*shrug* I saved about $400 (around 25%) on my TV. For that, I’ll deal with the commissioned people.
1) Do your research ahead of time
2) Don’t stop at the item you’re interested in, stop at the item nearest the salesperson that looks the most informed.
3) Just tell them to leave you alone until you’re ready.

In the TV department, I’ve always dealt with an older guy that was helpful, pleasant, and knew more than most of the idiots at Best Buy that try to sell you EDTVs telling you that’s all you need.

/rant on

I went through this registration to post on here just so that I could tell you how much i despise Best Buy.

btw…they may not work on direct commission, but they definitely have incentive to sell (up to i think 50% off any items in the store?).

Reasons i despise best buy:

1.) I know more than the geek squad, and I’ve had no computer training whatsoever, nor will i charge upwards of $50 just to open your case.

2.) My fiance (before she met me…) bought a laptop from best buy for over 2000 dollars. The salesman told her that she had office, and other programs that she needed…he was wrong. He also stapled her receipt closed and said nothing about the return policy (the return policy was on the back of the reciept). A couple of days later she tried to return the product, as one of her friend’s informed her that not only did the man lie to her about the software package, but she paid to much for what she got (that’s best buy, period)…Despiter her complaints of lies to the management, they were rude, yelled at her, and charged her a $250 restocking fee.

3.) I worked in electronics at Sam’s for about 3 years and I know more about electronics than everyone in the Carbondale store put together. One of my friends went to best buy looking for a DVI to VGA converter and the woman there argued with him for a couple of minutes that no such thing exists! After she asked a couple of other people, he finally asked where something like that would be, they followed him over there to prove him wrong and he found it on the rack.

4.) As previously stated…their return policy is horrific, they have horrible support/customer service/salespersons, and their prices are really bad as well.

If you can buy all your electronics at Sam’s Club…we’ve got good stuff, and one heck of a return policy if you dont like it, the only thing that has a limit at all is computers, and it’s 6 months (no restocking fee…no questions asked)…

Or of course newegg.com

THEY ALSO BRAINWASH THEIR EMPLOYEES!

/rant off

-Jeremy

Sorry to leave 2 posts ranting about best buy, but i missed something. My fiance also wrote to the corporate office of best buy about the incident, she got no reply, but has recieved many adds and a couple coupons in the mail since then. THANKS BEST BUY!

-Jeremy

There’s no doubt that:
1. Some of Best Buy’s prices are high.
2. Geek Squad is a joke. Those guys are mostly idiots.

The TV I got was discounted, which is the only reason I got it. If I had to pay full price, Best Buy wouldn’t have gotten the sale. The guy who helped me was nice, but not pushy like commission-based sales people are.

The funny thing here is that you mention Sam’s. I tried to buy a TV at Sam’s Club on Friday night. The only problem is that they don’t take Visa. The manager actually told me that Sam’s Club doesn’t have enough buying power with Visa to negotiate a better rate on their merchant fees.

True, we only take Discover/Sam’s club credit…I have to tell people that a few times a week :/, it stinks I know…

For future reference, though…what I usually tell people to do (if they really want whatever it is…usually a TV, computer, or appliance). Just go to the checkout, find out the exact ammount of the transaction, go to wal-mart next door and buy a gift card. It’s a bit of work, but if you want the item, it works.

——-

Also I’m not some wal-mart junkie by any means, I actually hate a lot of the stuff the corporation does as a whole. Many of their policies are bad IMO, and the way we try to cut costs by cutting back on peoples jobs, pay, etc. is absolutely aweful sometimes. One policy that is nice is our return policy. I was told by a member of management upon entering the customer service (membership)/return desk…which I just started at about 2-3 weeks ago…

“The member can buy something, lose it on vacation…accidentally find it three years later, throw it in the fire…and then bring it back in the vague form of something that it once was. If they’ve got a receipt they’re going to get their money back.”

I can attest to this, not that anyone cares but I’m personally on my third ipod from Sam’s club over the past 3 (i think) years. They’re tougher on us as employees in regard to the return policy as well.

SAM>bestbuy.

lol - jeremy

p.s. i think im going to rant more often on your board if you dont mind, it’s fun

“p.s. i think im going to rant more often on your board if you dont mind, it’s fun”

lol…rant away. btw, how did you find me?

Just a couple further slaps for Best Buy:

1) One guy was literally selling an EDTV as an HDTV to an older couple that obviously didn’t know the difference. Who knows, maybe they were happy with saving a few bucks, but at least tell them it’s not HDTV.
2) Their credit card company (Household Retail Services) suck. I finally cancelled my card because they wouldn’t remove a late fee from a bill that got lost in the mail. I’ve never had it happen before and my record was perfect. No dice. She wasn’t even sympathetic.
3) If you know what you’re getting and do your research sometimes they’ll have a good price on stuff. I just bought a new Canon Pixma printer/copier/scanner the other day for less than I could’ve got it online for. Of course, I had to go to the internet for reviews and research to make sure it was what I wanted, but I did get a good price.

I have yet to see those good prices, but it’s a hassle to even get my fiance to LET me go in there for a few minutes because she hates that place so much.

AND…Ron, found you from the andrew peterson web site…i post on there every once in a while…and I’m a frequent lurker