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Best Buy? What a joke!

J

JMies419

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 24, 2006
340
0
Hello all,

Let me start by saying that I am new to Apple computers. This is my second post on this forum. The only use I have had on Apple computers is a Apple store about a hour from my house. I have been in the market for a new laptop, and have chosen to make the switch to a Mac!

Back to the topic of the thread, BEST BUY. I stopped by Best Buy today to pick up a XBOX 360 game and wandered into the computer dept. One of the employee's asked me if I needed any help, so I simply ask him "Why don't you guys sell Apple notebooks in the stores?" It was like the sales persons eyes turned red with anger.. He immedietly began bashing Mac like I have never heard before, making comments like "I could do more on a 10 year old windows PC than I could do on a brand new $3,000 Mac!" I dont know a lot about Apple at this point, because I am such a newbie so I kinda just took it all in. I did mention running Windows on Macs now and asked him to explain to me what I couldent do with this technology. He did not like that at all. He then went on to talk about some virus that is effecting the new intel macs and stated that there was no remedy or way to remove it (he was grinning the whole time). I have not heard of this virus, so the only thing I could fire back was "Well if that is true, that 1 virus effecting mac is not gonna make up for the hundreds of virus's on yours windows pc at home".

So my question is, why are dedicated Windows users so bitter twords mac and feel the need to bad mouth Apple? Obviously its a personal preference which OS you choose, but in this case I guess he could not leave it at that and move on. Also, this is a BEST BUY employee, and whether Best Buy sells Apple in there retail stores or not, THEY SELL THEM..on their website. I wonder if his supervisor would be happy to know that his employee is bashing a product that is sold by there company? Interesting...:eek:
 
JMies419 said:
So my question is, why are dedicated Windows users so bitter twords mac and feel the need to bad mouth Apple? Obviously its a personal preference which OS you choose, but in this case I guess he could not leave it at that and move on.
Click to expand...

Because they're narrow minded. They know nothing about the Macintosh platform, but they want the platform they're on to be the best. The fact that they see so many people saying 'ahh macs are great!' and they can see Apple's success with things like the iPod, probably makes them feel more angry that Mac users, with their fun, shiny computers are doing better then they are with their noisy, ugly, dull, disfunctional PCs...


JMies419 said:
Also, this is a BEST BUY employee, and whether Best Buy sells Apple in there retail stores or not, THEY SELL THEM..on their website. I wonder if his supervisor would be happy to know that his employee is bashing a product that is sold by there company? Interesting...:eek:
Click to expand...

Why not write a letter or email the supervisor, suggesting a Macintosh training course? The employee should at least know the products he is talking about. You should always know your competition, whether you like what they do or not.

Also, the fact that he was stupid enough to go and have an arguement with a customer deserves a punishment.

Write a nice letter or email to the supervisor, saying something like "I wasn't personally offended by what happened, but it might be a good idea to mention to the employee that he could end up offending customers, and potentially lose buisness for the company", or some BS like that.



If you want some good pro mac arguments, say stuff like this:

Windows: 114,000 viruses, over 50 new discovered per day.
OS X: no known effective viruses

In Windows, all apps are run 'together', so if one crashes, then they all crash.
In OS X, all the applications are run in isolation from each other, which is why if one crashes, then the rest still work fine.

Windows machines need to be defragged. Most people who say to me "oh my computer is running really slow!" look like I've just spoken in dutch when I mention defragging. How are they supposed to know they have to defrag?
OS X doesn't need to be defragged at all.

Mac OS users were dragging files around their screens and shifting Windows around when PC users were still trying to remember the directory of that file they saved a year ago.

Macs can run both OS X, Linux AND Windows applications (natively), with software like Boot Camp. PCs can't.

etc...

great second post BTW!!!
 
eva01 said:
hmm some of the workers at the local best buy get paid commission
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Heh.

As far as I was told, BB is non-comissions. *shrugs*

I make 8.25 hawking PCs to people. Which actually is pretty good when you're only 17. Most of my friends are making around 6.15 an hour.
 
ya the thought of the way pc users think just makes me cringe. but you have to think about the way we think towards pc's, and while we can be a bit brutal, many of us have switched from pc, or at least given them a shot, so i guess we win. :D
 
We are not commission but we sell like we are cuz our managers are always on us to sell like 50 different things along with your printer to get sales up.

I apologize for that idiot, for all I know he was prolly trying to get you to buy a PC cuz most BB don't sell Macs. Or he is one of the many many many Apple bashers. They hate because they know not. Mac OS X is foreign to them and the only way to react to such a different OS is to completely be ignorant of it's positive features and just make up crap just because they have never really had a chance to sit down and get to know it.

I tell ya though Geek Squad makes a ton of money off of 1000s of PC users while only one mac user has come in because he didn't know how to configure his airport. Go figure. :eek:

and yes ReanimationLP is right, some ppl get huge ego boosts when they start to work at BB. think they know everything. complete asses. I myself though have much more to know about my gaming dept. gaming technology changes so often.
 
Part of why windows users hate macs- they just don't understand.
But also, i don't wanna offend anyone here, but best buy employees are notoriously horrible and extremely unhelpful, at least near where i live... (before you bash me i am getting a job at best buy because the apple store won't hire until i'm 18 :( )
 
Bobdude161 said:
no one is perfect. :eek:
Click to expand...
true but at the best buy's near me, you could ask an employee a question and they have no idea what you are talking about most of the time, even if they work in that department.
Perfect example, actually a true story, my friend's mom was getting him a PDA to stay organized and for school and stuff. So she asked an employee what was good about PDA's and he said that they were good for calenders and stuff. And that's it. What a great selling point, i will buy a $300 calendar :rolleyes:
 
steamboat26 said:
true but at the best buy's near me, you could ask an employee a question and they have no idea what you are talking...
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I have never talked to a BB employee and recieved anything back that I would call informative. Most seem to have arrived from another planet days before. . . but I don't go there very often and I ask nerdy questions.

I just tell them to go away. Oh, and don't get me started on the extra warranty garbage. Good grief.
 
Some of their employees look like they are unsuited for the mental and physical coordination required for burger flipping, and people actually ask them for help in making major purchases. :rolleyes:
 
It's too bad you got an earful but it's not just Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and various other electronics stores had know-it-alls who don't know as much as they think they do.

I tend to avoid asking for help, generally because I either get an answer that makes no sense or I get a look that says "why would anyone want that?" I often wonder if I'm speaking English. :D Trying to buy my latest mobile phone was a chore.

I'd say to avoid the person, not the store. Say "Excuse me, if you can't help yourself, please get your supervisor. I'd like to talk to him."
 
I bought my mini at a BB last summer. I knew what i wanted and paid $100 less than apple was charging through it's official apple store... plus got a 1yr same as cash financing, $50 worth of iTunes store cards, and a $50 mail in rebate.

I got to the exit, showed my purchase reciept, with the mini in my other hand. Security guy says to me, "where is the computer?!":eek:

Overall a very rewarding experience!:D
 
You don't go to chains to ask for advice. You go to chains to get stuff you know you want that you don't want to order online.
 
It's been my experience that customer service and polite, knowledgeable employees have seriously deminished with the rise of these ultra large chain stores. The [typical] idiot kid salesman could care less that retaining a happy and satisfied customer costs the company far less than acquiring a new customer. He's still getting paid, the store still has your money in the end, so what does he care? The company also knows this, as the days of "the customer is always right" are long gone. For every customer they pissed off and drove away, three more are just waiting to fall prey to some advert or holiday sale. Smart people vote with their wallets, but there are far more not-smart people out there.

That being said, I hate Best buy. No, I do not want to purchase an extended warranty for my brand new shiny DVD.
 
JMies419 said:
So my question is, why are dedicated Windows users so bitter twords mac and feel the need to bad mouth Apple?
Click to expand...
Why are some dedicated Apple users so bitter towards Windows and feel they need to bad mouth them?

Also, not all dedicated Windows users are bitter towards Macs.
 
eva01 said:
probably because the best buy person gets paid commission and hates anyone not buying a computer from him
Click to expand...

Us lowly grunts do not get any commission at all. However, our supes get bonuses if we constantly sell well.
 
CorvusCamenarum said:
That being said, I hate Best buy. No, I do not want to purchase an extended warranty for my brand new shiny DVD.
Click to expand...

Don't get me started on that. Sales managers wanting me to sell warranties for DVDs. I ignored their request.

Our store is pretty good on knowledgeable staffing. The real problem is when a customer in my department (music, dvds and games) asks for advice on which camera to buy, I am clueless. There's only one person that works in that dept and I always get pulled over there. I just tell the person "look I'm gonna be straight up with you, I don't know cameras very well. I could BS the whole sale for ya but that's not gonna do you any good and I'll be wasting your time. I'll tell our Digital imaging associate that you need help and they'll be with you in a few minutes." And they all appreciate when i say that. Unfortunately some workers just say "i'll get someone" and that someone doesn't show.

And when it comes to selling, I just ask the customer if they need any help and if they say no I just tell I'm availible and move on. Sometimes I might create a conversation, other than that I'll leave you alone. Of course when you buy your 360 I will recommend the warranty on it not because i care for sales but the 360 is expensive and with the random burnouts on some systems, 30 bucks aint that bad if you want to replace the broken console in the next two years.
 
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