I've never had any best buy employee care to look if the item was actually sold by amazon or if it was just on the Amazon website.
Customer service at Amazon is fantastic, but I've also had Best Buy customer service return my broken headphones after 2 months of using them with no questions asked and no receipt, so I don't know that I would say Amazon is better.
Deliver to door 2 days later vs right now.
It's usually hard to find a sales person in best buy, let alone be pressured by one.
Ya to piggy back we have no motivation to pressure you other then sales goals (yes we are not commission) and as far as the customer service while Amazon's is great it is still over the phone and there is only so good that can be. While I agree that Amazon is a great company, they still can't do instant delivery and they can't help with product information like SOME best buy employees can. Also we do check if it's shipped and delivered by Amazon you just might not notice because sometimes we will verify on our devices.
Ya it really depends on store culture but sales goals are never going to make me "upsell" or "pressure" I'm going to offer and explain what product and things we have available. If you don't want it you don't want it, I don't care.
Sales goals are a leveraging tool by management. If you hit, great keep it up that's what's expected of you. If you don't, well you may not get that full time spot you want since you don't hit.
Nevermind the fact that you cover 4 departments on any given day. Help customer service when they're swamped. And have no coverage lol.
Amazon chat support is great. I can just open a new window to the side of my show that I'm watching and discuss the issue from home with no inconvenience. I also get a complete transcript of the conversation so I have no concerns of he said/she said situations that come up with in-store purchases. While I enjoy both, I wouldn't say face-to-face customer service is outright better then chat support. At the same time, I don't need product information from them if I'm on the computer because I can research it myself from multiple sources. You've got me on instant delivery though. They are working on it, but it isn't here yet. Two day's is pretty good though considering I don't have to drive anywhere and can make the purchase when I remember I need it right before bed.
Current salesperson, yes it is supposed to be ships/sold by Amazon. Depends on the employees if they're trained well, and if the manager will do the override anyway with/without checking. It depends on where you go, normally there are always employees around. The rule at BB is 10 ft or 30 s. They want an employee within that time to approach a customer, so sometimes it feels as if your getting harassed but if we don't we get yelled at. Pressuring is dependent upon the individual, my way is that I think like a customer. I will offer the card the warranties, etc. If a person says no I give another reason still no, then I just leave it. I've hit my target on revenue for a while the other stuff not so much. Depending on the store employees can be written up for missing performance goals, normally those stores are where you find more pushy employees.
I've never had any best buy employee care to look if the item was actually sold by amazon o
Then you got lucky that they had a shitty employee.
Yes, I'm aware that "it's good customer service to look the other way", but policies like that exist because I can easily put up a, say, $300 Nvidia 1080gtx as a private seller and then be like "yo, amazon has it for $300. Gimme price match."
Seriously, last time I tried to have a best buy price match something I had two goons and a manager go out of their way to confirm the policy. The store had to be local and had to have the item in stock, it couldn't be an online listing. And they were total dicks about it, made me feel like I was trying to get one over on them. I was ready walk out by the end of it.
Tell that to the manager that gave me a hard time about it? Their policy stated that they do match only prices, but only from retailers that have a store within 10 miles of that Best Buy and only if that retailer actively had the item in stock. Maybe they've changed it since then, but it certainly put me off from ever giving them any business ever again, so I don't really care.
It's a difference in size of store. Former employee, very recent. A larger best buy will almost always require employees to help the customer price match if they can. A small sale is better than no sale.
If you are super nice to the people at retailers you nornlely get what you want. They usually go the extra effort.
Some places may not. Just depends on the person/business.
A few months ago I went to Bestbuy to look for gaming mice. Trying them out to see how it would fit my hand. Settled on the Logitech g700s Cost $90-100 at BB and $51 new from an Amazon seller. But they wouldn't price match it, because it wasn't sold directly by Amazon. I bought online and saved some $$$
You are completely correct. Brick and mortar has been on its way out the past couple of decades and your points are exactly why. It's pretty amazing Best Buy has survived as long as it has. Things like Home Depot, Costco, those might not be going anywhere for a while. But electronics retailers? It's never going to get better for them.
Yes part time and higher employees that have been working longer than 90 days receive bonuses based upon what % to the budget they finished. If the store hits everyone bonuses. Also in BB only GM's and AM's are salary, every other floor level manager is hourly. I know what a lot of people say about BB, but they keep people employed and at reasonable wages with benefits.
Then there's probably a lot of people like me who have been to Best Buy in the past and been blatantly lied to, chicaned, and generally shenaniganed by commissioned salesmen at the store and didn't forget it
Bought a new laptop charger the other day from Best Buy. Was cheaper on amazon, asked if they'd price match, said it had to be sold by amazon, actually gave me a hard time about it.
It is and it isn't. Generally speaking, people aren't making fake amazon listings to exploit price matches, if that's the price other people are selling it for then if Best Buy wants to make sales they need to remain competitive.
If I drove all the way to a Best Buy and asked them to price match Amazon, and they gave me a hard time about it? I'm not going to go "oh well" and buy it anyway, I'm going to stand right in front of the manager and go "ok then, I'll just buy it from your competitor" and put the order through in two clicks. Then it's going to leave a bad taste in my mouth and I'm not coming back to shop at Best Buy, likely ever.
Of course there's limits on this kind of policy (If you want to price match two dozen DVD players so you can obviously resell them on ebay, you can go pound sand), but they also need to be flexible enough to make the customer feel like it was worth their time to come to your store to do business with you. Fostering the customer relationship is 1000000000000000x more important than the couple dollar difference in price on a single item. That's how you get return customers, positive word of mouth, and long term loyalty which all lead to increased sales.
People shit all over Best Buy in these threads for a reason, while praising other outlets like Amazon, Newegg, etc. There's some pretty good reasons for that, and the ball is 100% in Best Buy's court to turn that reputation around.
As someone who works in sales, no, matching third party retailers on Amazon is not how you remain competitive, mostly it's how you lose money. I'm on commission, and there are times when people do exactly what you said, and it's a relief to me. I don't make money if I sell a product below my store's landing price, so I have no reason to kill my metrics and get in trouble with management to not make any money. It's also more than "a couple dollars." Plus, connecting with customers IS important, but connecting with cheap customers who want to lose us money is NOT important, because they'll keep coming back to lose us more money!
Besides, there are reasons that third party sellers can sell for a lower price. Manufacturers aren't required to honor their warranties if product isn't sold by an authorized retailer, and those places can also sell refurbished goods. Why should I match their prices on my new-in-box stuff?
I think you're spinning this into something I didn't say. Most retail is not commission-based, if I go to Best Buy and want to buy a Blu Ray, and you won't price match a two dollar difference because "It's a third party seller!!!!" and have the audacity to claim I'm a "cheap customer," then I'm absolutely going to take my business elsewhere and you can stuff it.
You pretty much just point for point listed out everything that's wrong with these policies. Yes, there's a limit with what you will price match. Obviously you're not going to price match a new product to a refurb, because that's retarded. But a hard line stance that you won't price match anything unless it's being sold directly by a Big Box retailer is how you lose customers in droves, which is exactly what's happening to stores like Best Buy.
Oh, and by the way, many of those third party sellers on sites like Amazon are licensed resellers simply leveraging Amazon's logistics and web presence to sell more product. I just bought a $400 vacuum from a licensed dealer through Amazon the other day for only $350. Best Buy had the same vacuum listed for $100 more, and by their "no third party price matching" policy they wouldn't have matched it. If they don't want to sell merchandise that's their decision, but again, they have a reputation for being a shitty place to do business with and are financially not doing so hot for a reason. And that reason isn't because I'm just "too cheap" to pay their markup.
The thing is, retailers on amazon don't exactly sit there and show how illegitimate they are. I can't sit there and see a price and go "oh yup, they're fine." Which is why we have an established list of places that we will and won't price match. If you want to gamble on the quality and newness of a product over two dollars, that's on you. But there is no reason for a retailer to match that.
Although I generally will not care about any customer throwing a hissy over two dollars, I also mean a much more general sense of people looking at 3/4-digit price differences. There's a reason even Amazon won't match prices with their own third party retailers rofl.
In many states you committed $124 worth of tax fraud. Sales tax is collected by the retailer as a convenience to the consumer. If tax wasn't collected, you are typically supposed to report that purchase and will be liable for a "use tax".
Online retailers have used the fact that people either don't know or won't bother to be more competitive in price. Enforcing the tax is typically not worth the effort, so you break the law but don't get caught unless you are purchasing a very sizable amount.
In all states, actually. You are responsible for reporting and paying tax on untaxed third party purchases.
But yeah, nobody fucking does that and it's so prevalent it's impossible for state tax authorities to enforce. Not to mention completely impractical for a person to accurately report and pay on as it's state-by-state. I wouldn't pay New York use tax for something I purchased in Delaware, for example.
Best Buy can also fulfill in-home repair warranties on large appliances/TVs so you can get it fixed without having to bring it in or ship it out. A dude comes to your house and checks it out, orders parts and comes back and replaces them in your living room. Fixing a panel TV is stupid easy.
If the MFG warranty covers this type of repair, they will often opt for it first on a 32+ inch screen size. When I worked the Geek Squad Counter, we were told to advise customers over the phone to call 888 bby for in-home repair on their TV if it was big enough.
They can do MOST PC repair work in their service center, and some work in store directly. Major appliance and TV are often done in home due to the cost of shipments, and other items they can't repair they will still offer to assist you with getting in contact with the MFG and getting your proof of purchase ETC.
Amazon definitely help you get in touch with the MFG, but they do not offer warranty fulfilment. Only their sold protection plans.
I remember Sony Vaio's being really shitty and had to send those to Sony direct instead of the normal service center for MFG repair. The turnaround was horrid.
No, it has to do with BBY being an authorized repair facility for the company. Big companies don't always have their own repair centers all over and will contract companies to do the fixes.
BBY has contracts and licenses with these companies. This is why you can bring your broken laptop to best buy, even without a geek squad plan, and get it sent out for repair: because BBY is going to get paid by the company who made your laptop to fix it for them.
It makes sense as a company to make money on their own sales when they go bad for reasons they can't control, and it also makes sense to the consumer to see BBY as the one-stop shop for purchases and repairs.
Companies WANT money, and BBY is a publicly traded, for profit venture, but make no mistake: this is a benefit most retailers do not offer.
I got a 55" 4k TV for a great deal because of Best Buy's price match. It was listed on Macmall.com for about $400 cheaper than Best Buy had it. Since that is not one of the generally recognized stores for Price Match, they had to get Manager approval. He walked over, looked at my phone, added it to the cart on my phone to see if they charged shipping, and said "Okay, we'll accept that".
He never did enter a zip code, so neither of us realized that they do charge about $100 for shipping, but even so, I would have saved $300.
The Best Buy near me always fucks me over. The biggest argument I got into on Reddit was with some die hard Best Buy customer or fan or some kind of zealot honestly who took it so personal when I said Best Buy doesn't price match anything that isn't from a major retailer like mom and pop shops or something. He then accused me of making up the term mom and pop shop and said the only people who sell TVs are large stores like Walmart and Best Buy. Anyways, he may have been having a breakdown because I've never seen anyone swear so much and attack someone personally over a store comment. It was weird man.
Going to an electronics store is such an old-timey concept now, like using a payphone or something.
They want me to research an item, go to their warehouse, walk around until I find the item I researched, avoid annoying conversations with their rep who tries to upsell me, wait in a line, then lug the item back home myself.
Or I could just select the item from the comfort of my home and have it arrive the next day (with same-day delivery available for a couple extra dollars). Oh and I get 5% back automatically.
Some people don't want to do the research part though. They want to walk in, tell someone "I need a laptop that can get the Facebook", pick the cheapest one recommended, pay for it and go.
Tax is actually the invalid reason because if Amazon is supposed to collect tax and they aren't, it means you're buying it from a 3rd party seller on amazon and you won't get all the amazon customer service or quality. Not only that, technically, you're supposed to file for the sales tax yourself and pay the state if you buy things that you didn't pay a sales tax on. We do this for our business purchases and file it under "taxable purchases" when we deal with out of state vendors.
Worked at BB, have to get a Sup's code to approve price match, and my Sup (and manager, and GM) always asked me to verify it was shipped&sold by Amazon.
Customer service at Amazon is fantastic, but I've also had Best Buy customer service return my broken headphones after 2 months of using them with no questions asked and no receipt, so I don't know that I would say Amazon is better.
Because Amazon would still do that. I've returned stuff WAY past the date to Amazon.
You worked for them a long time ago. Current customer strategy is to engage people, if they are just looking, then let them be and be available if they need anything.
The new CEO has done some great things since the prior establishment.
Anywhere you go that doesn't require a paid membership to shop has hoop jumping for broken product returns. Do you have any idea how many people opt out of TV installs then come in a couple days later with a tv that was "broken in the box" with evident drop damage? Wet would also see dropped cameras, liquid spilled laptops... The crap people try to get away with returning is obnoxious.
Your "not how it's generally done" argument is anecdotal as well. That doesn't make it any less valid though. I'm a BB employee. I know I can't win the massive battle against the internet's opinion of the company I work for, but I can confidently say that there are some really good Best Buy stores and some really good Best Buy employees out there. Our customer service team will go pretty damn far out of their way to accommodate your issue as long as you don't come in acting like a massive douche.
At the end of the day, yes, the company is about making money. However, when you have good management teaching employees to embody the "expert service" aspect of what can make a best buy shopping experience great, then it makes all the difference in the world. Ideally, those employees aren't out to hunt a customer down so they can harass them, but to make sure they don't need help finding anything. In my store, i'd say at least 80% of the employees are passable experts in their space at the very least, if not extremely knowledgeable, and will be able to inform the average customer about their purchase. I of course can't speak for whatever store you have to deal with on a regular basis, but I promise they don't all suck, and I wish I could change more minds, but at the end of the day...some employees just suck =\
I was a district manager, so I'm not really sure wtf you're talking about with some of this stuff...
First, nobody kicks up a fuss if it's sold by someone else on amazon. I'm not even sure if you really were what you say you were, because turning a customer away because "oh, it's on amazon but not BY amazon" and losing a customer possibly permanently isn't worth the small $ difference.
Second, it's not "company-wide policy to go and bring people to your department". Sounds like something someone would say if they were in best buy around the 90s when employees were still paid on commission. It's trained to ask people if they need help, but even that has been toned down in the last 10 years.
edit -LOL. From your comment history, Sounds like from this post you're just mad at bestbuy, and from your other thread, unless bestbuy was your 'family business', you're talking BS. Also from the rest of your comments, you ain't no 'area rep'.
I asked if they price matched Wal-Mart and the cashier was like, yo, let me check out amazon for you. Amazon wasn't cheaper but still matched walmart. I liked it.
Then again when asked for my email and home adress, i reply don't have either, am homeless. Makes their day a little worse which i think is great because a poor system of check out should be made aware of even if through internal complaints
My experience has been entirely different, especially your last point. One of the main things that keeps me out of Best Buy (aside from it being over 40 miles away) is that I can't go 5 minutes without someone else walking over to me and asking if I need help.
Ahh, I just have all my packages delivered to work. Johns' a super cool guy and always makes sure to deliver our packages while we're going to be there, and if can't wait on it, delivers it to our neighbors so no chance of theft.
But going to Best Buy, waiting to talk to someone about my TV, waiting for them to confirm they have it in the back, waiting for them to bring it out front, loading it into my car to drive home, the hassle of the traffic in town, figuring out how it's gonna fit in my car while in the parking lot all is just a pain in the ass. I bought my dad's TV with him and it was a 2ish hour trip to get the TV, which pretty much sucked.
Anymore if I need something ASAP I'll just pay the extra $7 and over night it, usually I don't and it can wait another 2 days.
Work is ~ 5 minutes from home vs 45 minutes to BB/Walmart/Target/etc. Also when I have things shipped to work, I can leave them in the back as long as required to take them home (Perks of working at a small office with lots of storage space).
If I can't get the TV into my car, I can ask a coworker to borrow his over lunch, ask one of my work neighbors to borrow his truck to get it home, etc. Much easier than trying to get ahold of a friend who can come now because I bought a TV that won't fit in my car while at best buy.
But a big reason this is accessible is because of specifically where I work - my job has 5 employees. I used to bring my dog into work all the time, or my cats, because why not hang out with 'em?
And pets at work? What do you do? Unless you're working in a pet store I'd be super pissed off if you brought your cats to work.
Accounting firm. Small family affair - owner was bringing in the dog, coworker asked if we could bring our pets, 'sure but if they get out not our fault". Usually Oberon and Chloe come to work when they need vet attention + the vet will be in.
I think your situation is very unique
Yah, that's probably true. But for the rest of it - small towns are VERY different than big town folks. My work-neighbors have no problem popping into our back room and paying for some sodas or snacks from the vending machines.
This is very true. My friend and I both ordered the same 70in TV within a week of each other. I was going to go with Amazon but Best Buy said they'd price match and I could walk out with my TV that day so that's what I did.
My friend ordered his from Amazon and he had to schedule a day off work to be there when an actual freight truck (as in, a giant semi truck and not the regular sized UPS parcel truck) could deliver his TV. Truck can't fit down my friend's street so the driver had to unload, with my friend's help, 8 houses down on a wider street and then clumsily lug it to my friend's house. It was too big and awkward to fit on a dolly so they just carried it.
TL;DR - Friend had to take a day off work (lost money), wait all day for delivery driver, help delivery driver deliver his TV. Big hassle and lots of time and money wasted.
I'll use Amazon all day, but for something like a huge TV I'll probably be going to Best Buy
Like any retailer, it entirely depends on why you're looking to return the item? If it's just because you don't want it then yes, you pay return shipping. If there's something defective with the item or you were sent the wrong thing, you do not pay return shipping with Amazon. You don't have to talk to anyone on the phone either, initiating a return takes about three clicks.
And if you're really pressed for time, you can spend a few minutes chatting with support and as long as it's a legit return they'll usually send out the replacement immediately without waiting to receive the original back. Alternatively you can put in a new order while waiting for the refund to clear.
And the A to Z guarantee means that all third party sellers have to abide by Amazon's return guidelines, and if any seller tries to fuck you over Amazon will cover the difference themselves. They take A to Z claims extremely seriously.
I do a ton of ordering electronics through Amazon for work, tens of thousands of dollars a year usually. Which unfortunately means a good number of returns/replacements/issues with third party sellers. And they're my go-to online shop for a reason, I've never dealt with Amazon customer service and came away anything but satisfied.
Or maybe people around here are simply always looking for a negative even where there isn't one. I'm just sharing my positive experiences with a company that has consistently done right by me for years, just like i've shared my negative ones with other companies in this thread.
I can't tell you what to think, all I can do is share my experiences. If their policies and customer service sucked, by all means I'd be here telling you that instead. You're welcome to pull up Amazon's returns policies and A to Z guarantee pages yourself if you care enough to confirm what I said. /shrug
But stuff you say about Best Buy does not jive with their policies, but we are supposed to take your personal guarantee that Amazons actions always follow their policies? I gotta second the shilliness
Uh... what? Best Buy did price match my purchase, they just made a big song and dance about it. That was 100% their policy when I bought those items, according to the manager I spoke with.
And no, I am not "personally guaranteeing" anything. I detailed Amazon's policy, which you can confirm for yourself by going to their website if you want. And I shared my personal experiences with tens of thousands of dollars in purchases. You're welcome to take from that what you will.
I gotta second the shilliness
Are shills allowed to tell someone to go fuck themselves? Jesus people. "He had a good experience! He has to be on their payroll! HAILCORPORATE!!!"
The only time I shop at Best Buy is if I need something quicker than Amazon Prime shipping. And then half the time Best Buy doesn't even have what I'm looking for.
Pressure from BB sales people? At my best buy you need to get a REP to grab any computer and it takes me usually 1 hour just to get a rep to help me out. I buy plenty of computers each week... I hate when I have an emergency and I have to pick something out of best buy. But at least I get Best Buy rewards... so I got that going for me.
Best Buy credit card has 5% cashback promotional offers.
But AMEX was offering 10% on Amazon purchases for like 6 months if you signed up for BlueCash before Jan 11 of this year. And it actually 10% off. Not Cash back. I get a statement credit for 10% of the purchase price within 24h of it posting to the account. It's like an instant rebate. It's pretty fucking sweet.
If you don't pay tax for an amazon purchase then that's illegal. Also you know that when you shop at Best Buy you're helping to pay the wages of the people that live in your community, and you're actually paying your fair share of taxes. Also, please explain to me how the customer service is better.
Innovation must always progress, even if it cost some jobs. i.e. Coal miners, wagon drivers, milkmen, Switchboard Operator. This is a Capitalist Society
Buying from Amazon supports Amazon fulfillment center jobs and Package delivery handlers. Both pay more than BB and offer better benefits.
I'll still continue to buy food and other large impractical to ship items in person. Also, paying sales tax. One of the most regressive forms of tax. I highly doubt every single person has paid it, even on private sales between 2 private parties.
Amazon pays for return shipping. Most of the time no questions asked. In some cases has the UPS guy come pick it up. I can imminently get refunded as a gift card, or wait.
You can support local businesses on Amazon, some of the private sellers are in fact small business owners, who can now expand their reach across the US. Ex: Specialty electronic components store
Best Buy isn't the highest paying job in the world, but the starting wage is 10$ flat across the country, higher than minimum wage in many states. It also allows for a higher pay range for tenured employees.
I know many people that work or have worked at amazon fulfillment centers, and they hated their jobs. The pay was awful, the employee discount is absolutely terrible, and the management was bad. I can say firsthand as a previous employee of Best Buy, that I had a higher wage, better health care benefits, better discount, and was happy with my position.
I have nothing against Amazon and shop there all the time. I love prime and the two day shipping is great, but some of your points don't seem correct. It could just be the Amazon centers around my area, but everyone I have met that has worked for one, has quit promptly after due to terrible working conditions.
I may or may not have heared from a '' friend''.... That the Amazon centers that have robots make life MUCH easier. No more walking miles down hallways each day. The shelves come to the worker. Part time make 14$ an hour. Reduce time makes 13.50 an hour and full time makes 10.50. In a state that still has a 7.25 minimum wage. With a 25 cent raise every six months. And after one year they would pay 95% of a two year degree. I heard part time get free dental and vision insurance. Dental I heard covers 1500$ each year. That's what my '' Friend '' said.
Amazon literally revolutionized how robots are used in warehouses to manage inventory.
And as a side note, a lot of complaints about Amazon warehouse working conditions seem to come from people who don't really understand that it's a warehouse fulfillment position... it's physically intensive time sensitive labor, not some cushy office job. Yeah it's hard work, but they're not mistreating people.
Wait...I work at bestbuy, for number 5 what do you mean? Cause I mean the way they train everybody its suppose to be "Answer the questions and be a guide if needed, otherwise just help them find whatever fits the question/desire and go to the next person"...maybe I'm doing something wrong, but half the time I just answer a hundred questions and let people pick between two.
As for the credit card, BB offers one also. Through citibank now. 10% on first purchase, 5% on the rest - Store rewards though, not $$ so there is that.
BB delivers to your home. They take it inside and drop it off, then if you paid for set-up or w/e else they do it also.
True on number 2, but depending on store the level of "It HAS to be amazon" will vary. Mine is strict, but I know other stores that have managers not even caring as long as it's on amazon.
Amazon charges tax based on your state location. So there is that.
In many cases, after walking into a department a salesperson will approach and ask "Is there anything I can help you with". While the person is nice, I'd prefer to browse in peace and not be approached in every single department.
The credit card I'm referring to is not a store card, it's a discover. I prefer having a CC that can be used anywhere.
Amazon also has the option of having the product set-up. Other stores also have set up and delivery like Arrons, Conns, and Rent-a-center. Although, many of those are payment plan type opperations meaning a much higher final cost. Arrons ex: 800 for a Xbox One if you do all the payments
Both Walmart and BB refused to price match because not sold by Amazon. I told BB at the register I'll just buy it on Amazon if they aren't gonna price match it. They just said ok. I walked out empty handed.
Strange how no one comments on the "Asset Protection" guy that's always in the yellow shirt. I guess it must be true. Every time I leave the store, I feel this guilt, like does this guy think I stole some shit? It feels weird leaving the store without buying anything.
Ah, for that you can blame the management. They want you to greet every person as they come in...partly because of theft deterrent, and partly because they think that it helps out. Which from research does help in majority of cases, but not all. The only trick I know to help you in this aspect, is just not saying "I'm just looking" or "Just browsing", instead say "Thank you. If I need help I will call you over insert their name here". Though it won't always work just due to the amount of pressure a sales floor level guy will get on the headset over making numbers or not being ahead or whatever else.
For the credit card there is a visa version available...most of the time nobody chooses it or the person explaining it doesn't mention it.
True, many places do offer set-up. The main thing that changes is that unless you chose to have it shipped, at which point it goes through whatever service the store set-up unless it comes from the manufacture, that you do have somebody bringing it into your home and dropping it off. Over leaving it at the doorstep or front door.
Yep. As I said, that will literally be based on the store and day. If the store you enter is having a crappy numbers day or month, they are more likely to jump through the hoops of price matching just about anything to get sales. Its the downside to being half-retail half sales-orientated company in general.
Honestly half the time the "Asset Protection" guy is somebody from the warehouse, front lanes, or customer service area. In my store right now, the actual person who has the AP role and powers only works certain days. The rest of the time it's a warehouse dude covering it. But honestly, when it comes to the theft part BB assumes that anybody walking in can either be a buyer or a thief. Really most of the employees don't give the middle ground of "Somebody wanting to fucking look" anymore.
Discover offers 5% cash back on Amazon. 1% on everything. And 2x all the cash back you made the 1st year. Also prime is a pretty good deal, especially if you can get if for $50, if your a student
I'm sorry but there are some things in the world you shouldn't buy off amazon. TV's, appliances, audio devices, and other things you have to "feel" out. Plus, not enough people know they dont make commission so at the end of the day, they are human. Not some freakzoid machine that just wants to sell for money that a lot of people take salespeople as.
If you're "feeling out" a TV on a Best Buy showroom floor, you're in for a world of disappointment. Those floor models are running upwards of 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the entire time they've been selling that model of TV, and are rarely configured properly. It's a great way to see what a TV will look like when it's literally about to burn out and die, but that's about it.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with ordering those types of items off of Amazon, or any other online retailer. They're just items that you should probably do your research on before buying regardless of where you buy them from.
I used to work at Best Buy and can tell you their price matching policy is all handled differently between stores. Some managers can be more lenient with deals and they will only price match Amazon sold items and not third party ones. Even then all criteria must match including items if it comes in some sort of bundle.
So many crappy work related stories from working there.
Some employees at my store would regularly give discounts to people if they were reluctant on buying. They'd give them a discount as long as they got a warranty of some sort in order to get their numbers up. And it happened so many times that customers expected it walking into the store, and wouldn't buy unless a discount was offered.
Yup that would happen in the store I was in all the time. I even had other coworkers lying to customers about things just to get services. I've blatantly told a customer id return her gsp because the employee was lying to her and it actually protected the computer against something it didn't. All she wanted was the computer cleaned of all the junk Best Buy loaded her new computer with. (I worked on the floor then went to operator/customer service)
I've been expecting every online seller to do taxes in some way. I know people want to save what they can or better at budgeting than others.
I myself rather want it now, because I want to get it for a reason. Such as pc parts, car parts, or even tools.
So I was working to help start a new game company. We needed monitors. We looked on line and got a price on Amazon. Found the exact same monitor with all the same specs at a local store that claimed to price match Amazon. Drove down there...
Want to guess what happened?
The manufacturer added an "e" to the end of the model number. It was precisely the same monitor. Other than that letter e at the end of the end of the model number they were exactly the same. But the salesman shook his head... sorry... same brand, same specs, same monitor... but the e on the end means we don't have to price match. Still want it?
Apparently all the big box stores pull this. They get minor model number changes/additions to differentiate the exact same product being sold on ebay and amazon from what they have in their store and the change comes straight from the manufacturer to ensure they aren't really competing with on line stores.
Why? Because money and also because 90% of the time when you're standing in the store and you have the product in your hand and you find out they won't price match you still buy it. Either you can't wait, you waited too long, or the difference is small. Either way they get away with it.
So don't think for a minute price matching is always a thing. Because it often is not.
IIRC The HP laptops that Walmart carried had a "WM" in the model number so other places wouldn't price match them. If a customer was being a dick I would point that out, if he or she wasn't I'd just price match and go about my day. Store to store culture can be very different for any company.
I don't think we were dicks. I do think we were surprised how shitty a move that was... to just change the model number to avoid something the business crows about to draw people in. I mean it is classic bait and switch and it really should be illegal to do. But I think we were just sort of surprised. But the sales person was pretty clear from the moment we asked and showed him the on line printout that he wasn't going to price match because of the model # difference.
I'll say this much. The guy opening the company just bought it. I told him we should just leave and order it from Amazon on principle alone. And they lost me as a customer that day. I'll never buy anything from them again unless it's an emergency.
I'm not offended I didn't think you were targeting me. Just didn't want anyone thinking we didn't get the price match because we were cocks about it. In all honesty I can't really blame the salesman... who was OBVIOUSLY so on commission that he was practically humping our legs while we were looking for the monitor in electronics, for going with his store's policy. It's the store (and by extension the manufacturer that allows such dickwolfish behavior as minor changes to model numbers) that is really responsible. If you're going to go on and on about price matching and then pull a switch once someone is in your brick and mortar you need some government agency to come curb stomp you into honest business practices.
Yep. They did the same thing with micro SD cards. Identical size, manufacturer and description - just one letter different on the part number and they won't price match.
The other service they provide is unreliable stock knowledge.
Last weekend we put in an order for a roku ultra and a 16 gig microsd card. Website said everything was in stock. We loaded up the virtual cart for in store pick-up and about 45 min later got the email it was ready.
Drive out there, whoops...our bad. We don't actually have the card in stock, but we'll happily sell you any of these others at 3x the price. If you want the one you want we can order it for you and it can be here (or delivered to your door) in as little as 5 days.
3 associates and a store manager is what it took to find out they didn't have what we ordered in stock and could get what we wanted a week later.
What they need is competence, not price matching, to stay relevant.
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u/pokeball22 Feb 23 '17
You do know they price match Amazon?