Wow - Experience I just had at Best Buy trying to get a PB

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 That one is obsolete."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.

You should have told her to quit her jibber-jabber because she doesn't know crap.

It's probably not her fault, she was probably just born like that. (Born stupid)

When stores are out of one thing, their clerks are trained to convince customers they really wanted whatever the store does have in stock :) That said, rumors are flying about the Playbook's future; but, they are just rumors at this point...

This is the 5th person I heard the exact same thing from. I myself was told the same thing and this has to be coming from best buy internally or there has to be a reason that this is so consistent at Best Buys all over the country. Is it the commission the Sales reps are paid on other products or is this in fact what Best Buy Management believes? Either way it is bull .. All the research you do and statements from RIM demonstrate that they are committed to the device and I think the Playbook is an awesome device. The media and public perception of the device is tainted with rumors and pure crap. Everyone I know that has had an Ipad and then a Playbook all say the playbook hands down is a better device. They don't even touch the Ipad any more. RIM has to get strong with their upcoming Marketing Plans.. $100 Million dollar marketing campaign better make a difference and better put an end to the lies and non believers. We should all record Best buy Employees telling their lies to customers and Post that all over the web and give RIM the ammo they need to address this with the retailers. Would be a great story for the New York Times or Wall street Journal. "Best Buy Lie" that consumers rely on.

Your experience sad to say is not unique. There are many including myself that have had to train or teach sales people of the benefits and strengths of the PB. I actually "fixed" the display model in one Best Buy. The sales person said it wasn't working. I powered it up, bridged it to my phone, showed him how it could access your phones data without having to pay for an additional plan, emailed him from the PB using my phones email, and had him watch a You Tube video that I streamed. Then I connected to their WiFi and set it up to update the OS.
Needless to say he was not aware of what the PB could do.

Unfortunately this experience with BestBuy is similar to what us early buyers have been going through from day one .....It didn't discourage me. I still got me one and I luv it

Originally Posted by Unsure2

When stores are out of one thing, their clerks are trained to convince customers they really wanted whatever the store does have in stock :) That said, rumors are flying about the Playbook's future; but, they are just rumors at this point...

BIG difference between imposing her opinion on a customer "Why would you want that one?" vs what you are referring to "convince customers they really wanted whatever the store does have in stock" by saying something like "Sorry, we don't have those in stock. May I interest you in something else we have in stock?"

BIG DIFFERENCE......;)

have to say that its slightly worrying if this is a national thing comming from all Best Buy's and not just a isolated incident.

"no smoke without fire" think a categorical statement from RIM would provide re-assurance

You would think that RIM would be in contact with Best Buy and as such it may be that Best Buy do have more details. I recall someone on here yesterday saying that a retailer was not re-stocking the Playbook, maybe if this not through the retailer choice i.e. their unable to re-stock then you have to put two and two together.

Worrying

A Best Buy employee told me the PlayBook was being discontinued too. That was a month or so ago. I reported it here.

Originally Posted by Unsure2

When stores are out of one thing, their clerks are trained to convince customers they really wanted whatever the store does have in stock :) That said, rumors are flying about the Playbook's future; but, they are just rumors at this point...

This is RIMs problem. It's the RIM retail rep that is supposed to quash rumors and promote the sales of their products.

Originally Posted by cgull

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 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.

One more reason I don't like Best Buy! Since Circuit City close they are the only game on town and they are taking full advantage of that. I would rather wait three weeks for an electronic device from an online merchant before I shop at Best Buys. Secondly over the last few years I have notice that the employees of such stores like Best Buy don't seem to know ANYTHING and I mean nothing. I no longer ask store employees for advice and help becasue they don't know $hit and they don't care about their job enough to research the products they sell. Sorry you had such a terrible experience, I would just go to shop Blackberry and get one for $199 for a 16GB the sale ends 12/31/2011. I know they have gotten a bad rap but I ordered mine from SBB and got it without any problems. :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".

Regardless of what the real RIM story is an employee of Best Buy should be more professional than that. Especially when they dont know what they're talking about.

Isnt it fun having to reeducate those who believe everything they hear as opposed to what they learn on their own and experience? I actually enjoy enlightening them and see the glow come to their faces.

The best to you and your Mom and prayers for her recovery. A playbook would certainly make it easier... if you cant get one she may enjoy the simplicity of a kindle fire if she's not all that techie.
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Originally Posted by vedwardsiii

Regardless of what the real RIM story is an employee of Best Buy should be more professional than that. Especially when they dont know what they're talking about.

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.

Don't believe the stuff you hear out of BestLie rep's mouths. The only reason I will step into a BestLie, is when I know exactly what I want and I've researched and unfortunately they have the best price, which isn't often or I get a gift certificate.

One time, my girlfriend and I were purchasing some games and the cashier asked us three times if we wanted to sign up for a BestLie credit card. We politely told her no each time. My girlfriend tried to use her credit card and the cashier says the card has been declined. She tries to swipe it again and the cashier says the card was declined. So the cashier says, "so don't you want to sign up for a BestLie credit card?" I said, nope and swiped my card, it went through. Later, when we get home, my girlfriend uses the same card for an online purchase and it goes through no problem. I have my girlfriend contact the credit card company to see what was wrong when she tried to use it at BestLie. The credit card company said there was nothing wrong with the card and worse, they saw no attempted transaction to be declined. Really feel as though the cashier tried to dupe us into signing up for their credit card. If my girlfriend had been by herself, she probably would have been embarrassed and signed up for the damn card.

RIM has been told about problems like this. Someone even told the Co-CEOs at a shareholder meeting about the terrible displays at BestLie. You would think they would have immediately tried to retify the problem, but nope.

Good news, I ended up going to Office Depot then Staples and got a 16GB PB. OD also had the accessories at a massive discount so I got the leather folio case and a charging cradle.

someone send this thread to customer services @bestbuy.com or find out whos the VP of Customer Services at bestbuy and try and email them about this. This is ridiculous. I get the same experience at bestbuy too (staples as well!)

Originally Posted by Hgouck

Your experience sad to say is not unique. There are many including myself that have had to train or teach sales people of the benefits and strengths of the PB. I actually "fixed" the display model in one Best Buy. The sales person said it wasn't working. I powered it up, bridged it to my phone, showed him how it could access your phones data without having to pay for an additional plan, emailed him from the PB using my phones email, and had him watch a You Tube video that I streamed. Then I connected to their WiFi and set it up to update the OS.
Needless to say he was not aware of what the PB could do.

Classic . Reminds me of Bugs Bunny running circles around Elmer Fudd...

i use best buy as my personal test and evaluation center before going elsewhere to buy the same product, usually cheaper. i call it "best try"...

i got a negative response at Staples the other day. the sales guy even dropped a few f-bombs! he went on to tell me how educated he was & how he could hack into a bb in 45 seconds - I said, "and yet, you work at Staples", turned around & walked out & then called & complained to the manager.

I have had same stuff happen, RIM has a big hill to climb beyond the product updates coming and new phone products. Sales floors in these box stores are quite toxic for them right now.

Interesting how rumors work. The person responsible for buying hardware and software for my Office told me right before Christmas that he expected RIM to be out of business next year and that the gov't agency I work for would probably not be buying RIM products anymore. Thus, my iPad is supposed to be delivered in January.

I was also told by a Best Buy salesperson that they were discontinued and they would no longer be carrying them. And then he added. "It's obsolete hardware, they'll never update it, you really don't want one." This was on December 22nd.
Considering they are the only game in town here as well, I went back to the same Best Buy on December 26th (I know, I'm a glutton for punishment!) and picked up my new Playbook from there newest shipment....Needless to say I couldn't be happier with it, and have come to the conclusion that Best Buy pretty much sucks.....Blackberry's.