Best Buy, worst BUY! the absolute worst! *REBUTTAL employee with an attitude *REBUTTAL another employee & best buy supervisor

I work for a fellow competitor of best buy and mainly read these posts for fun. First off, warranties, no they are not for everyone and yes some people get the run around on them, but I have seem them work for alot of customers as well. How do you think we can keep selling them? Second, no not everyone is customer oriented or cares about their job, but some us do. This will shock alot of you, I actually enjoy helping people like many of us do, that is why I do what I do. In the process I help people spend money, I inform the consumer of the products that will enhance their experience but I do not sell them stuff just to sell them stuff. The consumer makes the ultimate decession whether or not to buy the product. If you are so paranoid that all sales people are selling you stuff you don't need, then do your homework before you come in and that can not happen!!!!!! Third and real reason I posted a response. The customer who started this post, you are a moron no matter what company you shop with and I am glad you are the minority and not the majority of customer I deal with on a day to day basis.

worked for BB for about 2 months now and I really like it. Yes there are things I would like the change, but I like the company and the people I work with. What I don't like are the customers. They come to the tech bench or even worse call us and expect us to wave our magic floppy disk and make all of their computer problems go away.

There are the people who don't bother to listen to the sales persons advice to buy the virus protection or firewall and then gripes to us that his POS computer doesn't work and they shouldn't have to pay for us to fix it. Or the boneheads who shouldn't even own a computer and don't know that you shouldn't remove the heatsink and fan from the processor, and if you do you really shouldn't turn your computer on after doing that. I have been yelled at from my boss for spending too much time trying to help an ignorant customer and by the customer because I can't give them an hour of free tech support.

The PSP has some drawbacks, but READ the d**n thing. It will tell you what it covers. I believe that it is wrong to tell a customer that dropping their product is abuse and isn't covered but how many people are break their product because of neglect. The PSP isn't intended to, and shouldn't cover stupidity.

BB has done a great job of raising peoples expectation of us. But as an employee I have certain expectations of the customer.

I expect to not be yelled at because you are too d**n cheap to spend $30 on virus protection software.

I expect that when you break your computer that you not pull an attitude with me for charging you to fix it.

I expect to be treated with respect that I am showing you, even if it is false.

And finally I expect you to not tell me it's my job to know something. My job requires me to know many sometings. And as computers are very different depending on who made it, I will do my best to find the answer to your question. I will not lead you astray with information I am not sure about. I will probably spend several minutes checking things to make sure I get you the correct product to suit your stated needs. I don't know everything and it is unreasonable to expect that anyone could.

Ok. I normally don't respond to thing like this but the things said by ex employees and consumers made me ashamed. I wasn't fired or laid off I too left on my own free will. Even if I had problems with a manager or other employee that would always be between me and them. Not the whole world. That is decietfull and wrong.

The real reason I left Best Buy was the customers. I had my LIFE threatened three times in the first year I was there and I was stalked 2 times in the four years I worked there. The first year I was with Best Buy I did have quams with managers but I had to realize that not everyone had the experiences I had and also didn't have the same morals and values. I would not kiss up to people to get what I want nor would I step on others to get what I want. Not all people do bad things to get somewhere in life. A customer called and said they had purchased a home stereo system over 1 year ago, no service plan, and did not have a reciept. I asked him to please call the 1-800 number and get the reciept from our corprate office if he had paid by check or credit card. He had paid by credit card and he demanded on the spot that I call them for him.

I was not allowed to do so by my manager, but I did it any way after my manager left (because I was commited to making customers happy).

Well the corprate office needed to speak with the gentleman and that conversation didn't go over well. He didn't have the credit card any more nor did he have the credit card number. He expected for us to keep that information under his name. Like he had his own personal file because he always spent his money there.

The customer made the corprate customer service person CRY!!! because she didn't do what he asked of her. Then he proceeded to tell me that as soon as he left the S$%&hole of a store he was going home to get his gun and when I left that night he would be waiting for me. After he left I told my manager and geuss what ... He was there. I did have a escort out that night from the store. That man didn't leave me alone for months.

Over the course of the first year of employment that kept happening not only to me but to my coworkers. I know that not all customers will be that way but it happened enough that I had nightmares.

How can people treat others that way when return policies are clearly posted through the store, you are informed at the lanes, you can ask questions before you buy, and you can check online.

I got paid pretty well I left the store at almost 11$ per hour and I hopefully didn't treat customers as bad as some people who respond to these rebuttals act or as vulgar as they type.

The store I worked at spent lots of employee time in training. My fiance' still works there and he has training almost every two weeks either on new policies or educating the employees on the product.

Before you go into a store... Think.. What am I looking for and Why do I want it. Then do some research on the products you might want. That is always the best way. Then write down a list of questions you might want to ask.

If something goes wrong... Remember you are speaking to a person who might have had the same problem and they should be treated the way YOU WANT TO BE TREATED. If you want to treat them like crap why should you be treated any different. I know from experience that if I ever treated a customer like crap I would have been fired.

The week that my dad was killed I was called racist and a few other things that were really unfair. I never went into work feeling like I made a difference because customers never had anything good to say even if I did everything they wanted me to and was beyond kind to them.

Best Buy is a good place to work, but only if you are willing to do the work. That goes for any job. You also have to like the work your doing and you have to like yourself.

to start off i have worked with best buy for 4 years now i have done pretty much every position available in my area including market coordinater for the district staff.

as to the post about best buy not caring about the customers .. that is not true i agree they are out to get money all companies are however the best way to do that is to make money.

to the posts about the performance service plans ... to each thier own some people will understand the benefits some people wont. I would hope they wouldnt be completly new to people and i am not sure why people single ths out as being something Best Buy does ... Any electronic store i have been in has always hounded me over thier in store warrenty. you know wether you are going to buy it or not the person selling it to you is doing thier job. Should they keep going on and on and on ... probably not. Will they get fired for not selling you a service plan ... probably not... do all the employees selling service plans believe they are the best thing since sliced bread ... probably not. the fact is employees get yelled at a lot about returns and items being broken and customers wanting best buy to take care of thier problems. thats why some employees offer them.

when you go in to a best buy and have the programed responce I am just looking... you may have a while to wait before you get helped because the employees are going to help customers that are willing to recieve help. I get told i am just looking probably 50 times a day and of the 50 people who say it 40 of them end up coming and asking questions soon after i contacted them. The best way to get help is to find an employee if he/she is wih a customer just wait around him/her (i know waiting is no fun but the employee will normally try to do the best they can at helping you as quickly as possible). When one asks if you have questions and you have questions or want help ... LET THEM help you. Personally i know some of the employees are not the most knowlegable and some ave very knowlegable. With the internet so popular thier is no reason why every customer doesnt do some research on line about any big purchase.

to the people saying the customer is always right and that because you are a sales person you are customer service and should expect to be belittled, yelled at, put down, and so forth any time a consumer isnt happy ... i am sorry the world isnt revolving around you yet. maybe someday your hopes and dreams will come true and then you can run your own company where you get to yella nd belittle EVERYONE. several times i have seen people mention the turnover that best buy has trying to say it is all a product of best buy ... i know many many people over my 4 years that have left due to being tired of customers attitudes towards them even when they are doing thier best to help.

sorry this post is all over the place tired tob e cival about my responce to let people know labling a company bad based on 1/600th of its stores adn 1/60000 of its employees that you have had the pleasure of meeting is not really fair

i'm a home office manager at store 320 and let me tell you what goes on at best buy stores is ludacris. The Gm at my store is named sean flynn, he's a sly devil who only looks out for himself. At manager meetings he tells us to get the numbers (revenue, psp, access) any way possible and fire anyone who does not follow direction. At the end of it all, he only looks out for his butt as he blames miscalculations on inventory on employee theft just to get the people he doesn't like fired. There is alot of funny business going on with this store but i really dont have the balls to say anythi ng, so so i hope a district manager will read this and investigate. Sean Flynn is also a racist who believes mexicans and blacks should get paid less than whites, hes told me this himself

First Off... I can't believe there are this many people responding to this.. Any how, I've worked at Best Buy for almost two years now.. I work in the department which has been most complained about. Customer Service, all of you lovely customers come to me to return your products. We don't make it hard for you to return your products... read the back of your receipt.. 30 DAYS people.. 30! and most of the time we exceed this and allow you to exchange your products up to 90 days! So when you bring in a product that you bought last christmas, and you left it in your closet and never used it. I am sorry, we probably don't even carry that item anymore, I am not going to return it. As for answering the phones, as stated before we have customers in front of us that have waited in line for about 15-30 mins and if I stop talking to them to answer your phone call, I am going to have a really pissed of customer. So either way I lose, a pissed off customer on the phone cuz I wont answer it or a pissed off customer in front of me cuz I stopped to answer the phone. I really enjoy my job, and I love the company I work for, maybe all BBY's are not the same- but where work I get paid well and treated right and that's why I've stayed. As far as BOUNSES give me break, its retail for crying out loud.. I wish we had that.. Believe it or not I try my hardest to make sure the customers I encounter are happy with what I can do for them, but sometimes they expect the world and we are only human.. Its too bad that so many of you have had bad experiences but customers are not always the nicest people either.I really like my job, and you know... that's exactly what it is my job.. so don't yell at the person across the counter because your not getting your way.. We can only do so much, and if your really upset don't waste your breath on us.. ask for a manager... or call 1-888-bestbuy.. haha

I am tired of you saying you don't get comissions

DO YOU GET BONUSES??
This is to all of you. You get money for your sales but it is not called comissions.

First off I would personally like to thank all of those customers that support BB. I know most of you see the stuff we usually have to deal with daily. I for one just sit back and smile at people that want the world and more out of BB. Im a CS1 worker, Customer Service rep at the registers which we usually call the lanes at 149. Allot of people complain about the help that they get and someone did point out that most of our stores have about 8 departments, with many items. Now yes it is good to know your products, but my beef is with people that come in and give you attitudes and get mad at YOU for being polite, people that get mad when they dont get the answer they want, and people that for some reason read coupons quite fine, but try to make so many different cases about it. For example, if a coupon says gift card by mail, some customers get mad when they tell you that they recieved that coupon in the MAIL and they expect you to take the 20 dollars off then and you say no. Allot of times I leave my area to help people find what they need. But if its busy I really cant do it and when I say that someone should be there to help they get mad at ME. We have been short handed since college started and its been chaos. We have all been trying our best and some people just do not want to see that. Most of the people in our store get praised for the work they do and when something goes wrong, no one turns to a GM but they turn to us instead and we get lip for their short handedness. I love my job, but it sucks to hear people have problems with one store states away and down tghe whole chain. Most of which have har working people there. But like I said, people expect you to give them the world and when you cant, they hate you. Stay strong all my fellow BB employees out there. We can keep many happy, but we cant keep them all. And a special thanks to all those customers that support us.

First off I would personally like to thank all of those customers that support BB. I know most of you see the stuff we usually have to deal with daily. I for one just sit back and smile at people that want the world and more out of BB. Im a CS1 worker, Customer Service rep at the registers which we usually call the lanes at 149. Allot of people complain about the help that they get and someone did point out that most of our stores have about 8 departments, with many items. Now yes it is good to know your products, but my beef is with people that come in and give you attitudes and get mad at YOU for being polite, people that get mad when they dont get the answer they want, and people that for some reason read coupons quite fine, but try to make so many different cases about it. For example, if a coupon says gift card by mail, some customers get mad when they tell you that they recieved that coupon in the MAIL and they expect you to take the 20 dollars off then and you say no. Allot of times I leave my area to help people find what they need. But if its busy I really cant do it and when I say that someone should be there to help they get mad at ME. We have been short handed since college started and its been chaos. We have all been trying our best and some people just do not want to see that. Most of the people in our store get praised for the work they do and when something goes wrong, no one turns to a GM but they turn to us instead and we get lip for their short handedness. I love my job, but it sucks to hear people have problems with one store states away and down tghe whole chain. Most of which have har working people there. But like I said, people expect you to give them the world and when you cant, they hate you. Stay strong all my fellow BB employees out there. We can keep many happy, but we cant keep them all. And a special thanks to all those customers that support us.

Listen Best Buy clones, you must be trying to get extra points on your evaluation because you DO work for the worst company there is to work. The Best Buy in Jackson,Ms tried to install a radio in my Jeep. The jeep was pulled into the installation bay running fine, when they claimed they had finished the Jeep it would not crank .This was a brand new vehicle, they told me that they were not responsible for my jeep and I needed to make arrangements to get someone to get it. Little did they know that my wife is an attorney, needless to say those idiots had to have my jeep towed back to the dealership and had to pay to get it fixed. So don't give me that bull about great customer service, I think that pretty much anyone that works there has no other goal in life but to harass normal people.

Listen Best Buy clones, you must be trying to get extra points on your evaluation because you DO work for the worst company there is to work. The Best Buy in Jackson,Ms tried to install a radio in my Jeep. The jeep was pulled into the installation bay running fine, when they claimed they had finished the Jeep it would not crank .This was a brand new vehicle, they told me that they were not responsible for my jeep and I needed to make arrangements to get someone to get it. Little did they know that my wife is an attorney, needless to say those idiots had to have my jeep towed back to the dealership and had to pay to get it fixed. So don't give me that bull about great customer service, I think that pretty much anyone that works there has no other goal in life but to harass normal people.

Listen Best Buy clones, you must be trying to get extra points on your evaluation because you DO work for the worst company there is to work. The Best Buy in Jackson,Ms tried to install a radio in my Jeep. The jeep was pulled into the installation bay running fine, when they claimed they had finished the Jeep it would not crank .This was a brand new vehicle, they told me that they were not responsible for my jeep and I needed to make arrangements to get someone to get it. Little did they know that my wife is an attorney, needless to say those idiots had to have my jeep towed back to the dealership and had to pay to get it fixed. So don't give me that bull about great customer service, I think that pretty much anyone that works there has no other goal in life but to harass normal people.

Listen Best Buy clones, you must be trying to get extra points on your evaluation because you DO work for the worst company there is to work. The Best Buy in Jackson,Ms tried to install a radio in my Jeep. The jeep was pulled into the installation bay running fine, when they claimed they had finished the Jeep it would not crank .This was a brand new vehicle, they told me that they were not responsible for my jeep and I needed to make arrangements to get someone to get it. Little did they know that my wife is an attorney, needless to say those idiots had to have my jeep towed back to the dealership and had to pay to get it fixed. So don't give me that bull about great customer service, I think that pretty much anyone that works there has no other goal in life but to harass normal people.

I used to work in a department store. We'd get a lot of calls, and we'd do our best when it came to answering customer phone calls. But at the same time, the customer who was actually physically there in the store with us was more important than the one on the phone. Sometimes that meant that the person who called us on the phone didn't get as much attention. It's the way things are.

Best Buy stinks. I have heard untold numbers of horror stories about their indifference to their customers. For those of you that defend them...keep shopping. You're turn to be jipped is coming.

Best Buy DOES NOT honor their committments. They find every loophole they can to get out of refunds, exchanges, etc.

Best Buy is a dishonest, money grubbing company. If we speak up loudly enough against them they will HAVE to change their practices or will go under.

I am an employee of a best buy store here in Maine. I dont think arguing over extended warranties or "PSP"'s has any relevance to any argument.Some people buy them some people dont. In fact most of the large electonics chains offer them. Comission or not it is the sales staffs job to inform the consumer. The manner in wich they do so can even be unethical. Are they good or bad? Thats up to the consumer.

There can be unethical, or uninformed combative, behaviors in the selling of the sales staff. Most of the employees first pick at a career isnt selling DVD players, cell phones or plasma tvs. The kind of person who works at best buy is either in school, less educated, unskilled, or even extremely proficient helpful people (much more of the later) . Best buy does what it calls its best in training its crew, some are just not willing to listen and some are.

Customers come in the same types as sales people. There are two type that stick out more then mentioned prior: the really nice guy, and the a*s hole. Its unfortunate you always remember the a*****e.

I try to take my job as seriously as possible, but more importainly,my life. My day sucks when a customer speaks to me nasty tone , saying things are rip offs, or that I dont know what im talking about. I try not to, but i often i take these remarks personally. After all, im doing my job and all of this is part of it. I get a paycheck, paid solely by the hour. Its really barely worth it. Those who are there choose to be there for one reason or another.

As do the customers. Base on my expirience in stores my favorite customers are the people who act like; they really want help, their not impatient, serious about what they want, it was importain enough or technical enough to go to Best Buy and need to ask a meanially paid customer speciallist. Whether its rattle stats off hiss head or spend thirty minutes on the phone to get the flashing 12:00 off your VCR. Its their (our) job.

I guess the moral to all this blib blab is that every nice guy has an a*****e. Patience and knowledge are a virtue. Always try to show a little humility, nobody knows everything.

I have worked at Best Buy for three years come November. I love what I do there, set people up with cool s**t.

PS to the guy who left his dvd player running on his plasma tv. Did you turn up the brightness and contrast first, or did you let her die slow?

Best Buy, if you don't have happy customers or employees you won't have much of a business before long.

All this talk about the PSP's and PRP's is mostly right on. Best Buy wants your money, they tell you that your product is likely to need the service plan and you should buy it right here right now because I (the former sales rep.) know that you really need this product and the warranty for when it breaks down on you.

They make a small bundle off you and chances are in their favor that you won't use it. If you do, great you got your monies worth and Best Buy looks good in the process. Considering that you don't get hassle from their customer service, 'techs' or managers.

I worked in the computer sales department for Best Buy store #21 in Coralville, IA for a year. The first few months of my job I really enjoyed it. The last few months I destested it with a passion and just left in the middle of one of my shifts without a word. My sweet vengence for all the tense moments with the supervisors and managers that pressured me to sell PSP, accesories, open items, etc. Yes, when I was having an off day with PSP sales I felt that they were evaluating my position and performance even though I had great customer service skills. I would present the customer with the PSP and the benefits and if they said no, I said OK. To me no means no and I wouldn't degrade myself into prying money away when they didn't want to spend it, especially after I explained the benefits.

Basically, I would walk around and help people with what they need and if there was a question that I couldn't answer I'd go over to the tech bench and see if one them knew or go behind the tech bench and see if I could scour something up off the internet if the customer was that hard pressed for the info.

And this is my complaint, just because I worked in the computer department at Best Buy doesn't mean I knew everything there is to know about computers. Believe me if I did I sure as hell wouldn't have been helping you at Best Buy.

My wife works at Target (we are both working our way through college and this is the need for the part time low wage jobs) and she gets the same thing.

A customer thinks that just because she is standing behind the electronics counter that she knows every little function and detail about a specific digital camera or whatever.

I'm sorry but at the pace that electronics move through retail stores it's impossible to keep up with everything. A customer should have a fairly decent idea about what they are searching for and that's when any retail sales person will be of the best help.

They can direct you to a few products that may fit your need, it is up to you the consumer to decide which is best for you. Sales Reps. are there to herd you into buying the product, not be all knowing in the stores products capabilities. $7.50/hr didn't motivate me to spend my free time learning the ins and outs of Best Buy computer products.

I know how a computer functions, what the different parts inside do, what accessories do what and would ask what your lifestyle requires from a computer and try and suit you with your needs. It's all the technical, 'why doesn't this program work anymore' or 'what do I do when this error message pops up' that really alienates the consumers from the sales people.

The consumers walk into the store that boasts great customer service and throw around very specific questions that have very specific answers.

I'm sorry but buy a book or try using google like most of the half intelligent Americans trying to operate PC's. Best Buy is there to service your hardware products and ensure you are getting good customer service not educate you on how you on to reformat your computer or tell you how many resistors are on your motherboard.

Expect working product and someone wanting to sell it to you, nothing more from what I learned by working there. As you can see I do not now and unless you are a heartless person who doesn't mind trying to milk people I wouldn't suggest working there.

I just intend to respond to this report, both as an employee of best buy, and as an avid searcher for loopholes. I can assure you that the best buy performance service plan is worthwhile, as long as you know the information. I've noticed lightning mentioned, simple solution to lightning damage is a surge suppressor, they can run as little as 10 dollars and all sold at best buy have at least a $5,000 dollar property damage guarantee. Secondly, humidifiers were mentioned, as a solution to the humidity damage, not all consumers are anal-retentive and/or can afford to spend $50 for an almost always useless piece of equipment for each room, and also, running a humidifier actually runs up an electric bill, if you were to run a dehumidifier large enough to dehumidify a 10x15 foot room year round, you'd spend a few hundred dollars at least after 3 years, much more than most PSPs.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that yes, the PSPs do cover normal wear and tear, as well as parts. If a 160GB hard drive in a computer goes bad, even if you have a thousand techs willing to fix it for free, it will cost you at least $90 just for the part. Furthermore, under the category of normal wear and tear, Best Buy does, in fact, cover items such as laptop batteries, as long as they're recharging to less than 1/3 power, which happens after an average of 16 months.

I do read the fine print, because it's the best way to find loopholes. I recently bought an iPod from my store, and had problems with it, so brought it in 3 times, and 3 times was given a brand new iPod, on the 4th time in, I was refunded my money in store credit, and bought myself a creative zen, and a PSP. The only store that has a better service plan than Best Buy that I'm aware of is Ritz Camera.

I took an old camera, still covered, by ritz, ran it over with a Jeep, and returned it to the store for a replacement in brand new condition, amazing. Best Buy cannot offer such a plan, as our items sold are much more everyday than high quality cameras and lenses, which tend to last decades if cared for. All I have to say is that you're better off with the fairly inexpensive PSP than with high repair costs.

I do agree with the one rebuttal that states that the managers push the PSPs on us, but I won't sell a customer a PSP unless it's necessary, if the customer can't afford it, I only mention one other option, which is the best buy card, simply because it may offer a bit of a better solution than scrounging, as we have zero interest on most products, and therefore it's not much different except that the customer doesn't have to wait the extra two months to save up that extra $200.

As for the employment situation, I enjoy my current job much more than I have any other job, and have to date only had 3 customers snap on me, simply for the fact that due to overstaffing, multiple employees contacted those customers in a short time, but I like to think that it's better to have a question answered twice than to not have it answered at all.

Hey Danielle,

Let the negativity flow. I guess some people equate the truth to "negativity".

I only did a Xmas season with them after I sold a business. I didn't practice "ripping the customer off" as a core belief, but honest value for money paid. BB should try it!

Check out BB Sux dot com.

Seems others are saying something about this also?
The Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro on Thursday, August 19th filed a lawsuit against Minnesota based Best Buy Co. Inc., alleging the retailer engaged in unfair and deceptive acts and practices.

The lawsuit says that Best Buy repackaged used goods and sold them as new, failed to honor rebates, failed to honor refund and exchange programs, and failed to honor extended service contracts.

It seems that there was a great deal of
investigation into these allegations before a case was sought and that there must be some truths to these matters. I know from past experience's to not shop there anymore. I had problems with merchandise and they made me jump through so many hoops to return/exchange them that I made my mind up then that no matter what was on sale and no matter how much I could save I would not fall into the Best Buy trap again. Best Buy is a large company and I doubt it will go anywhere any time soon but maybe a few lawsuits like the one in Ohio will make them start rethinking there ways?

Let the negativity flow, Tommy.
I'm Guessing you did not like working for Best Buy and have to make everyone agree with your point of view.
Honestly, I think Brian has got it right.

Statment of the day: The customer is usually right...

"they did not become the countries biggest electronics retailer by caring what the hell you want or DONT want."

Interesting, they got that big by not caring what customers think. Word. Don't you start a business, you'll find out quick how wrong you are. After all, where do you think "the customer is always right" came from? Possibly retailers? Hasn't their stock (BBY) slowed and dropped because these geniuses over expanded?

No, you won't get fired for not selling a TV at BB. But, can you say that about the PSP? When I go to BB, I know what I'm doing because they know so little, What is the turnover rate there? They really take the time and expense to train them all?

Also, I don't think ethical corporations stay in business by riping people off. Maybe that's the core value for BB, but not others.

I would like to start off by saying that I am an employee of store (034, Bridgeton Mo). As with everything people have different views of the same situation. It is never possible for a company to create a service plan or anything that will make everyone happy. I work in the computer department and day in and day out I see computers in the service center being serviced both under and without the PSP.

While the Employees are pressured to sell it, it is still my choice how hard I want to push, in the end it is not worth it to me to try to push something someone doesn't want on them. That is my decision, I do think that the plans are beneficial, but not to everyone. On a regular basis, I have done what is called a "No lemon exchange"; if a computer with a PSP has been into the service center more than 3 times the customer is given the choice to replace that computer with a new one.

If you read the brochure it states that the exchange is for "like technologies". This is where the difference in opinions typically comes into play. As many know the computer industry changes very rapidly. If you are on your third year of your PSP, the closest laptop that we are going to carry like yours is going to be what is "Low end" Now and probably costs less than what you originally paid for your computer.

However the computer will be twice as powerful as what you are having serviced. Many customers are beyond overjoyed that they are receiving a new computer, and that it's better than the one that they had. Others are angered to no end that they originally paid $1700 for a laptop, and are now getting one that only cost $1000 for free, and it's better than what they have now. It's all a matter of opinion. As with the phone system, some people wish that all we did was answer phones all day long, while many customers in store are angered when we have to stop talking to them to answer the phone.

As with everything in life everyone has different experience with a company or product, I often had people come in and want to buy the brand computer we have that typically has the most problems, and say that one of our more reliable brands gave them nothing but trouble. To those of you that have had a bad experience with Best Buy im sorry, but please do not judge all best buys by the experience or experience you have had at a single store.

Our store prides itself in its customer service, that isn't to say everyone that walks out is happy. With anything in life remember someone is trying very hard out there with a label on them, and when you bash Best Buy you bash all of us.

ok, so people think that BB rips them off. fine...your right. but you know what? who cares! thats why coporations stay in business. wait. thats why they ARE in business, to make money.

now, in no way am i defending this company because quite honestly, i dont care.
im 21 i go to school and work fulltime,i live on my own, and sadly retail is the only job that is condusive to my schedule. i used top make a ton of money at circuit city between the ages of 17 and 19 but was victim of the layoffs in '03. so best buy made sense at the time. bottom line is i work there to pay my bills and thats it.

I DONT care what best buy wants me to offer unless i feel it justified for the customers needs. i am very well knowledged and experienced in my field and dont appreciate being called a "KID" who works for minimum wage. because, you wouldnt come to best buy if you didnt need my help to begin with. if you want my help, thats why im there "HELP ME HELP YOU".

I DONT care if you've had bad experiences in best buy or any other retailer for that matter or that you feel best buy tries to rip you off. they did not become the countries biggest electronics retailer by caring what the hell you want or DONT want.

when it comes down to it, theres gotta be somebody to collect garbage, gotta be someone to deliver babies, and there gotta be someone to know everything there is to know about TV's and audio equpitment so you as a consumer can buy them without a headache

Customer Centricity - to use what we know about our customers to better adapt to changes and change with them I, KNOW that people will b***h about everything, so i will CHANGE by still not caring

The guy above says:

"we might sell 10 200$ service plans in a day... thats 2,000$ and in that same day replace a computer under the service plan... lets say 1,600$ thats... 400 profit is it not."

Uh, no it isn't $400 profit, its much more. You see, I guess you don't understand there is an insurance compnay behind this product. They bear the risk on paying for repairs, NOT BB. So you retain your 2k profit, actually about 80% of it as the insurer has to get something.

The actuarials have this pretty well figured out. Projecting risk accurately and pricing accordingly is how they make money. Believe me, they know the failure rate is low and the risk slim that they'll pay. Why does BB sell such defective stuff if so much can and will go wrong?

alright, for starters... best buy is absolutely the very best place i have ever worked for, and i DO NOT work for minimum wage, actually i make more as a sales rep. than some managers of other companies, i feel i'm well paid the only thing i could want is to be on some kind of commision, but its cool i work at #201 in san antonio, TX its a 40k big box which means our cd section is biger than some entire stores, it also means we sell more and have more customers than any stores in the area, and yes it does get busy and customers do have to wait sometimes 10 or 15minutes before being helped, and the 10ft rule is to help every customer know that help is on the way. we take time with costomers to make sure we get them everything they need and leave happy not to "fill the basket" whatever that is some of these EX-employees are either bitter, were never given proper training or both

as for being yelled at... it happens, however, we are encouraged to get a manager involved(at least at my store) i might be paid well, but i'm not paid enough to be yelled at, and i honestly dont take s%#* from anybody. some customers get upset because we offer the service plan(and it is a SERVICE PLAN not an extended warrenty, i'd like to see a mf warrenty cover power surge, or normal wear and tear much less years and years of in-home service of product) but i point out its for their benefit... because it is. we might sell 10 200$ service plans in a day... thats 2,000$ and in that same day replace a computer under the service plan... lets say 1,600$ thats... 400 profit is it not? its good but not great... but i will not say i buy it on everything... because i honestly do not, i average 'bout 95% psp on things i purchase

yes we are asked to sell the service plan/replacement plan, but consider the following 40$ you spend on a 500$ ipod... or even the 300$ one... the ipod a li-ion battery... like a cell phone it goes out, its 8$RMA/proccess 29$shipping 100$ battery and install FROM APPLE... or pay 40 upfront and get a newone in 1years not to mention anything else that goes wrong and of course pysical damage is not covered... otherwise everyone would buy it and then moonstomp the product when they wanted a new one...

i'm not saying all stores are great, in fact i have some major issues with the 152 store in my area, horrible customer service... its just a bad store, they have over 2x as much theft in their store than in mine, and the employee's couldn't care less, some things are done right... those few things are SOP(standards set by BEST BUY.. the company) i think the original report was in report of a single employee... or a worst an individual store, not the company

i love my customers and my company, i'm not out to rip people off and as for forcing a customer to buy anything... it's just impossible, i dont care who you are, i have never bought anything without wanting it and as for the poorer customers.. yes they saved their money for 8months to buy little jonny his first pc for school, why wouldnt you inform them of the service plan... starters they're poor, when something goes wrong do you think they can shell out another grand for a new pc for him? fact is almost all of my poorer customers buy service because they cherish the few things they can get and want their products and their dollars to stretch as far as possible again i love my customers and I LOVE BEST BUY

After reading the wide range of reports on Bestbuy I somehow feel obligated to speak on what I read. I have worked for Bestbuy for a little over a year as a car audio installer in store 533(Danvers, MA). I can honestly say that I have never workied for a better company in my life. They treat their employees with integrity, and in most cases carry that motto down to their employees about treating customers the same way. I feel bad for the ex-employee who seems to know everyting about PSP's and PRP's because he is way off on what they offer and what they don't. The fact is service plans cover everything on product except physical abuse and theft. It covers power surges, normal wear and tear, and regular maintenence on product. And this regular maintenence is not just some guy spraying air in your car cd player.

The installation Bay and Computer tech. service all have to be certified technicians in their state to even get a job in their depatement. Car Audio Installers need to have their Mobile electronics certification from the consumer electronics association, and computer techs. need multiple certifications from CEA to work on home and office computers. Further more the supervisor of the computer tech. department needs to have an advanced degree in a computer related field( if you don't know who the tech's are they are the guys wearing black bestbuy shirts).

It is unfortunate that the person in conneticuit has a manager who belittles them for "not trying to push PSP/PRP". The only thing I can say to you is your manager should be ashamed. No means no, and thats the end of it. And I know there are going to be cynical people who read this and say "well when I was at a bestbuy they shoved the psp down my throat, blah, blah". The reason we are sometimes persistent is because we use the motto, the complete solution. This entails making sure the customer leaves the store with all the right product, accesories, etc...to make what they just bought function they way the expect it to. Which is why we offer suplimental wire, parts, and service, so they can be at home enjoying their new surround sound system, or in their car listening to satellite radio, not in the store every two days because they don't have the right parts to make the product perform well.
And I fully understand that there are going to be bad customer service complaints that are true. Bestbuy is a big company, and they let each store have their own culture so we don't act like drones who are so robotic in their actions. Unfortunatly there are a few people who don't embrace bestbuy's motto of customer first.These are the people who don't respect customers, say the service plans are worthless, and don't help customers leave the store with the right product. I really feel bad for the ex-employee who downs what bestbuy has to offer to customers, I am also ashamed at the bestbuy employee who chose vulgarity over class. In the retail world you have to walk into your job knowing that every customer situation is different.

Some will be good, and some will be bad, but the fact is everytime a walk out of my store I leave with a smile because I had a good day at work.
People who read this are probably thinking I am crazy. But I invite anyone to walk into my store and see what a good shopping experience is. I am pround to be an employee of bestbuy.

I am a cashier for BestBuy in chicago. In my position im told to offer the service plans (psp) and replacement plans (prp) to all products that carry them. Everytime I let a product out the door without the plans my supervisor brings it to my attention asking me why didnt I try harder. This is very annoying and wrong of Bestbuy to do to me, I mean if the customer said no, then it means, no!!

However, these customers who laugh in my face telling me "honey, I dont want to waste my money" or "I'll just buy another one" are the very same ones that come in 2 months later complaining to a customer service representative that their product is defective and they want either a replacement or a refund. When the representative informs them that there is nothing he or she can do for them but offer to have it serviced for about 2 or 3 times the fee of the PSP/PRP the customer gets out raged and vowes never to set foot in the store again.

These customers are the reason we push those plans so hard, We have a VERY genorous return policy and they are still unhappy. I have and always will buy the PSP/PRP and all the products I buy, to date I have had 2 vcr's and 3 dvd players because they were unservicable and were covered buy the plans.

Dont you find it humorous that a bunch of minimum wage employees are giving financial advice?? If you were really savy you wouldnt be working for 10 dollars an hour and actually being brainwashed into believing the warranties are valuable to the consumer

Dont you find it humorous that a bunch of minimum wage employees are giving financial advice?? If you were really savy you wouldnt be working for 10 dollars an hour and actually being brainwashed into believing the warranties are valuable to the consumer

Dont you find it humorous that a bunch of minimum wage employees are giving financial advice?? If you were really savy you wouldnt be working for 10 dollars an hour and actually being brainwashed into believing the warranties are valuable to the consumer

Dont you find it humorous that a bunch of minimum wage employees are giving financial advice?? If you were really savy you wouldnt be working for 10 dollars an hour and actually being brainwashed into believing the warranties are valuable to the consumer

Cheese don't cast $300.00 and its not subject to interpretation or availability of a replacement.

For those who have negitive opinions of Best Buy...we are the biggest electronics retailer in the US. Most of us love our customers and are on first name basis with most of them. I have worked for Best Buy for near 3 years and I love trying to help people try to solve their problems with electronics. I work in the Computer Dept of store 55 in Hurst Tx and we as well as all the other 600+ stores use loyalty serveys. They ask you the consumer if your likely to return, if youare likely to recommend us to others and how you liked or disliked the service. My store has over a 85% rating of 5 of 5. Best Buy is always working to improve the way we do business to ensure loyal customers.

As a rebutal to the Service Plan arguements...when you go to McDonalds to get a burger...do you refuse to get cheese because thats where McDs gets their profit....probably not. You get cheese because you enjoy the enhancement of the experience. Thats why people buy service plans. Because they want to. Just becasue you dont buy them is no reason to tell someone else in a different situation that they shouldnt either. This is just my opinion...feel free to disagree.

No where you go is going to satisfy your need for customer service all the time. So always be willing to forgive and give another chance.

That is one of the building blocks of the free nation that we live in.

A Concerned Employee

Richard from Covina has succinctly summed up one way to do business. It is prevelant in many industries.

Simply and well put, it is all about mining for the most dollars for the least capital investment. BB saves tons by not training anyone. The PSP is nearly all profit and high margins are the Holy Grail of business.

High turnover is great as long as it keeps the unit cost of labor low. Service? You'd better do your homework before you go as sales staff know next to nothing. It is an army of order takers, that's all.

In the next few months we'll hear lots about outsourcing. Remember this when shopping Wal-mart as those low prices are the direct result of it. How many good Union brothers and sisters shop there? They don't really care about out sourced jobs at all. It makes good campaign rhetoric, though. The poor educational system has helped to create a nation of self-centered, easily led sheep. Thank a teacher if you think by raising someone else's taxes your life will be better.

By Union busting, Walmart can hire enough people to actually give the appearance of service. In the end, personnel policies of nearly all major retailers orbit around the model BB uses. They may not sell PSP's, but Lowe's, Target, etc. all operate on nearly the same basis. Get rid of the high priced help and hire it cheaper. Hold on to the exceptional for grooming or using.

Thank you Richard for a very strong dose of reality. Sometimes I forget why BB is such a crappy place next to Ultimate.

This is not a complant to anyone.... I have been an employee of this company for six years. I love my job, my people, my company, and my customers. With over 80,000 employees nationwide, I would easily say that the vast majority of our employees are very deciacted to providing our customers with the best possible serivce they can. Granted we do have some employees who are not up to our standards of excellence, but they help in the overall process of making our business even stronger.

Our business is a customer business...everyday we re-invent our business plan to give our customers the best possible experience, while continuing to develope our ability to be the customers one-stop-shop. Best Buy is the nations' number one electronics store by a huge margin, and it's because we believe that our company is an ever-changing store that is completly customer driven...

And to all of our customers past, present, and future.... I know for me, and the hundreds of employees that I've met over the years who are devoted to this company, we love the ability to interact, educate, and sell you the products and services that you need.

Re: Post 6 29 2001

The trouble and hassle created to sacrifice service and use prices to sell warrenties is a rip off.

It is quite obvious best buy uses bad business practices, mininmum wage sales associates, and unneccesary services to scam the public.

Best Buy makes money by selling warrantees and accessories that should already be included.

By using products that are "displayed, Returned or reconditioned" Best Buy takes the chance that you will Buy the cheaper discounted items and make the purchace of a warrantee a neccessity.

I personally know employees from Best Buy in Fresno, Ca (Riverpark) location.

Many associates try to make excuses for lack of service, but let the truth be known that Best Buy is in the business to CLEARLY rip you off.

Best Buy tried to rip me off and I had NO option but to come here and report the scam.

Try to buy any number of high end items from Best Buy and you will have to fight for what should be included.

This is EXACTLY why I complained in the first place. I used ALL of Best Buy's resources (phone, web site, store) Simply, I just wanted to buy a TV.

But, what Best Buy wanted was to rip me off, sell me an old display, returned or refurbished piece of junk at a discount with an expensive service plan that I would not understand and therefore never use.

As well as hiding or misplacing pieces that are mysteriously missing and conveintly lost in favor for you purchace PERFORMANCE SERVICE PLANS.

The logic is simple, yet evil. Mark up the Price of NEW items, significantly and display "DISCOUNTED" aka "BEST BUY" items next to it.

Service associates are FORCED into selling damaged goods with missing pieces to sell warrantees.

Best Buy is NOT FOOLING ANYONE ANYMORE.

I WILL NEVER EVER DO BUSINESS WITH BEST BUY EVER AGAIN. Best Buy will never get another penny from me, my friends, family or anyone fortunate enough to surf upon the RIP-OFF REPORT.

I'll take my business ONLINE or to Circuit City who matches prices without giving hassle.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

Look, If Best Buy has done you wrong, oh well, if the salesman aren't the most knowlegdable, research things online, if you don't like dealing with salesmen, then shop online. The problem is too many people are so freaked out by big corporations out to rip them off, and in some cases it's true. I have had customers refuse everything, saying to me "I'm not a sucker like other people" I had a customer, buying a notebook, has had multiple repairs on ALL his previous notebooks, had lost important data because of faulty computers, yet almost laughed when I offered him the service plan. Saying it was a ploy to get more money out of the customer and blah blah blah... and yes he was right, of course we get more money out of the customer, but sometimes, it actually is worth it. Corporations are at fault as well for treating their customers like crap after the purchase, but for god sakes people not everything a salesman offers you is "evil" some of the times the things are necessary. Can you see yourself using the accessories offered to you? if you can then buy them if not then dont. Imagine your product breaking down, will you be happy? I always tell customers you wont regret 3 years from now spending the money on the psp, but you will regret NOT having the psp when the product DOES break down. I just think most people are to uptight about everything. Customers that say how horrible the experience was dont really understand how difficult it is to make EVERYONE have a great experience, it's difficult people. So think twice when you act like jackasses at these stores, believe it or not, salesman are human as well, and we dont like it just as much as you dont like getting yelled at. Just relax...studies show that people that can lose their cool at a goddamn RETAIL store are more likely to die of a heart attack than people that can keep their cool. I told a customer that once, I know we have to be professional, but sometimes you gotta tell your customers their getting out of line. In a professional way because you say sir at the end of your comment.

Look, If Best Buy has done you wrong, oh well, if the salesman aren't the most knowlegdable, research things online, if you don't like dealing with salesmen, then shop online. The problem is too many people are so freaked out by big corporations out to rip them off, and in some cases it's true. I have had customers refuse everything, saying to me "I'm not a sucker like other people" I had a customer, buying a notebook, has had multiple repairs on ALL his previous notebooks, had lost important data because of faulty computers, yet almost laughed when I offered him the service plan. Saying it was a ploy to get more money out of the customer and blah blah blah... and yes he was right, of course we get more money out of the customer, but sometimes, it actually is worth it. Corporations are at fault as well for treating their customers like crap after the purchase, but for god sakes people not everything a salesman offers you is "evil" some of the times the things are necessary. Can you see yourself using the accessories offered to you? if you can then buy them if not then dont. Imagine your product breaking down, will you be happy? I always tell customers you wont regret 3 years from now spending the money on the psp, but you will regret NOT having the psp when the product DOES break down. I just think most people are to uptight about everything. Customers that say how horrible the experience was dont really understand how difficult it is to make EVERYONE have a great experience, it's difficult people. So think twice when you act like jackasses at these stores, believe it or not, salesman are human as well, and we dont like it just as much as you dont like getting yelled at. Just relax...studies show that people that can lose their cool at a goddamn RETAIL store are more likely to die of a heart attack than people that can keep their cool. I told a customer that once, I know we have to be professional, but sometimes you gotta tell your customers their getting out of line. In a professional way because you say sir at the end of your comment.

Look, If Best Buy has done you wrong, oh well, if the salesman aren't the most knowlegdable, research things online, if you don't like dealing with salesmen, then shop online. The problem is too many people are so freaked out by big corporations out to rip them off, and in some cases it's true. I have had customers refuse everything, saying to me "I'm not a sucker like other people" I had a customer, buying a notebook, has had multiple repairs on ALL his previous notebooks, had lost important data because of faulty computers, yet almost laughed when I offered him the service plan. Saying it was a ploy to get more money out of the customer and blah blah blah... and yes he was right, of course we get more money out of the customer, but sometimes, it actually is worth it. Corporations are at fault as well for treating their customers like crap after the purchase, but for god sakes people not everything a salesman offers you is "evil" some of the times the things are necessary. Can you see yourself using the accessories offered to you? if you can then buy them if not then dont. Imagine your product breaking down, will you be happy? I always tell customers you wont regret 3 years from now spending the money on the psp, but you will regret NOT having the psp when the product DOES break down. I just think most people are to uptight about everything. Customers that say how horrible the experience was dont really understand how difficult it is to make EVERYONE have a great experience, it's difficult people. So think twice when you act like jackasses at these stores, believe it or not, salesman are human as well, and we dont like it just as much as you dont like getting yelled at. Just relax...studies show that people that can lose their cool at a goddamn RETAIL store are more likely to die of a heart attack than people that can keep their cool. I told a customer that once, I know we have to be professional, but sometimes you gotta tell your customers their getting out of line. In a professional way because you say sir at the end of your comment.

Look, If Best Buy has done you wrong, oh well, if the salesman aren't the most knowlegdable, research things online, if you don't like dealing with salesmen, then shop online. The problem is too many people are so freaked out by big corporations out to rip them off, and in some cases it's true. I have had customers refuse everything, saying to me "I'm not a sucker like other people" I had a customer, buying a notebook, has had multiple repairs on ALL his previous notebooks, had lost important data because of faulty computers, yet almost laughed when I offered him the service plan. Saying it was a ploy to get more money out of the customer and blah blah blah... and yes he was right, of course we get more money out of the customer, but sometimes, it actually is worth it. Corporations are at fault as well for treating their customers like crap after the purchase, but for god sakes people not everything a salesman offers you is "evil" some of the times the things are necessary. Can you see yourself using the accessories offered to you? if you can then buy them if not then dont. Imagine your product breaking down, will you be happy? I always tell customers you wont regret 3 years from now spending the money on the psp, but you will regret NOT having the psp when the product DOES break down. I just think most people are to uptight about everything. Customers that say how horrible the experience was dont really understand how difficult it is to make EVERYONE have a great experience, it's difficult people. So think twice when you act like jackasses at these stores, believe it or not, salesman are human as well, and we dont like it just as much as you dont like getting yelled at. Just relax...studies show that people that can lose their cool at a goddamn RETAIL store are more likely to die of a heart attack than people that can keep their cool. I told a customer that once, I know we have to be professional, but sometimes you gotta tell your customers their getting out of line. In a professional way because you say sir at the end of your comment.

Dear Richard, thanks for give us consumers a prime example of poor attitude! Believe it or not, I HAVE had good service and co-operation, it just wasn;t at Best Buy. And, no, we are not all only motivated by money.

Okay it looks like this has gone from complaining about a company and sticking up for a company to insulting people. Usually I would not respond to something like this but I think I will make an exception this time. Okay yes Best Buy is a store, and yes they are only after your money this is true of any store/company you will come across, except maybe a charitable organization if you are on the receiving end not the contributor end.

By the way I was not fired, laid off, let go, separated from payroll or how ever else you want to call it, I left of my own free will for another job, and no I did not leave disgruntled . I worked in every department except car audio install even customer service, due to my ability to learn quickly and sell very well. So I know how almost every department worked and what they needed to sell to keep the store in business.

Lets start with PSP's there are about 4 other names these things go by but Best Buy currently calls them PSP's. They can be good and beneficial at times, and some times they can be a waste of money it all depends on how you think of them. Yes they are almost all profit for the company just because not everyone needs to use it. The company sells it on a gamble wether or not they will need to provide service. This is no different they Health, Dental, Vision, and Auto insurance except in some state auto insurance is mandatory. Just because you pay for one of these doesn't mean you are going to use it or need it. Same with a PSP not every one uses it or even needs it. You get it as reassurance just incase. So they company tries to sell it with everything. Over the years they have kinda gotten a little greedy by changing what they offer and how much they offer it for. Now they mostly focus on the sale of PSP's by demanding their employees to sell them or lose their jobs. If you want to know what it covers open one up and read the very small writing inside it. Don't take the sales reps word on it because it doesn't matter what they say it only matters what is written in it during the time you take it in for service, they don't care what Bob told you it offered 2 1/2 years ago, Bob might have lied to you to help him keep his job. Just like a used car sales man they are going to tell you what you want to hear, what you read on the contract before you sign on the dotted line is all that matters in the long run, because it is proof of what service being sold to you. Know what you are getting by reading all the facts. Knowing is half the battle.

Okay now to employee knowledge. The employees are not always right and neither is the customers, this is true no matter where you go. You need to research what you are buying before you fork over you hard earned cash for it. That means ask questions of multiple people, sales reps., and read up on it even if you think you know what you are talking about. If you went to a doctor and he told you that you have a brain cloud between your brain, and that you only had a few days to live. You would want to get a second opinion or look it up your self before you jumped into a volcano even if some one was paying you to do it. Most of the time the employees fined out about a product from the manufactures demo rep or propaganda leaflets that a mailed to them. Don't take their word as the gospel, its just a good starting point for research, but its your money due with it what you want.

Now both PSP's and employee knowledge. If you go into Best Buy or any other store and they try to push their in-store warrant or what ever they want to call it, the easiest way to get them to stop bothering you about it is to just take it and say I'll think about it most of the time this gets them to stop. Employee are going to try to sell you the PSP's for 2 reasons 1.) they belive in them and want to keep their jobs, and 2.) they want to keep their jobs. There use to be a time when they didn't need to sell them the company didn't care about pushing them like they were a drug dealer on the side of the street policies change just like time changes. Personally I belive in the PSP's to a point. If the price for one is close to 3/4 or 1/2 the price of the item i tent to pass on it because that's money I could throw to a newer better one by the time the manufacture warranty ran out. If the price is around 1/4 and less I usually will get it because hey what's a few extra bucks. This rule usually works if the item(s) in question is under 300 dollars. Once you get above $300 you want to start asking multiple employees quality questions on the items(s) in question (how many are returned what they would get it they had the money).

Customer Service and general kind ness. Heres a general rule to follow for both customers and employees, treat the other like it was your mother. You wouldn't just take your temper out on her just because, and just because you have money to spend doesn't entitle you to do what ever you want. Lets say I won the lottery of a few billion dollars, it doesn't give me the right to walk into where you work and belittle you, yell at you, and curse you just because I could buy you and your company. Would you do that to your mom or anyone else you cared about. The might of the dollar does not make it right. Poor people are people too.

Sorry for the long rant.

Ok everyone, I am a Supervisor at a Best Buy and what I am about to reveal is very sensitive information. To all the people talking about the horrible customer service, about how horrible the employees are, about how the psps are rip offs and how horrible best buy is, please realize something:
Best Buy is a BUSINESS!!!

How much brain capacity does it really take to understand that? What makes you think keeps our economy going??? What do you think customer service is??? Customer service is merely in place to make sure your shopping experience is good and you can spend more money, and then you can come back and spend more money!!! When it all comes down to it its all about MONEY, CASH, $$$$$$ you name any business that their primary concern is the customers? their employees? All businesses care about is money, so why is that so hard to understand???

For all the disgruntled employees, of course they're gonna be underpaid, lower wages? then guess what, more profit. Is it sad? Perhaps for the $7 an hour employee that busts his a*s, but he has a choice to quit. Why is it so hard to understand? I am appaled by some customers and employees sometimes.

You people all think that Best Buy or ANY business for that matter TRULY cares about the customer or the employee. We care about the customers money and we care how much of that money is going to the employee.

I've moved up very quickly at Best Buy by understanding this, I walk into other stores and businesses knowing they dont care about me, they dont care if I'm having a bad day, if my dog died, they just care if I'm going to buy or not. This shouldn't be a stunning revelation to any of you because you know what, all you people care about as well is money, thats what its all about. There is a place for love and personal friendships and all that good stuff, but when it comes time to earn the dough you'll work your 8 hours, you people do the same things we do, the only differences is, usually we wont go to your work, demand the impossible, act like a jackasses, and demand better service. Thats the problem with America today, were to self involved, so you recieved bad service GET OVER IT!!! So you're underpaid, QUIT!!! Move on! Read a book, go where someone will give you good service whatever I dont care, managers dont care what the hell you do as long as you dropped those bills. And if you think you can go somewhere to receive wonderful service then go and quit your bitching. Employees, stay in school so you can go to some corporate job and realize how business truly works!!! Remember, "It aint personal kid, its business" -The Godfather

Ok everyone, I am a Supervisor at a Best Buy and what I am about to reveal is very sensitive information. To all the people talking about the horrible customer service, about how horrible the employees are, about how the psps are rip offs and how horrible best buy is, please realize something:
Best Buy is a BUSINESS!!!

How much brain capacity does it really take to understand that? What makes you think keeps our economy going??? What do you think customer service is??? Customer service is merely in place to make sure your shopping experience is good and you can spend more money, and then you can come back and spend more money!!! When it all comes down to it its all about MONEY, CASH, $$$$$$ you name any business that their primary concern is the customers? their employees? All businesses care about is money, so why is that so hard to understand???

For all the disgruntled employees, of course they're gonna be underpaid, lower wages? then guess what, more profit. Is it sad? Perhaps for the $7 an hour employee that busts his a*s, but he has a choice to quit. Why is it so hard to understand? I am appaled by some customers and employees sometimes.

You people all think that Best Buy or ANY business for that matter TRULY cares about the customer or the employee. We care about the customers money and we care how much of that money is going to the employee.

I've moved up very quickly at Best Buy by understanding this, I walk into other stores and businesses knowing they dont care about me, they dont care if I'm having a bad day, if my dog died, they just care if I'm going to buy or not. This shouldn't be a stunning revelation to any of you because you know what, all you people care about as well is money, thats what its all about. There is a place for love and personal friendships and all that good stuff, but when it comes time to earn the dough you'll work your 8 hours, you people do the same things we do, the only differences is, usually we wont go to your work, demand the impossible, act like a jackasses, and demand better service. Thats the problem with America today, were to self involved, so you recieved bad service GET OVER IT!!! So you're underpaid, QUIT!!! Move on! Read a book, go where someone will give you good service whatever I dont care, managers dont care what the hell you do as long as you dropped those bills. And if you think you can go somewhere to receive wonderful service then go and quit your bitching. Employees, stay in school so you can go to some corporate job and realize how business truly works!!! Remember, "It aint personal kid, its business" -The Godfather

I just completed a response to this rip off report, and felt good about at least being able to air my difference in public with this company. Then I actually read ALL of the responses and felt a need to repond some more. So, here goes...to all of you ex-employees, the folks that are spouting off here would not be doing so if someone in Best Buys company would have been willing to listen to them in the first place. Some of your points are well taken and you make sense. Some of you clearly model why the rest of us are so frustrated!

We KNOW that every employee is different in nature, but the compancy should still set a standard of acceptable behavior and expect EVERY employee to adhere to it!

One of you felt that for every one of us, 5 satisfied customers would still purchase from Best Buy. Don't count on it! This will not continue to be the case if the population at large determines you are not quality! Use your head here!

I just completed a response to this rip off report, and felt good about at least being able to air my difference in public with this company. Then I actually read ALL of the responses and felt a need to repond some more. So, here goes...to all of you ex-employees, the folks that are spouting off here would not be doing so if someone in Best Buys company would have been willing to listen to them in the first place. Some of your points are well taken and you make sense. Some of you clearly model why the rest of us are so frustrated!

We KNOW that every employee is different in nature, but the compancy should still set a standard of acceptable behavior and expect EVERY employee to adhere to it!

One of you felt that for every one of us, 5 satisfied customers would still purchase from Best Buy. Don't count on it! This will not continue to be the case if the population at large determines you are not quality! Use your head here!

I just completed a response to this rip off report, and felt good about at least being able to air my difference in public with this company. Then I actually read ALL of the responses and felt a need to repond some more. So, here goes...to all of you ex-employees, the folks that are spouting off here would not be doing so if someone in Best Buys company would have been willing to listen to them in the first place. Some of your points are well taken and you make sense. Some of you clearly model why the rest of us are so frustrated!

We KNOW that every employee is different in nature, but the compancy should still set a standard of acceptable behavior and expect EVERY employee to adhere to it!

One of you felt that for every one of us, 5 satisfied customers would still purchase from Best Buy. Don't count on it! This will not continue to be the case if the population at large determines you are not quality! Use your head here!

I just completed a response to this rip off report, and felt good about at least being able to air my difference in public with this company. Then I actually read ALL of the responses and felt a need to repond some more. So, here goes...to all of you ex-employees, the folks that are spouting off here would not be doing so if someone in Best Buys company would have been willing to listen to them in the first place. Some of your points are well taken and you make sense. Some of you clearly model why the rest of us are so frustrated!

We KNOW that every employee is different in nature, but the compancy should still set a standard of acceptable behavior and expect EVERY employee to adhere to it!

One of you felt that for every one of us, 5 satisfied customers would still purchase from Best Buy. Don't count on it! This will not continue to be the case if the population at large determines you are not quality! Use your head here!

I, too, have had some frustrations with Best Buy in Florence, KY. I've had a few good ones, too, so I;ll share both. In terms of open box items, I've bought 2 (you'd think I'd Learn!). I bought a DVD which did not work. When I returned it, one employee told me that they checked the products thoroughly before repackaging (he was the supervisor who sold it to me). The girl that waited on me whenI returned it, told me that they did NOT necessarily check the products. If the return was not because it was defective, they did not check it! Can you believe that? The second item was a PDA, with out any manual and without software. It turns out I had tremendous difficulty getting the soft ware to load on my computer. The Best buy saleskid told me that I would be able to download BOTH free! Not so!

My most recent experience was this week with computer repair. I either have great sucess or its a nightmare, depending on the KID who;s waiting on me and/or doing the repairs. This week was one of the unlucky ones. I took the computer in on a Saturday. The kid told me that it would be a few days because they had a lot of computers in for work. Fair enough! They took all my information and told me they'd call when they knew what was wrong. I did not hear from them for 3 days. No problem! I had been forewarned. I happen to stop up there and decided to check on the progress. Turns out they had looked at it and determined the problem. It was bad memory. The kid tells me that someone had called my number and who ever answered told them that they did not own a computer! (I live alone). He suggested that MAYBE I had given them the wrong phone number! Can you believe that? Turns out that the kid who keyed in my info reversed 2 numbers. OK, this stuff happens. I understand. The Pisser came when he told me that the computer was at the bottom of the repair list because they could not contact me! I challenged them on this and he was rude, and frankly kinda stupid. I asked for a manager. I got another KID. This one let me get about 10 seconds into my speech when his eyes glazed over. I was so mad! He assured me that it would be ready the next day. They were going to work late tonight on computers.(This was after I told him that the problem was simply a replacement of memory...didn't matter, it went to the bottom of the list).

The next day I came back to the store. YOu can guess that I was ready to smack someone when I found out that the computer had not been looked at.This time a girl was waiting on me. I explained that the computer was suppose to be completed last evening. She assured me that computers had not even been worked on yesterday because they were painting the computer work area. It really was not this kid's fault, and she seemed to be the first honest kid there. She assured me that she had 2 to work on first, but would do her best to get to mine that same day. She also gave me the name of a general manager/ She said that a note should have been put into the computer regarding my issues, and put first on the list of work! Two hours later, she called me and had my computer ready to go. I could not believe it.

I work with the public, and I too was a kid at one time. But I do not understand ANY place of business that allows the employees to be rude, and not be square with the customer.Believe me, I did not take my computer to them intending to be rude!

For me, this is the last straw. I will not purchase or use them in any way again!

What Joe said is 100% accurate.

The PSP is the life blood of BB and other retailers. They work harder for that high margin item than the products themselves. Why? Is it low margin? No like 80%, TVs are closer to 10 and 20%.

BB doesn't have a lot of informed employees as the turnover is very high. Anyone want to dispute that?

In fact, you'd be better served if you learn everything about the product you can, because they know as little as you do. There are exceptions, they don't work at any store near you.

First, I work at a best buy in Wisconsin for about a month now. Best buy doesn't know how to take care for their employees as well as their customers.

Bestbuy management is corrupted and self-centered, all they think about is numbers and meeting margin at any cost and forcing employees to sell everything from rhapsody, netflix, reward zones, PSPs, and every accessories available.

Bestbuy management can and will fire anyone on the spot or threaten someone with statements like this, "Your job can be on the line if you don't sell this!"

I am a former employee of Best Buy. First off I was not fired and left only to spend more time with my family. I was a supervisor with the company for 6 years and did not want to continue to work most holiday and work long shifts. I am in total agreement with Gregory in CA. He has had the best response so far. There are a few things that need to be cleared up.

First, the employee that said that Best Buy does not make a lot off of PSP's is incorrect. You, obviously, have never seen a margin report before. When you purchase a PSP that sells to a customer for 299.99 for 79.99 - 99.99 that should tell you that they are making a ton of money on them. We use to pay 5% over cost as our employee discount and let me tell you the margin on PSP's and accessories are huge. Where do you think they make their money definitely not on Computers, which by the way, are only sold for about $10-40 over cost. In the morning meetings the top discussion is always PSP sales, Accessory sales and Margin percentage. That is why it is a big deal that PSP's and Accessories are sold with every item. It is what was called "Filling the basket" we spent many supervisory meetings getting our butts chewed because our employee's were not "Filling the baskets".

Now, customer service, well that can go either way. There are some employee's that are outstanding and hit each customer that comes within 10ft of them (the 10ft rule is a big thing with management, at least it was when I was there). BUT there are those employees that are just angry all day and rude to everyone. If you take the barely above minimum wage job then you have no one to blame but yourself. If you don't like it go somewhere else. If you can't handle the angry customers you are in the wrong field find another job. I have seen employees that stand at there station talking about their weekend while several customers wait to be helped and the phone rings off the wall. And I have seen employees that kill themselves to help everyone and be as friendly as possible everytime. Crappy customer service is part of the Best Buy experience that will never change. I saw this the entire 6 years I was there and continue to see it.

About what employees say about PSP's, they misquote what is covered and not covered because they are not properly trained on them. I still have my training books from Best Buy and trust me they do not cover all the policies of a PSP. Some employee's have learned over time either by customer experience or their own experience and have passed this knowledge on to others, but for the most part the company just keeps their employee's well informed on what it does cover (supposedly). A lot of the incorrect information on these PSP's are because quite a few years back Best Buy did take products back under their PSP for any little thing, but this cost the company a lot of money. So, after almost going under, they changed their PSP's and now it is not as easy to return your item under this plan. I will say that there are times I have seen this plan work as it should and the benefit was toward the customer, but more times than not it is to the benefit of the company. Stores are able to work around limitations, I have seen it done before.

Replacement plans are very good and are worth their money. I have had many replacement plans on items and have had no problems any time I have needed to use it. They send me the paperwork and after I have sent in the item they send me the store check. The replacement plans work because the money stays with the company. There is no chance for lost money.

And by the way, I was very happy at Best Buy. Not so much with the pressure that you were put under to sell PSP's, PRP's, and accessories (all HIGH margin items) but more with the other employees. I was not fired and am not a discruntled employee. I just hate to see Best Buy depicted incorrectly. None of this will stop their revenue because for every one upset customer there is another 5 that will continue to shop there. Best Buy may be non commissioned but they are definitely high pressure when it comes to selling PSP's and Accessories. Managers pressure Supervisor's who pressure the Sales staff who pressure customer's it is a vicious cycle.

Ok... so we all have had a bad expierence with a store in our past. Best Buy by far puts Customer FIRST where else do you go and have people always thanking you and smiling and there just to make you have a better day. Okay so they told you to go to another store... that could be because of a few reasons. 1. I am sure he wasn't the only one being rude, true you dont want to be taken on a sale but customers aren't always as pleasent as they say they are. 2. maybe the other store did have a better deal wouldnt you rather go with the better deal? Let me just end it here Best Buy is a great store and I am sorry you had a bad expierence but at least our best buy we are trained extensively before we are put on the floor.

Fisrt of all let me respond to Truffle - Atlanta, Georgia. Yes you guys may not be comissioned. And yes you may only be payed minimum wage. But like it or not you took a job in the field involving customer service. Customer serivce means you help the customer not just sell stuff. It also means you sometimes have to take it when someone has a bad day or a problem. It comes with the job. Even though you get payed minimum wage you agreed to take the job at that rate and do the job well. Not half heartly or walk around all day and B$#@h about your pay or use it as an excuse to be rude and un forth right with your customers.

Second of all to your so called plaining in sight policies. I have been in your stores several times and even purchased some of your PSPs. The simple matter of a fact is you don't supply all of terms and conditions in writing or display them in the store. So Stop giving people the company line of "well if you had read our policies." I been ever where in several stores and never seen them. About the only place I haven't been is in one of your bathrooms maybe that is where you guys post them. You post them so as we are using the facilities we can read the truth about there PSPs; that they are CRAP!

Lastly I have also been treated very rude by some of your associates. To say that we don't get 100% isn't nearly accurate were lucky to get 20%. Notice I'm being fair as usually there is one employee at your stores whom you may get who hasn't fallen to your mentality yet! Also I really wish you guys would stop acting like you know what you talking about just be forth right. I really hate making some of your employees in your computer department look like the A$#es they are in front of other customers when they try and tell me (who is employed in the computer field) I don't know what I am talking about when it comes to certain products.

And lastly I keep hearing all these complaints about compaq. First of all, although I sorry to say it (mainly because it means I have to agree with a bestbuy employee), Yes compaq also means crap as in not good computers, they make better boat anchors. But if this Bestbuy employees also feel this way as they say then why do they still push them at there stores?

Hey! ! So, you do not like best buy employees and you think their services aren't good at all?
Let me tell you this, you are totaly wrong.
I've worked in several places and so far the best one is bestbuy.

I agree that customer service is not 100% good over the phone and it will never be because customers call when you have 3-5 people in front of you asking quiestions and because we are not a telemarketing company "the one who sells over the phone" and because when we answer, many times they come up with questions about other departemets and sometimes we have no clue how to help them out we can try to transfer them to the right department but it will take them another 1-3 minutes to get help so we try to do our best and answer al your questions or at least to give them a honest suggestion.

If you go to a best buy store and you buy a product that qualifies for a Service Plan or Replacement Plan just buy it. It is totally worthed the money you pay for ir. Why? because bestBuy will be the only place on earth where you can buy it. No other retail company will offer you better deal on them. If you don't believe me just try to call Swap Meet City or Bad Gays and ask them what kind of services do they offer on the products? They Will send it to the manufacturer so they can fix it,they give you the same product 1-2 months later they don't even pay for the shiping the manufacturer pays for it and they will do it only if it is within their return and exchange policy period of time. If not they will say "We are sorry, Would you like to buy another one?"

What we do at BestBuy? We charge you couple of dollars for just 2-5 years of service we even have in-home service if you are a lazy customer or if you have a 57" TV and it doesn't fit in your Sports Car.We send a certified Technician and if he says, woaaaaaaaa you kill it!! Many times we just give you a brand new TV or the chance to get whatever you want fron the store for the amount you pay for the TV even if the service was about to expire.

The Replacement Plans they are perfect they are not expensive adn they really work do you have a play station 2 at home and you got it when it was $300? and you also got it at best buy with the Replacement Plan"extended warranty"? But now somehow it doesn't work anymore do not worry just call best buy and you will get you $300 back as store credit Play Station is only $179-199 you have mone for 9 more cheap games. What would you do if you did not have a Replacement Plan? Buy a new system or forget about your games.How many did you have?

----------------------------
Have you readers noticed that most of the bad comments about bestbuy are from ex-bestbuy workers
Do you think they quit or they got fired? They are the ones who did non answer the phones or did not help customers that is why they do not work for bestbuy anymore.

Att BestBuy #119 Costa Mesa CA

Hey! ! So, you do not like best buy employees and you think their services aren't good at all?
Let me tell you this, you are totaly wrong.
I've worked in several places and so far the best one is bestbuy.

I agree that customer service is not 100% good over the phone and it will never be because customers call when you have 3-5 people in front of you asking quiestions and because we are not a telemarketing company "the one who sells over the phone" and because when we answer, many times they come up with questions about other departemets and sometimes we have no clue how to help them out we can try to transfer them to the right department but it will take them another 1-3 minutes to get help so we try to do our best and answer al your questions or at least to give them a honest suggestion.

If you go to a best buy store and you buy a product that qualifies for a Service Plan or Replacement Plan just buy it. It is totally worthed the money you pay for ir. Why? because bestBuy will be the only place on earth where you can buy it. No other retail company will offer you better deal on them. If you don't believe me just try to call Swap Meet City or Bad Gays and ask them what kind of services do they offer on the products? They Will send it to the manufacturer so they can fix it,they give you the same product 1-2 months later they don't even pay for the shiping the manufacturer pays for it and they will do it only if it is within their return and exchange policy period of time. If not they will say "We are sorry, Would you like to buy another one?"

What we do at BestBuy? We charge you couple of dollars for just 2-5 years of service we even have in-home service if you are a lazy customer or if you have a 57" TV and it doesn't fit in your Sports Car.We send a certified Technician and if he says, woaaaaaaaa you kill it!! Many times we just give you a brand new TV or the chance to get whatever you want fron the store for the amount you pay for the TV even if the service was about to expire.

The Replacement Plans they are perfect they are not expensive adn they really work do you have a play station 2 at home and you got it when it was $300? and you also got it at best buy with the Replacement Plan"extended warranty"? But now somehow it doesn't work anymore do not worry just call best buy and you will get you $300 back as store credit Play Station is only $179-199 you have mone for 9 more cheap games. What would you do if you did not have a Replacement Plan? Buy a new system or forget about your games.How many did you have?

----------------------------
Have you readers noticed that most of the bad comments about bestbuy are from ex-bestbuy workers
Do you think they quit or they got fired? They are the ones who did non answer the phones or did not help customers that is why they do not work for bestbuy anymore.

Att BestBuy #119 Costa Mesa CA

Hey! ! So, you do not like best buy employees and you think their services aren't good at all?
Let me tell you this, you are totaly wrong.
I've worked in several places and so far the best one is bestbuy.

I agree that customer service is not 100% good over the phone and it will never be because customers call when you have 3-5 people in front of you asking quiestions and because we are not a telemarketing company "the one who sells over the phone" and because when we answer, many times they come up with questions about other departemets and sometimes we have no clue how to help them out we can try to transfer them to the right department but it will take them another 1-3 minutes to get help so we try to do our best and answer al your questions or at least to give them a honest suggestion.

If you go to a best buy store and you buy a product that qualifies for a Service Plan or Replacement Plan just buy it. It is totally worthed the money you pay for ir. Why? because bestBuy will be the only place on earth where you can buy it. No other retail company will offer you better deal on them. If you don't believe me just try to call Swap Meet City or Bad Gays and ask them what kind of services do they offer on the products? They Will send it to the manufacturer so they can fix it,they give you the same product 1-2 months later they don't even pay for the shiping the manufacturer pays for it and they will do it only if it is within their return and exchange policy period of time. If not they will say "We are sorry, Would you like to buy another one?"

What we do at BestBuy? We charge you couple of dollars for just 2-5 years of service we even have in-home service if you are a lazy customer or if you have a 57" TV and it doesn't fit in your Sports Car.We send a certified Technician and if he says, woaaaaaaaa you kill it!! Many times we just give you a brand new TV or the chance to get whatever you want fron the store for the amount you pay for the TV even if the service was about to expire.

The Replacement Plans they are perfect they are not expensive adn they really work do you have a play station 2 at home and you got it when it was $300? and you also got it at best buy with the Replacement Plan"extended warranty"? But now somehow it doesn't work anymore do not worry just call best buy and you will get you $300 back as store credit Play Station is only $179-199 you have mone for 9 more cheap games. What would you do if you did not have a Replacement Plan? Buy a new system or forget about your games.How many did you have?

----------------------------
Have you readers noticed that most of the bad comments about bestbuy are from ex-bestbuy workers
Do you think they quit or they got fired? They are the ones who did non answer the phones or did not help customers that is why they do not work for bestbuy anymore.

Att BestBuy #119 Costa Mesa CA

Hey! ! So, you do not like best buy employees and you think their services aren't good at all?
Let me tell you this, you are totaly wrong.
I've worked in several places and so far the best one is bestbuy.

I agree that customer service is not 100% good over the phone and it will never be because customers call when you have 3-5 people in front of you asking quiestions and because we are not a telemarketing company "the one who sells over the phone" and because when we answer, many times they come up with questions about other departemets and sometimes we have no clue how to help them out we can try to transfer them to the right department but it will take them another 1-3 minutes to get help so we try to do our best and answer al your questions or at least to give them a honest suggestion.

If you go to a best buy store and you buy a product that qualifies for a Service Plan or Replacement Plan just buy it. It is totally worthed the money you pay for ir. Why? because bestBuy will be the only place on earth where you can buy it. No other retail company will offer you better deal on them. If you don't believe me just try to call Swap Meet City or Bad Gays and ask them what kind of services do they offer on the products? They Will send it to the manufacturer so they can fix it,they give you the same product 1-2 months later they don't even pay for the shiping the manufacturer pays for it and they will do it only if it is within their return and exchange policy period of time. If not they will say "We are sorry, Would you like to buy another one?"

What we do at BestBuy? We charge you couple of dollars for just 2-5 years of service we even have in-home service if you are a lazy customer or if you have a 57" TV and it doesn't fit in your Sports Car.We send a certified Technician and if he says, woaaaaaaaa you kill it!! Many times we just give you a brand new TV or the chance to get whatever you want fron the store for the amount you pay for the TV even if the service was about to expire.

The Replacement Plans they are perfect they are not expensive adn they really work do you have a play station 2 at home and you got it when it was $300? and you also got it at best buy with the Replacement Plan"extended warranty"? But now somehow it doesn't work anymore do not worry just call best buy and you will get you $300 back as store credit Play Station is only $179-199 you have mone for 9 more cheap games. What would you do if you did not have a Replacement Plan? Buy a new system or forget about your games.How many did you have?

----------------------------
Have you readers noticed that most of the bad comments about bestbuy are from ex-bestbuy workers
Do you think they quit or they got fired? They are the ones who did non answer the phones or did not help customers that is why they do not work for bestbuy anymore.

Att BestBuy #119 Costa Mesa CA

What are you talking about? Service Plans, for the most part, ARE a ripoff. I'm an Ex-employee of 484 in Manchester CT. The ONLY thing i'd ever buy a PSP on is a High Def TV only because that is really touchy technology.

I'm one of the few people who actually know WHAT the plan covers and WHAT it does NOT cover. A lot of people will claim that they know what it covers and they will say that they buy it on everything. Those people are the uninformed employees who allow themselves to be brainwashed by management. Managers try it all the time they tell you all the great stuff the PSP covers and neglect to mention what it doesn't cover.

I invite every consumer to actually READ the fine print IN the store before buying one of these policies. ASK the employee what it covers. Because when you are reading that fine print and you ask, "does this cover lighting damage?" and the employee says "yes" you need to put the policy down because the employee has no idea what he is talking about.

Here is a List of things they do NOT cover.

Public Use: If you bought 3 computers for the local library and these are going to be publicly accessed computers. Service Plan does not cover these.

Acts of God: Lighting, Flood, Hurricane, Tornado damage. NOT covered. If lightning hits your house, fries everything hooked up to an outlet. You have service on a TV you bring it in and say, "lightning hit my house" Customer Service says, "Acts of God are not covered, thank you come again"

Business Use: Lets say you buy a Computer for your office. Sorry, service plan does NOT cover that computer. You need to buy a special Corporate Service Plan deal which no one has even heard of including most Customer Service Desk people.

Abuse: This is a favourite line employees use, "This is covered for 4 years and is prorated, so at the end of the 4 years if you accidently drop your DVD player and it breaks! we give you a new one for the same amount you paid today!" No....no we don't. The guy at the tech bench says, "This is abuse, service plan does not cover abuse, have a nice day"

This is what the service plan DOES cover: Heat, Dust, Humidity, Normal Wear and Tear.

Normal Wear and Tear is almost ALWAYS labled as abuse and denied at the tech bench. The ONLY thing the plan REALLY covers is: Heat, Dust, Humidity.

Personally, i have a dehumidifyer in my room that i run while i'm not in my room. So i do not have a problem with humidity. I keep my electronics dusted regularly, so i do not have a problem with dust. And i have an audio rack which is well ventilated, so....as you have prolly guess...i don't have a problem with heat.

Ohh yeah, you can purchase a dehumidifier for about the cost of a service plan on a DVD player.

So now, explain to me again exactly WHY i would want to buy a service plan on anything? Why would i want to spend an additional 10%-90% of the purchase price to buy a plan that doesn't cover anything that you would have a problem with?

The only thing these plans are good for is High Def TVs because those are goofy and can break for very little to no reason at all. Other than that, if you are a lazy person, and do not take pride in your stuff and keep it cleaned regularly, and you stick your audio stuff in a pile somewhere and neglect it for years, then yes, by all means purchase the service plan.

Please don't act like there is no excuse not to get the plan, stop treating customers like we are all stupid and break things and need the service plan "for our own good"

I bought a 32 in.tv in may.2001 The saleman was rude & tried to get me to pay for the stupid extended warranty. I told him my credit card gives me a extended warranty.He just would not shut up & then he tells me to go to circuit city for a better buy on tv,s.

What a total a*****e. Best Buy in San Bernardino,Ca sucks & the employees are morons. I have not & I never will spend my hard earned money at worst Buy again.

I feel sorry for the former employee's of Best Buy whom have failed to keep there job and the Circuit City employees whom have been affected by Best Buy entering there market but if you were trained properly on the benefits of the psp's you would know that the benefits far outway ANY negative that may arise from the purchase of the performance service plan.Have you ever attempted to ship a product to a manufacturer?

Number one...the shipping costs are outrageous!!!. ..It takes forever for a manufacturer to fix and return the product,and yes we give unlimited cleanings and maintenance on the cd decks we sell in car audio.

You almost have to ask yourself why you WOULD'NT want to buy the psp.Imagine buying a air conditioner for your window...you go to turn it on one HOT day and it doesn't work!!!!

Now imagine you have to call a repairman to come to your house to fix it.Do you have any idea how much that costs???Or worse...you have to carry the darn thing into a store to be sent out for repair!!!!I personally think that the 49.99 you spend on the psp is worth the money if a repairman will come to my house to fix it for 4yrs!!!

At least have a good argument if you are gonna spout off.

The people who want a headache are the ones who don't buy it...the people who want to come to the store and make donkeys of themselves won't buy it...the uninformed masochists just love to come in and "buy another one" or send it to the manufacturer and wait for a couple of months sometimes to have music in there cars.
DUH!!!!!

I don't know why you are bothering to try to explain this. I KNOW what the PSP's are, If you read my rebuttal you would have known that I use to work for Best Buy. I know what the PsP's cover and dont' cover. And you are an idiot of you buy PSP's.

Ok, first of all. Have you ever heard of gross margin? If it wasn't for accessories or PSP/PRP's Best Buy employees would not have a job. We make VERY little money off of merchandise. So that's Best Buy's benefit.

The customer's benefit is 3/4/5 years of service on the product. Not one year. Not to mention we do have a 30/14 day return policy.

Believe it or not, we don't make as much money off of service plans as you think...

When the service center services products, it costs money. When we cannot send product back to the manufacturer, it's a loss in inventory. When people abuse the service plan, it costs money. (example, cell phones).

I am an employee, and I will always buy the PSP/PRP because I know what it covers. Even before I worked for Best Buy, I still purchased them.

Yes they are pushed by management for the very reason of margin%. Notice certain departments that are understaffed? There's your reason- no money to pay employees in the budget.

I know because I work in the Operations department.

I am a former best buy employee of 2 years. And I must say, best buy is not at all innocent. Yeah yeah, they say they aren't on commission, but thats just a line that tell customers in hopes the customer will have a little more faith in the salesperson.

Although its true, Best buy employees aren't on commission ( except for their car install guys, which is a whole other topic all together ), Best buy hopes that a customer is more willing to believe the sales staff as the staff has no real reason to lie to the customer since he/she isn't going to make a dime on the sale.

Well, the sales staff is responsible for selling those stupid 3-4 year service plans in which they call PSP's or Performance Service Plans. Now everybody knows that retail stores make a TON of money through extended warranty insurances, but what you probably don't know is that Best Buy strives on it.

Go ahead, go into any Best Buy store and inquire about a product that is eligible for the extended warranty ( which is almost everything ). And the sales person will mention about the stupid warranty over and over.

What really angers me is that, many sales people will straight out lie about the warranty, especially come the manufacturer's warranty and the reliability of the product.

I have heard my former co-workers tell customers that the products break down allot and or they are promised all these "maintanence or cleanings" non-sense.

If you ever see what those maintanence cleanings are, that you are entitled to, its just a guy spraying dust out of your product and literally making the product look as new as possible. Now, those cleanings were typical within my former store, so I can't say that all best buys are like that. Some stores may have knowledgable technicians, but most don't.

As far as open items are concerned, those are opportunites to sell extended warrnaties again. It allows the sales staff to make up some BS story about how, since the product has been returned, a customer may wanna consider purchasing the extended warranty, as the product may not be 100% fully functional.

But mostly, my complaint with best buy is those stupid extended warranties. When I was employeed at Best Buy, my job was to sell as many of those warranties as I could. Naturally, I am a very good sales person, so selling them wasn't hard. But I was heartless and was only concerned about me.

Then Best Buy started gettin really tough on their sales guys, by tracking how many stupid warranties you were selling in addition to accessories. The next thing I knew, every customer was a target. Had you come into my store, I would have had you walking out of the store with not only the product, but the extended warranty and about 150 dollars worth of accessories ( mostly computer related ). But then everybody within my department started doing the same thing and the next thing I know, customers who couldn't afford anything much more than a plain pc, were being forced to buy accessories and the warranty.

Whoever "failed" to sell the warranty to that customer, was then pulled from that customer and switched with either myself or another of the "top sales" reps.

Either the other sales rep or myself, would approach that poor customer and convince him/her that they needed the warranty. I had customers who were soo poor and barely able to save up enough money for the simplest computer for their child, forced to find more money they didn't have just to buy a damm computer.

They would pull out credit cards they didn't have much credit left and tried to squeeze the warranty and accessory into it. It wasn't uncommon for a customer to spread the balance over several credit cards to be exact. Worst of all, if you didn't have enough money, we found ways of not selling you the product so that we could sell it to other customers.

I know this comment was fairly lengthy and I appreciate those who endured long enough to read it, but its the truth. I am not trying to discourage you from buying from Best Buy, but just be aware, most of the sales staff is only interested in selling you their Performance Service Plans, so DON"T be fooled.

Most manufacturers have a fairly decent warranty on their products. DON"T BUY ANY EXTENDED WARRANTY or as BEST BUY calls them " PERFORMANCE SERVICE PLANS!!!"

As many of the others have said Best Buy is a non-commission store therefore most of the time you will not be approached by an employee and asked if they can help you unless it is truly dead (not busy) at the time you go in the store most of the time you are going to need to track one down and ask for help, and if there is only one and they are busy with another customer its best to wait your turn and just make sure that they know you are there and that you need help.

With in the 4 years I worked at Best Buy I took a lot of abuse from customers and to tell you the truth making a little more then minimum wage ( $6.25 an hour ) is not enough to get yelled at an average of 10 - 20 times a day ( depending on the season ), Best Buy employees are not paid much and don't get paid commission. Most of the Employees you will find at Best Buy stay there because they like the people that they work with and like helping people but some times an Employee will just snap because they have taken to much abuse because some customers seem to think that because they bought something in the store they are allowed to just yell at anyone they want to because they believe that they have purchased the right to do so. It is best if you have a complaint to not yell, scream, holler or raise a fit but to go to the customer service counter and nicely ask for some help or a manager ( you will always attract more flies with honey they vinegar ) you will notice that you will usually get better service if you are calm and polite about a problem then you would if you started yelling at the top of your lungs and looked like a freaking loony ( no insult intended ). Best Buy is not a bad store if anyone should be complaining about them it should be the employees complaining about pay.

Open Item products are just like every other store that you go to. A Store cant just send a product back to the manufacturer because it was opened or returned it can only be returned to them if there is a defect, broken part, or missing a lot of the parts ( and even then not al the time ). What happens is that the store will have to take a loss for this most of the time, so just to cut the looses they will try to sell returned, opened items ( either by customers ,employees or by accident ), or store displays with all the parts or some missing parts at a reduced cost with the same manufactures warranty. This is a practice done by every store that I have ever shopped at and is totally legal it just means that the store doesn't have to take as big of a loss on that product and you don't have to pay as much.

Ok first of all, best buy IS a non-commision sales enviroment, 2 .. we're not going to lie and tell you we know EVERYTHING about the product, but we'll probable be able to find you someone who knows more than we do.

Second, if you are respectful one of us will be aswell.

And at my store I hae not seen someone that needs help not get it.

So next time you go attacking a store, do a better investigation, Thank You

They filed the following rebuttal to the above Rip-Off Report:

Their email: fastdsm@aol.com
Their name: james griffith

Their relationship to the company: Devotee

Rebuttal:
i am a best buy supervisor for mobile installation services at store 461 middletown,ny.ive been at best buy for over a year now,and i love my job.i really hate to hear people(customers)complain. everyone who works for the company can tell you,sometimes it is a very stressful job,also rewarding.but when you have a problem the first person you need to talk
to would be a manager.yelling at the employees doesnt solve anything. we are human, we do make mistakes.i personally am offended by someone who would publish a (bashing letter),instead of trying to understand what the real problem was.just for other readers sake, i do care about the customers that come to my store to do business,and im glad to help them any way i can, but if your a customer who just wants to complain ,go
somewhere else.i promote a fun ,positive working place,and proffessional installation service for all customers.and furthermore,best buy is a "world class" company....................tex

They filed the following rebuttal to the above Rip-Off Report:



Their email: Lacody3@yahoo.com

Their name: Laurie B.



Their relationship to the company: Supporter



Rebuttal:

I was very interseted in reading this message as I am a BIG Best Buy supporter. My husband and I shop there alot, we spend ALOT of money in Best Buy. WE LOVE BEST BUY! We have shopped around several times to Best Buys three major competitors in our local area...Where do we always find the BEST BUY?? Guess?



Now, I must admit that although the price AND the selection are better~ We do often times have to sacrifice a bit of Quality Costumer Service. Not always, but occasionally. It is a retail industry, and you will come across this as a consumer. We have also experienced customers service so wonderful at Best Buy that we actually proceeded to write a letter to management commending this young salesperson who went above and beyond to help us in our requests.



You yourself can be witness to the different levels of service and employees in this one simple posting...For example...The first rebuttal by a Best Buy employee made me feel a little sick to my stomach. That was a VERY unproffesional approach ad a bad attempt to clean up a reputation. Salesperson #1~ You failed miserable by insulting the customer, getting defensive, and resorting to vulgarity!!



But look at saleperson #2 who obviously enjoys the company they work for and I believe to be honest in their rebuttal. Not all salespersons are created equal...Everyone knows that!



I have called Best Buy several times myself and been left on hold, or forgotten about. It IS frustrating, I admit. At times I have felt as if I myself would simply not shop there again. But you know what? I have worked in the retail business...There are lazy employees out there, it happens. But they are not always that way! I have adapted the theory that when dealing with Best Buy, it is best to just go into the store.

Not always convenient, but saves me the stress of getting the run around. I like the store, I especially like the NO PRESSURE shopping that I can do without a salesperson breathing over my shoulder.



Take it for what it is.....RETAIL IN AMERICA!!

They filed the following rebuttal to the above Rip-Off Report:



Their email: dana91@excite.com

Their name: Dana Flory



Their relationship to the company: Supporter



Rebuttal:

Okay, okay. I am an employee of Best Buy store #21 in Coralville, IA. I am offended by you saying that we are all uneducated and on commission.



For one, there are eight different departments in our stores and the ones you usually talk to on the phone first is customer service. We don't know everything that every customer wants but we know how to direct you to the solution to your question -comment.



If it takes a few people to get your correct answer and you yourself don't like to wait, you should not call on the phone. Phone shoppers are not in the store and if you have questions, that is why we have the website. The website is designed to help inform the consumer with their preliminary questions before they get into the store.



Another thing, we do not always carry everything you see on the website in store. The reason for that is because what we put in the store is based solely on what is the majority sold in that particular store. For example, my store no longer sells books because they did not sell well, while Cedar Rapids, a store a half-an hour away sells books. Why does Cedar Rapids sell books--because they sell well in that area.



Don't get upset with the person on the phone trying to help you get your answers or the clerk because we get a lot of that. Many people say that we don't know what we are talking about, but if you look, why do we sell so much stuff??? We must be doing something right. I am just trying to be a friendly person to the consumer and I don't enjoy getting my head ripped off every time.



Just remember, we have many people to help, and the best way to help you is to be well informed before you come. Also, if you have a majorly important question, it is better to ask in person, instead of asking over the phone during the busiest season of the year.

They filed the following rebuttal to the above Rip-Off Report:



Their email: jebus_god@hotmail.com

Their name: Ken



Their relationship to the company: Consumer Suggestion



Rebuttal:

Hello? Do you have an IQ above 2? Yes Best Buy is all non-commission. We do not carry all our products advertised online in the store (try finding ANY telescopes in the store). Open Items? READ THE DAMNED TAG! It CLEARLY says "This unit is a Displayed, Returned or reconditioned product"....It then proceeds to tell you if it is missing a part (notice how it is

cheaper and that you can usually get the part and still SAVE money on the item? its marked down $50 and you buy a $20 remote you saved $30! Simple freaking math moron.



We dont re-tape them to make them look new, re retape them with a tape that says inspected by besy buy. Cause we look at them and make sure they work before we resell them. As far as resending them to the manufacturer, you start a TV buisness and when someone returns a TV, try sending it back to the manufacturer, they will LAUGH THEIR a*s off at you...They dont take back product, even if it is defective. They will repair it for you and reship it out to you but not as a sealed new unit.



Such is buisness, there are VERY few companies that will take back used products and those are the ones that have sensitive components (IE Computer memeory, Hard drives) or those items that cannot be repaired (Cell phones, portable cd players).....Get a clue before you start spouting your mouth about things you have no clue about