Bestbuy taking advantage of special needs

[BuzzKillington]

My girlfriend's brother is mentally disabled and happened to get a virus on his laptop. He took it to geek squad and they quoted him 200 dollars to get rid of the virus.

I guess one way or another it ended up being 350 dollars because they said it needed a new hard drive too...

I told him I'd fix it for free but I was busy so I'd do it asap. He got impatient after 20 minutes and took it to Bestbuy.

^#&@ing disgusting that they're taking advantage of handicapped people. I would have loved to had taken a look at it before it went in so I could have facts to back up an ass ripping although I still plan to go have a chat with them.

NOTE: The laptop was only 300 bucks to begin with and is only 3 or 4 months old.

[Zephik]

Best Buy is only good for browsing. They're **** for everything else, especially their "IT Department".

That is just outrageous though. You can buy a whole new laptop/netbook for how much they charged him! That is an insane amount of money for a virus removal.

I can see $200 pretty easy for a new HDD/OS replacement, depending on the size of the HDD. $100 would buy a pretty nice laptop hard drive and I don't think you can even get windows for under $80.

But in any case, it sure in the **** doesn't need a new hard drive because of a virus. Thats just outrageous and completely lazy as hell.

Good luck with dealing with them! They don't deserve the flies that land on poo for how they take advantage of people like that.

[luciusad2004]

I don't think its so much that they take advantage of people w/ special needs as it is they take advantage of everyone and anyone who doesn't know much about computers. A lot of people who aren't in the know just expect to pay a fortune when getting their computers "fixed" by "professionals." I don't think i would ever take a computer somewhere to be fixed unless i was completely stumped.. But even then i would just back up what i need and reinstall my OS if i absolutely couldn't figure out the problem.

[XcOM]

check the S.M.A.R.T data on the drive, check the installiation date, also check the dates in the log, it will tell you when it was made, first used etc, then go back to them if it isn't a new drive, also ask for the old one back, if they didn't say it was part exchange they have to give it back to you even if it is broken!

Needless to say i will be writting to the head of bestbuy, even if they are in a different country

[NightrainSrt4]

I used to work at BB in computers. Offered a position in GeekSquad but had my surgery then so quit straight up anyway. It's really not the employees falt for a lot of the stuff I hear. They are pressured so much to make dep. budget. Managers taking you into back rooms/corner of dep. to rip you a new one if your not getting attachment rates you should be. I often got the most flack, even though I was pulling in the highest numbers constantly. I know it's not the same in every BB, but I can't see it being much different, as the business is the same everywhere and the dep. needs to sell those things to make it.

I even talked to the HR in our store and they pretty much stated that it was normal and the managers must have had a bad day (almost every day?), and that it was just stress to make budget/numbers.

It sucked and I felt horrible. Being the better seller there meant I had to pick my customers. I felt like a predator or something, but had to to not get ripped a new one. That meant avoiding the foreign people and techies, whose attachments were notoriously low (and let the crappier salesguys get those as they can't land extras anyway), and scout the easier targets and sell them crap I felt they didn't "really" need.

When I asked the store manager about how I felt about selling what wasn't needed I was told, "Everyone needs every thing that there is in that department. Name something someone doesn't need in some way or another. So you sell it all to everyone, no excuses". AVG, ZoneAlarm, Spybot, MalwareBytes, anything like that was off limits to even talk about, which I kind of understand. But force me to sell inferior products and charge them 100+ for it all is ridiculous.

Which is why I hate having worked there. I'd rather have not left media dep. But you get forced to when you get dragged over there by a customer and make a sale with every attachment and home network setup (which this person actually needed), after spending a year stacking cd's/dvd's.

[TheGreatSatan]

^Well said! +Rep

[hinow41]

Ugh I hate bestbuy. A 4gb usb flash drive is $29 the same one on newegg is $7. They screw everyone over. My friend was returning something to them and the ladie infront of us asked how much it would be to get wifi. He said around $200. My friend jumped into the conversation and just schooled the guy. lol The lady stopped talking to the best buy guy and then we showed her what she needed it came to about $40.

[Bopher]

I feel for you Nightrain. I started working for CC during a Christmas hire. I started in the small electronics dept. Got the chance to move to TVs which included Home Audio and Camcorders. Lots of commission sales to get. My thing wasn't TVs though, it was the camcorders. I could sell those things with accessories and service plans like there was no tomorrow but my TV numbers were low. I hated selling those cause it was much harder to sell the extras especially the ones I knew people didn't need. Because I didn't have the TV numbers I was booted back to small electronic and lost out on my one good TV sale. Didn't even get a thank you from the associate who got the final huge ticket.

[NightrainSrt4]

Ya, BB is funny. Treated me pretty poorly when the department didn't make the numbers but when I had to leave for my surgery they were begging me to stay. They actually didn't take me off payroll for almost 2 years. I was in the system, and on schedule, even though I had filed all necessary paperwork before my surgery.

They begged me to keep working after the surgery, lol, not even caring that it was a surgery where something serious could have happened. Oh well, out of that place.

I do miss the discount though. Being able to pick up cables and such for pennies when you need them was nice lol.

[Bopher]

I do miss the discount though. Being able to pick up cables and such for pennies when you need them was nice lol.

yeah I miss the CC discount, half of the road shop stuff would be somewhere around 50% at discount.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Sadly, it's far from isolated deception (http://consumerist.com/5206541/best-buy-sells-9+year+old-discontinued-hard-drive-as-brand-new-western-digital-refuses-refund)...

[TheGreatSatan]

At Office Depot we remove viruses for $30 - $59 tops.

[haha49]

I worked for best buy And I had my manger give me death threats... I have the on audio amiting it as well... She even keyed my car... I had that on tape as well right to the police department she threatened me she keyed my car bestbuy headoffice was notified about it and said there was nothing they could do I even sent them the tapes and when they got that they were like o crap...

[thrash]

I go in to BB acting like I don't know a thing about computers. I even do this if I'm not even looking for anything. I let the sales guy start telling me all this crap about how much HD space/memory is in a computer or they start blabbing about wireless signals.. After about 15 minutes of them going on I start asking harder questions like "what are the memory timings" "how much cache does that processor have" etc... After about 30 minutes I go ahead and tell them that I am a Technology Admin and they should really learn more about what they are trying to rip people off with before they try to sell it. The look on 90% of their faces are priceless.

Oh and I laughed when I saw a 10ft HDMI cable for 100 bucks in best buy. I just laughed hard and walked out the front door. They and their prices are pathetic.

[NightrainSrt4]

thrash, that's kinda an arse thing to do. I understand the fun, but they do make minimum wage (or not much higher), and in that position they shouldn't have the knowledge of a tech admin. Also, all many of the employees get to see about the models is the little card out on display, which includes nothing about cache or timings or anything. It's not like they can go and stare at the box trying to memorize each set of specs, they'd get fired for wasting time.

So you want someone who makes minimum wage, gets hours that puts them just to full time but gets absolutely no benefits because they drop the hours the next week, to go home and research every model of computer they have (20+ atleast) for hours and hours to know all the specs, all without even getting paid.

That's fricken ridiculous and you know that, but that's why you do it and how you get your kicks apparently. I'm mostly through my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science: Software Engineering with a minor in Mathematics and possibly Chem and yet I wouldn't know the answers to those questions even if I still worked there. It's not something needed to sell the computer, and its not ripping off as most customers could give a rats behind if it had 4MB cache vs. 2MB. It's not something they are given the opportunity to learn either, unless as stated they want to memorize 20+ computers specs off work without pay to satisfy that one guy who wants to be an arse for the fun of it. I do concede that prices can be high, but what do you expect in a physical retail store? The future of retail is online anyway with lower costs and less overhead. When they sell laptops for less than cost on sale days they have to make that money back someway to pay their employees.

I really don't mean to come off as mean, but part of me is extremely frustrated over this. Back to the topic at hand: Apparently the issue of Best Buy ripping people off and committing ass-like behavior isn't solely an issue with Best Buy employees, but is instead exemplary of the douchebaggery inherent in most of humanity.

I apologize in advance for this post, and await any neg rep I have to work off with determination and modding power. It had to be said, perhaps in less colorful wording, before this thread turned into a "lets bash all Best Buy employees and/or retail tech sales nubs"

[XcOM]

i agree with you completely

[TheGreatSatan]

Seconded. Harder questions aside, they are a bunch of idiots. You don't need to be PC smart to sell a computer, just a good salesman.

[Xpirate]

thrash, that's kinda an arse thing to do. I understand the fun, but they do make minimum wage (or not much higher)

100% agreed. I used to sell luggage and deliver pizza before I graduated college to become a software engineer. I learned that there are a lot of people around who like to make other people feel like a dumb ass. I guess it makes them feel superior.

People used to ask me about what size luggage they could carry onto an airplane. I would just recite the information from the pamphlet that they gave me when I first started the job. They really should have done their own dang research because minimum wage luggage salespeople didn't make the kind of money required to fly anywhere.

That was kind of off topic. Geek Squad should have told him the price up front. My brother-in-law got his old VHS machine fixed and Best Buy told him that he should just get a new one because the repair would cost as much as a new one. Junior got it fixed anyway because he's not that bright.

[luciusad2004]

100% agreed...

People used to ask me about what size luggage they could carry onto an airplane. I would just recite the information from the pamphlet that they gave me when I first started the job. They really should have done their own dang research because minimum wage luggage salespeople didn't make the kind of money required to fly anywhere.


I wish more people would realize this. I work in lawn and garden and people just assume I'm an "expert" or something. My wages don't pay enough for me to purchase a house much less one w/ a yard, so no, I can't tell you which one of my pesticides is the best or what bugs it will kill offhand. I don't have time to sit and read the packaging nor do i want to spend my free time doing it for free. The days of knowledgeable sales people are gone, at least in big box retail. You just can't expect minimum wage kids to know everything.

If you want that kinda attention to detail you should go to a specialized shop, or even better do some reasearch otherwise your setting yourself up to be fleeced by some kid who just tells you what you want to hear.

[Ichbin]

:(

Im geeksquad....

*sigh*

But then again, I only keep the job cause its the only job available.

It is very weird that they quoted you that much without a refund.

200 = Diag and Virus removal...

if the diag showed up as a failure, they are SUPPOSED to refund you 130.

which then could have gone to the price of a new hdd.

Call corporate.

[Ichbin]

Oh! and theyre not just taking advantage of special needs people.....we're trained to try and take advantage of everyone.

However...when i feel a price isn't justified....i slip them my number so i can do a housecall.

[thrash]

Rofl, you got mad over that? It's not like I go in asking them hard networking questions... I go in asking simple questions about processors (even if they have a sticker right on the computer) and they can't tell me. And then they want me to pay 250 bucks for a formatted hard drive? Best buy is a rip off and all the tech has to do is tell me they are not sure, but when they try to BS me left and Right I have some fun. Sorry you are so mad, but it doesn't take 10 seconds to look at a sticker :/

It's not my fault they don't get paid great, hell I don't get paid that great... But I have enough common sense to at least know what i'm doing or how to find what i'm looking for.

[XcOM]

but a lot of time the staff (Like in PC world) don't get the time, if all they have to is read a sticker, all you have to do is read said sticker?

that and with products moving forward so fast they change all the time, plus if they give you false information they can be prosecuted, most of the time that little sticker will only tell you the model number and core speed, i have only ever seen one item show the detailed specs and that was because it was a return so it had no packaging so the tech guys wrote everything on a sheet of paper and taped it to the PC

[Bopher]

Working at CC it felt like I was having to read up on tvs every 3 days to keep up. I remember one day I had 3 guys from the computer area who had me open a computer to show them everything so they weren't completely clueless.

[NightrainSrt4]

It's not like I go in asking them hard networking questions... I go in asking simple questions about processors (even if they have a sticker right on the computer) and they can't tell me.

Often times the computers are up on a shelf which can only be reached with a ladder. More and more of the stores are moving away from having them down on ground level. And the stickers don't have, at least they never did before, specs like cache and memory timings. I don't recall the boxes ever having memory timings either.


when they try to BS me left and Right I have some fun.


Except you stated you deliberately go in there to mess with them, so who is BS'ing lol? You deliberately wasted 1/2 hour + of your time and theirs.

The stupid BB employee behavior you mention happens everywhere, not just BB.

Either way, when it comes to selling a product the employees goal is to sell you what they try to determine is the best match for you based on the products they carry. Even if that dell online would be a better, less pricier match, its not even to be considered. Nada, nope, off limits. Not be be even referenced. Convince the customer to buy one of their products. Don't want to be goaded into purchasing a BB computer, don't go to BB then. Do the research at home. It's the way retail works. If they wanted to give the best info and do the best for the customer they'd just send them to the company with the best deal/etc. If the best option is at a competitor it doesn't matter, you talk the customer into buying the best option you have, less you want to lose a job.

Retail isn't about always doing whats best for the customer because if it was you wouldn't have anywhere near the amount of business or revenue. The sales floor is a horrible place for an ignorant/unknowledgeable customer to be, but that's what keeps these places in business.

With Circuit City gone, and no other real tech retail store in many areas its just going to get worse. I feel sorry for those who get ripped off. A part of me figures they should do their research first, but no one can be an expert at everything so you have to rely and trust others, and sometimes the people you trust just take advantage of that.

Edit: And although it was that post that triggered it, I wasn't meaning to go directly at you. That type of post gets posted in just about every thread about BB and I just never see the point. I dislike that place as much as anyone but for some people its just a job. Not everyone is a pc genius, but to work on the sales floor you need to know nothing about computers. If you do, then great, but they take whoever they can. Products hit EOL way to fast for someone to spend their free time learning everything about every model. I've been there and done that, and to be honest it wasn't what put me close to bringing in ~50% rev/budget for pc department just about every day on an 8-10 person team, good people skills and being able to talk people into buying those damn warranty plans and home services that I loathed to the very core did that.

What a skyscraper of text.

[TheGreatSatan]

200 = Diag and Virus removal...

I have BB's price list and a Diag is only $59 (only, that's rediculous too)