I do remember when CompUSA put an Apple section in some of their stores. It was nice to see the extra products but no one ever truly manned that area. It seemed neglected and of course CompUSA has closed a bunch of stores.
Hopefully Best Buy will do a better job. I always see people in there looking and buying laptops so this idea might take off.
Our CompUSA is manned by an Apple employee, and they sell Macs by the truckload! The nearest Apple Store is in Charlotte, 90 miles away.
the King of Prussia, PA bestbuy just got one of these... i stopped in with a friend and we poked around for a bit. overall they're pretty cool, but there are a few things that suck...
1. NO applecare anywhere in the store... they want customers to buy the BB bullshit warranty. luckily if they get an 'apple' guy selling this stuff, he can have customers purchase applecare directly online since all the computers have internet connections
2. saw geek squad papers all over the table
3. nobody knew ANYTHING about the computers they were selling. the guy they have assigned to that section still needed to complete his 'training'... he seemed very enthusiastic about working the apple section which was a plus
4. notebooks all had their batteries removed so if sales people want to demo or customers want to test magsafe, computer will power off. plus it looks like shit if you flip the computer over. apparently this is BB policy... they claimed they do it to all their laptops because they resell the floor models.
5. whoever imaged the machines had no clue what they were doing... deep freeze icons all over the place, folders on the desktop that shouldn't have been there... it was really sad. i offered to show them how to fix it but they didnt seem to care.
a few things that weren't so bad:
1. the apple section was visible from EVERYWHERE in the store... you could definitely feel the apple presence
2. the interactive demo they had running on the machines was pretty cool for people who were new to macs. maybe some of the employees should play around with it.
overall impressions: definitely not controlled 100% by apple... there is some 'sloppiness' that apple certainly would not approve of if they had complete control over the look/feel/workings of the setup. but still really cool to have such a large, noticeable presence at a bestbuy considering there IS an apple retail store right across the street (even though it is being run into the ground by a scumbag manager who sleeps with his employees... which is against apple policy. PA people should go to suburban square where the management and staff are all awesome!!!)
May I suggest only quoting the relevant bits adn not the entire article?
Quote:
Originally Posted by a_greer
OH DEAR...I hope Apple didnt give up control of the warrenty experiance to BB...a BB extended warenty would be HORRIBLE comapred to applecare.
I doubt it. They aren't qualified to fix a PC let alone a Mac.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDM
Whatever you say. Not. Pure/solid colors are a bad idea for any high traffic area.
I could be wrong, but I think he was implying that any carpet will get just as dirty with the same foot traffic. What you are saying is that certain colours and patterns hide dirty better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Galley
Our CompUSA is manned by an Apple employee, and they sell Macs by the truckload! The nearest Apple Store is in Charlotte, 90 miles away.
One guy or several to account for all business hours and days? Is he paid by CompUSA?
Best Buy is a fascist POS retailer with sky high turnover, greedy managers, horrible customer service and terrible training. The whole company is very anti-vendor and will go to great lengths to kick out vendors (especially vendors who sell in their stores) because they "don't like them". They are a clickey, straight out of high school type of mentality retailer that has lost it on how to maintain customer service or accountability.
Retail is stupid anyway; why would I want to hear from someone who is poorly trained on why I would buy Best Buy's useless service plan that is one of the worst rated plans in the industry? Why would I want to listen to their crap about buying cables and accessories with
way too much margin on them?
With all the information on the Internet I forsee no reason why I would shop in retail, especially Best BUy.
I am not really a pro Mac person (actually the whole lack of upgradability and serviceability is a major reason for me to not support the platform), but I think this will flop like it did before. Only with Apple sales people in place will it possibly succeed - this is of course if the Mac person "doesn't sell the computer with enough accessories" and gets kicked out by an immature Best Buy manager. I work for a Marketing company that services this store; many of our reps have been kicked out for stupid reasons and when you're kicked out you pretty much lose your job because you cannot switch to another store easily. Work outside of Best Buy is hard to find as the vendors kiss Best Buy's butt constantly like their God.
Apple will not be well serviced by Best Buy. I am against placing Apple in Best Buy stores; Best BUy will screw it up again.
Best buy staff = McDonalds employees with Best Buy t-shirts but you get what you pay for. Just know what you want going in because the "help" is close to zero.
I should make a visit and have the learned sales folk explain the differences between that other OS and our beloved Mac OS 10. Circuit overload
Best buy staff = McDonalds employees with Best Buy t-shirts but you get what you pay for. Just know what you want going in because the "help" is close to zero.
I should make a visit and have the learned sales folk explain the differences between that other OS and our beloved Mac OS 10. Circuit overload
here's a fun fact i learned on my trip to bestbuy... the employees have to buy those stupid blue shirts. $6 each. LAME SAUCE!!!
The warranty is not overpriced when it comes to what it covers. Apple care is a little less but it does NOT cover power surge or accidental damage, where Best Buy does.
Our CompUSA is manned by an Apple employee, and they sell Macs by the truckload! The nearest Apple Store is in Charlotte, 90 miles away.
My nearest CompUSA is the same. When he's around the Mac service is outstanding. He's very helpful and represents Apple in a positive way.
I wonder about the Mac sales in that store however. The store used to merchandised much better in the past than in has over the past year or so. They seem to have less Macs on display and they're not as prominently displayed as in the past.
You better have PLENTY of "information" cards laying on the display tables because the idiots working at Best Buy wouldn't know the difference between an Apple Computer and an Apple Pie.
I like the idea of expanding where you can look at an Apple. Curious if costumers will be able to connect to the internet with these machines like you can in the Apple store or CAN'T (couldn't) in CompUSA.
Unless they've changed something I've NEVER been able to connect to the web in a BestBuy!
[QUOTE=solipsism;1113798One guy or several to account for all business hours and days? Is he paid by CompUSA?[/QUOTE]
He works every day except Monday and Tuesday. He has an Apple employee badge, and will soon have his free iPhone, so he must be paid by Apple. Luckily, the other CompUSA employes are fairly knowledgeable about Macs.
Comments
I do remember when CompUSA put an Apple section in some of their stores. It was nice to see the extra products but no one ever truly manned that area. It seemed neglected and of course CompUSA has closed a bunch of stores.
Hopefully Best Buy will do a better job. I always see people in there looking and buying laptops so this idea might take off.
Our CompUSA is manned by an Apple employee, and they sell Macs by the truckload!
1. NO applecare anywhere in the store... they want customers to buy the BB bullshit warranty. luckily if they get an 'apple' guy selling this stuff, he can have customers purchase applecare directly online since all the computers have internet connections
2. saw geek squad papers all over the table
3. nobody knew ANYTHING about the computers they were selling. the guy they have assigned to that section still needed to complete his 'training'... he seemed very enthusiastic about working the apple section which was a plus
4. notebooks all had their batteries removed so if sales people want to demo or customers want to test magsafe, computer will power off. plus it looks like shit if you flip the computer over. apparently this is BB policy... they claimed they do it to all their laptops because they resell the floor models.
5. whoever imaged the machines had no clue what they were doing... deep freeze icons all over the place, folders on the desktop that shouldn't have been there... it was really sad. i offered to show them how to fix it but they didnt seem to care.
a few things that weren't so bad:
1. the apple section was visible from EVERYWHERE in the store... you could definitely feel the apple presence
2. the interactive demo they had running on the machines was pretty cool for people who were new to macs. maybe some of the employees should play around with it.
overall impressions: definitely not controlled 100% by apple... there is some 'sloppiness' that apple certainly would not approve of if they had complete control over the look/feel/workings of the setup. but still really cool to have such a large, noticeable presence at a bestbuy considering there IS an apple retail store right across the street (even though it is being run into the ground by a scumbag manager who sleeps with his employees... which is against apple policy. PA people should go to suburban square where the management and staff are all awesome!!!)
It should be "power cords" NOT "power chords" !
May I suggest only quoting the relevant bits adn not the entire article?
OH DEAR...I hope Apple didnt give up control of the warrenty experiance to BB...a BB extended warenty would be HORRIBLE comapred to applecare.
I doubt it. They aren't qualified to fix a PC let alone a Mac.
Whatever you say. Not. Pure/solid colors are a bad idea for any high traffic area.
I could be wrong, but I think he was implying that any carpet will get just as dirty with the same foot traffic. What you are saying is that certain colours and patterns hide dirty better.
Our CompUSA is manned by an Apple employee, and they sell Macs by the truckload!
One guy or several to account for all business hours and days? Is he paid by CompUSA?
Retail is stupid anyway; why would I want to hear from someone who is poorly trained on why I would buy Best Buy's useless service plan that is one of the worst rated plans in the industry? Why would I want to listen to their crap about buying cables and accessories with
way too much margin on them?
With all the information on the Internet I forsee no reason why I would shop in retail, especially Best BUy.
I am not really a pro Mac person (actually the whole lack of upgradability and serviceability is a major reason for me to not support the platform), but I think this will flop like it did before. Only with Apple sales people in place will it possibly succeed - this is of course if the Mac person "doesn't sell the computer with enough accessories" and gets kicked out by an immature Best Buy manager. I work for a Marketing company that services this store; many of our reps have been kicked out for stupid reasons and when you're kicked out you pretty much lose your job because you cannot switch to another store easily. Work outside of Best Buy is hard to find as the vendors kiss Best Buy's butt constantly like their God.
Apple will not be well serviced by Best Buy. I am against placing Apple in Best Buy stores; Best BUy will screw it up again.
yeah... because they don't have any...
I should make a visit and have the learned sales folk explain the differences between that other OS and our beloved Mac OS 10. Circuit overload
Best buy staff = McDonalds employees with Best Buy t-shirts but you get what you pay for. Just know what you want going in because the "help" is close to zero.
I should make a visit and have the learned sales folk explain the differences between that other OS and our beloved Mac OS 10. Circuit overload
here's a fun fact i learned on my trip to bestbuy... the employees have to buy those stupid blue shirts. $6 each. LAME SAUCE!!!
Our CompUSA is manned by an Apple employee, and they sell Macs by the truckload!
My nearest CompUSA is the same. When he's around the Mac service is outstanding. He's very helpful and represents Apple in a positive way.
I wonder about the Mac sales in that store however. The store used to merchandised much better in the past than in has over the past year or so. They seem to have less Macs on display and they're not as prominently displayed as in the past.
You better have PLENTY of "information" cards laying on the display tables because the idiots working at Best Buy wouldn't know the difference between an Apple Computer and an Apple Pie.
I like the idea of expanding where you can look at an Apple. Curious if costumers will be able to connect to the internet with these machines like you can in the Apple store or CAN'T (couldn't) in CompUSA.
Unless they've changed something I've NEVER been able to connect to the web in a BestBuy!
He works every day except Monday and Tuesday. He has an Apple employee badge, and will soon have his free iPhone, so he must be paid by Apple. Luckily, the other CompUSA employes are fairly knowledgeable about Macs.
Stick to your own stores Apple, I think Best Buy hired CompUSA's ex-employees.
It seems to work well enough: 7 stores last spring, 50 stores last fall and 200 locations by the fall of 2007. Plus a smaller program at Circuit City. Meanwhile, Apple is continuously gaining market share in U.S.-retail.
With all the information on the Internet I forsee no reason why I would shop in retail, especially Best BUy.
That's just you. Hate all you want, but retail is more and more important.