(no subject)

[axessdenyd.livejournal.com]

OK, no offense to anyone who might work at a Best Buy, but...

The people at our Best Buy seem to be freaking retarded when it comes
to selling things.

Worked at a small computer store right next to the Best Buy, and about
half of our customers came in after they'd been there and been either
turned away or had a problem BB couldn't fix.


"Do you sell DDR memory?  That's what my computer says it uses."
"Yes, we have a lot in stock."
"Good, at Best Buy they told me that DDR was only for printers."


"Will a new monitor work on my computer if it's about 3 years old?"
"Yes."
"Best Buy said I'd need a whole new computer because they're different
now."
"The majority are the same, but if you want a really nice flat panel
with a DVI connector, I can still sell you a $10 adapter to make it
work."



"I went to four different places and no one will look at my computer
because it's too old."
"It doesn't look that old, let's see...  It's a bad power supply.  A
standard ATX power supply that everyone around here has in stock."



It also seems that their troubleshooting procedure is pretty simple:

Step 1:  Reload Windows
if step 1 fails proceed to

Step 2:  Tell the customer it's a bad motherboard.


I got about 6 or 7 computers with "bad motherboards" that ahd been to
Best Buy before.  That was 3 bad CPUs, 1 bad video card, some bad
memory, and one bad motherboard (the CPU was also bad in that one).
Now, really, is their corporate policy to just move as many computers
through as possible without giving a shit if they work or not, or is
the one in my town just idiotic?

If it's just the one here then no offense to any BB workers out there. 
;-)

Comments

[erratic0101.livejournal.com]

I used to work for them.
Simply the most corrupt, illegal acting and disgusting company I've ever had the distaste to work for.

The corporate policy at the tech bench is to milk the customer for every dime possible. Of course, since they give no technical training and don't have a clue about HOW to hire technician's, the responses you've seen don't surprize me.

Go to www.bestbuysux.org and see what I mean ;)

[axessdenyd.livejournal.com]

I actually applied there a couple times and didn't get hired.

Once I got the other job (Best Buy damage control, I called it), I didn't feel so bad about it.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

Actual technical support and troubleshooting takes time. The more systems that can be pencilwhipped to the customer's satisfaction and take their money, they better.

There's a certain dishonest ethic becoming more prevalent under the push for profits and it's pissing me off. Even for my company I reccommend to customers to take their systems to local independent computer shops if we can't solve it effectively.

[infy.livejournal.com]

Which doesn't necessarily stop them from getting completely hosed... but I mostly agree with that answer.

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

i once had a guy in a pretty rural area, he needed a CROSSOVER ethernet cable between his modem and his comp.

so i sent him to best buy, the only place near him that would have it, that was 30 miles away.
couple hours called back, tried everything, didn't work, of course he didn't have a crossover cable.

sent him back with instructions to ONLY get a crossover.
couple hours, still didn't work, didn't have a crossover, said the people at best buy said he didn't NEED a crossover cable, and assured him that this new cable would work.

god, me and the customer BOTH got pissed, sent him back with the exact model number of cable he needed off of best buy's site, told him to not believe their BULLSHIT cause they really dont know jack.

finally worked.

sigh...

Huh?

[coyoteden.livejournal.com]

Not to, ok, well to nitpick:

"The majority are the same, but if you want a really nice flat panel
with a DVI connector, I can still sell you a $10 adapter to make it
work."

If the computer has VGA out and the flatpanel ONLY has DVI, there's no adapter. Most DVI-equipped panels have an HD-15 input as well. The only ones I know of that don't are the Apple panels, and you pay extra for less inputs.

The adapters are for connecting DVI video cards to analog monitors and don't even convert signals, they just bring the cross-shaped analog pins on the DVI out to a HD-15.

By the way, did you hear about the Man arrested for paying for service at Best Buy with $2 bills (http://www.anandtech.com/news/shownews.aspx?i=24066)

Re: Huh?

[axessdenyd.livejournal.com]

You had me going there for a while, until I noticed the utter ridiculousness of part ofyour post.

Apple charging more and giving you less? That's unpossible!

Re: Huh?

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

yeah, i hope he's joking here, lol

(currently using two adaptors)

Re: Huh?

[mawz.livejournal.com]

Adaptors work if it's a DVI-I capable display, they don't if it only does DVI-D (Which is digital only, unlike DVI-I).

Re: Huh?

[bynkii.livejournal.com]

Well, the don't ship anything without DVI, so there's not much point in them putting an analog connector on their flat panels.

Me, I like the nicer BenQ monitors.

Re: Huh?

[mawz.livejournal.com]

Actually the do, only PowerMacs, Mac Mini's and Powerbooks have DVI, iMacs, eMacs and iBooks don't, but also don't officially support screen spanning (5 seconds on google and an Applescript fix that).

But Apple Displays have been DVI or ADC (Which is DVI+Power+USB) since the second or third PowerMac G4 revision.

[pacotelic.livejournal.com]

Hapless Best Buy workers are really good at riffing on the infotags on the shelves. That's about all.

[shadowwolf13]

Best Buy's biggest problem is that in most cases they employ teenagers who don't care and don't want to learn. The turn over rate in store is 400% each year. They hire people who still live with mommy and daddy and only need money for gas and dates and are more interested in the party this weekend than in helping a customer. With that in mind it's no wonder they don't bother to train most employees very well.

[shifuimam.livejournal.com]

I think that the Best Buy people get paid to actually find ways to make sure the computer STILL has problems. Some girl in my dorm had a Compaq she bought there, and she got infected with a couple pretty henious viruses (this was before you were required to have Symantec installed in order to connect to the campus network).

She took her computer in, and they reinstalled Windows. All of a week later, she had to take it back because it was running really slowly.

They're a bunch of bastards. If people just used Google half the time, they wouldn't need to pay anyone. :P

[axessdenyd.livejournal.com]

Symantec? Eww.

[shifuimam.livejournal.com]

Eh. Corporate 9.0 has proven to be successful in doing what it needs to do - blocking worms, viruses, and trojans from the network. If you're a resident, you now are required to have it installed in order to even register on the DHCP server.

They started making all these restrictions and rules after Blaster managed to shut down half the campus two days before classes started. It was...hectic.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

They sound exactly like PC World over here. Useless bastards.

[infy.livejournal.com]

A ways back I was looking for a second job for extra cash, and pondered working at Best Buy to get the discounts and such. Couldn't figure out how much they paid there, though.

'Course, sanity stepped in and pulled me from the abyss... but if I ever want to torture myself with the hell of retail combined with all the horrors of tech support... is it worth it?

Suspect I know the answer to that one. Heh. And yes, I've read bestbuysux.org's site (http://bestbuysux.org).

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

Former Best Buy tech here. Best Buy is a good store so long as you don't believe what anyone says there. Go in, buy what you want, don't talk to anyone, and leave. Never get the service plan unless you know you are pretty sure its going to break (I got one with my first generation XBox).

We were fortunate because our techs actually knew a thing or two. But thats because while I was there the job market was lousy and thats what we did while looking for real work. I got out after a few months and if you are a high school kid, its really not a bad job. If you are a college graduate it is depressing.

The only thing that salespeople care about are adding on accessories and service plans. Thats how they make their money. Managers come around every hour with updated statistics on what has been sold. They have what the store has done, what they should be doing, and you are "spoken to" if you haven't sold enough service plans. They expect you to sell service plans with every single computer.

They have "morning meetings" where they go over todays goals and specials, what to try and sell. They also have a rally chant before the store opens.

[axessdenyd.livejournal.com]

They're supposed to be noncommission though, right?

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

Thats the kicker. It *IS* noncommission. They replace the commission with smaller wages, brainwashing, and berating if you don't sell enough stuff. If you don't keep your numbers up you find yourself out of a job for not being a "team player".

And they get away with it because their workforce is made mostly of children.

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and you get lower wages because they have a great discount instead. Most stuff is cost plus 5% last time I was there. Which really is incredible. But thats the genius of it! They offer such good deals to employees that the employees buy a fair amount of stuff and give their paychecks back to the company!

God... I know...

[cerbdog.livejournal.com]

Yes. I too used to work at BB about a year ago now. Every May I will celebrate the best thing which I've ever done for myself:

One day, after having worked there for about 7 months, I woke up as if to get ready for work, but had a strange thought. I know I needed the money (since i'd just had my first accident... and any guy under 25, even if they HADN'T had an accident, knows how much insurance costs) - but something told me I'd had enough. I got ready, put on some regular clothes, went down to BB, entered my department (computer sales....*shudder*) and told my manager "You suck, find another sales monkey) and left. I've never been so proud of myself. I'd NEVER walked out on a job before, but this place was awful. I'd never felt so bad when discussing computer with customers. It's as if I was some used car salesman trying to sell a POS 77 buick to some poor kid for his first car that didn't know crap. The way they pushed us on sales was unbelievable, and what's worse is we were damn good at it. Most sales would pretty much work like:
Customer needs a new computer, doesn't know much, so you take your opportunity to make the managers happy. You find them a mid to low end system to make it look like you care and understand that they don't have a lot of money to sell and REALLY want to help, then, you start throwing in items. Service Plans: $249; UPS/Surge protector, $90; Monitor Wipes, $20; Blank CD/DVD's, $100; Games to play, $40; Joystick for games, $35; Replacement Ink for printer, $70... you just keep tacking it on. I've seen people take the bait so well that they come in with their eye on some cheap ass E-Machine PC setup that should have cost around $700 in store (350 something after rebates that usually don't come in) and leave with that same setup but with all the shit we pushed on them and pay nearly $2,000 and end up having to get a BB Card and put it on there. We were damn good. I had to leave though... everytime you sell and e-machine, a little part of your soul dies.

Sorry that was so long >.>

Re: God... I know...

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

Yeah, its kinda like clubbing baby seals. As a tech they wanted me to help convince customers to buy all that stuff. If the customer was completely clueless I would recommend the service plan and we really did do good service at this particular Best Buy. But if they knew what they were doing I would tell them they didn't need it.

And I personally am I fan of UPS units because I'm in the Boston area. There are a lot of old houses and old wiring around here. Using a UPS unit means constant and steady current which makes computers happy.

Big congrats on bailing on Best Buy bythe way!

Re: God... I know...

[cerbdog.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. UPS's are nice, of course selling a $250 UPS with a 114 minute battery life with a $350 emachine is just pretty damn funny to see. Well, at least I'm not there anymore. Now I've taken my techinical know-how and applied it at the lowest level I could possibly find... now I'm a Helpdesk monkey for Hastings. Please kill me.

[gnostalgia.livejournal.com]

It isn't much different with warranty support, anywhere. (Now if these were NON-warrantied computers, that's something else...)

I used to work at a shop that did warranty support for Packard Bell (wheee, remember Packaged Hell?). We got paid by PB like an HMO; in other words, computer didn't boot, we got reimbursed for *2* hours works tops.

On the other hand, PB would replace any part if we told 'em it was bad. Motherboard + CPU usually came together from them, so once we'd swapped out the RAM and all the cards, we could either wait 2+ hours for the real diagnostics to run, or call PB and get the whole guts swapped out.

Mind you, *software* problems, we'd fix. But hardware? We got paid to treat 'em and street 'em.