Micro Center Sucks + My Good Deed For the Day

[Darthprophet]

Micro center sucks

First I just wanted to bump your thread just to help the cause.
I find you today because well I'm done with micro center. The fact is the place is a joke, service sucks the floor salespeople are total idiots and turnover is high there it's a wonder people still go there.
No I've spent over the years over a million there, I own a surveillance company and we build our own dvr's. Now I pretty much dealt with one guy over the years but he too had many failings.
Over the last 18 months business has fallen off a ton but we still are here and had been buying still a large amount of equipment from them regardless of the amount of lose time in part due to their uneducated sales force that wouldn't know what active listening meant let alone listening.

So let me tell you my final straw, I recently had to service a customer’s system do to a failed mother board, I wasn't even going to try to return it I just wanted to replace it. So I went to their computer parts section and explained what board I was replacing , it turns out they didn't carry that board anymore so I had him pull my recent purchases up figure well hell I'll just have to reinstall all the programing. Jut the week prior I had purchased 3 system parts set ups, so I told him to just get me the board I last purchased. 5 minutes later he shows up with the board it looks write. The next day I drive 60 miles on a Saturday to service this customer guess what the board was the wrong board my capture card wouldn't fit. Understanding things happen I drove back to the store with the board to replace it, I get a different salesperson this guy claims he knows it all I again in much detail explain what I need, he hands me a board likes right I say great and off I go I want to get this customer taken care of so I planned on going back today Sunday morning to do it , but first I have the dvr with me so I can do the work here, SO I install the board go to pute in the ram.. even on the box it clearly says ddr2 yet this requires ddr3 ram well I don't have any ddr3 ram so back to the store I go for a 3rd time get the rep who solf me the board and said hey the ram isn't the same and he all yeh sorry you need ddr3 so I buy the ddr3 ram head home get that installed start hooking everything up before I install the processor and I realize this doesn't have an on board video card so back to the fricken store 4th time I get the kid and say hey did you forget that board doesn't have an on board video card, he's all yeh it does , I told him to prove it to me well sure enough as he looks over another board he like damn sorry dude! by this time It's cheaper for me to just buy a different board altogether so I do with the intentions of bringing the other board back.
So today after getting everything done for my customer I stop by micro center to return the board everything is there in it's box I have my receipt the guy opens the box removed the black insert and tells me the processor insert is damaged and they won't take it back. Now let me see if I get this straight I told him in the last 24 hours you've wasted 5 hours of my time and in the process sold me a damage board that you are now going to stick me with? he's all I’m sorry but that’s how it is. I didn't want to bust his nuts but I basically said well if you want toss my business away over $60.00 thats no sweet of my nose you ain't the only game in town and left.

 

[Darthprophet]

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.

True of Best Buy however Micro center pays high commissions! Hell my former saleperson Amid drives a new covert .. I paid for it ..

Not anymore.

 

[iJohnHenry]

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.

Beautiful.

I take back everything bad I said about you behind your back.

Further updates would be of interest, to me anyway.

I hope she eventually got a 27".

 

[jknight8907]

First I just wanted to bump your thread just to help the cause.
I find you today because well I'm done with micro center. The fact is the place is a joke, service sucks the floor salespeople are total idiots and turnover is high there it's a wonder people still go there.
No I've spent over the years over a million there, I own a surveillance company and we build our own dvr's. Now I pretty much dealt with one guy over the years but he too had many failings.
Over the last 18 months business has fallen off a ton but we still are here and had been buying still a large amount of equipment from them regardless of the amount of lose time in part due to their uneducated sales force that wouldn't know what active listening meant let alone listening.

So let me tell you my final straw, I recently had to service a customer’s system do to a failed mother board, I wasn't even going to try to return it I just wanted to replace it. So I went to their computer parts section and explained what board I was replacing , it turns out they didn't carry that board anymore so I had him pull my recent purchases up figure well hell I'll just have to reinstall all the programing. Jut the week prior I had purchased 3 system parts set ups, so I told him to just get me the board I last purchased. 5 minutes later he shows up with the board it looks write. The next day I drive 60 miles on a Saturday to service this customer guess what the board was the wrong board my capture card wouldn't fit. Understanding things happen I drove back to the store with the board to replace it, I get a different salesperson this guy claims he knows it all I again in much detail explain what I need, he hands me a board likes right I say great and off I go I want to get this customer taken care of so I planned on going back today Sunday morning to do it , but first I have the dvr with me so I can do the work here, SO I install the board go to pute in the ram.. even on the box it clearly says ddr2 yet this requires ddr3 ram well I don't have any ddr3 ram so back to the store I go for a 3rd time get the rep who solf me the board and said hey the ram isn't the same and he all yeh sorry you need ddr3 so I buy the ddr3 ram head home get that installed start hooking everything up before I install the processor and I realize this doesn't have an on board video card so back to the fricken store 4th time I get the kid and say hey did you forget that board doesn't have an on board video card, he's all yeh it does , I told him to prove it to me well sure enough as he looks over another board he like damn sorry dude! by this time It's cheaper for me to just buy a different board altogether so I do with the intentions of bringing the other board back.
So today after getting everything done for my customer I stop by micro center to return the board everything is there in it's box I have my receipt the guy opens the box removed the black insert and tells me the processor insert is damaged and they won't take it back. Now let me see if I get this straight I told him in the last 24 hours you've wasted 5 hours of my time and in the process sold me a damage board that you are now going to stick me with? he's all I’m sorry but that’s how it is. I didn't want to bust his nuts but I basically said well if you want toss my business away over $60.00 thats no sweet of my nose you ain't the only game in town and left.

Paragraphs. They're awesome.

 

[Synchromesh]

Paragraphs. They're awesome.

I agree and would like to add that so is rechecking typos, punctuation and general structure of each sentence. Talking about basics here, nothing fancy.

 

[rw3]

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.

That's a pretty broad statement about Apple Store employees. Guess $26B in revenue and $6B in profit comes from "dumb" Apple Store employees. You sir are an idiot.

 

[MacNut]

That's a pretty broad statement about Apple Store employees. Guess $26B in revenue and $6B in profit comes from "dumb" Apple Store employees. You sir are an idiot.

A majority of the Apple Store employees are emo college kids that don't know a thing about computers.

 

[darkmatter]

Sorry for the bump. Looks like this thread will be alive for a long time. Thought I should share some "inside info" since I am a former Micro center slave. Yes I worked there for a little over 3 years and quite familiar with the company culture and their sales "hierarchy". You have commission guys (sales people) and non-commision guys (cashiers, stock room employees,managers, etc). The non-commission guys will never bother with customer questions since they can't earn anything on sales. However, normally I saw them directing customers to sales people if they had questions.

The funny thing is that they treat their employees no better than their customers. Even in sales department they have the "losers" class- guys whose nametag will say "sales" but they will be seen working as a slave putting up the merchandise on the shelves and labeling the store with signs. I was one of these guys. We sold everything ranging from $0.50 to $200ish. Then there were the "middle class" guys who had less work but their commission was better than the losers. They sold the motherboards, video cards, internal parts etc. And then there were the "douchebags", guys who sold computers, TVs, and higher priced items but were never required to break a sweat or know anything technical about computers. And then finally you have the "mega-douchbags" - the management. Note that all the guys in sales make commission so its unfair to give one department more workload than the other (thus taking away opportunities for sales).

I am not ranting because I am some lazy mofo who doesn't like to work. I was doomed the day I was hired for their "general sales" (loser) department. That is the big area where you find all the junk under $20.00, but customers are still as clueless as the customers from more higher-priced-items department. You are given the impossible task of putting a truck full of merchandise, in a store that barely has any room for it. And don't even ask about their inventory problems - there were several items which were impossible to find - I knew when to tell people "we don't have it" - it was when they asked for the keychain worth $0.50, but no one knew where to find them - but the inventory showed we had 50,000 of them. We were required to search and take every customers crap because the store management didn't know what they were doing. And finally we were to clean and organize our departments when the store closed - that was also the time when we made no commision and less than minimum wage on hourly bases. The loser's department was the smallest for making commissions and the biggest for cleaning. We had to go back and forth between stock room and sales floor for customers and merchandise - to get hooks and pegs. There were times when I saw the managers watching football on the display units along with their douchebag sales buddies, while we were cleaning the store and organizing the merchandise. No one really had the guts to confront managers or say "no" to their commands. Simply put- the workload was abhorring and they treated their employees like slaves. If there is anything positive about my experience there, its the fact that I learned a lot about computers. Thank fully I have moved on and have a full time IT job and I don't have to deal with retail BS anymore.

My general rule was to spend some 5 minutes Googling if a customer asked me something technical that I wasn't so sure of. Most people I dealt with seemed satisfied with the information I provided. I am not defending Micro Center - but if you guys think that in the retail world, you can always get the kind of service that snberk103 mentioned above in post #44 (guy from London Drugs dropping off stuff to his wife), you guys have never worked in retail before.

About the mis-information, that is business as usual for Micro. We were often told to push people to buy warranties - we were suppose to meet a quota of our sales in warranties - its no different from other retail stores tough. And they went as far as telling people that a certain anti-virus was the "best"...why? because the mark up on that product was 80%. If you buy a computer at MC, I guarantee the sales person will try to sell you that anti-virus. As a tech savvy guy, I was always uncomfortable holding back information from people (facts such as this: You can just download Microsoft security essentials as an anti-virus - which works fine and is completely free, or you can get a copy of Windows OS for pretty cheap with your student discount - but its only available online from Microsoft's store). And when I did share some of these nuggets, I lost the sale - there were times when I spent hours with one customer- getting everything for them then they decided not to buy them because they will do more research. All I am saying is this, give the "loser" sales guys a break - their jobs is like being confined to the gates of hell. You can always find better deals online compared to a retail store. Shop there.

All in all I don't recommend shopping at micro and definitely don't recommend working there, unless you happen to be a douchbag. As a matter of fact I don't recommend working in retail at all - it s complete BS. Go to craigslist and start sending out your resume to jobs you wanna work for. That concludes my rant.

 

[KeriJane]

Odd.

I've always had good experiences at Micro Center.

It's not the best place to buy Apple products but far from the worst. It's not bad at all for PC stuff and the prices are very good.... for an actual store.

Apparently those poor "Loser" class workers do pretty good work over here.... They're generally pretty efficient and friendly too.

Have fun,
Keri

 

[darkmatter]

Odd.

I've always had good experiences at Micro Center.

It's not the best place to buy Apple products but far from the worst. It's not bad at all for PC stuff and the prices are very good.... for an actual store.

Apparently those poor "Loser" class workers do pretty good work over here.... They're generally pretty efficient and friendly too.

Have fun,
Keri

Like I said, the management is to blame here. They rule with an iron fist. All the good experiences you have had were because of loser-class salesmen like me, who hated the company but loved the work because we got to play with the hardware. And I don't know what you mean by "good work" - do you mean they make good money or do they do a good job at being a slave? I think you mean the latter. Sorry, I didnt want to hijack the thread but some background knowledge about why things are the way they are is always helpful.

 

[KeriJane]

Like I said, the management is to blame here. They rule with an iron fist. All the good experiences you have had were because of loser-class salesmen like me, who hated the company but loved the work because we got to play with the hardware. And I don't know what you mean by "good work" - do you mean they make good money or do they do a good job at being a slave? I think you mean the latter. Sorry, I didnt want to hijack the thread but some background knowledge about why things are the way they are is always helps.

Oh, I meant the latter. Adverserial relations with management is nothing new with me.
Comrades! Fellow Proletarians! Arise against the bourgeoisie slave drivers!

Well, ok, maybe not.

Have Fun,
Keri