By way of context, I want to start off with #1 Why I’ve never been big on Best Buy and #2 the background of this experience.. before moving on to the actual bad experience.
Why I’ve never been big on Best Buy
I think it’s safe to say that I am a “technology guy.” Hell, an internet celebrity friend-ish person I know has often accused me of being a “technologist” which.. in this tech-e geek-e internet world is really saying something.
I’m also the guy who researches before he buys and generally finds that he knows more about the products then whatever customer service person he’s encountering…
And I guess that’s the deal.. I go to Best Buy and you can just feel it.. they’re used to dealing with low information consumers.. the sort who don’t know the difference between RAM memory and Hard Disk Memory… the sort who is easily taken advantage of.. isn’t very savy, etc.
I have something of a history of feeling insulted by the customer service people at Best Buy.. maybe I’m easily insulted that way, I don’t know.. but I feel like there’s always that assumption that you don’t know RAM from Hard drives..
After that, they often aren’t in a position to actually help me.. and perhaps because they are out to meet the needs of a broader consumer base then I represent.. I never feel too terribly well served by them.. and.. I often feel that for my specific needs.. what they’ll have in stock would be a choice that costs more then I need spend..
Never mind that it can often be quite difficult to get a sales person when you want one, and they’ll bug you when you don’t.
And on and on it goes.
The Context of This Visit
At the moment I’m church mouse poor.. trying to live off $60 a week, if you can imagine that.. and the computer I normally rely on recently died.. I also have a laptop but it’s not really up to the task of the desktop.. the good news is I have some material means to address the problem… including making my laptop more able to play the roll the desktop once played
Now, as it stands.. my job is to redesign this website, and right now this project involves creating content in the form of digital graphics, maybe paintings, and perhaps photographs.. stuff that takes up a not unsubstantial amount of space..
The trouble is.. that I have less then 1GB worth of disk space on this lap top.. and I have lots of graphics on the old computer I need to move over to the laptop if I’m going to be able to move forward on this project.. also, its worth saying.. having less then 1GB of space on your hard drive will considerably slow down your computer’s performance because your computer uses that disk space for virtual memory.. for the operating system.
So.. basically I can’t really move forward too much till I do something about the my disk space issue…..
Well as it turns out I have a 500 GB “Rugged” drive.. the problem with this drive is it won’t take power from my computer’s USB, so I gotta plug it in if I’m going to use it… so the other day I was like “screw it, I can afford to replace the chord” and so I went off to the local radio shack to see what they had.
Well they didn’t have the right power supply… and if they did, it probably would have cost about $25 or so.
I then I got to thinking.. that I might be able to get a new Rugged drive.. for not too much more then $100.. and thus get a new power supply in the process, and if so.. the idea that 1/4 of that price would go to the power supply just seemed crazy…
Thus Began the Hard Drive Hunt
I went to all the local stores that might sell said hard drive: Best Buy, Target, Walmart, even the Apple Store…
Best buy had it for $160.. and… I was just having a really hard time rationalizing the investment.. particularly when you can buy a none rugged drive.. with like 1TB of space.. for $100.. so clearly at $160.. it just ain’t worth it for me..
(I should maybe mentioned that the different between the LaCie Rugged drives and other drives are.. that they’re supposed to be rugged.. so there a good choice to take out with you and your laptop… )
Finally I went and got myself some free wifi to go check the computer store I actually do like shopping at… Micro Center… and what do you know, they have what looks like the same drive for $110.
Well.. its like 4PM at this point.. not the ideal time to go drive into Boston [creeping up on rush hour] plus, considering the gas money involved.. I’d much rather wait till an un rainy day so I could also spend the day walking around Boston and getting some exercise and what not.
And then I thought “wait, what if Best Buy does Price Match?”
My Best Buy Shopping Experience
So I ran in and talked to a sales guy “you price match?” “Yeah, everything but Amazon, cause they can name there price.” “Microcenter?” “Yeah, we’ll price match Microcenter.”
And he tells me to go over to the computer section.
So I do.. takes some doing but I find a sales guy “Yeah, we price match, but you gotta go over there to customer service.”
Ok, I’m a tiny bit annoyed cause they are sending be around the store when I don’t need to.. and now I gotta go wait in a customer service line… but I’m excited about the prospects of getting a new drive.
In the line I get a new story “yeah, we price match as long as its within” I can’t remember the number of miles here “a Best Buy” which is pretty much everywhere…
So consistency is clearly not Best Buy’s strong suite here.
So eventually the women looks up Microcenter and the drive I had found didn’t come up… and there was some back and fourth on that.. so eventually it seemed I had to run back to my car to find my laptop to prove my point…
When I got to the laptop I discovered that the page wasn’t still up.. so I had to run off to some place that had open wifi…
Mind you.. I really didn’t want to waist this kind of time…
Anyway.. so my search showed the hard drive selling for $107 at Microcenter.. I did another search.. just through Google.. and what do you know.. it was selling at fucking Best Buy for $104.
And I can tell you the average price was around $110.
So back to Best Buy I go… bring my laptop.
I don’t know if they had wifi or not.. but I show them the Microcenter thing.. and its discovered that this isn’t specifically the Boston Microcenter.. its just in there system.. where this price is to be had…
Now if it can be price matched to any place that has a physical location within X miles of a Best Buy, it need not be at that specific Microcenter to price match, right? So as a customer.. if I say had a smart phone, do you not think I would then be checking every other Microcenter across the country, or finding out at what Microcenter it was at?
So.. yeah.. I’m sorta annoyed..
Next I show her the freaking Best Buy price.
No, we can’t price match our selves? I’m thinking “WTF?”
I mean.. if the story is you can price match a anything as long as it’s within X miles of a Best Buy.. you would think Best Buy ought to qualify right?
After this she has me going back and forth between micro center and them on my not connected to the internet laptop… and then finally.. after much hassle.. and me getting pretty upset over this BS.. cause you know.. to me it’s like “do you or do you not price match?”
Someone says no you can price match us.
So after having to go through alllllll of this crap.. they’re like “oh, no, its a different sku.”
It was like they were trying to make sure I couldn’t get it at the price matched price.. that that was what was really important to them… not me the customer.. where as from my point of view.. I was generously giving them a chance to have the sale.. and now I was already working too hard for them.. and they weren’t treating me well
“Would you like to buy it anyway” she said.. OMG I was going to bight her head off. “NO! I say in a somewhat kurt way.”
I mean.. fucking A.. they have a computer.. if they had so much done a google price they would see the going price was about $50 less then what they were selling it for.. this on something that only cost $160.. at there unrealistic price. And secondly.. the two hard drives were fucking identical.. so where’s your value proposition for why I should spend an extra $50 on your drive.. and further more, why the hell would I buy it from you at this this price after we’ve established that what I want can be had else where for less WAY LESS MONEY?”
Not to mention, I found found those prices in like 2 minutes of time. .I could leave the store, do it again.. if not for the hassle.. and fine a qualifying store, I’m pretty freaking sure.. so why couldn’t you do that for so as to help me avoid the hassle?
I mean that would be customer centric.. that would be giving me a good brand experience.. that would be making me want to buy stuff from your store more often.
Now, I can tell you.. even though I know I could probably find a cable for my drive for $25, and buy a 1TB drive at Best Buy for $100.. I’m not going to do it… and I will continue to advocate.. to anyone who will listen “don’t buy shit at Best Buy.” And.. in the future, as has been the case for as long as I can remember, Best Buy will be the last place I will turn!!!
So you tell me how this is good business practice for Best Buy?
I have to say, as well, that this makes there price matching seem rather miss leading.. The idea of price matching is to suggest you’re safe, you won’t find it cheaper then here.. and who, as a customer, gives a fuck if there competition is a store with a real physical location or not.. unless that physical location can give you some kind of added value… which Best Buy doesn’t really do for me.
So, lets recap
#1 You have a customer service person who put on this attitude where it seemed like every step of the way she was trying to keep me from getting what I wanted price matched.. including to the extent to which she was getting the rules wrong.
#2 Every sales person I spoke to had a different explanation on how the price matching worked..
#3 I waited way too much of my day screwing around with them.. and number
#4.. I believe good customer service is when you try to actually help the customer… and there really wasn’t any of this going on.. There was nothing about this customer service person who made me feel like she had the least interest in helping me or giving me a good shopping experience.
So you know, you can tell Rain Man Best Buy SUCK!!!
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An update: It’s now two days latter, I’ve just gotten back from a quick trip to Boston (and Microcenter) as a part of the “get the Mac Pro running again” project.. and I just want to say this: The drive was indeed at Microcenter center for $109…. Though I was glad I didn’t spend the money because.. as having the Mac Pro running again will change my priorities