Brian@BBY

Best Buy, the largest Electronics retailer in the world will be launching what is called Customer Centricity to 100+ of it's 600+ retail stores.

What does this mean?

Remember the days of going into Best Buy and the associates either not knowing anything, or not really caring to. Well Best Buy hopes to end all of that. A customer based focus, Staffing of knowledgable dedicated and well trained employees plus an Aggressive Remodeling especially tailored to each locations primary customer base is the start.

For instance. you may have in some area's customers who really value electronics for the sole purpose of it's entertainment value, But aren't interested in the latest & greatest products. In some other area's you will have customers who wont pay their credit card on time because the new i-pod comes out and he has to have it. some stores will be catered to single young males and some to soccer moms,family guys or affluent business types. but they will all maintain the excellent pricing and selection we've grown accustomed to, plus more.

Product Service plans for items such as: DLP tv's will now cover the consumable bulb, an excellent benefit to customers "on the fence" about purchasing DLP or rear projection LCD televisions. Also Best Buy will no longer be Reliant upon Contracted installers. An actual Best Buy paid Installer will come to your home and complete the installation. One more way Best Buy is looking to make it's organization more Customer freindly.

If in the Past you fealt Best Buy was a great store, but didn't quite have the Type brands you preferred, there will now be certain stores that have a Magnolia Hi Fi built right inside the store. So you can have the best of both worlds.

The first 100 stores to get the remodeling and customer centricity roleout will be on the West Coast and done by the holiday 04. Upon the undoubted success of this program it will spread to the rest of the nation over the next year or two.

im excited....im sure you guys will be too!

__________________
like.no.other

robnix

Until the salespeople at Best Buy stop following me around trying to sell me a PSP, some overpriced accessory, or Sports Illustrated when I check out, I'll take "Customer Centricity" with a grain of salt.

kevinw

Gee whiz they buy out a higher end electronics store and realize that most of their empoyees are pretend experts with the scruples of a used car salesman compared to who they bought out.
Nothing worse than " I don't work on commision, so I do not care what you buy BUT you really need Monster cables and a Terk antenna becaus there the best."

__________________
www.harmonygrovegrille.com

ale4us@msn.com

It will take a miracle to get me back in that box filled with children taking my hard earned money. Sorry for the explosion.

deckard

If it's a sincere effort to improve, good luck you're gonna need it.

Brian@BBY

well, if you don't want any customer service....or anyone offering you anything. There is always Wal Mart or Costco.

for most of the people on this board, your right we do know more than most people at any electronics store, we are fanatical.

however, the average joe customer doesn't know a thing about anything electronics wise. It would be hard for me to reccomend a recoton cable over a monster even though im not on commission. As far as Terk, i tell everyone that buys those that it's a good chance it wont do anything for them if they aren't getting anything now. But where we live, the best antenna wont do much but give you better static.

Anyways...being an employee, i think it's exciting and this program had phenomonal results in lab stores where it was tested. So I hope they are on to something.

__________________
like.no.other

Brian@BBY

spoken like a true, internet/walmart/costco consumer.

i personally am not affraid to tell someone "no thanks" if i don't want something. if you don't want a sales pitch. stay in your cave and buy online, but even there you'll get pop ups and spam...it's america, get used to it.

what i do get angry at though is when i need help and see tumble weeds blowing down the aisle. or ask some dimwit stocking shelves and he pretends to know something, but he's just reading off the package.

__________________
like.no.other

Kal Rubinson

Wow! They really are dumb; they even misspell when they speak! ;-)

Kal

__________________
"Music in the Round"
Contributing Editor, Stereophile
http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/

soze

this is what they mean by Customer Centricity....

Ohio sues Best Buy

Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. was sued by Ohio's attorney general, who accused the company of deceptive sales practices, such as repackaging used merchandise and selling it as new.

The civil suit also alleges that Best Buy failed to pay rebates and refunds and failed to honor extended service contracts, state Attorney General Jim Petro said at a news conference. Petro said his office received hundreds of consumer complaints over the last few years against Best Buy.

In May, Best Buy agreed to pay $133,500 to New Jersey after an investigation found that the company failed to honor rebates and engaged in deceptive advertising. New Jersey received more than 200 consumer complaints, the state's attorney general said. Best Buy didn't admit to any wrongdoing, a spokesman for the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs said.

"We're aware of the lawsuit and we're investigating the claims," Best Buy spokeswoman Susan Busch said of the Ohio complaint. "We can't comment on pending litigation."

Brian@BBY

i've found that most people don't get their rebates because they don't know how to follow instructions.

the rebates have all of the instructions clearly printed on the rebate form.

most if not all need:

copy of (or) original sales receipt.

Address,phone number & name printed clearly on the form.

ORIGINAL UPC cut from box (this is where most screw up i think)

And occasionally the serial # of the product.

i know it doesn't seem like alot of info to have to provide but i am astonished at the number of customers who return to the store saying things like, "well i threw the box away and now it's asking for a upc" or where is the serial number, or i lost my receipt can i get a duplicate made.

also, alot of rebates if not mailed in and completed within 30days of purchase are not honored and it clearly states that on the form.

Best Buy in my opinion is a pretty fair company and bends of backwards for most customers. They even offer a phone # to check rebate status. And alot of times Best Buy will extend it's 30 day return policy if lets say your tv broke after 45 days. Those who come in with violent tempers and shouting things like This place sucks still get helped. If it where mine or many other peoples business they would tell those types to hit the road. Reasons i feel it is most often the customers fault things don't get done correctly is from life experience in retail not only at Best Buy but other retail places i've worked ie: costco/house2home-homebase & GoodGuys.

Almost all the same type of predictably dumb behaviors in customers where encountered in every place. It's unfortunate people don't read fine print, and assume something is so, when they don't actually take the time to read over literature provided them. But it is a dog eat dog world. And someone is always going to get hurt even if unintentionally.

One of the most common things i used to see at Best Buy is when a customer would be offered a free subscription to a service such as Sports Illustrated or MSN. The customer is informed that it is a free limited time trial (which it is) the customer fails to cancel before the trial ends and is then billed, they signed an agreement stating this would happen 2 seconds before they swiped their credit card for ID verification/Billing but neglect to read the plain as day print above the sig line once again, unfortunate....but adults need to take responsibility for their actions. wether it seems fair or not.

So in these types of situations, who's fault is it. Does Best Buy have an obligation to save people from their own stupidity? I'm not doubting that in any company their are bad apples that can make the whole bunch look rotten. But i don't think Best Buy came to become the #1 Electronics retailer in the world by Ripping people off and having deceptive business practices as a whole. There isn't a company in the world that hasn't been sued for similar things that is as big if not bigger than Best Buy. Wal Mart builds as many stores in one year as Best Buy has total, and they are always in the paper for some lawsuit on this ,that or the other.

So while we are taking things with a grain of salt. remember some clown got paid millions because they spilled coffee on themself in a mcdonalds drive-thru and others because they claim the food made them obese. Once again, people need to grow up.

__________________
like.no.other

kevinw

If Best Buy wants to win my business, eliminate rebates all together. I will not purchase anything that requires me to jump through hoops and HOPE the check show up 4-8 weeks later.

I do not like my out of pocket expenses being sometime hundreds of dollars more than advertised price.

__________________
www.harmonygrovegrille.com

Splicer

You would think in this day and age the 'rebate' would just be deducted from the purchase price...

__________________
Toshiba 51H83 CRT RP HDTV | LG LST3510a ATSC/QAM Receiver | Toshiba HD-A35 HD DVD | Denon AVR-789 | Sony CDP-CX55 CD | TAD 805C Center Channel | TAD 803SD Front Mains & Surrounds | DIY 300w 12" Sub | APC H15 Power Conditioner | Harmony 550 | 43 OTA Channels

Kal Rubinson

That used to be the law in CT but was changed a few years back when rebates becames really common.

However, I agree with KevinW and will not buy rebated products. Advertising rebated prices is misleading as it requires considerable effort which I will not expend.

Exception: Fujitsu's $1K rebate announced just after I bought my P50. That was unexpected and nice!

Kal

__________________
"Music in the Round"
Contributing Editor, Stereophile
http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/

robnix

Nice way to convince me that Best Buy is working on their customer service skills. The two careers I've been in over the last 20 years have been based on either myself, or the department I run providing good customer service to either the public, or to internal employees.



Chalk another one up for quality customer service from Best Buy. As a side note, I do network security now, popups and spam aren't an issue in my life. You seem to have some anger toward them, so if you'd like some assistance in relieving yourself of them, let me know.



That's a reflection of the store, not the customer. If you have someone that has no clue about a product, they should find someone that does and bring the customer to them. NOT stand there like an idiot and read off the box.

Brian@BBY

[QUOTE=robnix]Nice way to convince me that Best Buy is working on their customer service skills. The two careers I've been in over the last 20 years have been based on either myself, or the department I run providing good customer service to either the public, or to internal employees.
QUOTE]


It would be impossible to convince you of anything. you have your opinion of something and aren't willing to stray from it. I provide my customers with the Best possible customer service i can deliver. I go the extra mile to research products and get feedback from people who have purchased them here and on other forums. i'm not on the clock when i do this. That to me, is superior customer service.

And i got my pop up blocker on, and spybots functioning. thanks!

__________________
like.no.other

robnix

Good for you. In the future, you may want to enhance your superior customer service skills by not tossing out cheap shots at the people you're trying to get feedback and info from.

Brian@BBY

Hey, cool guy.

First of all, im not looking for feedback. I could personally care less what one guy with a chip on his shoulder cares. And im sure your Business wont be missed.

just stating what they are doing.

I'm not some corporate bigshot trolling forums for feedback from a .com people.

What i do on my freetime, is my business....including reading this forum and posting to it.

So dont get it twisted.

__________________
like.no.other

soze

i could understand the rebates and how dumb people make it hard for all...but no need to blame all on the consumer - a little education for those challenged would help - just like education for those buying their 1st HDTVs -

but no one has responded on the accusations that of selling an old product as new....I heard rumours about for months about this from people....what do you think?

jokerb

1) Wow. What a program. Salespeople who actually know what they're talking about. Such a novel concept. Revolutionary. I love how they're giving a name and having a big rollout event for something that should be instilled from day 1.

But all sarcasm aside, if it's true and it works, that would be fantastic. I'm sure everyone has stories, but my favorite was when I went to a Best Buy looking for a DVD Video Capture Card. I was walking down the aisle when someone asked me if I needed help. After I told him what I wanted, the response I got was, "We don't carry those here." I was shocked, but said ok. Then I looked behind him and said, "Ummm...I think those are them right there." Good times.

2) Even though Best Buy has it's problems, in all fairness, rebates are usually manufacturer discounts to customers, and not offered by the retail store. The reason you have to go through the mailing process is so the retail store doesn't keep the price high and profit from the discount they got from the manufacturer.

With that said, if Best Buy is offering discounts on items and making people send in rebates, then I believe that is a definitional example of pure Evil.