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This is my rant about Best Buy: Coming from a technical family (my dad being an IT director) at a small age I was dissecting computers and fixing them back. I

This is my rant about Best Buy: Coming from a technical family (my dad being an IT director) at a small age I was dissecting computers and fixing them back. I love computers and that's what lead me into web dev. I'm still very technical in this area and I'd say I'm a pretty good hardware and software fixer. That being said, when I go into BB it saddens me to see how they up-sell ignorant people. It bothers me so much. I'll be inline behind someone and they'll offer an initial setup and cleaning of your new PC for $75+ and I'm thinking to myself I could do this in 20 minutes and I'd do it for a lot less. Installing memory is way more than it should be. Backing up and restoring, etc, all relatively simple things they charge so much for. And without the "geek squad" prices, their hardware prices are just high. Best Buy is for ignorant consumers who don't know about computers or geeks that need something asap and cave to pay the difference. There needs to be a chain like this that doesn't screw people over, that has excellent customer service and doesn't continue to BS people about things that they really don't need. There's a business model to be had with treating people right.

untog 15y ago
That being said, when I go into BB it saddens me to see how they up-sell ignorant people. It bothers me so much. I'll be inline behind someone and they'll offer an initial setup and cleaning of your new PC for $75+ and I'm thinking to myself I could do this in 20 minutes and I'd do it for a lot less. Installing memory is way more than it should be. Backing up and restoring, etc, all relatively simple things they charge so much for. You're right, and there's a big potential for disruption here. But it isn't easy- once you have a service that relies on physical presence somewhere things get expensive quickly. But I can see it- a sort of AirBnB for tech support. Or something.
aswanson 15y ago
Right. I hate their "bait and switch" tactics with the low tagged price on a given machine acting as a trojan horse for their ridiculously expensive warranties. They must place a ton of pressure on their salespeople to push them; I refused one a few years back and the customer service guy put me through a gauntlet of managers drilling me on why I needed it before they all finally fell back. The average non-tech savvy customer is just going to cave in.
- pavel_lishin 15y ago
  > I refused one a few years back and the customer service guy put me through a gauntlet of managers drilling me on why I needed it before they all finally fell back. You must have really, really needed that machine. I think I would have been escorted off the premises somewhere between the introduction of Manager #1 and the attempted introduction of Manager #2.
  - aswanson 15y ago
    It wasn't so much the machine, just the fact that I had to confront the arrogance. I knew what I wanted. I also knew that if the sale was lost (me walking out), it would not have shown up in said managers performance metrics. I purposely bought it without the warranty, knowing that they would have to account for why I wasn't an "upsell".
    - toadkick 15y ago
      I worked at BB for a year back in the day. I can say that the blue shirt employees were only good for 2 things: attaching overpriced high-margin peripherals/cables to sales, and pushing the extended warranties. Those who were not good at either did not last long there.
      - joshmlewis 15y ago
        This is what bugs me. I used to want to work at best buy being a geek, but instead they hire people with selling knowledge rather than technical skill.
warfangle 15y ago
B&H is like this, but their only retail location I know of is in Manhattan. Their selection of high-end consumer / pro-grade electronics can't be beat for a walk-in store.
pkteison 15y ago
Retail computers are a tough business because of the need to stock rapidly depreciating inventory. There was a big market for doing it better and cheaper (chiefly through having less retail inventory, forgoing some of the instant gratification); see Dell and Gateway and the web. There is a market for doing it better and more expensive; see Apple. There is a market for overpaying for instant gratification and somebody to provide you marginal advice; see Best Buy. If your fundamental disagreement is against the concept of overpaying for instant gratification and a bit of hand holding, there are many better targets that meet your complaint. I'd probably start with restaurants, for you can cook at home for a lot less in 20 minutes and it's a relatively simple thing that restaurants charge so much for. Yet people seem pretty ok with the opportunity to sometimes trade their hard earned cash for somebody else to do it for them.
edwinnathaniel 15y ago
You're right, as a more knowledgeable person, we always can do it better with less money. But let me play the Devil's Advocate: 1) Customers are always looking for better and cheaper, always. 2) Race to the bottom happens if #1 won Eventually the service becomes commodity and businesses don't scale and not making enough money/razor thin margin.
Maven911 15y ago
Outside of the geek squad prices, their price on hardware/software is pretty cheap, and they and their sister company in Canada: Future Shop have single handedly changed the pricing of electronic goods in Canada to much cheaper prices, and have subsequently put some Canadian/provincial chains out of business. Granted they are not cheaper then online retail but I for one thank them for the price change they have brought
zbuc 15y ago
> That being said, when I go into BB it saddens me to see how they up-sell ignorant people. It bothers me so much. I'll be inline behind someone and they'll offer an initial setup and cleaning of your new PC for $75+ and I'm thinking to myself I could do this in 20 minutes and I'd do it for a lot less. Installing memory is way more than it should be. Backing up and restoring, etc, all relatively simple things they charge so much for. The same argument can be made for cars(oh boy, a car analogy!). It's much cheaper to change your own oil yet people still go to oil change shops and pay a ton of money for it. The reasons are ignorance(not knowing how to do it yourself) and convenience.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- joshmlewis 15y ago
  Eh, not exactly the same argument. I pay someone to change my oil, but I know how to change my oil. Getting someone else to do it is not that expensive, not messy, and takes 20 minutes or less. With computers, I don't know how long it's going to take them to fix (a day, a few days, week, etc), who knows. I don't know if they screw people over or not, and I know I can do it myself faster.
dave1619 15y ago
Apple retail stores do a great job in this area of customer service and really trying to help the customer. Too bad their product selection is limited.

untog 15y ago

That being said, when I go into BB it saddens me to see how they up-sell ignorant people. It bothers me so much. I'll be inline behind someone and they'll offer an initial setup and cleaning of your new PC for $75+ and I'm thinking to myself I could do this in 20 minutes and I'd do it for a lot less. Installing memory is way more than it should be. Backing up and restoring, etc, all relatively simple things they charge so much for. You're right, and there's a big potential for disruption here. But it isn't easy- once you have a service that relies on physical presence somewhere things get expensive quickly. But I can see it- a sort of AirBnB for tech support. Or something.

aswanson 15y ago

Right. I hate their "bait and switch" tactics with the low tagged price on a given machine acting as a trojan horse for their ridiculously expensive warranties. They must place a ton of pressure on their salespeople to push them; I refused one a few years back and the customer service guy put me through a gauntlet of managers drilling me on why I needed it before they all finally fell back. The average non-tech savvy customer is just going to cave in.

pavel_lishin 15y ago
> I refused one a few years back and the customer service guy put me through a gauntlet of managers drilling me on why I needed it before they all finally fell back. You must have really, really needed that machine. I think I would have been escorted off the premises somewhere between the introduction of Manager #1 and the attempted introduction of Manager #2.
- aswanson 15y ago
  It wasn't so much the machine, just the fact that I had to confront the arrogance. I knew what I wanted. I also knew that if the sale was lost (me walking out), it would not have shown up in said managers performance metrics. I purposely bought it without the warranty, knowing that they would have to account for why I wasn't an "upsell".
  - toadkick 15y ago
    I worked at BB for a year back in the day. I can say that the blue shirt employees were only good for 2 things: attaching overpriced high-margin peripherals/cables to sales, and pushing the extended warranties. Those who were not good at either did not last long there.
    - joshmlewis 15y ago
      This is what bugs me. I used to want to work at best buy being a geek, but instead they hire people with selling knowledge rather than technical skill.

warfangle 15y ago

B&H is like this, but their only retail location I know of is in Manhattan. Their selection of high-end consumer / pro-grade electronics can't be beat for a walk-in store.

pkteison 15y ago

Retail computers are a tough business because of the need to stock rapidly depreciating inventory. There was a big market for doing it better and cheaper (chiefly through having less retail inventory, forgoing some of the instant gratification); see Dell and Gateway and the web. There is a market for doing it better and more expensive; see Apple. There is a market for overpaying for instant gratification and somebody to provide you marginal advice; see Best Buy. If your fundamental disagreement is against the concept of overpaying for instant gratification and a bit of hand holding, there are many better targets that meet your complaint. I'd probably start with restaurants, for you can cook at home for a lot less in 20 minutes and it's a relatively simple thing that restaurants charge so much for. Yet people seem pretty ok with the opportunity to sometimes trade their hard earned cash for somebody else to do it for them.

edwinnathaniel 15y ago

You're right, as a more knowledgeable person, we always can do it better with less money. But let me play the Devil's Advocate: 1) Customers are always looking for better and cheaper, always. 2) Race to the bottom happens if #1 won Eventually the service becomes commodity and businesses don't scale and not making enough money/razor thin margin.

Maven911 15y ago

Outside of the geek squad prices, their price on hardware/software is pretty cheap, and they and their sister company in Canada: Future Shop have single handedly changed the pricing of electronic goods in Canada to much cheaper prices, and have subsequently put some Canadian/provincial chains out of business. Granted they are not cheaper then online retail but I for one thank them for the price change they have brought

zbuc 15y ago

> That being said, when I go into BB it saddens me to see how they up-sell ignorant people. It bothers me so much. I'll be inline behind someone and they'll offer an initial setup and cleaning of your new PC for $75+ and I'm thinking to myself I could do this in 20 minutes and I'd do it for a lot less. Installing memory is way more than it should be. Backing up and restoring, etc, all relatively simple things they charge so much for. The same argument can be made for cars(oh boy, a car analogy!). It's much cheaper to change your own oil yet people still go to oil change shops and pay a ton of money for it. The reasons are ignorance(not knowing how to do it yourself) and convenience.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
joshmlewis 15y ago
Eh, not exactly the same argument. I pay someone to change my oil, but I know how to change my oil. Getting someone else to do it is not that expensive, not messy, and takes 20 minutes or less. With computers, I don't know how long it's going to take them to fix (a day, a few days, week, etc), who knows. I don't know if they screw people over or not, and I know I can do it myself faster.

dave1619 15y ago

Apple retail stores do a great job in this area of customer service and really trying to help the customer. Too bad their product selection is limited.