Experience with best buy / tech store employees..

The only story I have is when I asked for a Bluetooth keyboard that can connect to PC, iDevices, and Android devices. They said it doesn't exist. I went down the road to CompUSA and asked, and they showed me exactly what I was looking for.

 

Places like BestBuy do not train their employees at all about the products they sell. I just go into a store with the expectation that everyone working there doesn't know what they are doing.

I worked for BestBuy Mobile over the holidays, and I was the only one that really knew anything about the phones. If a customer had any kind of issues with their phone all the other sales people would just have them ask me.

 

it depends on who you talk to. i know a bunch of BB employees and they are extremely knowledgeable. sure there will be those that do not know a whole bunch. it might even be their first job. yes for some their training might not be where it should be, but for me i always go in doing my own research first before i buy anything anyways. and when i get to the store, i know what i want.

but i would not reflect this as the norm for all best buys. just like any retail store, people run them. and not all people are the same. i'm sure that if you would have talked to somebody else you might have gotten better info and or help. plus these days some stores may have a really low budget on payroll and thus may have to rely on other departments to help out. or part timers who are not there a lot and thus not as informed as the full timers. if this is the case then yeah you will get some who have little to no clue on what is going on.

also you stores will be different. not all gm's and management are the same. some are really good and some stores are very disorganized. some gm's are amazing. the BB i go to, the gm gave me his personal cell number and told me to call him if i had any issues on anything!!! how cool is that? but i have been in stores where the entire crew just sucked. the staff was not very friendly. you could not find anything cuz the store was a mess. and their customer service was terrible. i will not shop at that store.

for me i really like best buy. i have never had any issues with them. plus with the way the economy is, the more i can help out by spending my money on a good retailer the better the economy will get. can you imagine if best buy went belly up? where would you get your technology? from the internet? maybe. i like to handle things or at least see it in person before i buy things. and i think that best buy does a great job at that. i do buy things on the net, but i can't imagine buying my cannon t3i dslr without handling it and getting a feel for it first.

 

No Best Buy in our town but I drive to a nearby city just to look around it is an awesome place! The computer I am on now was arrived at after taking up a good 20 minutes of an employee's time there, as he walked me through the laptops that fit my needs etc. He knew them all as if he'd owned them for years.

Never had a bad time there except for returning a wireless printer last year and (I knew) it was a week past the allowed 30 days. Well they allowed a store credit in the end so I was happy.

 

Ok, so some stores have poor salespeople.

Not news.

My Best Buy cats are pretty good.

 

Might be good if you can find an employee.

 

I can't say I've had any HORRIBLE experiences with Best Buy...

I CAN say, though, that some of them are just trying to make a buck. When I worked for Samsung, I was shopping for a new TV one day. They were polite, and asked if I needed help. I said I was looking for a TV (Obviously) and I had X to spend. Asked what they would recommend.

Long story short, this one rep was saying one TV could do this this and this, and really it couldn't do the features he said.

So really, it just depends on the rep. That one wanted to make a quick commission. I informed him politely that the features didn't start until the 6000 series TV, and bought a different one, thanked him for his time, and then tried to squeeze my new TV into a tiny Kia Rio >.>

 

I walked into a Best Buy the other night with my sister and I swear the blue shirts out numbered the customers. It got to the point where you couldn't walk 3 feet between salespeople with out being asked if you could be helped. At one point when my sister was asked if she could be helped with something, her response was "Yes, I would like to be left alone." Gave me a good chuckle for a couple of minutes...

Also, if you've never seen it, here's a link to the Best Buy flash mob on Youtube. A group of people went into Best Buy dressed in blue polos and khakis and totally freaked out the staff. (I wanted to embed the video, but couldn't figure out how).

 

I just walked in one day to grab a small speaker to play slacker radio in my office. Small office and I was not looking for huge speakers. I grabbed the 50 dollar one I was after and all of a sudden an employee was in my face with a 300 dollar speaker saying the one I had was junk and he would give me 10 percent off the one he was holding. He then turned it up really loud. Just rude and obnoxious.

Still enjoy best for buy though.

 

Just so everyone knows, BestBuy employees do not and have not ever made commission.

 

Really? Then I retract the commission statement

 

Yep. I wish they did while I worked there, I outsold everyone else in the mobile department except for one person. They do track sales to evaluate job performance, there is just no monetary reward for selling.

 

I see the same things at Best Buy, too. Little to no product knowledge in may cases.

I see the same thing at the local Apple Genius Bar. Do not be fooled, those genius bar types, aren't.

I see it at auto parts stores. Either there are no English speakers or they do not know what a gasket is.

I see so called Butchers at the local meat market not knowing about cuts of meat.

At the local produce market . . .

And the ice cream parlor, where I was once told "You mean vanilla, I've never seen French Vanilla."

I see it at art supply stores, where one sales person did not know what a Fitch is or what one needs to do gold leaf work out doors.

I saw it last week at Denny's. The waitress did not know what a "Moons Over My Hammy" is. It is on the menu for God's sake!

I see it (to go off tangent a tad) in the workplace. People hired to read a BOM or CPM can't read English. They sit there wondering WTF is that? In some cases, they wonder why they were fired, but that's for another thread.

I see incompetent people everywhere I go. In my view, it is why consumers are frustrated and many tend to rely on Google for product knowledge then they try to find the cheapest price locally or on the Internet. They come to your stores, fondle the product and go online to purchase.

Hey Corporate America? You need to start thinking about customer service because so far, I do not trust the people I once relied upon for help. Training is costly, but perhaps the ticked off customers that have given up on you and go elsewhere cost you more.

Hire a better bean counter and run the numbers. We killed off the Mom and Pop stores and came to your big box palace. You dropped the ball so we are going online. Get your stuff together, retailers . . . many of us use you to test products then we buy online. At least you provide us with AC while we silently cost you money.

 

So you are saying BB sales people are not on commission?

To be fair, sell one unit or a thousand, if you are not commissioned, you should not be paid more money. If you are salaried, too bad. Top sales people should be given a little something, perhaps.

 

That makes a difference. I thought they were.

A good salesman working on commission can do much, much better than those on salary. One of the richest people I knew made a fortune selling luxury automobiles in Texas during the oil crisis. He was selling three or four cars per week and his checks were amazing.

 

I agree Bob. I go to stores like BestBuy to test drive things, then buy them online. If they were more knowledgeable and I didn't have to get all of my information on line I would likely buy more in store.

Also, I think non commission sales jobs suck. If they got commission they might care a little more about their job and become more knowleable on their own even if training is not provided.

 

Not really. When you're dealing with a commission based salesperson one has to wonder who they vary looking out for. A classic example of this are financial advisors: you can tell 'em a mile of when they try to flog you some sort of insurance annuity...

I prefer salaried employees myself - just find them generally more honest.

 

I think it depends on the person. I've held salaried, commissioned, and non-commissioned jobs. I'm always honest, because I would appreciate the same.

 

Near my home town there is a car dealer (new and used like many new car dealers, selling the tradeins) that has a policy of "no haggling" and no commission (they say). I have not been there but the word is that you can just "shop" there and make a purchase with out a big deal but when the insurance/warranty stuff comes up then they have tiered steps and try to push you higher and higher for coverage of more of the car.

 

Same here.