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I was a Geek Squad “agent” in college and Best Buy has continued to prove that they’ve lost sight of the sole value proposition Best Buy had: people want a phys
by theboogieman 2y ago
I was a Geek Squad “agent” in college and Best Buy has continued to prove that they’ve lost sight of the sole value proposition Best Buy had: people want a physical place to walk into to get advice on what tech to purchase, and that same place should be able to service the tech.
Before 2020, there was a big focus on Geek Squad membership sales (Total Tech Support) as they saw the $200 yearly subscription as almost free money. They were paying the Geek Squad anyways, and there was no material cost to us providing service, so that increased both customer loyalty and revenue. It’s a great service model, until one of two things happens: 1) you’ve sold the service to almost everyone who can utilize it, or 2) a global pandemic breaks loose.
As it turns out, both of those happened around the same time. (This is not based on any internal numbers, just anecdotal experience when it became increasingly harder to sell TTS as most people either had it already or didn’t need it.)
In 2020, there was a corporate shift to focus on the Best Buy website, which really felt like the nail in the coffin to the store.
My old store is a ghost town now. Horribly understaffed. I took my mom there to buy a Macbook and we were all but standing with $1.5k clenched in our fists and nobody came out to take it: not because the employees are lazy, but because there were no employees.
Every passing year that Best Buy hasn’t been liquidated is a surprise and achievement.
- nashashmi 2y agoIt is an eyesore to see many of the shelves empty. And the staff just don't seem to care anymore. I asked for USB-C to USB-C (before iPhone USB C) cable, and they did not have them. The guy said majority people have iPhone and so there is no point in having one of those in store! Best Buy no longer focuses on stocking products. I used to have a rule not to go online if I can go in person to a store. Not anymore.
- doubled112 2y agoI used to try to buy from a real store. Amazon has something these stores do not. Stock.
- Blackthorn 2y agoThey pushed this online experience in a super half-assed way too. I bought a Chromebook, online, for my disabled mother, and its battery failed in three weeks. They demanded that to RMA it it had to be physically brought to a store. Nevermind that they've closed stores like mad so there wasn't any near her, and even if there were she CANNOT DRIVE. Then to add insult to injury, they made it impossible to even reach their stores by phone, all calls go to central call centers now so we couldn't try to set up any sort of pickup with a nearby store. After that experience, I swore I would never buy a product from Best Buy ever again. Online, in person, doesn't matter. Permanently gone as a customer.
- theboogieman 2y agoThey took away the in-store phones while I was working there too. Taking phone calls definitely added work to the (in my opinion) already overworked employees, but from a customer standpoint, it’s absolutely ridiculous to not be able to call the store who has your computer. The corporate mindset is “let’s cut costs and let the people working at customer service/Geek Squad/the sales floor take the blame from angry customers for our streamlining.”
- aaomidi 2y agoThe entire value add of Best Buy was the fact that it was a physical store. They did not have the expertise to compete with Amazon. They never paid the Amazon wages, or made the Amazon offices. They never had the presence in schools like Amazon did, or the prestige. I guess MBAs missed that when suddenly every single physical store _had_ to have an online presence that was given priority compared to their physical counterpart.