
How true, how true.
I don’t go to Best Buy for ANYTHING.
Just bad news all the way around.
I tend to notice that Best Buy employees are non informative bobbleheads with no clue on what their products can do. Asking questions on tech is more miss than a hit. Also have noticed them luring customers to crappy tech. Sometimes I have found myself helping the customers out from the damage after hearing the BestBuy disinfo and these customers have been appreciative. lol… I’ve also noticed the need to correct BestBuy employees when they tried their disinfo tactics on me when it came to Apple products. Seems more often than not like BestBuy employess don’t appreciate when I correct/teach them about the stuff they’re selling.
“Macs can’t do *fill in the blank*” hehehe! Let me help you ya bobblehead PC drone aka BestBuy employee!
(It’s best to get your product information beforehand via the internet before going into a BestBuy because the employees really don’t know much about what they’re selling. With some of their employees that not the case but most often it is.)
Last time I was in a Best Buy I bought 2 HDMI cables. They tried to sell me a service plan with them. The service plan was more than the price of a HDMI cable.
How can a HDMI cable malfunction?
WTF!
Boy, I hope you were desperate for that HDMI cable. BB reams you on stuff like that.
http://www.monoprice.com
Monoprice is awesome.
I’ve used HDMI cables from this company on my last to HDTV’s with no problems. They are inexpensive.
Brain fart: http://www.cablestogo.com/
Second that.
I ordered a really unique cable and was sent the wrong one due to mislabeling from the mfg. They worked with me to get the correct cable and sent a new one right away, no waiting. From my few experiences good folk.
Anonymous @silverhawk1 sez: “I’ve used HDMI cables from this company…. They are inexpensive.”
Compared to what? The HDMI cables at my local Best Buy start at higher than $50. When I got a load of that price gouging I instead walked over to the Apple Store and bought one for $20, with no problems. You can get HDMI cables online for $9 or even less.
Price gouging: Another reason brick and mortar stores FAIL.
I bought an HDMI cable at Best Buy and it was 29.00, less expensive than any other physical store I went to, including the Office stores. I also got a very good deal for an HDMI monitor. The reality for my area is that Best Buy is the last remaining spot for tech and electronics, CompUSA, Circuit City, Ultimate all gone. I personally don’t prefer to shop online…I like browsing the items, getting ideas, reading the box, asking questions. Some of the salespeople are helpful and knowledgeable. It seems that they are short-staffed and stressed after the recession and the increased competition from online retailers. I would rather pay them $5 or10 more than Amazon to keep the jobs in my area and keep the store viable because its presence has value for me. I just hope then can improve their customer service policies.
You would think Apple would have some leverage on stopping Best Buy from doing this. Its also borderline illegal if they are doing this, in my opinion.
I go to Best Buy to look at stuff. I rarely actually buy anything there.
I don’t remember where I saw it but an article said Best Buy was just a showroom for a lot of people. See it at Best Buy, buy it from Amazon.
I know I do that.
I do buy from them from time to time, my first mbp before the apple store came to town.
And my iPad 1 for $300 😉 ( long story)
Or stuff on sale, that is actually on sale… I love seeing a $39.99 price tag on a blu ray, and “on sale” for $29.99 lol. Go to amazon and grab it for $15-20 (less sometimes)
Went to Best Buy to buy my wife an ipad 1 not ipad2, before 2 came out the clerk said we only have 2 left but if you want it you have to buy it with an invisa shield we installed on it for 60.00 more, I said we just want the ipad no extras, told him we will go else where to buy it he said ok I will see what I can do. They were going to charge for the shield and an installation charge, they waved the install charge (30.00) so it ended up costing us an extra 30.00 for the shield – 30.00 for install. That was the Best Buy in concord, New Hampshire. It ended up being a defected ipad so we returned it and got one else were no extras.
The professional cameras you could not try because there were no power cords (they were lost). The sales people were not interested in selling me a $300 camera. So I went to B&H Photo.
MY Best Buy story: We went to BB last year and they had a MacBook on a clearance table. When we got ahold of somebody we asked what the deal was with it. They told us that somebody ordered it (never left the store) and when they came to the store to pick it up they looked at it and changed their mind and didn’t want it. So we bought it, then about 4 months later we went to extend the Mac warranty and it wouldn’t take. Called apple to find out why, cause it wasn’t showing the serial #. They proceeded to tell us that the motherboard had been replaced and who ever did it didn’t put in the serial #.
Well now….BB is the last of the worst…..at one time there was Good Guys, Comp USA, & Circuit City….10 years ago I was in the market for a DVD recorder or a DVR to replace the VCR. I went to GG, CC, & BB…They all had some items, but none, zero, nada, of their people could explain anything about the item(s)…they all had IQ’s less than 3….(obama voters)….I would NEVER go back to a BB….and haven’t since…or any other type of store that is owned by BB….
BTW, I emailed all 3 companies explaining what I went through. I never received anything back. I guess they don’t or didn’t care….more people with IQ’s less than 3. (more votes for obamanation)
and now there is one….company left…..and that will soon go by the way side because of stupid people working there….and the stupid people running the operation.
When I sold electronics back in the early to mid 70’s while in college, I was expected to be able to explain everything about each item….not so today….
Bye bye BB…..shorting your stock right now…..
hiya macgravy! … regarding your jabs at Obama voters.. don’t give me that crap! I see retards on both ends of the political spectrum both republicans and democrats. Your assertion that these BestBuy employees are democrats make you seem like a short bus type yerself.
get a sense of humor you nob! voted obama once, wont vote twice.
And who’s your choice these days? Michele Twatmann, Willard Romney, anybody named Paul, Sarah the Pariah, Bobby Jindahl, Erik Cantorcan or Hayley Mills Barboon?
sukka
Awright, you and Pandora win the prize for the best posts. Funny how somebody, usually a Bushie type, is the first to inject politics into these posts. OK, so those BB employees are Obama voters. There would be lots more Republican voters, but they are (1) Convicted felons, (2) can’t read (3) The pickup won’t start anyhow.
Not to mention that he was dumb enough to buy BB stock in the first place so he now has to short it.
Hey Macgravy, please keep your political views out of the discussion. I know some Bushies and Failin voters who have IQs less than 3 as well. Not to mention John Boner and Mutt Romney, who have to borrow some just to make it up to three.
What do the idiot employees at Best Buy have to do with politics? Keep your prejudice out of the comments please.
I voted for Obama. I am not a retard.
No, you just feel like one now. Bush taxes in place, Gitmo still open, terrorists don’t get trials, they get military tribunals… I could go on and on for quite a while.
It’s pretty obvious to thinking people that massive, centralized government has failed throughout human history and that government works better when people closer to their neighbors make the decisions and spend more appropriately and less wastefully. Let the states decide. Smaller federal government is what’s needed now.
Why you Dems continue to insist on massive, wasteful, slow-moving bureaucracies is beyond comprehension. We had to knock down and clear away your stupid, horrible, anti-compassionate housing projects once already. How many 100s of billions of dollars wasted on that one, dummies?
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.
Why would anyone who’s given it more than a split-second’s thought vote for U.S. President for a 1st term freshman senator whose biggest accomplishment was voting “present?”
He was obviously nowhere near ready for the job.
We’re 1/3rd of the way towards fixing your mess. We’ll finish the job in 2012.
Remember when teachers, social workers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in TARP money, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?
Yeah, me neither.
Whenever I shopped at best buy, I knew more about the product than the staff (& I’m not a tech-head). They usually didn’t have what I was looking for, so I stopped shopping there.
Same experience for me. I use to enjoy my shopping at BB but I now find that most of the employees know very little about the products they are trying to sell. But the worst thing is I hear so much bull and misinformation being provided to the customer by the employees. I find this unpleasant and I find myself shopping online more or buying from other local stores. I do my research before buying just about anything … I find it is really the only way to protect yourself from being ripped off or buying the wrong item / product…which will happen with BB if you’re not on your game. What happened to the days when they hired employees that took an interest in the products they sell!? Maybe take the time to compare and understand the competing products. I would like to say the Geek Squad but I find they are not much better. I may be getting old but low prices alone will not make me a customer most of the time. .
I remember Best Buy tried to sell me a service plan on a Sony PSP Slim and I just told them I wouldn’t dream of doing something like that. The PSP is now about four years old now and I swear that thing will probably last longer than I will. That is one Sony product that is built to last. It looks brand new after many hundreds of hours of use and I only bought a screen protector for it. Nary a blemish on it and now I mostly use it to watch movies on.
Personally, I never understood why the nintendo DS outsold the PSP. I eventually picked up a DS, still collects dust. I bust out the PSP from time to time.
I agree the damn thing will last forever…
I have the launch day hefty boy, and picked up a silver slim one a while back.
Great… You are going to make me start playing with the PSP now. Lol
I will tell you an Apple Store story instead. Recently, the DVD SuperDrive on my MacBook Pro died (Santa Rosa model) and I took it to my local Apple Store (Irvine Spectrum, Irvine Calif.). I was bummed because my AppleCare (which I strongly recommend that everyone get) had just ended, and I assumed that I would be out of pocket around $200.
Instead, when I went to the Genius Bar to pick it up the following night, the Genius smiled and told me that they would honor my AppleCare contract even though it had just ended. They also noted that my MacBook Pro’s battery was on its last legs, so they replaced it as well.
Total Cost: $250.00
Total charges to me: $0.00. Free. Nada.
THIS is why I always buy from the Apple Store, and why I get AppleCare. It also paid to replace a defective NVidia graphics card (which required a motherboard swap – that’s not Apple’s fault), which could have cost up to $1,000. Viewed that way, AppleCare is a bargain. And the service I have received from the four Apple Stores near me (yes, I am blessed) has been outstanding.
Best Buy who?
AppleCare also includes free unlimited telephone tech support. Definitely a bargain.
I will heartily second your story WRT getting Applecare, especially for a laptop. I’ve had a couple of similar experiences. And yes, I’m an IQ 3 obamanut.
I had something similar experience in an apple store though my AppleCare was still good. Was having issues and when I took it in, they found both the logic board and graphics card were bad. This was on an iMac btw. Without warrenty, 900 bucks, cost to me nothing, nada niet.
We had this exact issue at a Best Buy in El Paso, TX and for whatever reason they were being very secretive about having any in stock or not. After telling them that we would report them to the BBB they then sold us one w/o the service plan.
A close friend of mine got on a BestBuy waiting list for the iPad 2 out of desperation after trying in vain to buy one at the local Apple Store for over a week. BestBuy called him less than a week later to say that his new iPad had arrived. He picked it up the same day without a problem. Just lucky, I guess.
This statement is true! Everytime I purchase at best buy I always have to fetch for an associate for help, while there are 20 people walking around acting Like their doing something, that’s why I took my business to P.c Richards & Son where they can always answer my question for what I’m looking.
My Best Buy horror story? I don’t have one.
They do what a business in that field does. No surprise.
I went to the local BB on opening night for an iPad 2.
They had none like I wanted, so I drove for an hour to one that had them for certain (I called twice on the way), got in line, was given a choice to pick from, was handed a sheet of paper and got what I wanted 1 hour later. No fuss.
Two weeks ago I ordered a media center to be shipped to my local store. The next day, I got an email stating the shipping day was delayed one day. Then the next day another, then another, so I called. Turns out the manufacturer had been postponing shipment every day that BB contacted them, so she recommended I cancel the order, which I did and bought one elsewhere.
A few years ago I bought some DVD cases for backups.
When I got home, several were cracked, so I took them back to the store. They didn’t have anymore, so a few days later, I went back, saw some, and then noticed they were the same ones I had returned. The manager got an earful over that, and I told them I would be buying my TV (Pioneer plasma) somewhere else because I could not trust them on the big items if they were that lazy on the little things.
BTW, anyone get their PC ‘optimized’?
That is a tactic that would really piss me off.
My BB story – bought a BluRay DVD drive for Xmas. It was the last on the shelf. Got it home but didn’t open it until Xmas day. The damn thing was DOA. The store I got it from didn’t have anymore but another store did so I got a replacement.
Less than a year later it stopped playing standard DVDs. It took it back to the store but they told me that even though it was under warranty I had already returned the item once and they could not give me a new one.
It wasn’t worth the effort arguing but I let them know they had just lost my custom. Haven’t been back in over 2 years.
At the Apple store I have had several laptops and iPhones repaired or replaced under warranty. They never blinked a eye at doing the right thing.
If I want to buy other tech I tried to get it from Costco. They provide an extra years warranty for free. I once had a external drive which after less than 2 years died. Took it back and they gave me my money back. Both a new one with more storage. Same thing happened within the next 2 years. Same deal with my money back.
Welcome to the usual in American business- not the image they project- the reality of the norm.
What Apple has done with retail is stuff that any good retailer would recognize- just not any chain operators. They are slimy, sleazy, chintzy and do not give a damn about customers or employees.
A 6th grader could look at what Apple Retail does and have a good idea of how to do it. The fact that they know this and choose not to tells a lot about American business and the nation as a whole.
Our nation is going through the made-for-TV drama of a budget crisis despite the fact that our budget could be balanced without great pain on either the taxation or spending side of the argument. The problem is that our political system is captive to corporate money and special interest lobbying.
America used to be the envy of the world. We are slipping toward second world status and are headed toward the bottom unless things change. Anyone who has travelled outside the US and had their eyes open knows exactly how far behind we are. Best Buy is just a symptom.
“our political system is captive to corporate money and special interest lobbying”
It’s called the Corporate Oligarchy. Their demands have driven the US government into everything CRAZY you see going on today. If they had some element of intelligence amidst their ranks, maybe they’d throw We-The-Peasants a bone. But this is different. It’s all out relentless parasitism of the USA. It’s last ditch desperation to squeeze every last dollar out of the system before they completely turn their backs on it. 😈
If only they could comprehend what follows. So long capitalism. Laugh at the Company Clowns. 😆
America was never the envy of the world, asshat! Get over yourself!
Oh yeah, for 150 years people came streaming from all over the world to migrate to- (fill in the blank).
I didn’t state an opinion- I stated a simple fact. Another simple fact is that it is no longer the case. America has been eating it’s seed corn for a long time and has been in decline ever since.
I am no apologist for my country. Never has any country wasted more bounty in people, resources and opportunity than ours. If I were a young man coming out of college today, I would be looking overseas. Americans in general have bought-in to the fiction of American Exceptionalism.
Oh yeah. Fill in the blank… hmmm. Canada, England (add a few hundred years to your stupid remark), Brazil, France, Australia, New Zealand… shit, just about anywhere thats better than somewhere else. Your statement was the epitome of this “American Exceptionalism” you so detest. Get over yourself!
“they asked to speak to the manager who subsequently told the customer “we’re busy.”’
That’s the perfect way to destroy your company, Best Buy. Keep it up. Hate your customers and in return your customers will TALK, and TALK, and TALK, and then you’re dead. Old story. 😳
My next door neighbor (a teacher, “reading specialist”, working an a doctorate even!) takes her Windoze laptop to Bogus Buy Goon Squad a couple times a year to get it degunked. She just considers that normal.
I have repeatedly explained that a mac will cost less over its lifespan because it doesn’t require that degunking. She won’t listen.
Further proof that an advanced degree doesn’t make you smart. (And yes, I know a lot of smart people with advanced degrees.)