[thedark722]

BestBuy just stinks in the product knowledge department:

Best Buy sucks at product recognition: Wireless Keyboard for TouchPad, iPad sold separately

[Sonic77]

That was funny, but the Touchpad sure looks identical to the original ipad indeed.

[drethos]

i may have a job in the bestbuy in big flats new york because im a techno nut. when i bought my samsung galaxy tab i knew more about tablets in general then anybody in the store. the guy wanted to hire me right then and there and put me in computers, what most of the employees lack is general knowledge. whats sad is marketing seems to lack that too going by the article.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mpmtkd]

If you're in Canada, I believe its last weeks (or last day, today) Best Buy's flyer, states a motorola xoom cover but shows a playbook in the picture... *sigh*

[shootsscores]

An interesting development in this digital age is that many co.s don't "paste up" their own print material but offshore it to third parties. Even newspapers now do this.

[mathprof08]

Is there such a thing as a good 'Best' Buy experience? I have yet to see one in the wild.

[edidid]

Best Buy in general just sucks and I am between the two flagship stores near their HQ. I asked about the journal case only to be sent away with the line "if we don't have it you don't want it." That was even from a manager who apparently does not wish to sell things in a retail store.

Their music instrument sub-stores are amazingly nice though (in my area anyway). No commission so honest information and they clearance instruments after 6 months or so, which no other music store would do. Heck they even set a tenor ukulele away for me so that I could get the one I wanted 2 weeks later when it was going on clearance half off.

For technology it is better to avoid Best Buy entirely.

[uci2ci]

their technical knowledge is kinda weak, i asked a geek squad guy for ddr3 ram and he said they only make ddr2 (and they sell macbook pros!!!), another time i asked an employee for a usb to rj45 converter for macbook air, and he said they dont make it. i knew what was up so i said usb to ethernet, "yes we do have that"....their video game departmemt guys are cool as **** though, at least from my experience.

i bought my playbook from best buy because of no restocking fee. i exchanged 2 times, one had 3 dead pixels, one had a backlight problems where whites were pretty much yellow

[mathprof08]

For technology it is better to avoid Best Buy entirely.

I couldn't have said it better myself, except to replace the word 'technology' with 'everything.'

[ac_freeman]

These days I tend to do all of my pre-purchase research on the internet and forums such as this and then buy from the large retailers for convenience. I bought my PB from Best Buy on a recent visit to the States after reading this Forum for a couple of weeks.........so I was well aware of the many issues - in, paid and out again. Here in the UK I often get exasperated by retailers either not stocking what you want or are out of stock - nobody has the charging cradle, logged onto Amazon, special offer almost GBP20.00 off, arrived 2 days later....perfect.

Andy

[esqlaw]

Best buy has been going downhill. I used to work at one back in the day and when new products were being released, the staff was educated at least to a degree of competence before opening. But I bet if RIM was microsoft releasing a new windows OS, things would've been different.

[killa4luv]

I bought from best buy because their insurance policy is the best. I have 2 years, if this thing breaks I can bring it back and get what will probably be a 32 or 64 gb for the same money (because the prices will have dropped). Its hard to beat that.

I dont need their expertise but the average consumer does. They dont get paid commission so they dont really have an incentive to be super knowledgable. I think its a problem with their business model.

[mathprof08]

Office Depot offers the same coverage, and they usually know what they're talking about. They are automatically way ahead of the game by not being 'Best' Buy.

[Eli_B]

I was at a Best Buy in Brooklyn last week and I went to check out the Playbook. I must have been standing there playing with it for a good 20 minutes or so (the store was not that crowded) and NOT ONE REP came up to me and asked me if I needed any help or had any questions. I've never experienced such rude service before. I wound up asking OTHER CUSTOMERS for help and advice on the PB.

Then, when I wanted to know how much it would cost to see if I had enough money to pay for it, the rep I asked was rude and snotty about the whole thing.

Needless to say, I refused to buy it there. I bought it off of eBay for $418 with free shipping.

[esqlaw]

I bought from best buy because their insurance policy is the best. I have 2 years, if this thing breaks I can bring it back and get what will probably be a 32 or 64 gb for the same money (because the prices will have dropped). Its hard to beat that.

I dont need their expertise but the average consumer does. They dont get paid commission so they dont really have an incentive to be super knowledgable. I think its a problem with their business model.

I went to BB and preordered it and day 1 I came back and the same dude had no idea it was even out.

[kbz1960]

I stopped by inept worstbuy today and they had 2 playbooks. One didn't work at all and the other they couldn't get registered. No wonder no one wants them with crap like that.

I then stopped at Office Max and at least they had a working one but not updated so it felt real slow to reorient and in a few other things. I opened videos and the browser, which they had to connect to a myfi or something first and went to youtube. I then started the video that comes with it and and went to the browser, the video paused in the background.

I said, oh you don't have this in showcase mode? What is that? So I showed him. Wow RIM really needs to train these people, again no wonder no one wants one.

I want one even more now but still going to wait a bit and see what happens.

[togardergrosse]

When I traveled to US, I asked my friends to drive me to BestBuy and they laugh at me! They keep saying that I should go to Radioshack or Office Depot. Since I already write the list of things to buy from BestBuy website, I cancelled my plan. *sigh* I was impressed with the BestBuy vending machine in the airport that I intended to visit the actual store myself..

[calcareer]

The weekend before the release of the Playbook in the U.S., Best Buy had an ad in their Sunday newspaper flyer advertising the new Playbook.
I went into Best Buy on release day and not a single person knew what the Playbook was. I even showed them the ad.
I went across the street to Staples and bought one on the spot.

[snowindec9]

tell me about it.i went to one with my dad and one employee says what what is that?then he changes his mind completely and says oh we are out of them,out of stock.then i go in the front of the store and ask, and the employee there says oh we are out of shipment.but you should wait for the new one coming out soon.a new one seriously?im like wow what a bunch of fools.they had no common sense knowledge whatsoever.but after all that i went to best buy that gave me pb right on the spot.but in my opinion some best buy employees should be fired for not knowing a specific product.

[vespajet]

I bought my PlayBook at Best Buy because they were the only place around me that had the 32GB one. The WalMarts I went to only had the 16GB ones and I didn't attempt Radio Shack because the one by me is run by folks that couldn't get hired on at BestBuy (Plus I didn't need 5 year's worth of AA batteries.). Why is when you actually need help at BestBuy, it's downright difficult to get it? I was about ready to walk when finally someone finally asked if I needed help.

Geek Squad is a damn joke at my local BestBuy. I actually paid to have a screen protector put on my PlayBook, and neither so-called geek was good at putting them on. Got that refunded since I was not going to pay for that since it would probably be worst than I could myself.

[jimpalmer3]

I also had a bad experience here in the Florida panhandle on the day after the release. They had a demo PlayBook and had not updated the OS. I couldn't get the bridge to function (which is a deal breaker for me). I mentioned that the OS needed to be updated and they pretty much didn't care. They also only had a couple of 16GBs and told me I had to order the 32 or 64 from their internet site.

Well, I went to the other side of the mall to Office Depot. They had a demo with up-to-date OS and the bridge connected with no problems. They also had all three sizes. So, I chose to give them my business and out came my credit card!

I must say I had a great experience with Best Buy during the holiday when I bought a new TV. The guy I dealt with was very knowledgeable and helped me get a good deal. The Geek Squad also were great in getting it all set up. It's sad that my experience was the exact opposite when it came to the PlayBook.

I wonder if part of the problem is that they are handling the PlayBook in the cell phone department/area, whereas the istuff is back with the computers. Don't know if that would make a difference, but something needs to change.

[kbz1960]

Exactly when your normal consumer that doesn't know very much goes in and see this they will move on to something else and not even think about it. That thing doesn't even work and this one is soooo much better.

RIM should be PO'd or maybe RIM is the problem? Either way if they want to sell them something needs to change!

[lexisnight]

It's been a while and I hate to start things off w/ a negative post but here goes. Fairly large BB here in Mass had one device that sent off the alarm anytime you touched it. The other had a landscape oriented screen showing only in portrait mode. Everything was smooshed and it just looked like garbage. I just wanted to try one though I knew I was there to purchase. No help whatsoever from the employees--they knew nothing about when a demo PB would be fixed or replaced. RIM should be all over this problem and soon. Scratch that, I mean like yesterday. Makes me think BestBuy wants customers diverted to any tablet but the PB. What is their cut of the sales not high enough or something?

[kbz1960]

Sure seems like something is keeping them from even caring about the playbook. I told the guy(s) that I talked to that the playbook was the only one that I was interested in so they didn't try to steer me to something else.

As I was going out the door I told them it's hard to sell something to someone when they can't even try it so you just lost a sale to me and RIM should be PO'd at you.

[vespajet]

I also had a bad experience here in the Florida panhandle on the day after the release. They had a demo PlayBook and had not updated the OS. I couldn't get the bridge to function (which is a deal breaker for me). I mentioned that the OS needed to be updated and they pretty much didn't care. They also only had a couple of 16GBs and told me I had to order the 32 or 64 from their internet site.

Well, I went to the other side of the mall to Office Depot. They had a demo with up-to-date OS and the bridge connected with no problems. They also had all three sizes. So, I chose to give them my business and out came my credit card!

I must say I had a great experience with Best Buy during the holiday when I bought a new TV. The guy I dealt with was very knowledgeable and helped me get a good deal. The Geek Squad also were great in getting it all set up. It's sad that my experience was the exact opposite when it came to the PlayBook.

I wonder if part of the problem is that they are handling the PlayBook in the cell phone department/area, whereas the istuff is back with the computers. Don't know if that would make a difference, but something needs to change.

The Best Buy locations I've been to here in the Atlanta area had all of the tablets (iPad, Xoom, PlayBook, etc.) in a section within the computer department. The Office Depot by my house was in the middle of resetting their display for tablets so you really had no idea what tablets they even had in stock as there weren't any display units on the floor. The folks at that Office Depot make the folks at my local Best Buy look downright intelligent (A few years back, I bought a netbook there and before I decided to get the one I wanted, I asked the guy that worked in the computer department if the battery was a three cell or a six cell and had to look the product up on their website. Info like that should be on the product card in front of the item on the shelf.).

The Best Buy I bought my PlayBook at had it in the 16 GB and the 32 GB sizes, but the guy wasn't even sure they had the 32 GB in stock because he said their inventory tracking software was not 100% accurate (Based on my experiences on their website, that's the damn truth, as I've seen items in my local Best Buy that their website said was either unavailable or out of stock at.).

I try to avoid Best Buy as much as I can, but with certain items, I want to be able to handle them before I make a purchase (Things like cameras, a computer mouse, laptop/netbook, tablet, cell phone.) and Best Buy is my only option without driving to the other side of town to somewhere like Fry's.