Finally, I have a decent "dumb retail customer" story!

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yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
432
126
Originally posted by: feralkid
Originally posted by: yllus
Originally posted by: simms
which BB do you work at!? :D I'm close to the Heartland one or the Winston Churchhill/Dundas one, so if you're there.. ;)
I'm at the Oakville store southwest of that location.






Don't let mgmt. know what you are implying...ultra strict about that. Even suspicion is grounds for termination.
Yeah, I'll edit. :)
 

anno

Golden Member
May 1, 2003
1,907
0
0
that was a pretty stupid question. but I can understand her walking in to best buy with an attitude. best buy isn't very woman-friendly.

when I was shopping for my first color printer.. lets see.. my daughter had just started 4th grade, and she's 19 now.. so this was '93 in the fall.. best buy still had 30 days no questions return for electronic stuff. I went in to buy printer, and I had several in mind I was considering (that were in my price range.. at the time, 450.00 (us) was my upper limit and that was going to get me a fairly low-end printer). so.. I wanted to compare the output of the three I was considering in person, to decide which would best suit me. the sales people were either unable or unwilling to show me what I needed to see (the same output from all 3). when I asked how I was supposed to make an intelligent decision without such, they suggested I send my husband in to make the purchase.

heh. that was a bad idea on their part. I said well.. if you can't show me the same output on all 3, I'll just take 'em home and do it myself.. I'll take this one and this one and this one. came home, played with 'em all for 3 weeks, picked the one I liked best and took the other 2 back.

couple three or 4 years later we lost a modem so I went to buy a new one, and I asked a simple question while I was making my decision and the sales guy again suggests I send my husband in to pick.. that time I got a manager over and told him why I was going to circuit city to buy my modem and swore I'd never set foot in best buy again. idle threat.. I live in south carolina.. we don't have all that many choices and I really don't like circuit city even more than I don't like best buy.

I don't ask them questions anymore, though.. heh.. that's why I'm here (among other places)! research! but.. if I wasn't here, and I needed to ask a question at best buy.. I probably would be wearing an attitude already before I said excuse me..

anno




 

Spikey289

Senior member
May 20, 2002
291
0
0
Wow thats messed up about askin you to send your husband in. Thats bad. I hate going to electronic stores in general. Every 3 ft... May I help you, can I help you with something?, How can I help you. God leave me alone. I will ask you if I need you! Just sit there and stop wasting oxygen! /rant off. I just hate that crap! :)
 

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
432
126
Originally posted by: anno
that was a pretty stupid question. but I can understand her walking in to best buy with an attitude. best buy isn't very woman-friendly.

when I was shopping for my first color printer.. lets see.. my daughter had just started 4th grade, and she's 19 now.. so this was '93 in the fall.. best buy still had 30 days no questions return for electronic stuff. I went in to buy printer, and I had several in mind I was considering (that were in my price range.. at the time, 450.00 (us) was my upper limit and that was going to get me a fairly low-end printer). so.. I wanted to compare the output of the three I was considering in person, to decide which would best suit me. the sales people were either unable or unwilling to show me what I needed to see (the same output from all 3). when I asked how I was supposed to make an intelligent decision without such, they suggested I send my husband in to make the purchase.

heh. that was a bad idea on their part. I said well.. if you can't show me the same output on all 3, I'll just take 'em home and do it myself.. I'll take this one and this one and this one. came home, played with 'em all for 3 weeks, picked the one I liked best and took the other 2 back.

couple three or 4 years later we lost a modem so I went to buy a new one, and I asked a simple question while I was making my decision and the sales guy again suggests I send my husband in to pick.. that time I got a manager over and told him why I was going to circuit city to buy my modem and swore I'd never set foot in best buy again. idle threat.. I live in south carolina.. we don't have all that many choices and I really don't like circuit city even more than I don't like best buy.

I don't ask them questions anymore, though.. heh.. that's why I'm here (among other places)! research! but.. if I wasn't here, and I needed to ask a question at best buy.. I probably would be wearing an attitude already before I said excuse me..

anno
I love woman customers. :) 19 times out of 20, they're receptive to the information and advice I have to offer and don't presume to know anything and everything about technology. It's usually fun for both of us. I can pretty much assure you that the customer service at our store is top-notch, the best you'll ever find in retail. I'm not exaggerating in the least - we have great, knowledgable people.

That said, I've never understood why people come into the store with no information about what they're buying and expect me to completely fill them in. It's something I'm entirely capable of doing, but why the hell are you trusting a perfect stranger with large purchase decisions?! Get online, read reviews, read user feedback. I only go in to ANY kind of store merely to purchase, not listen to any salesperson talk.
 

Viper GTS

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
38,107
433
136
Originally posted by: anno
that was a pretty stupid question. but I can understand her walking in to best buy with an attitude. best buy isn't very woman-friendly.

when I was shopping for my first color printer.. lets see.. my daughter had just started 4th grade, and she's 19 now.. so this was '93 in the fall.. best buy still had 30 days no questions return for electronic stuff. I went in to buy printer, and I had several in mind I was considering (that were in my price range.. at the time, 450.00 (us) was my upper limit and that was going to get me a fairly low-end printer). so.. I wanted to compare the output of the three I was considering in person, to decide which would best suit me. the sales people were either unable or unwilling to show me what I needed to see (the same output from all 3). when I asked how I was supposed to make an intelligent decision without such, they suggested I send my husband in to make the purchase.

heh. that was a bad idea on their part. I said well.. if you can't show me the same output on all 3, I'll just take 'em home and do it myself.. I'll take this one and this one and this one. came home, played with 'em all for 3 weeks, picked the one I liked best and took the other 2 back.

couple three or 4 years later we lost a modem so I went to buy a new one, and I asked a simple question while I was making my decision and the sales guy again suggests I send my husband in to pick.. that time I got a manager over and told him why I was going to circuit city to buy my modem and swore I'd never set foot in best buy again. idle threat.. I live in south carolina.. we don't have all that many choices and I really don't like circuit city even more than I don't like best buy.

I don't ask them questions anymore, though.. heh.. that's why I'm here (among other places)! research! but.. if I wasn't here, and I needed to ask a question at best buy.. I probably would be wearing an attitude already before I said excuse me..

anno

On the "same output from each", they probably couldn't do it. Most demo printers have an external device with a print job captured into RAM. You press the button, it dumps it to the printer. Some are actually a demo page stored in the firmware of the printer.

Perhaps you would have gotten better responses if you asked them for something they could provide.

Viper GTS
 

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
432
126
Originally posted by: Viper GTS
On the "same output from each", they probably couldn't do it. Most demo printers have an external device with a print job captured into RAM. You press the button, it dumps it to the printer. Some are actually a demo page stored in the firmware of the printer.

Perhaps you would have gotten better responses if you asked them for something they could provide.

Viper GTS
Unfortunately that's also true. It's gotten easier in recent times because some photo printers have memory card slots that we can use with a demo digital camera, but for the majority of printers providing samples means pulling each printer off the display, putting it down beside a demo computer, finding a cable to connect the two, installing the printer driver, installing the camera driver, transferring the demo picture from the camera to the computer...

That's a lot of work for a seemingly simple request. :) Granted we could set up one computer to do this task repeatedly, but we never have the same computer for very long. And the ones we use permanently as BBY workstations are too locked down to be of much use.
 

anno

Golden Member
May 1, 2003
1,907
0
0
That's a lot of work for a seemingly simple request.

I'll give you that. they may not have been able to do that.. I couldn't get them to show me a picture (was not expecting a photo, in '93.. just a graphic) from 2 of them.. but maybe they just couldn't. suggesting my husband would have been able to make a choice with less information than they were willing to give me was going a bit too far, though!

anno (taught him everything he knows)

 

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
432
126
Originally posted by: anno
That's a lot of work for a seemingly simple request.

I'll give you that. they may not have been able to do that.. I couldn't get them to show me a picture (was not expecting a photo, in '93.. just a graphic) from 2 of them.. but maybe they just couldn't. suggesting my husband would have been able to make a choice with less information than they were willing to give me was going a bit too far, though!

anno (taught him everything he knows)
*nods* They went waaaaaaaaay over the line with that. I know how that makes a person feel, I think. I was looking up and writing down specs of speaker systems they had at Radio Shack when I was 13 or 14 when an older salesperson (about 40) came over and quietly asked if I would mind waiting for mommy or daddy outside the store. I still kick myself for walking out of there silently instead of yelling at that fscktard for not treating me simply as a customer.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,393
8,552
126
"no no, thats not how wireless works, see, the point of wireless is getting rid of the wires. so let me sell you $400 of overpriced equipment instead"

commission was fun :D
 

Cyberian

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2000
9,999
1
0
when I asked how I was supposed to make an intelligent decision without such, they suggested I send my husband in to make the purchase.
Some friends of friends of ours are fairly well to do.
The wife got this same line when she went to buy a brand new Mercedes. She walked out, drove quite a ways to the next nearest MB dealer and bought the car (with a check for the total amount, I think). She then drove back to the first MB dealer and showed the salesman her new car.

I smile every time I think about it.
 

eakers

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
12,169
2
0
Originally posted by: yllus
Originally posted by: simms
which BB do you work at!? :D I'm close to the Heartland one or the Winston Churchhill/Dundas one, so if you're there.. ;)
I'm at the Oakville store southwest of that location. :)

oakville?

i will come and visit the next time i am in oakville! (this means next weekend fool!)
 

MistaTastyCakes

Golden Member
Oct 11, 2001
1,607
0
0
sorry, but you think that your story even comes CLOSE to someone asking for WIRELESS cable?? WIRELESS, did you miss that part? WIRELESS CABLE.

any casual person could make the mistake made in ur stories. it takes a TRUE moron to ask for a WIRELESS CABLE.

I wasn't competing :p His story r0xx0red mine's b0xx0rs. I was just trying to start up some sorta thing where we could share crappy retail stori.. errr.. I was hijacking the thread ;) :p