My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

[ScoobySnax]

I work in the retail industry and if a store has low traffic, we wont give that store payroll hours, so there won't be anyone in the stores to help you. The lost sales from a handful of customers won't offset the amount of payroll dollars we'd spend on a fully staffed store.

Just an FYI to keep in mind while visiting big retail chains. I know it doesn't excuse the lack of customer service, I'm just giving you the business' perspective.

[Phobia]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

I work in the retail industry and if a store has low traffic, we wont give that store payroll hours, so there won't be anyone in the stores to help you. The lost sales from a handful of customers won't offset the amount of payroll dollars we'd spend on a fully staffed store.

Just an FYI to keep in mind while visiting big retail chains. I know it doesn't excuse the lack of customer service, I'm just giving you the business' perspective.

See I work in the medical sales field and EVERYTHING is built around customer service. If you make customer unhappy you lose accounts so that is a huge no no. The big issue with big box chains is that customers are expendable. So this then makes customer service a "take it or leave it" mentality from those chains. It is no wonder online sales are taking over and will continue. 99% of online sales return policies stomp brick and mortar return policy.

[daflyboys]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

I've never really known people able to haggle much at major retailers. Sure, at the local electronics store in town, you could work out a deal, but at a large store? The price is the price usually. It is usually services where you can haggle.

Ya...but I'm sure I'm significantly older than you.

[fishepa]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

They usually just price-matched print ads as far as I recall. I don't even think Walmart price-matches Amazon.

BB is actually going to start price-matching Amazon.

[Redacted01]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

Ya...but I'm sure I'm significantly older than you.

That might explain it then.

BB is actually going to start price-matching Amazon.

So it's not something they've done before. Ok, that's what I thought.

[CMH]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

I work in the retail industry and if a store has low traffic, we wont give that store payroll hours, so there won't be anyone in the stores to help you. The lost sales from a handful of customers won't offset the amount of payroll dollars we'd spend on a fully staffed store.

Just an FYI to keep in mind while visiting big retail chains. I know it doesn't excuse the lack of customer service, I'm just giving you the business' perspective.

I understand this, but it makes me wonder if perhaps the reason there is low traffic is because there isn't anyone to help customers and the customers pick up on that.

My experience is that you always up the customer service. People will remember good or bad service before they remember anything else about a store.

I've worked at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and I can promise that quality service helped customers forget how much they hated a car or whatever problems they had with a car. Treating them nicely and genuinely understanding their frustration usually guaranteed a return customer.

I don't usually have problems at Best Buy that are any different elsewhere. I find that it takes employees. Some are great; some are not. I don't blame Best Buy. I blame the people working there.

[Dos_Santos]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

Love Best Buy and never had an issue.

If paying the lowest amount of money on a product is your sole purpose, no one beats Best Buy.

If I need direct help and I can't find anyone in the department, I tell someone to radio someone to come to me. They always do and I get someone within minutes.

[ODogg]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

Love Best Buy and never had an issue.

If paying the lowest amount of money on a product is your sole purpose, no one beats Best Buy.

If I need direct help and I can't find anyone in the department, I tell someone to radio someone to come to me. They always do and I get someone within minutes.

Are you a young blonde girl with big boobs by any chance?

[ODogg]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

Love Best Buy and never had an issue.

If paying the lowest amount of money on a product is your sole purpose, no one beats Best Buy..

If you really believe that then you've wasted a lot of money at Best Buy. My 55" LCD TV I have in the bedroom was $700 cheaper at Amazon and my 67" DLP TV in my den was $500 cheaper at Vanns.

Not to mention the countless scores of games for my Xbox and PS3 which have cost me $39 w free shipping and no tax thanks to Amazons $20 presale rebate versus Best Buys $63 w tax price...

I dare you to name virtually any single item and it can usually, about 99% of the time, be found online for significantly cheaper than Best Buy.

[War Eagle!]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

If you want a response you should file a BBB complaint requesting someone from their corporate office. This is how I always get to the big wigs.

[CMH]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

I've sent Best Buy a couple emails lately about points and certificates (with one being them taking my points and giving me a $5 certificate though I requested that my points only be turned into a certificate at $20).

They responded quickly and even gave me an additional 250 points for the trouble. Plus, because of that, it triggered a $10 gift certificate that they never removed. So, I'm inclined to like Best Buy right now. They just saved me $10 on my next purchase and got me 1/4 closer to getting a $20 gift certificate off a mistake they made.

[ghettogeeksta]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

Best Buy is a rip off. Haven't bought anything in that store since Ebay and Amazon. I haven't been in one since 2009 when they tried to charge me $80 for 2 sticks of 2gigs of SODIMM, which was $20 on Crucial.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

I understand this, but it makes me wonder if perhaps the reason there is low traffic is because there isn't anyone to help customers and the customers pick up on that.

My experience is that you always up the customer service. People will remember good or bad service before they remember anything else about a store.

I've worked at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and I can promise that quality service helped customers forget how much they hated a car or whatever problems they had with a car. Treating them nicely and genuinely understanding their frustration usually guaranteed a return customer.

I don't usually have problems at Best Buy that are any different elsewhere. I find that it takes employees. Some are great; some are not. I don't blame Best Buy. I blame the people working there.

I don't know. You can walk into any Wal-Mart and there are practically 5 registers open and 5 people working the floor yet they're raking in sales at monstrous rates. I know Wal-Mart tends to be the exception simply because they're so big and powerful, but they are looked as a leader for the retail business model as far as expenses go.

Plus, I'm sure a lot more customers are simply going into brick and mortar stores to gather information or see something in person before ordering it for less money on Amazon or similar websites.

Obviously you want a good customer service reputation, but how many retail stores actually have that anymore where its worth advertising or staying loyal to despite higher prices and indirect costs of going into town?

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

Had a good best buy experience today. They price matched some headphones from Amazon without verifying the price and just taking my word for it.

[CMH]

Re: My open letter to 25 Best Buy Executives

I don't know. You can walk into any Wal-Mart and there are practically 5 registers open and 5 people working the floor yet they're raking in sales at monstrous rates. I know Wal-Mart tends to be the exception simply because they're so big and powerful, but they are looked as a leader for the retail business model as far as expenses go.

Plus, I'm sure a lot more customers are simply going into brick and mortar stores to gather information or see something in person before ordering it for less money on Amazon or similar websites.

Obviously you want a good customer service reputation, but how many retail stores actually have that anymore where its worth advertising or staying loyal to despite higher prices and indirect costs of going into town?

I'm a bit confused by the Wal-Mart analogy. Are you saying they have excellent customer service because they have five open registers and five people walking the floor, or the complete opposite?

I still think customer service wins out when in direct competition with someone. Obviously, if Wal-Mart is your only option, it doesn't matter what Best Buy miles away does for your service. For me, if I have a choice between Best Buy and GameStop to buy my games (which is usually my choice), I'm going to the place that helps me the most.

The price of games is a wash no matter where you go, so I'm choosing based on service.

I don't have Wal-Mart's in NYC so I guess the best equivalent is going to a Target. But, I never judge the entire store on one employee. If one employee isn't pushing their weight, I ignore that employee and find a new one. I don't instantly decide that Target's across the country must be terrible because I had a bad experience with one Target employee.

However, I think I'm the minority which is why I think service is important. If one employee gives people good quality service, I think a majority of those people are likely to believe that the entire chain is excellent. The same vice versa if the service is not which is why you get threads like this one.