Best Buy Representation of Microsoft Horrible?

[theefman]

yeah its the same at my best buy as well, apple looks like the saviors of computers and windows 8 looks like castle greyskull.

Well put!

 

[WinFan1]

Well put!

why thank you.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

As somebody that works in retail sales regarding computers, I Love my company, they are great, fair, and treat their employees very well. I didn't really want to say where I worked for the longest time but I will give you a hint its M**** *****R. If you shop there, you probably know what it is, and probably really like them cause they are awesome. Truth be told, I don't think that Best Buy will be around much longer so its not much to worry about.

For example, the new policy of them matching any online price regardless of where its from as an idiotic business move. What good does it do for your company if you lose a lot of money on a product hoping that people will come back? I mean we price match other retailers because their prices, even if we lose some money, won't be much, but when customers come in and they look on like amazon and they sell a computer for 100$ less, I don't understand how people expect us to match that. It does us no good to lose money selling a product, thats how you go out of business. Online companies don't have to hire salespeople or afford retail space, realistically, a retail store can very competitive with online, but usually can't beat them in price. In any case, Bestbuy, by doing this will lose money because people want the lowest price, but they can only hope that somebody will come back and have loyalty, and not do it again which I feel is unrealistic. At my store we will usually price match online, unless we lose money by doing so, and then we just can't do it.

Thats one issue with best buy, also the problem is their sales staff. As someone that used to work there, I'm not a fan of them because they don't pay very good wages, unlike my store which is fantastic, but also they don't hire the right people. Usually their sales staff are untrained and are just there to clerk out boxes instead of giving sound technical advice. Our company is in business because we give good advice and build rapport with customers so they trust us and come back to us because they know we will sell them the right products and services, which is what I feel bestbuy doesn't usually do very well. I'm not saying that there aren't knowledgeable people there, just on the whole, I don't think the company is in general.

In any case, it wouldn't surprise me if they misrepresent microsoft because as people said, microsoft might not be putting up good displays, although I went to a staples the other day and their surface display seemed perfectly fine to me. Remember, its cool to hate on windows 8, I get people coming in all the time that say its bad. They don't know why its bad, they haven't ever used it, they just know its bad. The truth is, most people don't like change. I've noticed a lot of its generational that people 40 and under seem to have no issue with it and people 60 and over seem to have problems with it.

So while bestbuy might be misrepresenting them, I wouldn't worry, bestbuy has many other issues to worry about business wise to stay in business, like expanding too quickly for example.

 

[Laura Knotek]

As somebody that works in retail sales regarding computers, I Love my company, they are great, fair, and treat their employees very well. I didn't really want to say where I worked for the longest time but I will give you a hint its M**** *****R. If you shop there, you probably know what it is, and probably really like them cause they are awesome. Truth be told, I don't think that Best Buy will be around much longer so its not much to worry about.

For example, the new policy of them matching any online price regardless of where its from as an idiotic business move. What good does it do for your company if you lose a lot of money on a product hoping that people will come back? I mean we price match other retailers because their prices, even if we lose some money, won't be much, but when customers come in and they look on like amazon and they sell a computer for 100$ less, I don't understand how people expect us to match that. It does us no good to lose money selling a product, thats how you go out of business. Online companies don't have to hire salespeople or afford retail space, realistically, a retail store can very competitive with online, but usually can't beat them in price. In any case, Bestbuy, by doing this will lose money because people want the lowest price, but they can only hope that somebody will come back and have loyalty, and not do it again which I feel is unrealistic. At my store we will usually price match online, unless we lose money by doing so, and then we just can't do it.

Thats one issue with best buy, also the problem is their sales staff. As someone that used to work there, I'm not a fan of them because they don't pay very good wages, unlike my store which is fantastic, but also they don't hire the right people. Usually their sales staff are untrained and are just there to clerk out boxes instead of giving sound technical advice. Our company is in business because we give good advice and build rapport with customers so they trust us and come back to us because they know we will sell them the right products and services, which is what I feel bestbuy doesn't usually do very well. I'm not saying that there aren't knowledgeable people there, just on the whole, I don't think the company is in general.

In any case, it wouldn't surprise me if they misrepresent microsoft because as people said, microsoft might not be putting up good displays, although I went to a staples the other day and their surface display seemed perfectly fine to me. Remember, its cool to hate on windows 8, I get people coming in all the time that say its bad. They don't know why its bad, they haven't ever used it, they just know its bad. The truth is, most people don't like change. I've noticed a lot of its generational that people 40 and under seem to have no issue with it and people 60 and over seem to have problems with it.

So while bestbuy might be misrepresenting them, I wouldn't worry, bestbuy has many other issues to worry about business wise to stay in business, like expanding too quickly for example.

I agree with you. BTW, I bought 2 PCs from the store where you work. I've never spent more than $30 on anything from Best Buy.

 

[Cadet Christmas]

As somebody that works in retail sales regarding computers, I Love my company, they are great, fair, and treat their employees very well. I didn't really want to say where I worked for the longest time but I will give you a hint its M**** *****R. If you shop there, you probably know what it is, and probably really like them cause they are awesome. Truth be told, I don't think that Best Buy will be around much longer so its not much to worry about.
For example, the new policy of them matching any online price regardless of where its from as an idiotic business move. What good does it do for your company if you lose a lot of money on a product hoping that people will come back? I mean we price match other retailers because their prices, even if we lose some money, won't be much, but when customers come in and they look on like amazon and they sell a computer for 100$ less, I dont understand how people expect us to match that.

Ahhh, you worked for THOSE guys hunh? As a former best buy sales dude, we hear a lot about you

In best buys defense though, they always get painted in a negative light. If the prices don't match amazon or WalMart or wherever, you get called an Amazon showroom. If you decide to start aggressively price matching, people call you desperate.

Honestly. From an insiders perspective, there's a lot to love about the store, and a lot to NOT love. It all comes down to the salespeople really. There will be great ones, and there will be the lazy ones. I personally made the effort to learn as much as I could about windows 8 and demoed it all the time. At other best buys, I would see the exact opposite.

One things for sure, the employees could definitely be treated better. The training is amazing, but you're always understaffed. So easy to get burnt out

 

[IamDefiler]

Went to my local BB two days ago. Ever since they started matching prices I find myself in there more often. So, I was walking around and wound up in the mobile dept. I walked over to the ATT section to look at the Lumia 920. The image below is what I saw. I was perplexed as it didn't look right. It was a dummy 900 in place of the 920.

So, then a rep walks over and asks if I needed any help. I asked why there wasn't an actual 920 for the display. The rep said, "We're actually out of the 920 and are expecting a shipment next week." I said, "OK. Why is this phone in it's place? Do you have an actual demo of the 920?" The rep said, "No, we don't have a demo. So, we put A LUMIA 810 IN IT'S PLACE FOR NOW."

This is the type of representation MS gets at BB. I've seen these types of errors time and time again.

 

[Flagz]

Went to my local BB two days ago. Ever since they started matching prices I find myself in there more often. So, I was walking around and wound up in the mobile dept. I walked over to the ATT section to look at the Lumia 920. The image below is what I saw. I was perplexed as it didn't look right. It was a dummy 900 in place of the 920.

So, then a rep walks over and asks if I needed any help. I asked why there wasn't an actual 920 for the display. The rep said, "We're actually out of the 920 and are expecting a shipment next week." I said, "OK. Why is this phone in it's place? Do you have an actual demo of the 920?" The rep said, "No, we don't have a demo. So, we put A LUMIA 810 IN IT'S PLACE FOR NOW."

This is the type of representation MS gets at BB. I've seen these types of errors time and time again.

at least they had a WP selection to see. My BB had an empty 820, 8X, and 920 sport with just the lock mechanisms there lol. And I didn't know 810 (tmobile) was in BB, I thought they didn't carry T-Mobile phones?

 

[MervinLP]

I recently stopped working at Best Buy. This has happened within the last week. Without giving away any company policy information, what i can tell everyone is that certain tech companies pay Best Buy for retail space within their store. Apple has a large area, and Best Buy is now setting up Samsung specific areas that Samsung themselves have paid for and supply their own employees. Microsoft does not do this. As much as I prefer Microsoft and WP8 in general to the competition, retail stores must follow the money trail in the retail environment that exists today.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

Yes, as someone that works at a competitor I can 100% verify this that other companies do pay for retail space and we give space to whomever pays for it. For example, we have a separate sony and dell sections in our laptop department (not really separate as much as grouped together), but still, its because they pay us extra money to do so to show off their products. If MS isn't giving bb money then it is their fault because bb will give space to whomever pays them, same as us too. I think thats one problem with MS is they have quite a retail presence in terms of software, accessories, and of course hardware through their OEM partners, but when it comes to first party hardware, aka surface, I ahve only seen i decent display and that was at staples. We are about to get the surface soon at my store, but it jsut goes to show you how new they are to retail, I mean dell, hp, apple, pretty much every OEM gives us their products to sell immediately when they come out, its taking us more than 3 months just to get the surface and the new on is probably going to come out in june/july/august. MS needs to step up their game. Unfortunately this had always been the weak point of MS is their marketing which I have never thought was very great, the surface ads would be the first ads that I would say were good, but not great as they didn't really tell what the product did as much as just a cool thing that is does with the keyboard and a bunch of people dancing around.

 

[Ed Boland]

I went into a Best Buy a while back to see and play with a Surface Pro when they first got them. I was disheartened to find the small Microsoft display amidst all the Apple displays, with a Suface Pro laying on the table, SCREEN DOWN with the kickstand up on the air, tangled around the security cables in a big messy pile. They didn't even have a Touch or Type Cover on the table, but a 3rd party ACER Bluetooth keyboard sitting there, abit not set up and working.

I actually took it upon myself to clean up the table after playing with the Surface Pro a little. It's an impressive device, though I can't get over the lack of on board storage and the location of the SD slot versus the RT's placement behind the kickstand.

 

[blackhorse6]

Best Buy sucks all the way around, that is all.