Another wasted trip to Best Buy has gotten me riled up enough to write this post. It’s not a situation that’s singularly theirs, but they do seem to specialize in it … or almost as much as Home Depot, who I thought was the master of this error in advertising.
Here’s how it started -
I grab the Sunday paper and look for bargains in the ad inserts and circulars. Target has a great looking gizmo that toasts muffins, cooks eggs and re-heats my bacon. Looks like a great way to make my own breakfast sandwich and not have to fight the lines at the fast food places.
I drive over, walk in and grab one, head for the checkout and am gone in 60 seconds.
No problems.
Then to the Best Buy, that happens to be about 100 feet away, but eons behind in customer satisfaction.
The circular had a Wacom Graphire4 tablet that i’ve been wanting to get for a certain daughter and her fabulous mother. Both of them are really, really good with Photoshop and this will be a great addition to their arsenal.
I notice that CompUSA has it listed for $99, but it would have to wait til I get to Louisville later this week, as we don’t have a CompUSA.
Best Buy has listed it for $105, $6 more, but who would care about $6 measley dolars when you can get it now.
But wait ! It’s on sale at Best Buy for $69 ! I run over to grab one and think that the savings will pay for the sandwich machine. Cool ! Kinda like a 2-for1 deal.
Except that they don’t seem to have one on the shelves.
I’ll try to flag down one of the dozens of the denizens in blue who seem to congregate in 2’s and 3’s talking to ….uh, each other, not customers.
I look for one of them not using this herd mentality. Kinda like one that the wolves would look for. Culled from the herd because he’s weak.
I find him. Tall and has that mouth that continually hangs open. Perfect. I’ll trick him into going into the back and finding me one.
He leaves and returns the same way. Empty handed.
No deal dude, he says. Not only do we not have any, we can’t even order them.
He does mention that a whopping 2 are scheduled to come in this week on one of the two trucks that bring replenishments.
What day do those trucks come, I ask.
I have no idea, dude, he says.
I kinda knew that already.
I leave thinking these few simple things -
1) Do those who create ads have any way to see if it’s worth wasting the ad space on an item ? If you have 6 items spread out over 50 stores, don’t bother putting it in the circular.
2) Have they thought of putting something on sale that they have a lot of and need to move, instead of clearing out just a few items and pissing off those that get the same feeling that I got ?
3) Can they offer to find a store that has some inventory and have the item shipped to where they’re needed ? Think about it. There may be no need for these in New Jersey, but 100 people in Kentucky that want them.
4) Does any other electronics store habitually fare any worse with this type of situation ?
5) Is there any way to get more than one checkout lane open and have fewer blue-clad talkers talking to each other ?
I hate going to Best Buy just because they always have dozens of blue-shirts doing a lot of chit-chatting, but there’s ALWAYS a long line to checkout and only one lane open.
And that dude at the door who watches his fellow employee put my stuff in the bag and then wants to check my register receipt … get rid of him or put him in a lane that has a register, so he can actually accomplish something besides making me feel like you don’t trust me.
Anybody else want to jump on this train ?
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I have a feeling Josh, that if I shopped at the Best Buy you work in, things would be different and I’d always enjoy my shopping experience.
Thanks for taking time to leave a professional, mature comment. If I’m ever near your part of Virginia, I’ll definitely look for the local Best Buy.
As a Best Buy employee(not a retard like that “no deal dude”), I can try to clear things up about the out of stock issue.
We have the items on the shelf before it goes on sale obviously. As you told in your tale it was 105$. There is no way to tell how many would be sold before it goes on sale, or how many would actually be sold.
So lets say I get 10 of the items in the store before the ad, truck for my store come thursday and monday (unlike that kid i know my truck dates)
8 are sold by saturday (day before the sale), and to be honest as an employee, I dont even know what goes on sale until i come in Sunday morning and see the AD.
Now I have 2 left, great.
Usually, if its an AMAZING deal, Ill recieve literally 30 when i usually get 5. It all depends when you come in also.
If you come in on a saturday hoping to get something that went on sale sunday….well come on…seriously?
If it goes out of stock, we can tell you the date and others stores that have them.
Sorry you just had a stupid kid who was probably on his first day.
So, I know this may come off as a bit biased but I disagree with much of what you said. I am a best buy employee and I think knowing why some of things happen might help you be a bit more patient an pleased with your local bby.
About not haveing the ad item in stock…
IT HAPPENS! Believe it or not we can’t keep every item stocked. Especially a $105 item that is on sale for $65. I walk into work many morning with a line out front just waiting for our store to open. Half of our ad items are cleared out by the people waiting in line first thing Sunday morning. Secondly, we can’t control our ads. They’re sent down from us by corporate. Those ads are nationwide. If one store doesn’t have them they aren’t going to exclude a product from our sales ad. Think of the 100’s of other stores that do have them! And the customers that would be unhappy about it not being advertized.
About not transfering it from another store…
if you ask, we will do our best to get it for you. If a customer doesn’t seem genuinely interested in a product, sometimes even I am a bit hesitant to have it transfered from another store. It takes a lot of time to have that done and about 80% of the time the customer never comes back to pick up the product. Other stores get annoyed at giving us product they would otherwise sell and then watching it sit on our shelves. Also, we have a ton of other ways to order things. But sometimes even our corporate office runs out of product. If we can’t get it from our warehouse then we have to wait for it to be ordered to our delivery center from the manufacturer. No store, regardless of size, can be perfect for you.
About employees standing in groups…
we are all friends. We work together usually 8 hours out of the day and often spend time together outside of work. When we’ve contacted the customers in our department (yes we do contact our customers) and every one is just looking… we stop and talk to one another. But we will stop talking with our coworkers to help you. If you ask any one of us a question, we will either find you someone who can answer it or answer it ourselves if possible. You must be patient and understand that even these “herds” of people you refer to are human. We can only do so much. After that its your turn to put in some effort. We don’t enjoy our jobs any more than the next average joe, so a bit of comic relief from our friends in the middle of the work day is necessary to keep that happy smile so many of our customers rave about. When you hear about the phenomenal customer service you get at best buy, it’s always from the customers who treat us human. I HATE being talked down to by a customer more than anything. And like a red blooded human if you talk down to me, because i’m a woman or because i’m wearing a blue shirt, or whatever other reason you think you’re superior to me as a person, I WILL NOT do everything I can to give you an exceptional experience.
So understand that we’re human and we will do what we can for you. But we don’t read minds and sometimes you do have to ask.
Hi Ronny,
Thanks for adding another mature comment on this post.
Some of what you said is all well and good. Some is just plain, er…stupid, like the portion about you and your coworkers standing in groups and how I need to expend effort and you don’t enjoy your job, etc.
You need a new atmosphere and a new attitude. have you thought about the Marines?
Thanks for the good points and, as you age and mature, you’ll never believe you said some of that rubbish.
Other than that, thanks for stopping by and adding your thoughts.
I nearly wrote a long-winded response, but dont even think it will make a difference. Suffice to say that best buy customers are very lazy, stupid and ignorant. You people ask the most inane questions we have ever heard, but the worst is how you people expect white-glove service at dirt cheap prices and expect there to be an inexhaustable amount of employees frothing at the mouth to answer your more than likely stupid question. “where are the computers” “LOOK UP DUMBASS” “can you help me find a cd” “AND BY HELP YOU FIND IT, YOU MEAN FIND IT FOR YOU…BECAUSE YOU CANT FIND A PRODUCT IN THE MOST ORGANIZED SECTION OF THE STORE, THE ONLY ONE THAT IS ALPHABETIZED, AMAZING…MANDATORY BIRTH CONTROL FOR YOU”
You only serve as a GIANT reminder that I’m right, Harry. Most of you don’t have any idea as to why you get a paycheck or what has to happen for it to continue.
Thanks for being the supreme case study and social proof.
As an example of a clueless Best Buy employee…you rawk!
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