Apple + Best Buy Update: Just A Pilot?

[jaydub]

Ok, maybe I should have rephrased that, haha. I meant not Apple biased. Definitely not the same.

Not necessarily. Bias is bias, regardless of which side of the fence you're on. I posted an outsider's account of what I experienced at the Best Buy here in town, and my opinion was that Apple's showing there was poor (at best) and it was a terrible way to highlight the products. Regardless of whether Apple Stores only sell their own products, they also ensure that their employees know as much technical information as is necessary to sell the products. It's hard to be impressed when the Best Buy experience forces you to work around their security devices and disabled software, when the Apple store invites you to try anything you can think of on their machines. It's about the experience.

Best Buy may be the #1 selling electronics store in the nation, but they were in poor shape only a few years ago. My experience has been that the staff is always discourteous, ill-equipped for even the most simple customer service tasks, and make no attempts to answer technical questions without referring you to their computer support desk. Even though they are usually the cheapest place in town to buy DVD's, I'll pay more for a better buying experience.

Finally, I hate that I have to show my stupid receipt to some guy at the front of the store before I exit. That's just a personal pet peeve, but one day I'm going to run out the door with a product I've purchased just to see them stop short of the parking lot (since they can't chase me there!). That is all.

 

[interlaced]

I spent a lot of time driving around today listening to the radio. On one of the most popular stations, KIIS FM, I heard the Best Buy/Apple commercial about 9 times. Apparently a lot of Best Buys here are holding events over the weekend and giving away iTunes gift cards and an iMac. They also encourage people to come by and test out the Macbooks [Pro]. Awesome. I might just go.

 

[djerati]

Apple stores are common, and the internet is everywhere...

Just why does Best Buy matter? Meh! It doesnt! There are so many other (better) ways to buy Apple computer products, and that's no "rumor".

 

[poppe]

I spent a lot of time driving around today listening to the radio. On one of the most popular stations, KIIS FM, I heard the Best Buy/Apple commercial about 9 times. Apparently a lot of Best Buys here are holding events over the weekend and giving away iTunes gift cards and an iMac. They also encourage people to come by and test out the Macbooks [Pro]. Awesome. I might just go.

Where are you located at? Perhaps by me so I can try to win those things?

 

[poppe]

I apologize for the sarcasm (and the camera phone pics). I went to the Best Buy in Mission Valley, San Diego, CA and told them I needed a computer because I just got a digital camera for my birthday. I want to use the internet, email, listen to music, watch movies, store my photos, put together slide shows and movies of my vacations with music, burn dvds and other fun stuff. After we decided I wanted a notebook and wanted to spend under $1500, I was shown a Toshiba. Next I was shown a Sony Vaio, because you can stick your camera's memory card in it... not mine by the way (Digital Rebel XT). I asked a few more questions like "how hard is it to make a website for my photos" and got no Mac love. Infact, we got nowhere near the Macs. After, I went to look at them alone - MY salesman never approached me, one did though.

He told me "You know, Macs now run on intel processors so they're a little better now." Except the one I was on (PowerMac), he mentioned, "it has their old processor." He did act excited to share his knowledge. I asked a few more questions but was quickly bored with his lack of knowledge. The way I figure, anyone who is in the Best Buy computer dept now is there because they may know a little about windows PCs. There was no Mac section when they were hiring them and I doubt if any have been taught to use a Mac.

So first we have the MacBook with no Dock. Seriously, you can't see it unless you are looking straight down the surface of the screen. If I didn't know better, I'd think the bar across the top was a misplaced Windows taskbar. Their anti-theft device ruins the experience.

See - 0606062033.jpg

The next best thing was the number of error messages I received. I tried to start aperture on their PowerMac. I received an error message - 1000MB of Memory not available. Sure enough the memory was 512 - Maybe I'll get in trouble someday... but I removed Aperture from the dock.

See - 0606062031.jpg

Another message read "no video device" for Photo Booth on a MacBook Pro, which was also set to Magnify and White on Black in the universal settings. I fixed the universal settings but I have no clue how to disable/enable the built-in isight. Someone did. None of the software was updated with system update so you received a message to upgrade each one as they were opened. I really felt like I was back on a Windows PC - everything I did invoked a system message. Their 23" screen required me to lift and slide the mouse three times to get from top to bottom - it felt so awkward. I increased the tracking speed just enough so that one movement would cover the desktop.

Good points: A large sign you almost run into as you walk in the store mentioned checking out the Macs and pointed to the Mac section. Also, it was a big and I'd say very nice display before you even reached the computers.

Also attached is a blurry pic of display for those who want to see...

I was just at the best buy here near Dallas. They only have Mac Mini's but I was really confused. It was a 1.5 core solo, but it was running like a dog... It stuttered when I moved the cursor. It felt like the mouse was loosing connection as I tried to mac it from the dock to the finder...

Oh and everyhthing was very very very very very pixelated. I looked at the finder/HDD picture and it was all squared shapped. Why in the world was this like this?

I was going to show the group I was with, but I almost threw up in my mouth so I thought I shouldn't expose them also...

 

[balamw]

Where are you located at? Perhaps by me so I can try to win those things?

KIIS is a Los Angeles station, and the selected 7 stores are all in Southern CA/NV, so it's not so close to TX.

The $150 coupons posted in another thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/208694/ almost make it worthwhile to stop by and see... (I'm ~30 minutes from one of the stores...)

B

 

[dummptyhummpty]

I don't have time to read up on all the comments but I work at one of the Best Buy stores (I thought all of them were getting macs but I guess not) that have the macs. We actually have a position that is called Apple Specialist (or something like that) and the one guy who was doing it for a while knows his stuff. The girl schedualed for this week knows her stuff too. They also know that I know a bit and call me over to help out. I actually sold my first mac today and it was sweet. I'll try to read up on this thread after work tomorrow. Oh and I work at store 116 in Woodland Hills (Ask for Josh).

I just read some more and alot of you guys are right. There are alot of people in the store who don't know **** about what they are selling (I was never given a formal training luckly I know my computer ****) but then there are a few people who know alot and others who are willing to learn from us. There are the three mac people in my computer department and the rest of the people know that if someone needs help they should see us. Also about the PSPs, well we really push them because they tell us too. On the laptops they are actually a good idea since anything accidental is covered, I use that as my selling point.

Oh and how do I try to sell macs? Well for one they just work: try to drag somthing on to somthing else and it usually does what you want. Also I mention the no virus/spyware thing so you can just buy the mac and don't have to buy 118 bucks worth of other ****. I happen to notice we now have little signs around the macs saying the same ****. If you happen to live by my store come in and talk to me if you'd like. The people to see for macs are Dave Paul, me or Heather.

Lastly, who ever mentioned that he was never shown a mac...the reason for that is alot of our customers are cheap and they come in to buy our POS $550 notebooks. I try to mention the Macs but alot of the customers can't justify spending the moeny when they can get a same (Spec wise) computer for less. I'm open to ideas on how to sell macs if any one want's to give me some.

Any way i'm exhausted from work and probably not making sence. L8.

 

[JoeB4ever]

Agree to disagree

Nice to see fellow best buy employees take part on this discussion

I agree that there are BB employees that won't know squat on mac. And how can you expect all of them to without having the correct training, plus all of the other worthless crap they have to know. Luckily when we actually carry them in the stores, they will have the correct training to sell them efficiently.

In most best buy stores, we can order macs, but we're not supposed to carry them in the store. Well One of the macs we ordered for a customer was returned(he thought apple was gonna teach him how to use his imac), so this imac he had returned we put on display, then set it up with bootcamp. It is probably now our most popular computer. And we LOVE IT. My next computer will probably be a mac with the great experience I've had with just B.S.ing with it when I'm bored at work.

Plus I'm all for switching PC users over to Mac... It just makes sence