I have come to the conclusion after many hours spent on line at Best Buy that they simply suck. Best Buy probably feels that they have a monopoly on electronics, which they do in many cities, that they can just suck and no one can do a thing about it.
I went to the Best Buy at the Palisades Mall in Rockland County once to get some more Ram added to my laptop, I waited patiently on a line of merely 4 people, it seemed to take hours – although it was only 35 minutes or so – still a long wait for 4 people, its not like they were at a check out line with a cashier in training who didn’t know the correct price codes for loose garlic. This was the Geek Squad we are talking about, shouldn’t an entity who calls themselves the Geek Squad be more inclined to help people out? Geeks are quick aren’t they?
I watched in horror as person after person in line took longer then needed, complaints about their Ipods malfunctioning and simple questions about their protection policies took way longer then needed. Then the guy in front of me who was simply there to pick his computer up – why he needed to wait behind people with real issues is beyond me – got into a shouting match when the person behind the counter told him his computer wasn’t ready yet. I could feel his pain as he screamed “give me a break” and “I just got a call from you guys this afternoon” to the graceful responses of “I am sorry sir – how about a free 6 month contract with AOL” It was disheartening to say the least and I wondered if my simple installation of ram would take 6 weeks as well.
I wanted to tell the man that the protection policy of Best Buy was just another way to get you into the store to buy more things you didn’t need, seriously, imagine you are waiting on line – natural tendency will carry you over to the DVD section and suddenly you have more items you never intended to buy, luckily I am poor and cant really afford much in Best Buy.
Have you ever tried to get help with a question from one of the blue shirt floor people at Best Buy?
Its an absolute nightmare, they walk around with their ear pieces pretending to be in some sort of minimum wage secret service. “Hey excuse me” will get responses like one hand gripping the earpiece in their ear and the other hand waving you off as if something more important then you figuring out if the headset you are holding works with Cingular cell phones. It’s a horrible experience.
One time I went to Best Buy to get a new car radio installed, they broke my dashboard while doing it and claimed that I broke it, I went to Circuit City the next time I needed a car radio and they did a wonderful job. I always feel like the underdogs have to provide better service in order to compete with the monopolistic bastards who run the show.