[truel1111]

Here in Canada, you can buy PB from Walmart, The Source, Costco, Future Shop. If BB is not getting any new shipment is because they bad mouth about PB. Everyone else is getting from PB shipments and make $199 quick sale.

[Flexin]

I went into BestBuy to get a price match on something I bought Christmas Eve, and the customer service girl looked at me, laughed a little, and said "Sucks to be you". I will NEVER be back to BestBuy ..... Futureshop with match thier prices and has much better service.

Futureshop is a Best Buy company. They were bought out years ago.

James

[Flexin]

All the big-boxstores i go to, like best buy, target etc., have beautiful apple setups for the ipad iphone etc. I go to the same stores and the playbooks are either broken or not even on display. The local bestbuy near me has multiple kindle fires but not one playbook. I also blame rims retail reps, which I dont even believe exist. P.s. im really irritated that the playbook doesn't make the letter "I" capitalized automatically, spell check doesnt work, doesnt automatically insert apostrophes in contractions.

Apple pays for the floor space to display Apple products in some stores. They pay for the fancy displays.

James

[Delirious D]

I ordered a PB for myself on the BlackBerry site the other day and decided I would pick one up for my mom as well. She is getting ready to go into radiation treatment for 6 weeks and I thought it would be a good way to stay connected and make a good entertainment device, praying she isn't too weak. She is getting a Curve as well and I thought why not pair them to get the full experience.

It was pretty chaotic and I regretted going into Best Buy today but waited patiently for a blue shirt. After about 20min I intercepted an employee and said I would like to buy a PB.

Her response was and I quote "Why would you want that one? They are discontinued and will not be getting any updates ever. That one is obsolete." She then informed me there were none in stock anyways. You had to be there to believe the tone she took like I had to be the biggest fool on the planet for wanting a PB. She looked at me like I had three heads.

I am going to go elsewhere and still get a PB for mom but I am in total disbelief and had to share.

OMG what a B. straight up hater mode. cant stand it. when i pull out my bb people i know laugh at me. at the end of the day my bb is the one still with green battery. my bb makes sure i get ALL my emails real time. PLUS FB,twitter, tumblr, yahoo, foursquare,getglue, not to mention i get to speak to fams in other countries without extra cost with bbm.

i've had a taste of just about every platform. my BB has been the most dependable OS/ communication wise and physically.

[Delirious D]

Today being the last day of the year, we've been told to go buy any devices or software that we may need for the next few months (for tax reasons). I went down to Best Buy this morning to buy a couple of Samsung Galaxy Players (great for testing apps), a few iPads, and a couple Galaxy tabs.

I asked if they had any PBs left and I got the same quizzical look. "We're not carrying that any longer".

marry me. lol jp

[VanCity778]

I feel for the OP. I went thru the same BS when i bought mine. I went to 3 stores and all of them gave me a dirty look when i asked about a PB. Even when it came to an Android they all asked me "Are you sure you don't want the ipad2" ?

Everywhere i went people were shoving an ipad2 down my throat. If i wanted to join the Apple Cult i would start with an iphone.

[Delirious D]

I don't mind when a salezperson doesn't know what they are talking aboutif they admit it.
It's when they insist they do that bothers me.

i love going into sprint. and selling myself a product hahaha. my bf does the same at best buy and conns. we out smart the employees and watch the blank look on their faces lol.

[Delirious D]

very similar experience in new york at a best buy. they had a broken playbook there and didn't even care about fixing it. people were trying to use it but they tried to just steer them away to something else. then they had not one accessory for it either. they made me so upset that day because in the span of ten minutes probably 5 people came and tried to use it but couldn't because it was broke and broke in a way that only a store could've fixed.

we should go post up with ours. lol we're the test models.

[panterarck]

I was at BB last week with a friend trying to get a cheap tablet for his kids to play around with. The playbook display was broken and the potential customers wanted to check it out but all the BB employee did was apologize. I went over and whipped mine out and let em go for a test run. Bridged it and sbowed em all the features. They would have sold 3 by the time I was done......if they had any in stock

[RUFFSTUFF1]

Best Buy employees do not work on a commission. Besides, it is not like they are a different breed of people or something... They are no different from us and I'm sure there's a few people or more who have similar opinions on RIM's future as posted here...

[itr themes]

Ugh...I had a bad experience with Worst Buy today as well. I'll skip the long part about trying to return an external hard drive that I got as a gift, so didn't have a receipt for (hint, I couldn't)..... Anyway, I went straight to the tablets, knowing that I was going to get a PB. I looked around all of the displays, but didn't see one at first. Then I saw a blank display (no price, no info, no RIM/BB logo, nothing) with a broken PB on it. I asked the kid if he had one that would power up so I can look at it. He said that "that's been broken for months" and then got the same "we don't even carry those anymore" nonsense that everyone else is saying in this thread.

Now I remember why I boycott that store every time I go in there :P I probably won't go in there anymore, unless I can take that damn 1.5TB hard drive back for $160 store credit, and only have to pay $40 for them to order me a PB. Unless of course that deal ends tomorrow, then I guess I'll just have a hard drive that I don't need, and still no PB.

[downphoenix]

there customer service is terrible, if not for the lack of good selection of electronics they have I would have no reason to go there honestly. And they were the first stop I have with wanting to buy a new computer twice due to the great inventory, but unknowledgable and poor sales staff made me take my business elsewhere, first pc purchase was circuit cityback when they were in business, second time I ordered direct from HP.

[BestBuyAndrew]

Ugh...I had a bad experience with Worst Buy today as well. I'll skip the long part about trying to return an external hard drive that I got as a gift, so didn't have a receipt for (hint, I couldn't)..... Anyway, I went straight to the tablets, knowing that I was going to get a PB. I looked around all of the displays, but didn't see one at first. Then I saw a blank display (no price, no info, no RIM/BB logo, nothing) with a broken PB on it. I asked the kid if he had one that would power up so I can look at it. He said that "that's been broken for months" and then got the same "we don't even carry those anymore" nonsense that everyone else is saying in this thread.

Now I remember why I boycott that store every time I go in there :P I probably won't go in there anymore, unless I can take that damn 1.5TB hard drive back for $160 store credit, and only have to pay $40 for them to order me a PB. Unless of course that deal ends tomorrow, then I guess I'll just have a hard drive that I don't need, and still no PB.

The original receipt, gift receipt or packing slip is required for all returns and exchanges. If returning or exchanging an item in a Best Buy store, a valid photo ID is also required.

You can't return items without a receipt.
I honestly have seen a Playbook from our DC in over a month. So most associates have a good reason to believe that the Playbook is discontinued.

[brucep1]

You can't return items without a receipt.
I honestly have seen a Playbook from our DC in over a month. So most associates have a good reason to believe that the Playbook is discontinued.

yes I had a sneaking suspiscion this was true, best buy doesnt really want to sell this because they dont really make any money off them. Makes business sense to mw.

[espresso1967]

my daughter wanted to trade in her kindle fire for playbook after testing it for christmas. she liked my playbook better. went to best buy for exchange and was advised none in stock in los angeleles and they would no longer be stocking it. got our money back went radio shack same story none in stock and would not be getting any more. went to office depot and finally two left, well one after we bought one for mydaughter. interesting that this is going on. well there are two playbooks in the familynow and one ipad2

[RUFFSTUFF1]

People still shop in stores for electronics? Interesting... I ordered our 2 from Walmart.com and got them in 4 days a month ago. Lucky, I guess.

[inicophone]

I'd report this to RIM! Let them know what sales reps are saying in stores.

[smittyns]

Ottawa, Ontario Best Buy AND fUTURE SHOP had a pretty good setup this week. Thay had a cage full of PB's near the checkouts and you just lined up and paid. I got some hilarious advice in a smaller town tho : U need a blackberry phone to use the PB Sir..LOL I laughed in his face and educated him a little bit. Love my 16 GB so far.. and I feel tempted to buy the 32 GB for 250... hmmmmm.

In my case, two days ago, the Halifax BB employee talked me into the PB - he recommended the 32 gb and I took the 16 gb. He had a great sales pitch and talked from personal experience. Yesterday I returned the 16 gb and bought a 32 gb - had to do it while the sale was still on. I talked to a chap who had bought 3 Kobo Voxs for his kids for Xmas - all 3 malfunctioned. BB sold him 3 BB 16s for the sale price of the Voxs - $179

So I had a great experience with the BB team.

PShttp://cdn-forums.crackberry.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

[kevinnugent]

RIM don't care. You aren't their client, the telco's are. I have a feeling they only begrudgingly sell through re-sellers like Best Buy

[addicted44]

I have read tons of posts in tons of threads about how Best Buy has an anti-PB conspiracy. I have not heard any discussion about realistic reasons why. Best Buy purchases, or at least, used to purchase PBs for resale. Why would they, or any other company, systematically sabotage their own bottom line by talking down one of their showcase products? If they don't like the product, they don't have to sell it. There has to be a good reason they would actively discourage sales of their products. I can think of one.

Returns. I have not seen any numbers for returns, so I don't know if that is a problem or not. But that is one very good reason why retailers turn agains a product. Returns cost money and hurt reputation. Once a product gets a stigma for being returned, or unreliable, or any such thing, reps will steer customers to items that have low returns and high satisfaction. Does anyone have any insight into the situation, or should we just go back to complaining?

For the record, I hate Best Buy too, just not for the same reasons.

Thanks for this post. Some of the conspiracy theories on this board are amazing to hear. Other reasons why Best Buy is not pushing PBs could be:

1) They genuinely believe that the PB is a dead end product. No point using up valuable floor space building a product which you can't even sell in a year. Considering that the Playbook seems to be following the HP Touchpad script almost perfectly, this is not a far out assumption (in fact, believing the Playbook will be around a year from now after having experienced many rounds of loss making fire sales requires a far greater leap of faith).

2) Accessories attach rates. There just aren't as many accessories for the Playbook as for the iPad, for example. Best Buy makes most of its money by selling accessories, and if a Playbook customer buys less accessories, then it's definitely not in Best Buy's interest to push it.

3) Features. Reality is that the playbook is highly underpowered compared to other tablets without having a blackberry to bridge it to. The majority of customers who enter a Best Buy are unlikely to have a Blackberry, so for the vast majority of the cases selling a customer a playbook is a bad idea. So Best Buy decides to completely ignore the small minority of cases when it is a good idea.

[addicted44]

Apple pays for the floor space to display Apple products in some stores. They pay for the fancy displays.

James

And the training. And they are also very strict about how the in-store setups should be, and will cut a reseller out completely if they fail to meet Apple's standards.

[omniusovermind]

What a nice coincidence. I just happened to be in Best Buy last night helping a girlfriend shop for a TV. When I went over to look at Playbooks I was told they were out and may have a couple left in the warehouse. The clerk then proceeded to tell me that Blackberry will be out of business in 2012 and that there's no reason for them to carry anymore Playbooks. He told that to the wrong person as I replied that Best Buy will be out of business before Blackberry as they are committing the same mistakes Circuit City made which is pathological lying to its prospective customers. When three other clerks convened to gang up on me they were surprised that I'm too well versed for them to win an argument about the superior qualities of the Playbook. I don't even have one yet but am looking forward to getting one when OS2 comes with the device.

wow...just...wow. If I was in any store and their staff started acting like that to me, I'd have freaking lost my mind on them first, then proceeded to go on an anger fest at their boss about the manners, behavior, not to mention continued employment of his/her subordinates. Unbelievable.

Now as far as the rumors go, I thought we had already squelched this nonsense, considering that their hasn't been a single credible source other than the general John Q Public (I don't consider even popular tech blog websites as credible). Having developers working on a OS2 release is certainly not indicative of 'discontinuation'. As a comparison, last spring we've seen a huge number popular tech and business blogs along the lines of Engadget, CNET, TechRadar and such trumpeting the arrival of "iPhone 5" in summer 2011 and that never came to pass. I don't buy into those articles unless there's been an official firm announcement from the manufacturer themselves. And in this case, that official announcement is Playbook OS2, not discontinuation.

[app_Developer]

And the training. And they are also very strict about how the in-store setups should be, and will cut a reseller out completely if they fail to meet Apple's standards.

And they have mystery buyers who randomly check on resellers (and their own stores).

These are the things that RIM needs to adjust to as they evolve from being a vendor to carriers.

[omniusovermind]

3) Features. Reality is that the playbook is highly underpowered compared to other tablets without having a blackberry to bridge it to. The majority of customers who enter a Best Buy are unlikely to have a Blackberry, so for the vast majority of the cases selling a customer a playbook is a bad idea. So Best Buy decides to completely ignore the small minority of cases when it is a good idea.

who's reality is this? I can access every file and directory on my Android phone from the PB over a fast WiFi connection without even being connected to the internet on either device. Underpowered? At 1GB of RAM, a smooth and very well received OS, and the dual-core OMAP 4430 CPU which is also a known powerhouse, how is this even remotely underpowered? Basically your argument falls back to what it always falls back to around here: fewer apps and no native email. It might surprise you just how many people there really are that this isn't a deal breaker for.

From what I've been able to tell, the popularity of tablets appears to me to have a direct correlation to the level of technical know-how of the average consumer. But that's my own personal observations, not based on any empirical facts of any sort. It's easy to see how the Playbook is going to suffer in its current form when most of the market are coming from their app-loaded android and apple phones as their base of comparison and seem to have this view of tablets as "big phones". Curiously enough, I've never felt the need to install so many "apps" on my PC. I wonder why that is...

[BBThaigurl]

I not understand why people can do.