My Best Buy experience....

[bordersandflags]

ha. probably the worst i've ever encountered. My brother and i went to look at some dSLRS. We were talking about how the Canon 5D had 3 fps and the 30D had 5 fps. The salesman turns around and says, "Are you serious? The 5D has 5 fps. Its more expensive so it obviously has to be 5 fps." Knowing this was wrong, I said, "That doesn't mean its 5fps... the 30D is faster than the 5D (in burst mode)." We quarrelled and i knew i was wasting my time with a salesman who probably only memorized the stock cards on the cameras. He obviously was very angry and then just left. I think i lost all respect for best buy, not like i had any in the first place.

-josh

[sakbarzad]

i use to work there and i can tell you its not much better lol... i was in the tv department and they dont train you about product i had to learn on my own time

[pisco]

the guy in charge of cameras in Circuit City did not know how to put a lens on a slr. He saw me doing it, but even then, he was trying to screw it in, haha

[Dock Master]

It's on the "Best Buy," if you have done your research before going in. I have found that they are better versed in the extended warranties than the particulars about the items they sell.

[zrfraser]

Just because a person works in the technology department, doesn't mean they know anything about it. He could have been covering some else's shift, and used simple logic to deduce something. More expensive=faster and better. Customers do it all the time as well. "This one costs more, so it should be better, right? Better is objective, better for me is not always better for you. I'm ranting, I know, but I've been selling computers for 13 hours today, and yes the extended warranties do help the paycheck of the poor college student who is trying to sell it to you.

Z

[Greg McCary]

Just because a person works in the technology department, doesn't mean they know anything about it. He could have been covering some else's shift, and used simple logic to deduce something. More expensive=faster and better. Customers do it all the time as well. "This one costs more, so it should be better, right? Better is objective, better for me is not always better for you. I'm ranting, I know, but I've been selling computers for 13 hours today, and yes the extended warranties do help the paycheck of the poor college student who is trying to sell it to you.

Z

How do warranties help? Are you on commision?

[zrfraser]

Yes, in just about any retail outlet warranties do have some sort of commission. What I work on is a base plus, payscale. I make so much an hour, plus any spiffs. Spiffs are commissions you get from products. If I sell a warranty I make 5% off of it. If I open a business account I make 10 dollars. I generally sell about 5-8 warranties a week, averaging about $30 a week extra in commissions. Its not much but it adds up. Plus, at the end of the quarter if we sell enough add on items, we make back a certain percentage, based on the hours we worked. Its like getting a 25 cent raise for every hour worked at the end of the quarter. As long as you are honest to the customer and don't make false claims to the customer, they can be beneficial for all involved.

Z

[sakbarzad]

i know best buy doesnt pay you out for anything like that

[another view]

i know best buy doesnt pay you out for anything like that

Not for extended warranties? They push them harder than most places IME.

Support your local camera store...

[livin4lax09]

best buy doesn't pay commission, they have switched to an hourly rate. Speaking from experience, most people who work at best buys have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. I worked with a couple kids who just read stuff of the cards, then I would get comments from customers like "they have no idea what they are talking about." The problem is that BB would rather just fill the position instead of trying to find someone who knows something about cameras. They push the warranties because it is a way for them to develop repeat-customers. I enjoyed working there for the couple months that I did, but only because I actually knew what I was talking about with cameras. Now video cameras, that's a whole different story. and I agree, support local specialty stores, even if it is a bit more expensive. they are losing business all the time to big corporations.

[zrfraser]

Warranties are also almost always 100% profit for the company.When you buy a computer or camera or any other large electronic device, it costs money for the company to get it to the store. Most of the time off of a laptop you will only make about $50 profit, so that is why the add on items are so important.

Z

[poker]

Over 10 years ago I use to work at Circuit City. I knew more about computers than anyone else in the computer department but I could not sell a darn thing. My numbers were so low compared to everyone else I was moved to the service department to work on the computers the other computer salesmen had no clue to fix. I ended up saving their sales by preventing a return. It was a thankless job.

Selling the warranty was the only was to make any money. I'm not sure how Best Buy motivates their staff to sell warranty without giving direct commissions. I asked my cousin that who worked their for a month and he didn't understand it either.

[zrfraser]

Maybe Brent could fill us in on how they get one to get sell warranties. I worked at the Gap as my last job, and we had to have so many credit card signups a week or we didn't get any hours for the next week. I didn;t work for 10 straight weeks, I was in credit card debt (still am, but recovering) and couldn't do it to another human being. I left and never looked back.

Z

[another view]

we had to have so many credit card signups a week or we didn't get any hours for the next week

That's lousy. Not that something like this doesn't happen at a lot of places, and the store will make a lot of money off the interest of most cardholders, but wouldn't life be easier if they paid you a small bonus for getting a certain number of signups per week?

Best Buy has to give their sales people and cashiers some sort of incentive for those warranties. It seems like everything I've bought (short of a CD) came with the warranty pitch. And why not offer an incentive? They're usually a big money maker for the store (read: customers usually don't come out ahead on them...).

Sure, I've bought plenty of things at Best Buy and other national chains like that but you do have a choice where you buy equipment. Prices aren't usually the attraction of Best Buy either.

[poker]

One sign of evidence that Best Buy is not commission based is that fact they don't care if the customer would come back to the same sales person or not. At Circuit City we would tattoo our names on the customer's forehead to make sure everyone else knew they came back to the same sales person. It was a terrible situation. One time I spent HOURS with a customer and he said he would come back to buy it. He came back the next day and spoke to another saleperson briefly.....I ended up having to split the sale with the other salesman. FREAKING BS!!!!!! Well, that's how I felt. We call it getting "snaked" when I another salesman would steal your commission. It even happend CROSS stores when you would make a sale then they would make an exchange at another store for the same product for some reason then all of a sudden you see another commission ID on the system for your sale. It can be very ruthless......

At Best Buy, after speaking to someone and offering to come back to buy it I would ask for their name so I can ask for them. 100% of the time they would tell me "we are not on commission so you can ask for anybody."

Interesting....

[zrfraser]

I say the same thing we aren't on commission, but we do get spiffed on warranties, but I don't tell the customer that, plus I am a manager so i would rather coach my associates than steal their sale. I usually give the customer the name of another associate they can ask for.

Z

[livin4lax09]

we didnt get anything for warranties that I know of. They just tried to get us to sell them. maybe if i had stuck around for longer they would have looked at that as an incentive to give me a raise but as I know, there wasn't anything they gave us.

And the reason most people usually tell you "you can speak to anybody," or at least why I told them that, is because i didnt know if i would be there next time they came in because i was only part time. All-in-all it's not a bad job and the people actually appreciate it if you know what you are talking about. if you don't, customers will give you hell for it.

[sakbarzad]

best buy doesnt pay out for anything... for example there is a spiff called mits bucks for every store or major retailers (best buy is on the list) that sell mitsubishi tvs and the pay out is anywhere from $25 to $300 and best buy never said anything about the spiff i found out about it when i went to good guys

[another view]

Spiffs run in most industries - I work in electrical distribution and they're all over the place. They're paid by the manufacturer though - not by your employer. The manufacturers are just trying to get you to sell their stuff versus someone else's version of roughly the same thing. This is one reason to be a little wary of a salesperson's opinion...