F*CK you Best Buy
- Thread starter Seth53
- Start date
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
But think of how much better your TV looks if it is hooked up with GOLD PLATED HDMI cables that cost $99 for 3 feet.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
That is precisely why my son is named Lewis. Investment banker, high end trusts and estates lawyer: "Hi, my name is Lewis..." Say he doesn't want to do that crap, works HVAC, plumbing, brakes, transmissions. "Hey Lew, throw me that 3/16th socket." It is the most versatile name out there because it can transcend class and the white collar/blue collar dichotomy and it should be a timeless first name.
Seth53
Well-Known Member
Truer words have never been spoken.
I will be slowing down later this year.
Retail pharmacy is the dregs for sure.
Glad I do long-term care!
SmokeTownHawk
Well-Known Member
For anyone giving you grief on this thread should try to work in healthcare for just a day. Irritate in any way the wrong patient/customer/client/whatever the powers that be call them these days and you'll have an MBA/MSN down your throat so fast it would make your head spin. And it doesn't relent until everyone, especially the patient is happy. And be prepared for a bad customer service review. Enough of those and it's goodbye job. HCAHPS , CAHPS, Press Ganey are part of daily life in the health world.
Seth53
Well-Known Member
Been doing direct patient care for 40 years.
So, yeah, when I see bogus customer service, I call it out.
Good post.
SmokeTownHawk
Well-Known Member
Thanks. Yeah, I've been on the front lines for about that length of time as well. When customer service is beat into your head with a lead pipe in healthcare, no matter what the setting, it stands to reason we should expect the same courtesy and level of service from others in the outside world.
Seth53
Well-Known Member
As others have mentioned, there is a huge disparity in this current younger generation regarding perceptions on what customer service means.
I always put myself in the shoes of the person across from me. Always. And, yes, I expect the same courtesy when the circumstances dictate. And yes, when I see disinterest, I call it out.
Call me old. I call me old-fashioned.
Fryowa
Administrator
Respectfully, no one has forced you into that line of work. People complaining about parts of their profession or job is lost on me. It makes no sense.
I’ve forgone a lot of pay in my life to have a job that I like, work with people I like a lot, and for a boss I like to work for a lot. I have a ridiculous amount of paid time off relative to almost everywhere else I could work. There are jobs in my area that I could go work tomorrow if I wanted for 20, 30, even 40% more but it’d be a whole lot more stress, hours, and disdain. Like the job I left 19 years ago for this one. If customer service or relations etc is a thorn in your ass where you work, it’s on you if you stay working there. It’s not on other people to empathize.
SmokeTownHawk
Well-Known Member
It's not a thorn in my ass, just a reality of everyday life in healthcare. You learn to live within the system and have a good life away from the workplace. I like my job a lot. It fits my style and personality.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
Exactly. I've done this multiple times over the past 15-20 yrs and literally may go into a BB 1-2 times a year. If your and my experience are similar, I think it is safe to presume most others do the same. The last time I was in there I picked up an open box TV to hang in my garage last fall. I looked on Facebook Marketplace and there were some TV's that were a few years older and I was able to snag one at BB for a similar price with no aging. Again, just wanted something cheap but decent for my garage as it's gunna get dusty.
But, I ain't going to deck my home/media room with anything from there. I don't know how they still stay in business. Only two ways places like this stay in business. 1) Fairly decent products at kick azz prices. 2) Selling their customer service or providing great customer service which they obviously don't do. Geek Squad has been a running joke for years, since its inception. Been a joke since they wanted to sell you their TV and "calibrate" it for $300. BB doesn't do either of them.
The only people who keep that place in business are the wanna be tech heads who think that place is the Taj Mahal who are not rich enough to afford a legit private audio/video company but want to say they have a stereo system in their home.
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MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
No chit. That was another scam they ran with. The Monster cables.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
They stay in business because they are basically a phone reseller. I would bet their only business lines with decent margins right now are selling warranties and selling phones.
I have to give them credit, though. I thought for sure they would go out of business as soon as the CD business got destroyed by Napster. In the late '90's they sold an incomprehensible volume of music and movies and made great margins on those business lines.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
The last time I went to Best Buy was summer 2007. I bought a TV. Flat screen thing. Needed HDMI cables. The TV has died, but I still have that fvcking $100 cable because they didn't have any other HDMI cables in stock and I wasn't gonna go all over Chicago looking for a freaking cable. They knew what they were doing. Haven't been back bince that day. Helluva way to build goodwill and Seth is a testament to that!
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
Yea, I explicitly remember they never had any inexpensive cable options. Hell, Walmart cables even ended being fine. I can't stand companies that exploit people like that and feed off them. Turns me away right away.
Seth53
Well-Known Member
Best Buy: A Big Winner, Having Survived Major Dynamic Shifts (NYSE:BBY)
Best Buy is a leading American tech retailer, catering to consumers & end-users seeking a wide-ranging electronic & digital devices. See more on BBY stock here.
seekingalpha.com
Interesting story on BB.
For those of you with select memories, remember BB's major competitor, and an industry leader for a long time...Circuit City?
A classic story of a big box store getting greedy, cutting staff/customer service and ultimately folding in 2009.
People who wanted to buy a high-end electronic with discretionary income expected some level of quasi-professional customer service. CC offered that in spades.
Instead of adhering to their successful business model, CC self-gutted themselves by hiring (ahem) younger, less costly staff (i.e. part time, didn't give a crap attitude ) and reducing the sales commission structure. Being too successful as a salesperson meant you might get your hours cut, commissions cut or simply let go because you were too expensive...see the quote below from the article I've referenced.
"In 2003, Circuit City finally decided to eliminate its commissioned sales force. In one day, the company fired 3,900 of its highest-paid salespeople, with plans to replace them with 2,100 hourly associates. The move crushed employee morale and productivity. “Anyone who was working in the store thought, gee, if I’m too successful they’re going to fire me, because I’ll be making too much money,” Wulf says. “So there was no incentive anymore to take good care of the customer.”
And it showed. People flocked to BB where, at the time, you could have a staff person actually wait on you and talk about what you needed/wanted. Again, it was a big ticket purchase back then and people wanted some sort of personal touch before handing over big buxx.
Yes, there were other mismanagement issues such as stock buy backs, eliminating appliances, etc but the major issue was the rapid decline of customer service through professional staff reductions.
RIP CC. Take heed BB.
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okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Best Buy: A Big Winner, Having Survived Major Dynamic Shifts (NYSE:BBY)
Best Buy is a leading American tech retailer, catering to consumers & end-users seeking a wide-ranging electronic & digital devices. See more on BBY stock here.
Interesting story on BB.
For those of you with select memories, remember BB's major competitor, and an industry leader for a long time...Circuit City?
A classic story of a big box store getting greedy, cutting staff/customer service and ultimately folding in 2009.
People who wanted to buy a high-end electronic with discretionary income expected some level of quasi-professional customer service. CC offered that in spades.
Instead of adhering to their successful business model, CC self-gutted themselves by hiring (ahem) younger, less costly staff (i.e. part time, didn't give a crap attitude ) and reducing the sales commission structure. Being too successful as a salesperson meant you might get your hours cut, commissions cut or simply let go because you were too expensive...see the quote below from the article I've referenced.
"In 2003, Circuit City finally decided to eliminate its commissioned sales force. In one day, the company fired 3,900 of its highest-paid salespeople, with plans to replace them with 2,100 hourly associates. The move crushed employee morale and productivity. “Anyone who was working in the store thought, gee, if I’m too successful they’re going to fire me, because I’ll be making too much money,” Wulf says. “So there was no incentive anymore to take good care of the customer.”
And it showed. People flocked to BB where, at the time, you could have a staff person actually wait on you and talk about what you needed/wanted. Again, it was a big ticket purchase back then and people wanted some sort of personal touch before handing over big buxx.
Yes, there were other mismanagement issues such as stock buy backs, eliminating appliances, etc but the major issue was the rapid decline of customer service through professional staff reductions.
RIP CC. Take heed BB.
You're an old man yelling at the clouds, amigo. The American public voted on it. They don't want washing machines made in Newton, they don't want shirts made in Winston Salem, they don't want shoes made in New Hampshire. They want cheap shit. History is littered with the carcasses of companies that thought they could win market share in what have all become commodified discount markets with stellar service.
Rex, Fry's, Good Guys, The Wiz, Tweeter, Radio Shack. History is chock full of electronics stores who folded. General retail has many other examples like JCPenney, Montgomery Ward and Sears. The customer wants some amorphous notion of "service" but really they just want it cheap and they want it now. You can't operate a retailer with any appreciable scale on a service model because either you'll have to charge a higher price (which customers won't pay) or you'll have to sacrifice margins and then you'll go bankrupt whenever the credit market goes sideways.
You can run a local business on service, but it is totally impossible to scale because someone who owns a portion of the business has got to be there nearly all the time to ensure quality standards are maintained and margins are protected. Outside managers and employees with no vested interest don't care enough to operate that model and once you start paying commissions you have to jack prices. If you're a big national retailer you have to be absolutely ruthless or you will absolutely fail.
Fryowa
Administrator
Best Buy: A Big Winner, Having Survived Major Dynamic Shifts (NYSE:BBY)
Best Buy is a leading American tech retailer, catering to consumers & end-users seeking a wide-ranging electronic & digital devices. See more on BBY stock here.
Interesting story on BB.
For those of you with select memories, remember BB's major competitor, and an industry leader for a long time...Circuit City?
A classic story of a big box store getting greedy, cutting staff/customer service and ultimately folding in 2009.
People who wanted to buy a high-end electronic with discretionary income expected some level of quasi-professional customer service. CC offered that in spades.
Instead of adhering to their successful business model, CC self-gutted themselves by hiring (ahem) younger, less costly staff (i.e. part time, didn't give a crap attitude ) and reducing the sales commission structure. Being too successful as a salesperson meant you might get your hours cut, commissions cut or simply let go because you were too expensive...see the quote below from the article I've referenced.
"In 2003, Circuit City finally decided to eliminate its commissioned sales force. In one day, the company fired 3,900 of its highest-paid salespeople, with plans to replace them with 2,100 hourly associates. The move crushed employee morale and productivity. “Anyone who was working in the store thought, gee, if I’m too successful they’re going to fire me, because I’ll be making too much money,” Wulf says. “So there was no incentive anymore to take good care of the customer.”
And it showed. People flocked to BB where, at the time, you could have a staff person actually wait on you and talk about what you needed/wanted. Again, it was a big ticket purchase back then and people wanted some sort of personal touch before handing over big buxx.
Yes, there were other mismanagement issues such as stock buy backs, eliminating appliances, etc but the major issue was the rapid decline of customer service through professional staff reductions.
RIP CC. Take heed BB.
The world has moved on. People don’t need installs of TVs anymore. Used to be you needed some knowledge of how everything connects but not anymore. You don’t have RCA, RBG, S-Video, composite video, and on and on. You literally plug stuff into the wall and connect everything with HDMI cables and everything just works and talks to each other. There’s no need for anyone under the age of 60.Best Buy: A Big Winner, Having Survived Major Dynamic Shifts (NYSE:BBY)
Best Buy is a leading American tech retailer, catering to consumers & end-users seeking a wide-ranging electronic & digital devices. See more on BBY stock here.
Interesting story on BB.
For those of you with select memories, remember BB's major competitor, and an industry leader for a long time...Circuit City?
A classic story of a big box store getting greedy, cutting staff/customer service and ultimately folding in 2009.
People who wanted to buy a high-end electronic with discretionary income expected some level of quasi-professional customer service. CC offered that in spades.
Instead of adhering to their successful business model, CC self-gutted themselves by hiring (ahem) younger, less costly staff (i.e. part time, didn't give a crap attitude ) and reducing the sales commission structure. Being too successful as a salesperson meant you might get your hours cut, commissions cut or simply let go because you were too expensive...see the quote below from the article I've referenced.
"In 2003, Circuit City finally decided to eliminate its commissioned sales force. In one day, the company fired 3,900 of its highest-paid salespeople, with plans to replace them with 2,100 hourly associates. The move crushed employee morale and productivity. “Anyone who was working in the store thought, gee, if I’m too successful they’re going to fire me, because I’ll be making too much money,” Wulf says. “So there was no incentive anymore to take good care of the customer.”
And it showed. People flocked to BB where, at the time, you could have a staff person actually wait on you and talk about what you needed/wanted. Again, it was a big ticket purchase back then and people wanted some sort of personal touch before handing over big buxx.
Yes, there were other mismanagement issues such as stock buy backs, eliminating appliances, etc but the major issue was the rapid decline of customer service through professional staff reductions.
RIP CC. Take heed BB.
No one needs car stereos installed because then you have to tear out in-dash touchscreens that you can’t tear out. If you’re putting in speakers there are 350 YouTube videos showing you every step. There’s no such thing as CDs or DVDs anymore.
No one needs computers setup at their house anymore either. They’re all solid state, plug it in, enter your wifi password, and go to town. If you get stuck, again—there’s hundreds of YouTube videos.
The “TotalTech” BS is a nonsense ripoff. They charge you $200 a year to come set a tv on your mantle and plug it into the wall. Same thing with audio. It’s all just plug and play. They want you to think they’re doing something complicated but they’re not. It’s all just plug HDMI here and here and here. It’s a scam to make old people think they’re “protected” and “covered” and feel like they’re getting value. They make you feel like your an “member” of some semi-exclusive club, and maybe even give you a little card that says “TotalTech Member since 2008” because old folks like to carry that kinda shit in their wallet just in case their remote stops working. And hey, if it makes you feel that way and you sleep better at night, what’s the harm in it I guess?
But customer service at the chain level has been obsolete for a long time whether you want it to be or not. And how can you blame them when you can buy the exact same product on Amazon for tons less and have it dropped right on your doorstep?
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
.......................and I'll "calibrate" my own f'ing TV. Have done every TV I ever bought.
Now you can just google "best TV settings" for whatever TV model you are looking for.
