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Best Buy Says It Will Kill 'Showrooming' For Good
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BoogerBomb
Supreme [H]ardness
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I usually have to whip out my cellphone and prove to people that monoprice really does have some stupidly dirt cheap cables that do what 99% of the population needs them to do.
Other customers that I have corrected after the salesman was done were aware the cables are overpriced but like the build quality and feel of them vs the cheaper stuff so obviously there is a market for them.
So where Im going to shop for my next big screen TV? Circuit City gone, Ultimate Electronics gone, Sears is closing, I sure aint going to have one shipped. Oh yea wallmart
Costco. Great prices and extended warranty included. Bump to a 5yr for cheap.
BoogerBomb
Supreme [H]ardness
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Selection sucks.
Parja
[H]F Junkie
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Right. Aesthetics are certainly a major concern of mine for a product I'm going to connect and then never touch, look at, or even think about for probably at least a year.
Some people.
Team Obi Juan
Your Local Postmaster
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Buy it now and no waiting is huge.
Flogger23m
[H]F Junkie
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Best Buy does have some advantages over online stores. Sometimes you need something quick and can't wait 2-3+ days for shipping. Or you are afraid your package will be stolen ect.
I do much prefer Amazon myself, but hopefully this will make Best Buy more competitive price wise. My issue is that in general there is not much they sell that interests me. I've tried their previous price match policy and like every other store they find some way to get out of it. So I do not have much confidence in it. But the same can be said about all stores.
I do much prefer Amazon myself, but hopefully this will make Best Buy more competitive price wise. My issue is that in general there is not much they sell that interests me. I've tried their previous price match policy and like every other store they find some way to get out of it. So I do not have much confidence in it. But the same can be said about all stores.
I don't care how many people they're employing. It's not a charity, it's a business. Doing business with Best Buy is worse than doing business with Amazon and Newegg, so yes.
No sales tax & having it shipped to my front door with 2-3 days shipping time FAR outweighs the time & gas wasted driving to their store to be pestered by employees who don't know much.
Down with BB!
BoogerBomb
Supreme [H]ardness
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I have never understood this need to never leave the house to get something.
I'm never really in that much of a rush to get something. I haven't bought any electronic gadget from a retail store in years. This is totally a good move for them, but it's not going make me switch my buying habits just to get something 2 days faster.
No, it's a matter of: It costs me a gallon of gas and 40 minutes driving. PLUS sales tax.
So for a $100+ purchase, that's $13 MORE expensive when the product price is exactly the same.
For $13 savings, I can wait 2-3 days. It might be different if they included sales tax in that price match.
Team Obi Juan
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9 states now require Amazon to charge sales tax.
Having a TV shipped is the smartest thing you can do, especially if its a plasma.
Most places offer free "white glove service" now.
They will unbox it in your house, install it where it needs to be, turn it on, verify everything is working right, and dispose of all the trash for you. This is so convenient, but most importantly it PROTECTS you!
Especially with plasmas now, they are getting bigger and bigger, with 60" screens being the norm which provides a lot more leverage on the glass. The glass is also getting thinner and thinner now because wall-mounting is becoming so popular and especially with such huge 60 and 65" screens consumers are paying attention to weight and don't want to try and hang a 250 pound television.
So get it tax free online delivered and installed for ultimate convenience, or go to best buy, hope you don't damage it bring it to your car, loading it up, unboxing the huge unwieldy TV at your house, and lifting it up to its mount or TV stand. And if you screw up the TV that YOU transported and YOU unboxed and installed, tough luck trying to convince Best Buy that the screen cracked because of a design failure.
Just remember to keep a change of clothes and paste on mustache and sunglasses in the car, because if you need two things, you're screwed.
GreenMonkey
2[H]4U
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Are you hauling kids with you, like I generally am?
At 7 and 5 they're not too bad now (most days), but when they were younger (especially when they were babies/toddlers)...not so much fun.
Plus there's $4/gallon gas these days. Give me ship-to-door any day. I almost never go into Best Buy any more.
cables = monoprice
cheap usb stuff / chargers/ 100 Nintendo DS styluses/etc - dealextreme
electronics/PC hardware/etc - Amazon
I suppose it's because most people here spend their free time working on a cure for cancer from home.
I'm actually thinking of giving BB a chance on this. Unlike others who seem to live 50 miles away from a BB, I have two within 15 minutes of my house and even closer to the grocery store I hit every weekend. If I needed something quick it'd be a lot easier grabbing it from the store than waiting the 2 days to get it from Amazon. And that 2-day shipping is only if they have it with Prime shipping and/or if I can even buy it because it's an "Add-on" item.
BladeVenom
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Because they are liars. Store managers don't always meet the prices even when they say they will. Calling customer service you end up talking to someone in India, then when they call the manager, the manger lies and says it was a different item. Fuck Best Buy.
Even assuming Best Buy was no-hassle for price matching, they have piss-poor product selection and returns are more trouble than they are worth compared with Amazon. And more often than not, on the rare occasions they actually claim to stock something I want/need same-day, their web-site will claim they have it IN stock and when you get there they don't.
"Oh, we can order that for you!"
Yeah ... or I can order it myself and not have to drive back ...
Amazon + Prime and I'm happy. Even opting for next day delivery is less than the cost of the gas to get to Best Buy, and if a return is needed you don't even have to speak to someone.
"Oh, we can order that for you!"
Yeah ... or I can order it myself and not have to drive back ...
Amazon + Prime and I'm happy. Even opting for next day delivery is less than the cost of the gas to get to Best Buy, and if a return is needed you don't even have to speak to someone.
wonderfield
Supreme [H]ardness
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I made a purchase at Best Buy recently after having gone a couple years without visiting one. By the end of the transaction, I was genuinely confused as to why I made the purchase there. The experience was neither bad nor was it great just mediocre in every way, really.
The employees genuinely performed well, but they have to deal with such a great degree of nonsense that it's hard to imagine how any employee can keep their sanity. I've worked for companies that are in a constant state of ignorance and disarray, and it's incredibly, intolerably frustrating. People who can manage it and still keep a smile on their face when dealing with customers deserve much better than what Best Buy appears to offer.
The employees genuinely performed well, but they have to deal with such a great degree of nonsense that it's hard to imagine how any employee can keep their sanity. I've worked for companies that are in a constant state of ignorance and disarray, and it's incredibly, intolerably frustrating. People who can manage it and still keep a smile on their face when dealing with customers deserve much better than what Best Buy appears to offer.
Agreed. BB price-matched my recent purchase in December, and Staples earlier today. B&M's are quite aware of the price-advantages, and are at least consistently PMing Amazon
"Same-day shipping" for a short 10-15minute drive, to multiple BB/Staples/MC? That's unbeatable. And before someone says "tax kills the deal," yeah I guess same-day turn-arounds for returns/exchanges sucks too huh haha. B&M carries a huge advantage and if you chose to reside in a decent metropolitan area, then I would hope one takes full advantage of it.
I certainly am.
I've said it in other threads and it bears repeating. Marketing 101 says that if you're shopping at a store that price matches - you're guaranteed to be paying too much. The reason for price matching policy is to maintain an EQUALLY high price as the other guys. Price matching is one company's way of saying to another "undercutting me will not work, because ill instantly price match. So lets agree to fleece the customer together"
Don't shop at places that price match...
Don't shop at places that price match...
sliverjazz
Gawd
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For the person that said smartTV's are nowadays making b&m stores more appealing, I agree. Even my four year old hdcp whiner LCDTV gave me trouble today for the first time in that many years. Out of all that time I just today turned it on thinking it had died. It turns out that since I had my BD player powered before the TV was plugged into the actual wall socket the TV wouldn't responed until I unhooked the BD player. Since I used this TV probably 90 days in these 4 years I can see how this is a benefit to buy b&m since this wasn't even a smartTV.
Most TVs ship via Freight carriers, not via FedEx or UPS. Usually the freight carriers care a little more and are a little more responsible, at least in my experience. Most TV's arrive at BestBuy via a Semi-Truck, not too much of a difference in transport or handling.
Hate the stop your tunnel vision soap box, but B&M's are PMing Amazon now. So unless you have a bone to pick with Amazon, your lecture is ringing up empty