working at compusa has some nice benefits, but is mostly suck. lest everyone forgot ,
compusa is suck.
i worked there for about a year while i was in college. started off as the upgrade/repair center guy. manned the upgrades counter where people buy memory, hard drives, digital cameras, etc. then went to hardware sales after about 3 months to make a bit more money. you get spiffs (commission) on the warranties you sell. and man, if you knew how to talk the talk, you can get a very nice bonus check.
incidentally, what are your duties and responsibilities as a "hardware guy"?
here's my take on the compusa i experienced. LONG RANT
- great benefits, you get everything at cost! e.g. oh boy, too many to list on here, but my favorites are the ide cables and power splitters they sell for about 9.99 ea. cost is like $0.40 ea.!!
- you know what sort of great sales and deals will happen usually a week to two weeks before the public will know and therefore you can inform your friends ahead of time.
- if there is a super great deal, you can save the item and keep it for yourself. employees at other stores do this too, so no need to stereotype this as a compusa only thing. e.g. - i purchased 100pks of
TDK cdrs for 29.99 back when 50pk spindles cost $50! i made a killing on these selling them to warez friends at school
- vendors from different companies, like Norton, Toshiba, HP, IBM, and Microsoft especially, would give all sorts of free goodies like tshirts, free full version software, etc, to try and sway you to push their products.
- the bad , if you know your computer sh*t, which it seems like you do, you WILL become the point of reference for everyone out on the floor.
- also, you dont get paid as much as you should if you are know your computer stuff. which is why there's never anyone knowledgeabl in compusa very long.
- no consistent scheduling. it changes every week due to the operations budget. your amount of hours fluctuate weekly. but then again, most retail establishments are like this.
- all the managers are idiots. i really think this is why most crews at compusa are so lame. it starts from the top down.
- you get alot of pc-ignorant folks asking alot of the same newbie questions. whats the megahertz mean? whats ram? whats hard drive?
- you dont get any sort of appreciation for all the hardwork you put in.
- you get slaved to the bone every day, 15 min breaks is a luxury which they do not always let you take.
- you are on your feet 8 hrs the entire day
- you have to deal with the public every day. it WILL grind you down eventually, no matter how customer service oriented you are.
you do however, get ALOT of connections while working there. i got a much better job from this hot blonde whom i sold a sony laptop to. too bad she was married tho, but we did have some fun flirting!
never hurts to flirt i say! it got me a new job!
at any rate, on a final note, i just wanted to touch up on the hardware sales spiff i talked about earlier. not to brag or seem conceited by any means, but just to give a rough idea of how much the nice bonus check is, i averaged about twice as much as my normal salary on my bonus checks alone. on bad months, i'd usually get at least the same amount as my normal salary, if not, then just a bit under it.
(keep in mind we get paid minimally tho :frown: it was just enough to get by)
the reason why i bring this up kitros, is that i sense this is a real hotspot for you as you mentioned in your post about the pretty, but dumb girl who was in hardware sales. compusa does not pay anyone jack sh*t, so if you want to maximize your earning potential there, you want to be in hardware sales, bud. ask your manager to give you a 1 month or a 2wk trial period and if you dont perform up to standard, then tell him you'll go back to your old position.
let me know how your stay at compusa goes, kitros. feel free to PM or email me if you have any questions!
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