Comments on: AVRant #9: Best Buy Part 1

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:35:37 +0000

Yeah, I mentioned the specific product names in the podcast so that you could look it up yourself. Google is your friend ya lazy bum.

By: egr2rst

egr2rst — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:13:02 +0000

It would have been interesting to be able to click on the web sites of the equipment that John was recommending like you were during the podcast.
Work on that , Tom.
Also interesting to us Quality Managers about the reason Dina wanted John to be successful – he gave her personal attention and appeared to care personally about her.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:32:03 +0000

We do provide training, in the form of Audioholics. I have no doubt that John (like many others) is acting out of misinformation and good intentions but that isn’t my fault. Nor is it my responsibility to train someone who has been working at a job for 6+ years. Information is out there to be had and it is up to the individual to go out and get it. Not to mention – ever try to “educate” someone that thinks they’re right? I’ve got better things to do with my time.

While I understand your frustration, realize that you are walking a fine line. Places like BB and CC don’t make money by selling people what they need, but by selling them overpriced stuff they THINK they need (and if they need a push in this directly – that’s the job of the sales staff). There have been multitudes of ex-BB employees who have visited the Audioholics forums after being fired for not pushing overpriced cables and such. Businesses have to make money, this I understand, but I’m not going to run around “training” people until they get fired and start all over again with the next batch.

Now, do I blame the employee? Not really. They’re doing their job with the limited (skewed) information they have on hand. Do I blame the management? Again, no. They’re just trying to make money. But that’s not going to stop me from pointing out the idiocy of it all hopefully for the benefit of the consumers who now are responsible for knowing the truth since they can’t get it from these supposed “experts”.

By: clint

clint — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:29:13 +0000

pettit03,

That’s actually pretty humbling. I think if anything what’s being made fun of here is upper management. The buck stops there and they obviously aren’t providing enough training with new employees. The very fact that you do so much research on your own is a testimony to your personally dedication – and something to be lauded.

By: pettit03

pettit03 — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:33:51 +0000

P.S. I hate Bose and will only sell it if the customer is die hard.

By: pettit03

pettit03 — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:33:19 +0000

I work Home Theater at Best Buy and I wish instead of making fun of CC and BB, you would offer some help to those guys cause all of the info they recieve is vendor-based. Honestly, the couple of contests we have had were as follows; Most installs in a month, Magnolia Home Theater Install Shirt, Most Harmony Remotes sold, $10 BB gift card. Not really anthing too big. The only thing we get rewarded for, at least at our store, is that if the customer calls in on the survey on the reciept, and mentions our name, we then get a chance (in a drawing) for a $100 BB gift card (one per quarter). I take my job seriously so i spend about 3-4 hours a week on avsforums and about an hour on audioholics. At my store we need more training! If you see on of us give us a hand. Most of us would be grateful. Thanks- Zach

By: avaserfi

avaserfi — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:03:15 +0000

I really liked the idea of sending J. to the stores by himself. I think it would make for a pretty funny story especially because he could hint at certain features and lead the sales person around depending on what was being said and really dig deep on why Bose is so great and why I NEED monster cable because their copper is more pure blaah blah blah….

By: Jim R.

Jim R. — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:13:06 +0000

Again, I worked at Best Buy part time in the Home Theater department for about 1.5 years. I can tell you that the Bose speakers have the highest markup of any speakers that BB sells. John, of 6 years, was tainted by the BB philosophy of highest profits are best. It’s sad that they don’t teach these guys how to actually help people find something good for a good price. Even though the guy wasn’t on commission, he might have been in some contest for his department or might get a bonus based on higher sales if he was a manager type guy. Anyway, if you would have walked into the store where I live, you would have gotten the same treatment with about half the staff and the truth from the other half of the staff. Of course, if I was still working there, you would have gotten the absolute truth and I would have been more thorough than usual. It’s not every day Claudia Black (I mean Dina Clarke) walks into Best Buy! Ok, I know, I know… I’ll stop. But that Halloween idea was great, Tom!!

By: Coheednme13

Coheednme13 — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:39:32 +0000

Hey Tom in the south we call everyone “BO”, everyone in the south but me

By: avaserfi

avaserfi — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 03:54:36 +0000

Ill get to listen tomorrow I am excited to compare my BB trip to Dina’s although I think I ran into a knowledgeable guy for BB at least as he was a “Home Theater Specialist” I mean how bad could he be he did tell me the majority of movies sounds come from the center and the surrounds and that fronts weren’t as important when it came to a HT and we all know thats true. (Dina if you are reading this fronts are very important )