BestBuy Imbecile
Saw a 10-gig iPod at Bestbuy today which was labeled as a opened item and priced at $$329.99. When I informed the local blue shirt who works that area that the new updated 10-gig iPod sells for $299 he told me, dripping the words in smarm·i·nes "that was the way I should go then" and told me that the price for the opened 10 gig model was $329.99
I informed the ****-head that I wasn't in the market that second for a new one, rather it just seemed ridiculous that an opened item iPod was selling for $329.99 when the newly released "improved"model was retailing for $299 new and sealed.
He just didn't seem to be catching my drift and told me that if no one bought the opened iPod in a week then they would drop the price by another $20 bucks.
Well you do the math. The morons would still be selling an opened and used iPod for $10 more than the new model. The dunce then told me they "had to cover their costs." I just shook my head and walked away.
I informed the ****-head that I wasn't in the market that second for a new one, rather it just seemed ridiculous that an opened item iPod was selling for $329.99 when the newly released "improved"model was retailing for $299 new and sealed.
He just didn't seem to be catching my drift and told me that if no one bought the opened iPod in a week then they would drop the price by another $20 bucks.
Well you do the math. The morons would still be selling an opened and used iPod for $10 more than the new model. The dunce then told me they "had to cover their costs." I just shook my head and walked away.
Comments
People spend too much on products all the time. Best Buy is just waiting for someone to soak.
Be thankful that the guy knew what an iPod was. That's quite a feat for one of their sales staff.
Originally posted by Amorph
Be thankful that the guy knew what an iPod was. That's quite a feat for one of their sales staff.
Well apparently Best Buy does prefer selling new stuff, 'cuz i bought a new 30GB model wedn. night! I walked into an Apple store this afternoon and the employees were gawking saying that THEY haven't even seen the new ones! *shrug*
It's just store policy, discount by some % of the original cost, deduct $20 every two weeks from there on out...
...don't get your panties in a knot. The 'blue shirt' doesn't write store policy, and doesn't get paid enough to give a damn.
The retailers thinking:
"I certainly wouldn't put up with to much shit from mac customers. I make less on a mac system, since Apple seems to think it's a priviledge to sell macs, not to mention the other ways in which Apple does all it can to create disincentive to sell their product. Then I have to put up with know it all customers who aren't ever happy with the way I run my store, when I can have know nothing customers who'll buy what I tell them to buy (whoever offers the best sales incentives this month) and be happy. I wish the higher-ups would just drop mac altogether."
Come on, this is best buy, you expecting better? And they do kinda have a point, why should they get stuck eating cost on inventory. Apple routinely fuucks their partners this way, most other manufacturers provide some sort of incentive to move old stock and protect their *higher volume* retail partners.
Now if I were a best buy employee, I'd hide that iPod away somewhere over a ceiling tile or something untill it dropped to 100 bucks or so... hehehe
Doyal you were wasting your time and the Best Buy employee's time by even pressing your point with him. Market forces outside the store aren't going to change the company's Standard Operating Procedure. If you'd been really hot & heavy for that iPod you should've gone in armed with a newspaper clipping about the new iPods and asked to speak to the manager. You could state your case and ask him to research it if he needs to and let you know if he can mark the item down to be competitive with the new products. That would work.
New product releases by ANY manufacturer catch retailers holding the bag on old stock. They live and die by margins and if they can sell that iPod at a markdown price then they will. As will they with the VCR, the camcorder and the microwave oven. There's no anti-Mac plot here, it's just business in the retail world.
Originally posted by serrano
Perhaps someone would be willing to pony up the cash for the 40% more battery life the 'old' iPods have over the 'new' models.
It's just store policy, discount by some % of the original cost, deduct $20 every two weeks from there on out...
...don't get your panties in a knot. The 'blue shirt' doesn't write store policy, and doesn't get paid enough to give a damn.
He gets paid enought not to be rude.
Originally posted by doyal
He gets paid enought not to be rude.
BestBuy employees are probably the worst out there... next to compusa. If they didn't have so much stuff and were so cheap (compared to other b&m retailers), I'd never shop there.
Regarding many (not all mind you) Best Buy employees. They didn't have any idea how customer service worked. They would confuse them with tech talk then try to sell them a service plan after telling a customer that computers usually break within a year and a half. I hated working there. But the discount was very generous
Originally posted by torifile
BestBuy employees are probably the worst out there... next to compusa. If they didn't have so much stuff and were so cheap (compared to other b&m retailers), I'd never shop there.
On the other end of the spectrum, MicroCenter and its employees rock even though they mostly sell everything at full retail...
Originally posted by Matsu
Aren't you a star employee. I would sell people whatever netted me the best commision and/or other promotional benefit, and if you had any sense, you'd have done the same. When Apple gives third party retailers more insentive to push macs, they will, untill then you can't blame any of them for wanting toi make a living.
Best Buy employees aren't on commission. I never made a buck on any computer I sold, so why not show them the BEST, even when it's not in the store...I'm still makin my 8 bucks an hour.
Originally posted by torifile
BestBuy employees are probably the worst out there... next to compusa. If they didn't have so much stuff and were so cheap (compared to other b&m retailers), I'd never shop there.
I don't know, the Best Buy guys at my Best Buy seem pretty good.
Best Buy employees aren't on commission
maybe not on hardware sales but they are on comission for service plan sales. my friend worked there until a month ago.
i also worked there as an Apple rep. way back when the first iMacs came out. i've never seen such lying before in my life as those sales people were doing, across the board.
when people would ask me if what they were being told was true i'd tell them it wasn't. eventually the manager called me into his office. he blew up at me, and i asked him why they were lying to customers to sell them service plans.
his reply. "Well, they don't have anywhere else to go, so we can do what we want"
it wasn't long after that that Apple pulled out of Best Buy. i'm sure my experiences weren't unique.
Originally posted by alcimedes
maybe not on hardware sales but they are on comission for service plan sales. my friend worked there until a month ago.
I worked there until last August. I never made a dime on any PSP or PRPs ("Performance" Service Plans or Product Replacement Plans.) Maybe every Best Buy is different. But yes, I agree with you that your experience probably wasn't unique. I frequently got chewed out because I wouldn't shove a service plan down a customer's throat. I offered it like I was supposed to and explained all the advantages of it (as few as there were). But when a customer says no 2 or 3 times, it means no right? All the managers care about is the service plans that walk out the door. They even pushed us to sell the computers off the CTO (Custom to Order) kiosks because if they bought the service plan on it, the revenue was 100% PSP and didn't include the computer, thus increasing the percentage of daily revenue that consisted of service plans. However, more often than not, those custom to order computers never made it to where they were supposed to be, were poorly constructed, or had the wrong parts installed. Confusing huh? But yeah, I never made ANY commission, again, maybe every store is different though.