[fourboysplus]

I am proposing we declare a specific day "Kick a Futureshop/Bestbuy employee in the arse day"

Me: Hello do you have any 64gb playbooks in stock?
FS: No there are all sold out and we are not re-stocking.
Me: Oh, why?
FS: Well to be honest the PB is "garbage". It was meant to be an ipad killer and failed!
Me: Are you speaking from personal experience? Did you or do you own one?
FS: ...Well no.
Me: So your telling me its garbage yet you've spent no time with the device and you inform people based only on "word of mouth"
FS: Sorry we wont have any further stock.

Some employees are great but WOW is it every fustrating to hear them mis-inform people about a product!!!

I am kidding and do not condone violence towards another person

[diegonei]

FS is not BB/RIM. Your title is misleading.

Go and give them a hard time, but remember these people don't know $#1? of tech.

Since I'm here, how about "Give an actual RIM top level guy some useful feedback day?"

[cogsinister]

FS is owned by Bestbuy.

[slalom]

I think the OP meant Futureshop/Bestbuy by FS/BB (not BlackBerry).

I had a similar experience yesterday in Futureshop.

I was also told in Walmart that they wouldn't be carrying it, they only have 1 in stock, and the one that they have is unsold boxing day inventory.

[fourboysplus]

FS is owned by Bestbuy.

Exactly, My conversation was with a Futureshop employee yet I included Bestbuy in my rant LOL.

[diegonei]

I would never guess. Guess we really see what we want to see!

[cdelcampo216]

If I've said it once... I've said it a thousand times... STAY AWAY from Best Buy!!! Their employees are as useful as a Bomb Shelter without a can opener!!!



This Public Service Announcement has been brought to you by someone who follows technology!

[badboygt]

A short while ago I walked into a FS store and asked an "ASSociate" for 2 16GB models since they were on sale .. he told me exactly the same thing .. 'end of product .. we won't carry any more etc.'. Rather than getting upset, I just walked over to the customer service counter, expressed my dissatisfaction at the ASSociate's knowledge of product and company policies (they were in the circular .. ergo they had to have them) and ordered 2 units .. which were received one (1) day later.

Moral fo the story .. don't even bother with these guys .. they don't know their ASSociates from their elbow.

[thymaster]

Seriously, if I was going to ask these FS salesmen their opinions I would have ask but I guess they just can't keep their mouths shut. The simple question was, is there stock? The easy answer is "yes" or "no".

They make a positive sale into a negative sale. It doesn't benefit them if they take their Android fan boy attitude to work. At the end of the day, they are the sale and the money. Discouraging sales of PlayBooks just makes them look even more foolish in front of the customers that are looking for a sale and already knows what they want. They probably spend more time persuading people to be anti-RIM then hitting their sales quotas.

[Motoberg]

Firstly to the OP, best thread title Ive read on here in ages, thanks for making me grin

secondly, do you think these employees just assume you have done zero research and dont know your own mind so if they tell you the PB is pants you'll say "oooo ok then" and instantly but an iFirepadtopbook from them so they still get a sale ?

Just a thought, but then again there is wine involved in this thought process

[Angus_CB]

I've seen this thread several times over the last couple of months.
Different threads but the same content.
I've said before, this is RIM's problem. It's common knowledge that these store employees are being told or are assuming that the Playbook is a dead product. I don't know how many times I've been told RIM is going out of business.
The RIM sales reps. have to be hearing this too.
It's up to RIM to kill these rumours by talking directly with their resellers and assuring them that they are alive and well and so are their products.

[jmurph66]

Stories like this one make me so frustrated with Future Shop, mostly because I work there, and secondly because the sales associate turned down a sale.
At Future Shop sales associates are commission based, and almost every sale they do will be for commission, so by telling a customer that product is garbage then the associate is pretty much telling the customer they don't want to make that sale.

If I could offer a tip to anyone that wants to buy a Playbook from Future Shop and the associate tells you they are at the end of the life cycle or they are not selling them anymore follow these steps

1) Ask the associate to show you in the system that that store does not have any stock of the Playbook. If they don't ask them to find a store near by that does.

2) If they won't do that for you or you don't feel like being pushy with the associate, ask to speak to the manager. Let them know the story, and ask them to get one for you. From my experiences working at Future Shop the manager wants to make the sale, and will even get the product for you.

3) If all those options don't work for you, go and ask for help from another department. When the original associate sees you with another sales associate it makes them feel like an idioit . Which is what we all want to happen to the idiotic sales associates that won't take a sale.

I would also recommend telling the store manager how you were treated even after the sale. It always helps when the customer tells the management about terrible sales staff. One other thing you can do as well is fill out the survey on the bottom of the receipt, those surveys go right to the management team, and are used to track customer feed back. So by filling one of those in with a negative review of the sales associate, the management team can see how that person is not competent in their role.
Hope that helps some of the frustrated people out there.

[pelletizer]

I called Telus to get in on the sale there and the guy I spoke with said if I didnt have a blackberry there was no point in buying one.

[Chaddface]

Can I add staples to that list.
I was just about laughed at when I went in looking for discounted rapid chargers.
There were two associates talking and when I asked where the PB accessories went he said to me "You bought one" They turned and smiled at each other. I was then told that their manager bought one. I remarked you could learn something from him and maybe you should go get him. The smiles went away fast.
The manager was very helpful and I made no mention of the two idiots that greeted me. Some employees are there to collect a check and couldn't care less about service.

[blackhawksfan75]

This kind of reminds of how Future Shop is with monster cables. They will push the monster cables down your throat even though the $10 Phillips HDMI cords from Walmart would be sufficient.

I know they are two different entities as one is a tablet and the other is accessories, but the salespeople follow the same principle sell the highest ticketed item. The policy goes something like this. In this case the tablet. First if the consumer doesn't have a clue sell them hottest and highest priced item on the market (iPad). If the customer has done some research but still undecided offer the choice of an Android. If the customer knows exactly what he/she wants but it is NOT a primary seller then use the "we have no stock" answer.

[Canuck671]

I was in sales and I would have sold you a freakin NEWTON if that's what you wanted - if I could have gotten one.

But yes, most of these "salespeople" are misinformed, and management can't be blamed, they have to work with what they have.



Besides, I think the government reimburses some of the pay for hiring the mentally deficient. (JUST KIDDING......Maybe)

[fourboysplus]

If this thread keeps growing I will send an email to as many Future Shop/Best Buy employees as possible. The email would contain a link to this thread LOL

[FSeverino]

Of the dozen i called no one seemed like this. But one guy litteraly said 'man these things are going like crazy and if we get more imma pick one up' telus guy at dufferin mall in toronto lol

[Jean-luc_Picard]

Most of the Future Shop/Best Buy employees I've dealt with have been more of the only having so much knowledge and having to spread that out among Tablets, laptops, TVs, games, movies, sound systems, etc. and from that rarely knowing enough about any one thing except what they use to be of any use to anyone but the least techy people. The nice ones are the ones who ask right upfront if we'd like any help, and walk away if the answer's no. The really annoying ones are the ones who picked up a couple of "facts" and from that are convinced they know everything there is to know about everything even remotely related...

[azrin640]

Send a complaint with url of this thread to

"Customer Services
For all other enquiries and post-sale care, contact Customer Services on 0208 905 1555 or by email to [email protected]. (Usual response time is within 24 hours although we normally respond within an hour during office hours).
Complaints should be addressed to Rebecca North and emailed to [email protected] "

[barkomatic]

Gosh, I guess I just don't get that angry over uninformed salespeople. Best Buy is a decent place to get electronics, but its long been established you must do your own research and not rely on a salesperson for information.

When I've decided on an item, the only thing the salesperson does for me is retrieve the product.

[olblueyez]

I'm not sure what everyone expects from a sales clerk in BestBuy. They don't really make enough cash to be motivated enough to keep abrest of all the new gagets. People ask them 900 questions every day so most of them make the stuff up as they go and once in awhile you get lucky enough to get one who wants to find the correct answers or obsesses over all the specs.

If you don't read up on the stuff and you follow them blindly than it couldn't have been important right?

[barkomatic]

I'm not sure what everyone expects from a sales clerk in BestBuy. They don't really make enough cash to be motivated enough to keep abrest of all the new gagets. People ask them 900 questions every day so most of them make the stuff up as they go and once in awhile you get lucky enough to get one who wants to find the correct answers or obsesses over all the specs.

If you don't read up on the stuff and you follow them blindly than it couldn't have been important right?

This. Also, I think most of the people on this thread know all about their PB because they *own* one and have obsessed over it. If the tables turned and one was to ask any of the PB enthusiasts here what the exact specs are for a particular android tablet they couldn't give that to you off the top of their head either. They'd have to look it up online.

Best Buy employees can't afford most of the gadgets the store sells, so I think one should keep that in mind before getting all high and mighty on someone.

[xKrNMBoYx]

Best Buy employees can do you no good..especially in the PC/Tablet/E-Reader department. Their clueless, or seriously biased and really only say stuff by the price tag. The best thing to do is do your research over the web, and go there to test the product only to see what kind of experience that device will give you.

Obviously you can't do that with the Playbook as out of 10 different Best Buy I have went to their playbook would not turn on as it was out of battery due to broken usb port.

[xKrNMBoYx]

I'm not sure what everyone expects from a sales clerk in BestBuy. They don't really make enough cash to be motivated enough to keep abrest of all the new gagets. People ask them 900 questions every day so most of them make the stuff up as they go and once in awhile you get lucky enough to get one who wants to find the correct answers or obsesses over all the specs.

If you don't read up on the stuff and you follow them blindly than it couldn't have been important right?

Why the would they work in that specific department then? There are other jobs out there with similar wage. There are a lot of people out there would like to work at Best Buy's PC/Tablet department that are well informed about the technology.

I agree that Tablet technology is a little bit harder to be informed on, but it's not horribly hard. There is a basic template that most tablet manufacturers go by as far as cpu, ram, screen resolution, size goes.

But computers are too simple to not know. All you have to know is CPU (GHz, Cores, Brand), GPU(Memory,Speed,Name), Screen (Type, Resolution, Angles), Size(Case/Body), RAM(Amount,Speed), HDD/SDD(RPM), and Battery. With that you can answer people's questions, and find the best by their needs. I'd be asking too much for them to know what kind of wireless adapter it has inside, or if it has a mpcie/msata, etc.

My last comment is most of the specs are on the price tag card. You're going to have time to mess around with them when there are no customers, so you would know the basic feeling of using the item.

But I have no idea why I am agreeing with the OP. I have yet to have any problem with a BB employee not knowing the answer to my questions. I usually do my research and know enough about the products at BB. One aspect I don't like BB is that they don't have a large variety..(but thats what Newegg is for)