Stupid Best Buy Employees

[maclover001]

We all know that Best Buy's employees are total idiots. Any stories?
Here's mine:

Me: "Do you happen to have a demo model of the second-gen iPod Touch?"
BB guy: "Of course, right over here"

He leads me to a demo model of the original Touch

Me: "No, I want to see a Second-Gen Touch"
BB guy: "Oh okay"

He leads me to an iPhone 3G

Me: "No, I want the second generation iTouch" (I hate the word "iTouch", but I thought it might help)

He leads me to an HTC Touch.
I walk out and say nothing.

[brendanryder]

ya ive had the same problems with various products.
i think the worst was when i asked the guy where the external USB/Firewire drives were and he took me to the rack of SD cards and asked if i need anymore help.

i just shacked my head and walked away.

[SilvorX]

I've found Futureshop worse than Best Buy, however my town only has a Futureshop, no Best Buy.

Since Best Buy owns Futureshop.. not much difference minus the whole commission thing.

The main difference I've noticed between Best Buy and Futureshop is that as soon as you walk into Futureshop, just to browse, salespeople start hounding you like vultures, I tend to try walking around the sales people. I remember one time buying an external hard drive, I picked it out myself and was already heading to a sales counter, a sales person runs up to me and takes the box from my hands and places it on the counter so that he'll get commission.. uh? what? That kind of angered me, since he didn't help at all.

For Best Buy for me (when I do go to one), I've found that either sales people are impossible to find or they've been right there where I needed them as soon as I needed them, no problems before.

I bought a new MacBook from Futureshop a month ago, the salesperson who sold it to me was pretty mellow, however he seemed quite angry when I rejected the $400 warranty.. $400? Isn't AppleCare cheaper?

Anywho.. bought the MacBook, took it home (it included a free bundle of AirPort Express, iWork and printer so I was pleased), and turned it on, the first thing I noticed was a problem with the screen.. not a minor problem either, it was something that angered the heck out of me whenever I visited websites or when I went through the Menu Bar. It had THIS problem.

I took the screen back to Futureshop a week later, I was living an hour away from the closest Futureshop, so that was the earliest. I took the MacBook to Customer Service, the girl there noticed the problem instantly because she's a MacBook user herself, she was delightful and said that they will replace it 2 days later since they didn't have any in stock. Anywho.. 2 days later* I came back, did the same thing over again, this time they didn't believe me, even the sales guy who sold me the MacBook took a look at it and didn't believe me, we got a technician to take a look and he basically told me I was bs'ing and that it was a feature, we did comparisons between my MacBook and every. single. Mac. on display and nope.. the problem didn't exist on the other machines, I told him it was a common problem with MacBooks, he kept reiterating that it was a "feature" of Leopard, I sure knew it wasn't, so he googled up "Macbook transparency issues" on one of the floor machines and bases his judgement over some thread here in MacRumours that wasn't even the SAME problem, after an hour of almost ready to demand my money back, they finally agreed to give me a replacement. I was there for another hour since the salesperson was reluctant to get me my replacement MacBook, so 15 minutes before closing, he hands me the replacement MacBook and says "nexttime, get the warranty" and "Macs are garbage, I would never buy a Mac myself", there is no way I will ever buy a computer from Futureshop ever again anyways.. so much hassle to get a replacement on a product that is less than two weeks old.


*Futureshop has a policy where you can return/replace computer for free within 2 weeks, so I was well within that timeline.

[Rodimus Prime]

I would not say stupid best buy employees but more what the hell do you exepct from some one making under 10 bucks an hour.

You get what you pay for...

[pilotError]

I've had some funny scenarios.

I walk in looking for an IDE drive. The guy hands me a sata drive. I tell him, he says oh and hands me an external drive.

I said No, I need an IDE drive. He then asks me what that it and how he's the computer expert and never heard of it. He wanted me to explain the difference between IDE and Sata. He told me there something new called SCSI that I should hold off until they come in.

I made him open the cabinet and grabbed the IDE drive.

Another time I was looking at Motherboards (yes I still build the occassional Pee Cee). The guy kept telling me he's got this great memory for sale. I told him I wasn't looking for memory. After he followed me around while I was browsing he continued to press me on the memory. Finally I gave in and asked how much a 4GB kit was (2 x 2GB). He goes "Oh we don't have that" and walked away. Not 2 minutes later he comes back and starts asking me if I need a printer. I started to look around over the shelving and he wanted to know what I was looking for. I just told him I thought I was on Candid Camera. He didn't get it...

[maclover001]

lol at all of them

This is exactly why I order online.

[Bobdude161]

Originally Posted by maclover001

We all know that Best Buy's employees are total idiots. Any stories?

c'mon man, I work there. I have the decency to say that I don't know everything and that if I don't know the answer I'll Google it if need be. If you know more than me, good for you. I'm there to help those who need help, if you know what you're doing, I'll leave you alone.

Problem is that people are prideful. It's hard for some people to admit that their wrong. And then some people just don't get the adequate training, but that's another story.

I don't think it's fair to the people who work there to say that EVERYONE is stupid in BBY. Don't get me wrong, not everyone is bright as you are. I'm just asking for a little respect for the people who are trying to make a living.

[Saikou]

Originally Posted by Bobdude161

I don't think it's fair to the people who work there to say that EVERYONE is stupid in BBY. Don't get me wrong, not everyone is bright as you are. I'm just asking for a little respect for the people who are trying to make a living.

I agree. It's a little disrespectful to make such a broad generalization. There are going to be idiots and people who know what they're doing in every job / profession.

[kabunaru]

Ill-trained in the world of electronics. Fire the guy!

[Tottenham4Life]

This is in 2003...The last time I was at the local BB in Canoga Park/Woodland Hills, CA

BB: Would you like the performance guarantee for this Playstation 2?

Me: No

BB: You really should at least look at it.

Me: really No Thanks

BB: Well if it breaks in a month and a half then you are out of luck

Me:Are you saying that is a possibility?

BB: You never know

Me: Nevermind. Piss off

[pac-a-mac]

It may be a culture thing but I suspect us Brits expect less from shop assistants who earn little more than the minimum wage. I do not walk into ASDA (Walmart) expecting employees who last week were putting price tags on dog food to be versed in every product on sale. I would go to Apple Store for that and even then I would not expect the world. So bully for you, you know more than a shop assistant on a couple of dollars an hour, be proud, wear a t-shirt hell even complain on a forum...but please shut the door on your way out

[iJohnHenry]

Wear a long coat, with inside pockets.

No, not to steal anything, just to avoid getting mugged on the way to cash-out.

[maclover001]

Sorry if I offended anyone, but I've never had a good experience at Best Buy.

[viccles]

This kind of reminds me about JB-Hifi over here. I walked in yesterday wanting a HDMI splitter. Went to the counter and asked and he said oh I don't think they make such a thing! He walks around the store and goes oh I think this is it. Leaves me to look so I take one and walk back to the counter.

Ask the chick there to double confirm that was what I needed (to be able to plug my ps3 and cable into my hdmi on my tv which has only one slot). She's like uhhh I'll ring games. I said no this is a TV purchase I only want to know if I can plug my PS3 because it needs the HDMI. Finally, some guy came over and said yes that's what you want. They were absolutely clueless, you think working at an electronics store that they would know

[Gray-Wolf]

A guy takes his laptop to a best buy. It has a damaged screen and you can see anything on it, other than in one corner. He wants to get the data off and nto another machine. They tell him, that without the screen its a no go, and charged him $99 for trying.

He brought both to me, I hooked up an external monitor and started it in save mode. I set the monitor to use external and restarted it. I managed to get all his data off and onto flash drives to install on the new machine. And I didn't charge him a penny. I told him he should go back to the store and give them a clue.

Got to love the geek squad.

[dukebound85]

haha reminds me of this thread i have on ......circuit city people lol

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=370753

[ucfgrad93]

Most sales clerks don't know their head from a hole in the ground regardless of what store they work at: Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.

[iJohnHenry]

[yukio]

I thought it was just me.

I went into the San Francisco SOMA/Potrero to buy a 24" LCD on Thursday.

Was gonna buy at Costco, but nothing they offered had height-adjustable stands.

So, I go into BB, go to the LCDs.

I look at 'em, come up with some questions.

Meanwhile - no one's approached me or acknowledged my presence. And this is after 15 minutes or so. Instead, two BB computer department employees are talking to each other - quite loudly - about 15 feet away - about how to use better cables to extend the distance from their xbox 360s to their TVs.

So, I walk up to a BB guy and ask him - "I have some questions with these displays - would you help me with them?"

He looked right at me, said "No." and then turned around and walked away.

Needless to say, I left the store.

On my way out, I asked the security guard/package checker if they had any sort of customer comment form.

She gave me a photocopy of a page pointing to bestbuycares.com

When you go there - you can only comment about a store if you've made a purchase there - because they require the information from the bottom of the receipt.

Ah, Best Buy..... I'm sure you have some great employees.

They just don't seem to be in San Francisco.

[iJohnHenry]

Well, like it or hate it, the above poster would have appreciated the "attentive nature" of a FS 'ass-ociate'.

"At BB, we are salaried, and we don't give a **** if you buy or not."

[jb60606]

Take it easy on the BB guys - most of them are just high school and college students tryin to earn a buck. If they had the desire to make a career there, I'm sure they'd try their best to learn everything about everything they sell.

Besides, I've met some truly epic morons at the Apple Store.

[montanachad]

At Costco one employee told me that Apple didn't exist when I asked him if my mac would work with an external hard drive.

[ZachsMacDaddy]

Originally Posted by jb60606

Take it easy on the BB guys - most of them are just high school and college students tryin to earn a buck. If they had the desire to make a career there, I'm sure they'd try their best to learn everything about everything they sell.

Besides, I've met some truly epic morons at the Apple Store.

I think the generalized sentiment is pretty fitting for BB.

If BB wants to hire poorly informed people to represent them at the customer facing side of the business, then they should be judged by the inadequacies of those people they hire to work the stores.

As far as their "Geek Squad" goes, the claims they make are a joke.

"Geek Squad® Agents and Installers are ready to take the hassle out of your technology woes. They have the know-how and skill to set up and install your computer, network, home theater solution and car audio, video and navigation systems."

I've seen some that are lucky to be able to tie their own shoes.

[OscarTheGrouch]

I am as Anti- BBY as they come, however I did have a good experience there a few weeks ago.

My wife had bought me a new XM unit. It quit working like a month after I activated it. I Called XM and they could do nothing, they referred me back to Audiovox, who I haggled with for a while about the issue, they also not wanting to do anything (even though 12 month manu. warranty) Finally, I went back to Best Buy (for the third time actually) and asked the nice young lady at the desk to help me out, and I walked out with a brand new unit. Of course shortly after this, I was browsing the Mac section of the store, and just over heard all kinds of painful stupidity, that made me shake my head and leave.

But I will say if nothing else the customer service is improving. I guess that whole thing where they wanted to pick and chose their customers didn't work too well for them.

[miloblithe]

Originally Posted by brendanryder

i just shacked my head and walked away.

That's very dangerous. You should at least put your head in a barn, or some more stable structure, before walking away.