🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 27 Aug 1998 22:50:06 GMT, songwind@NOSPAMbigfoot.com (Frank
Garcia) wrote:

>1) A customer is a customer is a customer. Why should the fact that
>they're on the phone or lazy make a difference? Best Buy has no
>business limiting its customer service to people who aren't lazy. If
>the salespeople can't handle answering the phone, maybe they should
>find jobs they can do competently.

I used to work at Best Buy in college...  a low-paying job that 
was actually kinda interesting.  But Best Buy is like any other 
business.  They want to run the place with about half the staff
necessary...  because if the managers keep the salary budget
below a certain amount, they get a nice fat bonus.

This often means that, as posted in a previous message, there
are about 1-2 people in each department at any given time.
I was often in a situation where I had 3 or 4 people lined
up waiting with questions, and the phone was ringing
at the same time.  Now, ideally it'd be great to make everyone
happy...  but when I had to choose to help someone, I always
chose the person standing in front of me.  They invested the
time and gas money to drive to the store...  and so deserved 
more attention than the person who just picked up the phone.

Did I help everyone when I could?  You bet...  I answered
a hell of a lot of phone calls.  But precedence comes to
the person who made the investment to drive to the store.

>
>2) They may not be "computer techs", but as salespeople they should
>have a clue about what they're selling. But I could even live with
>their ignorance if they would just admit it and try to find an answer
>elsewhere. What's annoying is the fact that so many of the salespeople
>will make ignorant comments as if they were pronouncing the gospel
>from on high. There's nothing worse than someone who pretends to know
>what they're talking about when they don't.

As posted before, what do you expect for $6 an hour?  The problem with
Best Buy is that anyone who knows what you're asking them to know
can go somewhere else and make much more.

Best Buy does almost nothing to train it's employees, no different
than Sears, or Wal-Mart, or anywhere else.  Anything they know,
they pick up entirely on their own.  And once they
pick it up, they're out of there for better paying jobs.  Would
you do anything differently?

Maybe Best Buy SHOULD pay people better...  they could put
their people on comission, so they'd harass you into a sale...
or they could raise prices to cover it, in which case you wouldn't
want to shop there anyway.  Retail sales people make 
very little...  Best Buy is no different.  You get what you pay for.


>
>3) There's a difference between trying to get free tech support and
>expecting to get accurate pre-sale information about products. Yes,
>undoubtedly cheapskates do try to get free tech support out of BB, but
>the proper way to deal with this is to revise the pricing structure to
>cover the increased costs, or to refer people to the correct number.
>However, providing technical information about the computer products
>being sold is within what a customer should reasonably expect of a
>salesperson in a computer department.

It depends on what you're asking for....   Best Buy should spend
as much time on the phone with you answering questions as they 
can...  but there's got to be a balance.  At some point it's 
your responsibility to come down and see for yourself.  

Remember, whenever you're on the phone, you're taking a salesperson
away from some customer waiting in the store.  That sales person has
to balance your needs on the phone, with the pissed off customer
glaring at him from the Packard Bell section who thinks he's calling 
his girlfriend or something.  At some point, that pissed off customer
is going to win out...  


By and large, working at Best Buy isn't worth it.  The store won't
keep the shelves properly stocked...  and the sales people take
non-stop harassment about it, when there's not a thing
they can do about it.  They're expected to know far more than
they're given training for...  they're completely understaffed,
especially around the holidays...  they're subjected
to the occasional abusive customer who believes the poor
sap in the blue shirt can make stuff magically appear from
nowhere, or that they're hiding everything "in the back".

For $6 an hour?  No thanks.

Now, even so, an employee should never be rude, or hostile.
Nothing excuses that.  Report it to a manager when it happens.

But cut 'em a little slack.  Most of the people in blue shirts are
pawns, just like most of us.  They have no more control over
bare shelves and staffing levels than your or I do.

The people really to blame are wearing ties, and don't
walk the floors of the store.  THEY order merchandise,
and set staffing levels, and set return policies.  THEY'RE
the ones to complain about...

That said, I'm sure as hell glad I'm out of there, working
at a "real" job...  no less stressful, I guess, but at least
I don't have old ladies screaming at me during the holidays anymore...

Jase