That half true. I work at best buy and the price quote many times is in fact a real price. The part that is not told to you is that it's from Best Buy's partner site partsearch (found at the bottom of the company's website). I have had managers tell me that price for a battery, when in fact that is the most expensive battery on coming from partsearch's already overpriced parts. So in some case (not saying they were or weren't lying to you), the price quoted was infact a true price. Anyone with the knowledge to "google" a battery will also always come up with a much better price for battery.
I currently work at one of these stores (Best Buy). I started out in the computer dept and have been moved to the Geek Squad and am currently working with cameras. I have to comment on what i've seen from my store. First off a little background, i am a pretty geeky person so i do a decent amount of technical info and have a hobby of keeping up on it. So i do not fit the general image of a sales person depicted. When hired, they didn't really want to hire me as much as some other people since i had no sales experience. My technical knowledge was not what they were looking for as much as sales experience. Thanks to a friend's reccommendation i did get hired. Best Buy generally hires salesmen and looks for technical knowledge second. I was shown that when i was hired and also have seen that when other people were hired.
Secondly they move people around the store regardless of their knowledge. I wanted to go to the Geek Squad because i did know my way around the inside of a computer and the software. Again, many of the people hired up there didn't know to much. Some were meant only to run half automated "diagnostic" programs and install software. Only a few of us back there actually could fix a computer.
Due to little hours, i was "forced" to go work in a different dept. I was put in Digital Imaging. This was not one of my more knowledgable area. The only reason i was there was to pay my bills. Thanks to a sparked interest in the area and lots of external research, i do know a lot more than most of the other employees in that area.
Best Buy does not offer adequate training to its employees. The training provided is in the form of a online articles and quizzes. Although these are mandatory, they are easily skipped through. Also the articles for computer and cameras are generally outdated to the current hardware on the shelf. This is the only form of technical knowledge training given.
Another thing to consider is that the majority of people coming in to buy a computer have little or no technical knowledge. When asked a question such as "what is hyperthreading?" Most, including myself, resort to a very simple non-technical answer as to not confuse the customer. This is adequate for 90% of the customers. The other 10% first see you as someone without a large amount of computer knowledge. When i can identify the person with a higher knowledge of computers, i tend to use more technical terms and more indepth explainations. Also i do understand that the majority of people at best buy do not have the knowledge for more technical terms and explainations.
As a college student, this is only a job to pay the bills. Most knowledgable people in my store are the same way. The ones that actually know what they're talking about don't usually stick around that long. Just enough to get through school or land a good internship/co-op. All of these reasons would contribute to why many sales associates don't have much computer know-how.
I bought a sony minidisc. It was great, had a VERY long battery life on 1 AA battery (50 some hours). The reason i ditched it for a mp3 player, i got to lazy to great new discs. It look SO much longer for sonicstage to convert and transfer the songs. A good 20-30 minutes to complete 1 disc.
I think the whole the customer experience you described drastically depends on who happens to be work where ever you go. I'm sure all Mac Stores do not have a Mac Genius that would go that far for every customer.
As for the CompUSA, Microcenter, Bestbuy thing...I work at Best Buy and constantly give customers above and beyond service expected from most sales reps. It's not uncommon for me to actually call up non-Bestbuy stores to get something put on hold for customers that aren't even buying anything from bestbuy. Now i don't want to start a bestbuy rules/bestbuy sucks debate, i am just using myself as an example. Honestly, most of my store would not go as far as i do for customers, expecially if they're not buying anything. I enjoy going the extra mile. As for CompUSA and Microcenter, i'm sure they have some employees that would do the same thing, although in the 50+ times i have been to CompUSA in the past year, i have been contacted once. Microcenter is a very large store with larger variety of products. I don't really need customer service when i go there.
I'm not saying Mac Stores and your Mac Genius are bad. It's a great thing to know an employee like your Mac Genius. I just don't think the average customer gets that kind of attention, just like i can't say the average customer at best buy gets the kind of attention i give the customers at my best buy store.
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That half true. I work at best buy and the price quote many times is in fact a real price. The part that is not told to you is that it's from Best Buy's partner site partsearch (found at the bottom of the company's website). I have had managers tell me that price for a battery, when in fact that is the most expensive battery on coming from partsearch's already overpriced parts. So in some case (not saying they were or weren't lying to you), the price quoted was infact a true price. Anyone with the knowledge to "google" a battery will also always come up with a much better price for battery.
Secondly they move people around the store regardless of their knowledge. I wanted to go to the Geek Squad because i did know my way around the inside of a computer and the software. Again, many of the people hired up there didn't know to much. Some were meant only to run half automated "diagnostic" programs and install software. Only a few of us back there actually could fix a computer.
Due to little hours, i was "forced" to go work in a different dept. I was put in Digital Imaging. This was not one of my more knowledgable area. The only reason i was there was to pay my bills. Thanks to a sparked interest in the area and lots of external research, i do know a lot more than most of the other employees in that area.
Best Buy does not offer adequate training to its employees. The training provided is in the form of a online articles and quizzes. Although these are mandatory, they are easily skipped through. Also the articles for computer and cameras are generally outdated to the current hardware on the shelf. This is the only form of technical knowledge training given.
Another thing to consider is that the majority of people coming in to buy a computer have little or no technical knowledge. When asked a question such as "what is hyperthreading?" Most, including myself, resort to a very simple non-technical answer as to not confuse the customer. This is adequate for 90% of the customers. The other 10% first see you as someone without a large amount of computer knowledge. When i can identify the person with a higher knowledge of computers, i tend to use more technical terms and more indepth explainations. Also i do understand that the majority of people at best buy do not have the knowledge for more technical terms and explainations.
As a college student, this is only a job to pay the bills. Most knowledgable people in my store are the same way. The ones that actually know what they're talking about don't usually stick around that long. Just enough to get through school or land a good internship/co-op. All of these reasons would contribute to why many sales associates don't have much computer know-how.
It's like the opposite of Apple's old "switch" commercials. Switch to windows and you're never going back....(unless you reinstall)
I bought a sony minidisc. It was great, had a VERY long battery life on 1 AA battery (50 some hours). The reason i ditched it for a mp3 player, i got to lazy to great new discs. It look SO much longer for sonicstage to convert and transfer the songs. A good 20-30 minutes to complete 1 disc.
ya, those core duos are BA
I think the whole the customer experience you described drastically depends on who happens to be work where ever you go. I'm sure all Mac Stores do not have a Mac Genius that would go that far for every customer.
As for the CompUSA, Microcenter, Bestbuy thing...I work at Best Buy and constantly give customers above and beyond service expected from most sales reps. It's not uncommon for me to actually call up non-Bestbuy stores to get something put on hold for customers that aren't even buying anything from bestbuy. Now i don't want to start a bestbuy rules/bestbuy sucks debate, i am just using myself as an example. Honestly, most of my store would not go as far as i do for customers, expecially if they're not buying anything. I enjoy going the extra mile. As for CompUSA and Microcenter, i'm sure they have some employees that would do the same thing, although in the 50+ times i have been to CompUSA in the past year, i have been contacted once. Microcenter is a very large store with larger variety of products. I don't really need customer service when i go there.
I'm not saying Mac Stores and your Mac Genius are bad. It's a great thing to know an employee like your Mac Genius. I just don't think the average customer gets that kind of attention, just like i can't say the average customer at best buy gets the kind of attention i give the customers at my best buy store.