I was passing by down the road and noticed a building being refitted and a big banner showing "Best Buy". I wasn't aware Best Buy operated in the UK but it turns out that they are premiering their new UK store just up the road from here. Just wondering what Americans think of Best Buy, good or not?
Its not bad if you absolutely need something. their prices are typically a fair amount more than the internet so I rarely buy from them. they do have a huge selection of things though, so its a great place to go and test drive different odds and ends.
Fairly good amount of products if you don't want to wait to order it online or want to try it out in person first. Fairly good car audio dept. and a wide range of TVs. Prices aren't too bad for a brick and mortar store, but usually can't beat internet prices. The Sunday morning paper with the deals is where they become enticing. Staff can be helpful, but are usually too pushy to buy the best item instead of one that will be good enough.
In my experience the answer to you question is Yes. Depends on the store, the day of the week, time of day, staff's attitude, and phase of the moon, whether you will have a pleasant experience. I have built a good rapport with my closest BB store. We've gotten TVs, laptops, kitchen appliances, videos, music, and car audio without a bad time anywhere. Two pieces of advise that have worked well are: 1.) Get the extended warranty plan for anything that costs more than a 12 pack of beer. 2.) Avoid the Geek Squad. My local BB shares a parking lot with Wal-Mart so they pretty much have to be competitive and their people are trained to be nice and not pushy. Many horror stories of other users will ensue no doubt. Much bashing and flame wars on other forums.
Out of interest, where abouts was this? I don't recall seeing anything like that around the Southampton area.
Decent selection of DVD's and TV's Poor selection of computer parts and overpriced on top of that. As others have said its a good place to go see some things in person before buying online.
Hedge End where the old Courts used to be - next to Jessops and Carphone Warehouse. Although I don't expect them to beat Internet prices it'll be good to see what an American company can provide in terms of prices since this is rip off Britian! I look forwards to it.
Best Buy = Rocketfish Floor model laptops and music CDs are mostly what I purchase from BB, anything PC related and I go to Fry's or Tigerdirect
Stay away from PC components unless they are usb hubs, Gfx cards have upwards of a 300% mark up in some cases (8600GTS was going for $180.00 a while back).
computer parts are terrible for prices, DVD/CD aren't too bad, TV good selection to try before you buy online, car audio is soso at best, kitchen appliances they have those?, laptops is ok but not great and the same for computers and monitors. The staff is almost always pushy and don't know what they're talking about. The only reason I go there is because I don't want to drive to the local mall (like it's any better) and to look at stuff I'll go online to buy later. The only things I've bought from them are games and I think a keyboard/mouse set
Best Buys are good for window shopping. Or looking at big a$$ stuff like HDTV's. Other then that, I don't typically shop there. They just tend to cost more then everywhere else. And on another note, they are tight fisted money mongers that have no souls.
They have reasonable prices, though you can normally go to small stores to get similar products for cheaper, such as tv's. You can bargain for prices IF you go for the service plans, which already stated are 100% profit and are a rip off. I worked for them, and never buy a warranty, though the replacement plans (1 year, if it breaks they give you a new product or a gift card worth the original value) is worth it if you know its going to get heavy use. Make sure you do your research before shopping, or you will be taken advantage of. All in all, they are an ok store, though after quiting I've decided to boycott them for my own personal reasons. Had some real issues with the warranty service that my parents fell for prior to me finding out the warranties are complete BS, and i've lost my faith in them. Also, a lot of the stuff that I actually had the time to talk with are not "experts" like they claim. Someone told a customer to go SLI because 2 is more than 1, so its better. No real explanation, the customer called him out on it then I stepped in to take over and he thanked me later. Also, managers when I dealt with them with a warranty issue on my brothers laptop were next to useless, the head manager made many promises that he never kept, the geek squad would tell us one thing, the manager another, then when a department manager got involved, all she said was the employees sign a petition to not lie, so they basically called us liars, then when we started to respond the phone rang and the manager ran off to "take the call" She never came back, and we made sure to call customer support. I've seen many issues with the geek services such as promises to have pc's ready by certain dates, then when the customer comes they say "it was an estimate, we didn't say come exactly this date, blah blah blah" I just felt that the salesmen are pushy, and utterly useless in most part. Most of their sound stuff is overpriced, on staff I was able to get some JBL speakers for a friend for 50 bucks for a boxed pair, they were selling them 99.99 on sale. Staff things were cost + 10%. They have really large write ups.
Oh my god... You're not the guy that came into my store in Gloucester and spent an entire hour walking around the floor with me, pointing out things that were much, much cheaper on the internet were you?
Ha no! I am banned from the Hedge End store (near where Best Buy is being built) since about a year ago. I had an arguement with the manager about the price promise. Something turned out cheaper if I bought from PC World and got a price match from a list of retailers (no p&p too). Printed out the price promise webpage and the other retailer price (think it was ebuyer) and got the item and checked out but the cashier didn't know what to do and hence got the manager. The convo was something along the lines of: Me: "Can I do a price promise please" Manager: "We don't do them" Me: "What do you mean? The website says it can be done in any store" Manager: "We don't do price promise" Me: "Why does the website say otherwise?" Manager: "The website is wrong" Me: "So why is it advertised then?" Manager: "I'm sorry, it's wrong" - he then walked away Me: "Hey, don't walk away from me, I want a price promise" Manager: "I'm afraid you are wrong" Me: "Are you saying I'm lying?" - slightly raised, shocked, voice Manager: "Yes, if you continue to argue with me you will be banned from the store" Me: "You are saying a customer is lying? Well I will be complaining to your bosses" Manager: "I am the boss" Me: "Only of this store, not of the chain!" Manager: "Please leave the store, you are no longer allowed in this store, leave or I will call security" I did not raise my voice significantly or swear or be agressive, I left the store. Sneaked in a few minutes later and bought the item anyway, the checkout girl (young, shy) was a bit stunned but served me anyway and I left. I did complain to PCWorld and they acknowledged I was correct and refunded me the difference plus 10% and compensated me to the sum of... £3ish. What an insult. I cashed it anyway. Even though I am banned I am never going inside a PCWorld, ever. Period.
What a twonk. All high-street electronics stores are ridiculous. I want a HDMI cable for my Xbox, the price in local stores ranges from £45 to infinity. I bought a 5m cable off the internet (Play.com) for £6.99.
