Apple Pulling iPad 2 from Best Buy?

[dbales]

I think it's a misnomer to claim that ::insert derogatory term:: people work at Best Buy. Sure, there are some serious sharks working there who prey on people. But there's also some real, good, decent people working there.

And it's easy to say that if BB is such an unethical place, why do people work there? They should just quit. Well, life isn't always that simple or b&w. When I was there 10 years ago, I was making $12.50/hour. And for a poor college kid, that wasn't too bad for a part-time job.

One of my worst days...

Christmas 2001 and I was working like gangbusters in DI. (Digital Imaging). Sony has some kick-butt new camcorder out that year. In our BB, the camcorders were frequently stuck in cages that I had to use a big ladder to get.

The Sales Manager was standing close to me and heard that I couldn't close the sale on the extended warranty. The guy didn't want to buy it because it was a gift for his sister. The Sales Manager told me that I would NOT be selling the camcorder to him without a PSP. I was instructed to tell the guy we didn't have it in stock.

Problem was that the camcorder was CLEARLY visible in the cage to customers. The guy pointed to it and said, "Not in stock? There it is right there!"

The Sales Manager said, "I'm sorry sir. We're holding that for another customer." The guy responded, "What about the one sitting on top of it? Are you holding THAT for another customer, too?" "Yes." replied the Sales Manager.

Well the guy blew a gasket right out there in DI. And of course, he directed all his rage and fury on me. The guys was screaming profanities in my face. Spittle flying everywhere. He eventually punched me in the chest which caused an even bigger scene.

Many people in various stages of life are stuck in their jobs. Go easy on the sales help. You have NO IDEA what they are instructed to do and if they DON'T DO IT....BB's way of punishing you is to not give you hours the following weeks.

Yup, that's how BB gets its employees to "go along" with doing things. I saw many, many people be forced to quit because the Operations Manager decided that person wasn't a quote:

Team Player.

 

[KnightWRX]

...unless they're choosing to not have their products sold there?

Except that rumor is what was squashed. Anything else is just rampant emotivity gone wrong.

If you don't like how BB does business, don't shop there.

 

[ATC]

bestbuy (and futureshop..same company) insist apple purchasers buy their own over priced ****** extended warranty on apple products. I'm not sure its allowed by apple or not but it seems a bit shady. I hate shopping in those places.

+1

I've heard it so many times where salespeople at these 2 stores (BB and FS) consistently tell customers that their Product Service Plan is superior to AppleCare. And sadly, I've seen so many uninformed customers buy it.

 

[kingtj]

Umm....

For quite a few years now, it's NOT been about the cost of the new hardware at all! When you buy that new PC, does it magically have all your data moved over to it and all the applications working exactly like they did on the old machine? Are your printers still working properly? Is your network WEP or WPA key already entered and your wireless network ready to go on that replacement computer? How about all the extra garbage that came pre-installed on the new computer that you DON'T want? Oh, and just because it's a "new computer", chances are REALLY good it still needs a lot of security update patches downloaded and applied because it sat in a box on the store shelf for at least 3-6 months.

Granted, Mac users don't have to hassle with a lot of these issues, in many cases -- but I'm referring mostly to the Windows PCs that the vast majority of people use.

My regular customers gladly pay me $75/hr. for my time to work on their systems (and that's actually a cheaper rate than most of my competitors charge).

The idea that it's always cheaper just to get a new machine is seriously flawed, unless you're tech savvy enough to handle all the issues that arise yourself, or you don't have any data on your machine of any real value to begin with.

your people must work for peanuts. these days it's cheaper to buy a new computer than pay a tech guy to check it out

 

[RalfTheDog]

"Apparently, Best Buy was holding off on selling the iPad 2s it had in stock, telling customers there weren’t any when in fact they had just reached their quota of sales for the day."

The difference to the customer is zero. Unavailable for purchase either way.

If this report has any truth to it, Apple should be ashamed to nick-pick over semantics.

I don't think you understand. It is not a max quota, it is a minimum quota. Best Buy sells the minimum number of iPads they need to get a bonus. The next guy in line is told, "We are all out of iPads. While you are here, why not get a toaster oven?"

The guy comes back the next day, "We are all out, how about a bread maker?"

On day three, " Sorry, no iPads. If you purchase a coffee maker, we will give you 12 free Android Phones." (Product Insurance Plan Required.)

 

[mdlooker]

Yep. And maybe a little... "We don't have the iPad 2 in but let me show you this Xoom we do have in stock." Unknowing Mom or Pop fall for it.

Ta-Da! Manager meets Xoom sell totals and iPad 2's as well.

I think this a perfect time for BB to give Xoom a larger piece of real esate in the store. They need it! Maybe even send out reps to the stores to further promote the product. Huge opportunity here.

 

[AllieNeko]

The real victory...

The real victory for consumers comes when Apple says "enough is enough" and pulls out of BB entirely

 

[kingtj]

A few thoughts on this ....

1. I never said BB doesn't have some good, decent employees working there. By and large, I find most of them from the cashiers to the customer service counter folks to be friendly or at least polite. I'm only saying that the company falsely markets their GeekSquad portion of the company as a group of highly trained computer/tech experts who can solve all your issues quickly and painlessly. That's simply not reality, especially when the pay scale is only attractive to people who need an "entry level" type job in the field.

2. I've found that at least in the past, BB often misrepresented their ability to handle warranty repairs. For example, I brought them a Toshiba notebook one time for warranty service. It turned out all they did was mail it off to a Toshiba service depot, yet they claimed it was being repaired by their own people. (The only reason I brought it to them in the first place was the implied ability to get it repaired and back to me more quickly than if I had mailed it off to Toshiba directly.)

3. There's NEVER any excuse for being assaulted by a store shopper! Anyone who'd punch you in the stomach in anger about a sales transaction has some serious issues. I hope you pressed charges. Regardless, I think there's something to be said for personal accountability.... You might have really "needed the job/money", but you still could have quit and tried to find employment elsewhere. Nobody held a gun to your head every day and marched you over to Best Buy to begin your shift, right? If you knew you were being forced to lie to customers about things or to push service plans you didn't think should be pushed on people -- you made the decision to go through with it, to keep the job. That means you're partially accountable when people get angry about it.

I think it's a misnomer to claim that ::insert derogatory term:: people work at Best Buy. Sure, there are some serious sharks working there who prey on people. But there's also some real, good, decent people working there.

And it's easy to say that if BB is such an unethical place, why do people work there? They should just quit. Well, life isn't always that simple or b&w. When I was there 10 years ago, I was making $12.50/hour. And for a poor college kid, that wasn't too bad for a part-time job.

One of my worst days...

Christmas 2001 and I was working like gangbusters in DI. (Digital Imaging). Sony has some kick-butt new camcorder out that year. In our BB, the camcorders were frequently stuck in cages that I had to use a big ladder to get.

The Sales Manager was standing close to me and heard that I couldn't close the sale on the extended warranty. The guy didn't want to buy it because it was a gift for his sister. The Sales Manager told me that I would NOT be selling the camcorder to him without a PSP. I was instructed to tell the guy we didn't have it in stock.

Problem was that the camcorder was CLEARLY visible in the cage to customers. The guy pointed to it and said, "Not in stock? There it is right there!"

The Sales Manager said, "I'm sorry sir. We're holding that for another customer." The guy responded, "What about the one sitting on top of it? Are you holding THAT for another customer, too?" "Yes." replied the Sales Manager.

Well the guy blew a gasket right out there in DI. And of course, he directed all his rage and fury on me. The guys was screaming profanities in my face. Spittle flying everywhere. He eventually punched me in the chest which caused an even bigger scene.

Many people in various stages of life are stuck in their jobs. Go easy on the sales help. You have NO IDEA what they are instructed to do and if they DON'T DO IT....BB's way of punishing you is to not give you hours the following weeks.

Yup, that's how BB gets its employees to "go along" with doing things. I saw many, many people be forced to quit because the Operations Manager decided that person wasn't a quote:

Team Player.

 

[DanHolderman]

I'm glad that apple is pulling the iPad 2 out of Best Buy: I was VERY unimpressed with Best Buy when I tried to buy my Macbook Pro. The "salesman" kept flirting with all of the girls that were milling about. Here is basically what happened:

Me: (after waiting for 3-5 minutes, standing next to salesman while he talks about a party with a girl)"Hi, I am interested in picking up this MacBook Pro"

Sales guy: "hold on, I'll be with you in a minute" (hand up in a "stop" gesture. Tells 22-25 yr old girl about local restaurants in the area.

Girl then leaves

Me: "Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt you but I want to buy this MacBook Pro."

Sales guy: "yeah, just a minute buddy. I'll be right with you." (walks over to two girls that are browsing in the software isle adjacent to the apple area.) "Hi ladies, can I help you with something?"

At this point I get it. I'm a 35 year old guy, and this "salesman" is trying to meet a different kind of quota. But come on! I have $2,000 and I am trying my hardest to spend it on the new MacBook Pro!

I end up asking for the store manager and I tell him what is going on. He tells me that he can get a sales associate to help me now. I tell him that I am so ticked off right now and I feel that I waisted 45 minutes trying to buy the stupid computer.

I leave and drive 2 miles to the apple store and buy the MacBook Pro there. I originally opted not to buy the MacBook Pro at apple because of the long lines and crowding at the store. After the Best Buy incident I was a little more forgiving of apple's crowded store.

My experience at apple was much better, but it still took over 30 minutes to get a salesperson and complete my purchase.

From here on out I will not be going back to Best Buy for any reason. This last experience was the last straw with that store.

I say GOOD RIDDANCE TO BEST BUY!

 

[JRoDDz]

I was a manager at Circuit City for several years and I could not disagree any more.

The quicker you move stock, the better.

Obviously, you DON'T know.

And then again Circuit City went bankrupt. So your argument doesn't hold any water.

 

[Al Coholic]

You people truly have no lives. 350 posts over some silly-assed rumor spawned by a Best Buy stock boy?

Who cares? Seriously. You people act like congress needs to step in on this (after they settle the NFL dispute) so the meanies at BB will fetch your iToy from the stock room.

If any retailer wants to ration out their rare stock on a daily basis it makes perfect business sense. And who the hell is Apple to tell BB anything different when it is Apple who can't even supply their distribution channels?

Besides. You can get your iGizmo from Toys R' Us now. LOL!

 

[magbarn]

+1

I've heard it so many times where salespeople at these 2 stores (BB and FS) consistently tell customers that their Product Service Plan is superior to AppleCare. And sadly, I've seen so many uninformed customers buy it.

You do realize some of BB's service plans do include accidental coverage including cracked screens and getting it wet. Whilst Apple will quickly void your 'precious' Applecare at that point.

 

[MacManTexas56]

You people truly have no lives. 350 posts over some silly-assed rumor spawned by a Best Buy stock boy?

Who cares? Seriously. You people act like congress needs to step in on this (after they settle the NFL dispute) so the meanies at BB will fetch your iToy from the stock room.

If any retailer wants to ration out their rare stock on a daily basis it makes perfect business sense. And who the hell is Apple to tell BB anything different when it is Apple who can't even supply their distribution channels?

Besides. You can get your iGizmo from Toys R' Us now. LOL!

lol you are replying in this thread now...so no life i guess!

 

[angrylawyer]

And it's easy to say that if BB is such an unethical place, why do people work there? They should just quit. Well, life isn't always that simple or b&w. When I was there 10 years ago, I was making $12.50/hour. And for a poor college kid, that wasn't too bad for a part-time job.

Many people in various stages of life are stuck in their jobs. Go easy on the sales help. You have NO IDEA what they are instructed to do and if they DON'T DO IT....BB's way of punishing you is to not give you hours the following weeks.

Yup, that's how BB gets its employees to "go along" with doing things.

Hah, that reminds me of the time I had a customer blow up at me. I was always very careful about the way I phrased my statements, I virtually never said anything in the absolute, it was always, "I believe...", "I think...", etc.

So when a guy had picked up an openbox laptop charger and asked how much it was, I said, "I think it's $89, but I can check it if you'd like..." He just went up front to buy it and it turned out to be the 'premium' charger that had the extra adapters for cars and things, so it was $129. The customer got irate and came and started yelling at me because I had "TOLD" him that it was $89 and I "HAD" to sell it to him at that price because that's what I "SAID."

The whole time he was yelling at me, then eventually my manager, I couldn't get this dumb grin off my face because I thought the whole thing was hysterical. I knew I wouldn't get in any trouble because another associate had heard me say it. Then the customer was even more angry that I wouldn't tell him my last name; he told him he was going to take my job and and threw the box at my feet. I kept grinning and wished him a nice afternoon.

 

[magbarn]

The real victory for consumers comes when Apple says "enough is enough" and pulls out of BB entirely

So less choice is better?
You're also basically saying a big F U to all the rest of us who don't conveniently have an Apple store next door. Last time I checked Apple isn't doing a 18 months zero interest loan either on any of their products. I normally don't buy my electronics at BB as on-line prices are usually loads better, but with Apple strictly enforcing their pricing, BB prices are pretty much are on par for Apple products.

 

[pooprscooper]

They don't call it worst buy for nothing. Shady business practices and scamming customers is their number one priority.

 

[Gasu E.]

Obviously you know little about retail and accounting.

I can't fathom why a human being would make a post like this. You actually subtracted value from this conversation. The world is just slightly worse off than it was prior to your post.

 

[tdiaz]

BestBuy is a Store Full of Shenanigans any way you put it.

They always find a way to distort, twist, or otherwise screw you out of money.

Their magazine scandal with your signature on the credit card screen, their Xbox bundles, Wii bundles, Playstation, etc. They don't play fair.

So sitting on iPads as there is a "quota", so they don't disappoint customers? Or they make it look like they're special and everyone else sucks? Sooner or later Apple has to figure out something is up, and you know what? Good for them.

When you go into BestBuy, like CompUSA used to be, and the people wearing blue with yellow tags slam product on the sales floor because it's not Windows, thats just stupid. The idea is to sell product. not show your ignorance.

BestBuy shows it's ignorance constantly. This is just another example of it.

 

[gLaDiAtOr73]

i believe that BB did this. i remember one year i went to buy a new ipod the first week they came out. the sales rep told me that he couldnt sell me the new one until they sold all the old ones. (this is after i was there the day before and they told me they didnt have them) i asked to speak to a manager and he let me buy the new one. He did try to upsell me on a case because "he did me a favor"

 

[Dobbs2]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

Most of you guys don't understand retail. Their aren't sales quotas for certain items a day. It's a soft goal of revenue notional margin. The atv is the only noticeable margin that most store employees will get a discount on from apple. We do however share a small chink of the pie on the computers. On other computers we have no margin. We sell them what we pay for them. Best buy does make money on accessories hence why they always try and sell you them. So they can pay the bills and pay employees. The service plans are 100% profit. The goal is to sell more service plans than actual customers use or make a claim on apple does this with apple care, but are less pushy. If best buy or more brick and mortar stores go out of business good luck with newegg and amazon they have less employees to pay and less overhead hence lower prices, but more than likely with less competition their prices will gradually go up. Also have fun with the new use taxes in affect make sure you claim those items on your taxes or pay the consequences. Amazon had a distribution center kicked out ofthe Dallas area because the city claimed they were owed $260m in taxes so I don't see not paying taxes thing lasting forever.

The same people in this thread complaining about best buy hold stock for this upcoming Sunday ad would be the same people showing up on Sunday complaining if they didn't have minimum amount the the ad said come Sunday.

Best buy was holding stock for this ad which is required by law if you have a Sunday advertisement a la bait and switch. The ad has since been pulled and selling normal apple is happy and continued sales.

 

[omyard]

I'm so glad to hear about this. I worked for Best Buy during the Wii shortages of '08 and we had to tell customers we didn't have any when we did because we were suppose to upsell the customer on games and accessories and then go "oh, I think we just got some in". There were times were were allowed to just put them on the floor and sell them like when they were in the Sunday ad or the manager wasn't feeling like a douche.

I'm glad to see someone as big and protective as Apple come out smack Best Buy in their greedy mouth.

I know people like calling Apple controlling, but they are. They're very protective of the brand and that's what I like about them.

 

[infidel69]

Apple's not going to pull the ipad2 from BB that would be crazy stupid on their part. This story is way overblown.

 

[savar]

I do not intend to be rude, but there is a difference in HDMI cables, no matter what the Internet tells you. Conductors, shielding materials/layers and the way the connectors are put together are a few differentiators. An AudioQuest Coffee cable, for example, which is several hundred dollars ($600 I believe for a 1.5m) is made of pure silver starting with the tips and going the length of the cable. This is not the same as a no name $5 dollar HDMI cable from Amazon.

HDMI is digital. If the signal arrives in recognizable form at the other end of the cable, then the signal is IDENTICAL to any other cable carrying the same signal.

These days, "good enough" is what matters. $90 HDMI cables at best buy are a rip, and if you condone the sale of a $600 HDMI cable then you must be a salesperson because no informed consumer would conscience that.

 

[JRoDDz]

BestBuy is a Store Full of Shenanigans any way you put it.

They always find a way to distort, twist, or otherwise screw you out of money.

Their magazine scandal with your signature on the credit card screen, their Xbox bundles, Wii bundles, Playstation, etc. They don't play fair.

So sitting on iPads as there is a "quota", so they don't disappoint customers? Or they make it look like they're special and everyone else sucks? Sooner or later Apple has to figure out something is up, and you know what? Good for them.

When you go into BestBuy, like CompUSA used to be, and the people wearing blue with yellow tags slam product on the sales floor because it's not Windows, thats just stupid. The idea is to sell product. not show your ignorance.

BestBuy shows it's ignorance constantly. This is just another example of it.

In my experiences with Bestbuy they are always trying to upsell, pull bait and switches, sell you stupid warranties. etc. I try my best not to visit that store if at all possible. The best is, they have once price on the web site but when you get to the store it's a higher price. Then they tell you "oh that's the online price". WTF? So you have to buy it online, and then pickup at store to get the lower price. Bestbuy where there's always a scam going on.

 

[tigress666]

If there is one indisputable fact of this world...

Those on message boards that say they hate Best Buy, are the first to grab the Sunday ad and visit the store at least weekly.

Bank on it.

Nope. I haven't paid a dime to them since 2001/000? (Whenever I bought the VCR that ended up in a total debacle to the point I boycott them on principle).

I'll use them to window shop sometimes (especially when I want to prevent myself from making a whimsical buy cause I know I won't give them a dime).

The only reason these days I do not want to see them go bankrupt is Walmart needs some competitor (and I'll shop at Walmart but I tend to avoid the place. But it's not like Best Buy where I refuse to give them a dime of my money). THough I admit I think I'd still feel some joy in Best Buy going out of business. I noticed when I went in to check out a 3DS that they had more than half their lights out (it looked like my store does when we no longer have customers). Seems like they are already feeling the crunch (I hear they got listed as one of the top 5 most hated companies this year).

I prefer Fry's. They're not convenient to me but at least we have one. Or online (and use best buy to see the product in person). I miss Circuit City and CompUSA .

Anyways, if this is true, good. ***** Best Buy. I'm totally not surprised they'd pull these shenanigans (anyone remember a few years back when they got caught claiming they'd match their website's prices but the website they had in the store showed different prices than the site you visited when you were at your home? Yeah, Best Buy is totally capable of pulling off shenanigans and being as unethical as possible to their customers. They are not aiming to get repeat business, they only want your money now, screw if you ever want to come back or not. Apparently they don't feel repeat business is an important aspect of making money).