Posted on 09/20/2013 8:29:59 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
(Newser) – Best Buy is back from the brink. Profits are up, costs are down, and the share price has tripled since December. That's the good news. "The bad news," writes Matthew Yglesias at Slate, "is that the store is awful and deserves to die." Yglesias and a colleague visited stores in different cities (Washington, DC, and NYC, respectively), and concluded that "Best Buy still basically sucks." The selection isn't great, and almost everything costs more than it would on Amazon. But what about customer service? Could having human experts justify the markups?
Nope. If anything, Best Buy's reps seem out to scam customers. Throughout the store "salesman after salesman was trying to upsell people" on service plans and add-ons. One rep assured Yglesias that the "high-end" $59.99 HDMI cable was better than a "cheap" $19.99 one. Given that all HDMI cables are basically the same, "this is malpractice verging on fraud." So Yglesias is skeptical that the turnaround will stick. "Competing with online retail on the basis of hustling your customers isn't much of a value proposition." Read his column in full here.
I shop at Buy More, and take my computer to the Nerd Herd for service.
I don’t want to purchase a cyberpig in a poke.
Ah, the difference between liberals and conservatives. I don’t like Best Buy either. The staff and products turn over every 6 months or so and so you really can’t get good support for things you buy there. Having said that, if others like Best Buy, more power to them. The Libs at Slate think that because they don’t like something, that it should be gone — they want to dictate what everyone can do.
Dear Slate: BB’s customers will decide, not some sissy who “writes” for your blog.
These are the same people that think having one government-run store (think G.U.M. in the former Soviet Union), would be a great idea.
SLATE authors are bunch of metrosexual wankers.
I shop at Best Buy because I can see and compare items and ask questions. If they try to up-sell me, good for them. I say “no thank you” and that’s it. If people don’t like it, they won’t shop there - end of story. I think Matthew Yglesias “needs to die.”
It is scamming if they are falsely claiming benefits for the upsell.
Where just-in-time counts in today's computer world, and my business depends on it, I buy two computers at a time so that when one goes and is sent out by Best Buy for 10 days to 2 weeks, I just pop the hard drive in the other identical one and keep working.
The comps I purchase usually give out in advance of the 3-yr service plan so I get a brand new one typically a 2.5 years free of charge.
FReegards!
When I was a teenager, I was in the German exchange program and went to Germany, including East Germany. They took us to their showcase department store in East Berlin. It was the most miserable place I ever saw — I remember being shocked that their showcase store was a dump. They took us to lunch at a nice restaurant there. The food was horrible. We got soft ice cream after lunch. The vanilla ice cream I got in my cone had a red tint to it. That is what Slate wants for all of us.
Best Buy? Screw’em! They lied to me for 2 or 3 weeks, then f’ed me on a rebate 12 years ago. Haven’t went there since. I’m surprised anyone does.
That’s why I love the Apple Store, take my Mac in, they repair it there, and I get it back in a matter of days.
12 years ago, huh? You keep a long grudge there, donthca?
lolol
this is why people visit stores and buy online.
The markup is toxic. Especially for fungible items.
Well said.
Liberals would like it shut down because they simply don’t like it.
Conservatives who don’t like it would rather see the market take care of it and let the chips fall where they may.
I hate liberalism in all of its guises.
makes for an informed voter.
I’d like to think I had something to do with CompUSA going belly-up........They screwed me on a computer repair, and I raised holy Hell with them....When I heard they were closing all of their remaining brick-and-mortar stores, I opened a bottle of champagne.
Leftists want to destroy successful businesses, in the name of “leveling the playing field”.
Since BB is now successful, they are therefore an eeeeeevil capitalist group and must therefore die.
OTOH, I recall BB caving to the Muslims on PC grounds, so this should insulate them from Leftist attention. Perhaps not...
Yes...but as a conservative (I assume you are since you post on FR...not always true, but I will accept it for the sake of argument) you exercise your right as a consumer not to shop there.
You won’t shed any tears if they go under, but neither do you want them to go chapter 11 because some consumer advocate or government entity says they should.
Am I right?
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