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Micro Center Sucks + My Good Deed For the Day

rdowns said:
Where do you live? I live on Long Island.

My choices are many. Name a national retailer and I bet they're within 5 miles of me.
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Is this the one on Merrick Ave.?

They must be former CompUSA employees (across from Roosevelt Field Mall) . I swear, it's no wonder they went out of business. I had some real experiences in there.

I wasn't overly thrilled with Micro Center either, but they have some good sales every once in a while.
 
Dang, I like MicroCenter, but that story is appalling.

Of course, the only one in my area is really far away, so I stop by when I'm in the area to take advantage of their dirt cheap specials.

Definitely not a place I'd send my mom to, though.

Of course, I wouldn't send her to Best Buy alone either, and I even get antsy when she goes to the Apple Store. The AS techs always seem to think that selling a product will solve their customers problem. "Wireless not working? Here, buy an airport extreme!"
 
Dunno if you've ever been to the one here in Denver, Randy, but the Sales People are pretty hit and miss at this one too in DTC. Some of them really know their stuff, others talk tech but don't know much about it, others are destined to stay at the register since they don't know what a damn thing is that they're even touching.

Unfortunately MC has a better selection than most places, and sometimes better prices, but if you ever go looking for a mobo or case, shop newegg instead.
 
The OP did the right thing.

MicroCenter has been my favorite walk-in store. I go to the one in Cambridge Mass, which is a 45 minute drive for me. Haven't been in over a while. We don't have a lot of choices here (Bestbuy, Staples, Microcenter). All are over priced and you can do a lot better buying online (newegg, amazon, tigerdirect) are my favorites in that area. I always do my research online and look at the prices at the online stores before I head out to MC or Bestbuy. I've never asked the salespeople a serious tech question. I spent (and I'm not being arrogant) 26 years designing computers, networks, and i/o gear and I doubt the salesperson could tell me something I don't already know or can research myself.

As I pointed out the OP did the right thing. I'd like to point out this issue from Microcenters perspective (playing devils advocate here). Apple comes out with a new product and their stores get the new product right away and can sell it right away. Microcenter might not get any of these new machines for a month. How does Microcenter sell that? If they are honest they should tell the customer to go the the apple store down the street and get the latest and greatest hardware for the same price as the old hardware we have here in the store? You would thank Microcenter for being honest and then head over to the apple store and buy the new hardware toy there. I'm just saying that MC, Bestbuy, etc must feel the frustration when apple withholds the new products from there stores to give the apple stores a head start on sales.
 
Well down R! I mean *done*! Some people really need a ticking off before they are scared of you. That was terribly poor service too.
 
SInce the thread was bumped, I thought I'd add that I never received a reply form the letter I sent nor the email sent after that.
 
So here's my "good" Microcenter story: a few year's ago, when I was having some serious problems with my Mac, the Apple department manager recommended that I get Disk Warrior-- which Microcenter did not carry then. He recommended that I head to the nearest Apple store to pick it up.
 
At the end of the day, most big-box/multipurpose store salespeople don't have more than a cursory knowledge of the products they're supposed to sell. Ideally, it'd be nice if they admitted as much, but sadly, my experience is that the normal reaction to questions they don't know/don't care to answer is to lie. I usually do extensive research on whatever I'm buying before ever entering the store, however--I'd rather take their knowledge/advice out of the equation.
 
Good sales people, and I mean GOOD SALES people, educate their customer. Provide them all the facts and informatin when asked for it. Do not mislead or down-talk the competition. They make factual comparisons between their product and the competitions.

Does not mean they have to point out where the competition is better, just don't lie or mislead the customer. And if asked a direct question provide the answer to the best of their ability. There are always trade-offs when making a purchasing decision. Let the customer decide which they want to make.

An educated customer is HELL on a poor sales person. LOL

Surprisingly there are few GOOD sales people in my day-to-day encounters. 🙁

rdowns said:
I neglected to mention that the women was waiting for me in the parking lot and couldn't thank me enough. made me feel good.

It just pisses me off the misinformation and lies these sales guys get away with. I'm a sales and marketing guy and respect what good salespeople do.
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10 to 1. We tell 10 strangers our bad experiences vs. 1 person for good experiences. That was before the Internet, FaceBook, LiveJournal, Twitter, etc. It is amazing how fast bad word of mouth can travel these days. 😀

Unspoken Demise said:
Not only that, but now I dont want to shop there anymore. So thats 3 customers. The power of Word of Mouth is astounding in business.
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TonyK said:
10 to 1. We tell 10 strangers our bad experiences vs. 1 person for good experiences. That was before the Internet, FaceBook, LiveJournal, Twitter, etc. It is amazing how fast bad word of mouth can travel these days. 😀
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Funny. One of my standard sales manager "speeches" was always, if you do right by your customers, you're lucky if they tell one or 2 people. If you do wrong, they'll tell anyone who will listen. The Internet just multiplies that by a factor of 10,000.
 
I guess I'm the lucky one.

I don't live near a Best Buy, but my friend always asks me to come in with him to show him what I think he should get (be it a TV, Camera or computer). And all 5 times I have gone in with him, the sales-person knew about all of the stuff he/she was talking about.

I looked online for stuff before we went in, already having in mind what my friend should get, and he always asks the sales person what he should get (just to get a second opinion) and 4 of those 5 times it was the same exact thing I though he should get and he other time it was something very close.

They never tried to sell us a warranty for anything either.

I guess I'm the lucky one.
 
Jamo12 said:
I don't live near a Best Buy, but my friend always asks me to come in with him to show him what I think he should get (be it a TV, Camera or computer). And all 5 times I have gone in with him, the sales-person knew about all of the stuff he/she was talking about.

I looked online for stuff before we went in, already having in mind what my friend should get, and he always asks the sales person what he should get (just to get a second opinion) and 4 of those 5 times it was the same exact thing I though he should get and he other time it was something very close.

They never tried to sell us a warranty for anything either.

I guess I'm the lucky one.
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I'm right there with you.

Radio Shack, on the other hand, tried selling me $4.99 insurance for my $9.99 pair of headphones. 🙄
 
Hmm...interesting story. Remember all these employees (best buy, Microcenter, etc) don't get paid very much. If they were as knowledgeable as many of us, they'd have, um, better paying jobs (Sorry. I said it).

Often these are college kids. This is why I do my research online and go to the brick n' mortar stores only to buy what I've researched. I've stopped asking questions. I've stumped way too many 22 year olds, and then their 28 year old managers.
 
I'm going to deflect this thread slightly and turn it into a "good sales person" story.... 'cause we need more good news in the world.

Last year my wife, who often travels for her job, was on her way to Saskatoon - a small city in Canada. She flies with her MacBook Air, and in this case had forgotten to take her ethernet dongle. I knew she was going to need it the next day, and that since she was arriving at 11pm would not have time to go shopping for one.

Using the power of Google I was able to find 3 small computer stores who were still open, but who were not able to help when I phoned them. Then.... I called London Drugs ( A western Canadian pharmacy chain that also sells everything under the sun, including computers and cameras. I've always received good service from London Drugs.)

So I called their computer department and talked to really nice fellow. No, he couldn't accept a cc over the phone - store policy is very strict - but he would accept personal payment, buy the dongle himself and run it over to the hotel when his shift ended. He also demanded that I not add any extra money to the transfer.... though he relented and accepted just enough for a Tim's coffee. I emailed the money to him and waited.

Two hours later my wife called to tell me she had arrived at the hotel safely, and that there was a dongle waiting for her at the front desk.

That is what customer service is about! I wrote a letter to the President of London Drugs, and received a nice letter back from the CEO.

So there is a good news story for the day. 😀 😀
 
XNine said:
Dunno if you've ever been to the one here in Denver, Randy, but the Sales People are pretty hit and miss at this one too in DTC. Some of them really know their stuff, others talk tech but don't know much about it, others are destined to stay at the register since they don't know what a damn thing is that they're even touching.

Unfortunately MC has a better selection than most places, and sometimes better prices, but if you ever go looking for a mobo or case, shop newegg instead.
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I couldnt agree more. I live in Denver and have had good and bad experiences there. Usually, I do research on what I want to buy before I go in to the store. I tell them what I want and they show me where it is. I am not impressed with their lack of attentiveness and helpfulness, though. Unfortunately, there are no alternatives. There used to be a CompUSA and Circuit City here, but both companies "went under." I will never shop at BestBuy after reading online somewhere how Geek Squad screwed everybody over with their exorbitant rates. So all I'm left with is either shopping at MicroCenter or shopping online.

Oh, and sorry for the thread bump 😱
 
I too avoid Microcenter at all costs. Thank GOD the Apple store is easier and more convenient to get to.
 
St. Louis has had a MicroCenter for about 6 months and I find it great if you already know what you want. I wouldn't trust them (or anyone working at a big box retail store) for any actual advice, but if you've done your research and know what product you need, then it's great. Prices are about the same as NewEgg and you don't have to wait for shipping.


Xavier said:
I too avoid Microcenter at all costs. Thank GOD the Apple store is easier and more convenient to get to.
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There's a hell of a lot of stuff that MicroCenter sells that Apple Stores don't. I hate going to the Apple Store anyways, it's in a crowded mall where it's impossible to find a parking space and the people working there are just as dumb as the people working at MicroCenter or Best Buy.
 
Theres good and bad things about 3rd party retailers. Microcenter here is actually quite nice and sells everything 50 bucks below apple standards, and have all the new machines. While other things the price are jacked up on. For example portable hard drives. Was looking to get a Western Digital Mybook 1tb. Online it retails for around 100-120. In store it was 125 and had a discounted sticker on it.

Glad that you told the lady about the 27'' iMac at the Apple store for being cheaper. That was a damn good thing.
 
i like Microcenter a lot

they got great price

the services at the one i go to is great (tustin California)

i got my 374 mbp+magic mouse from them

the manager gave me good discount

1095 out the door =)
 
Good for the OP! Good job!

That is straight out deception by that store and possible fraud. I've never been to a micro-center, but I've been to plenty of other computer stores like it, and many of them have totally clueless morons working there.
 
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