Is Best Buy good for anything?

[seti]

"What are they good for?" KLIPSCH! They sell some Klipsch models! Some better levels if it's a Magnolia Home Theater Best Buy store. -Glenn

They are ditching Klipsch and several other long time brands : (

[Dennie]

Sometimes music is ok and they do carry some vinyl now which is something no other electronics store is doing. However as my grandfather would say "they are a shower of bastards".

Your Grandfather was a Wise Man! I've had it up to here with them. They sold my Father a "In Home" warrenty with his computer, since he knows nothing about computers, he wanted to make sure someone would come out to fix it, if there was problem. When his computer quit working, he called and they told him that "NO, we don't come to your home, please read the fine print and you'll see that you must bring it in". WHAT???? He paid $300 for that useless "in home" warrenty.

I would rather pay more than to deal with them again. Those "Shower of Bastards" [N]

Dennie

[synergyfreak]

there klipsch selection at my best buy is declining, use to carry reference series at their magnolia store, not any more. Had to finally start using my local dealer since they carry everything klipsch. I did buy both of my plasmas there really good selection for tvs at least.

[winchester21]

My dad had a big fight with them concerning a lap"home warranty" just like what Dennie described. I did buy my dell laptop frpm them but it is a cheapie thrrowaway. have looked at sutff there and bought it much cheaper online such as my Sony Blu-ray. I recently had to replace my freezer and HH Gregg murdered them. 250.00 cheaper. I now buy my CDs from amazon or e-bay.

The other night a friend was looking at a preamp and a CD player. I was trying to help him evaluate the price and the equip. We needed some interconnects fast. BB was completely in the Stratosphere with the prices for interconnects and the selection totally sucked. We bought the same thing af lowes for a fraction of the cost. Same deal with HDMI cables. I bought professional grade HDMI stuff at Audiohilics for near the same as BB garbage.

I bought an LG gas dryer from them. Had a small issue. They sent this idiot out who had absoulutely no clue about LG gas dryers.The dryer would runj but make no heat. he insistet that the dryer sheets I was using were causing sensor problems. He said if I would run it a few times it would"fix itself???" He insisted that it was making heat- It was not. The repair company would not return numerous phone calls to the service subcontractor afterward. I finally went online and diagnosed the problem myself-Heavy rains has flooed one end of the crawl space and had allowed water to enter and colaspe the exahust line which was shutting down the heating element. This is the first thing they should have checked. Bottom line- the warranty service sucks- you are on your own after the stuff leave the store

I tried to buy 1 plasma and 2 LCD TVs from them. They were clueless concerning the product- the info given was completely wrong- others beat their prices on the same stuff. Everybody has. slightly different model numbers on the same TVs - they change all the time which gives them an out on price matching

Window shop at BB- then go buy it somewhere else.

[Boxx]

I'll go to our local BB and on occasion, buy something. I'll check out the TV's there also, but always wind up going to Costco to purchase one.

[seti]

I always thought it was interesting what Klipsch they carried. I heard a pair of Synergy F3's there one day. While they were not my cup of tea for the price you got an effecient speaker with a tractrix horn and two way. Then I heard them and they were pretty good. Lesson learned listen first critique later. It is too bad best buy couldn't have carried Heresy's. That would have gone over very well I think.

[skonopa]

My dad had a big fight with them concerning a lap"home warranty" just like what Dennie described. I did buy my dell laptop frpm them but it is a cheapie thrrowaway. have looked at sutff there and bought it much cheaper online such as my Sony Blu-ray. I recently had to replace my freezer and HH Gregg murdered them. 250.00 cheaper. I now buy my CDs from amazon or e-bay.

How is HH Gregg? We are getting one here in Fredericksburg (They are taking over the old Circuit City spot). I am in the market for a new stove and dishwasher. I may just wait until our new HH Gregg store opens and check them out. In the past, I've actually had pretty good luck with Sears for things like that.

As for Best Buy, it is fun to go in there and play around a bit. They are good for things like video games and the like. Also I did score a pretty good deal on a Harmony One remote (got it for only $150 there during this past Christmas season). The one here used to have a pretty decent selection of CDs. I've actually found quite a bit of the music that I like to listen to, but it seems as of late, they have really started to cull thier CD selection. Seems that unless it sold like a million copies, you won't find it at BB. Shame as we don't have any more "real" record stores in this town (when I first moved here some 17 years ago, there were no less that FOUR record stores here - now there are none [:'(] ). So as for CDs, now it is Amazon, or just getting it through the distributors directly, such as Nightmare Records or The Laser's Edge.

However, they (at least the one near my place) are actually quite good for finding Apple products, as we don't have any Apple stores in the immediate area (I have to go up into DC or down into Richmond before I find an actual Apple store). I've purchased all my Apple stuff through them and have had good luck with it (Macbook Pro and various iterations of the iPod, including a Touch).

I don't even waste my money on thier "extended warrenties". Also, as for cables, if I need something "right away", I also try the Lowes or Rat Shack route. I will not buy thier overpriced "monster" crap anymore (yeah, in the past, I've also fallen into that Monster Cable trap - but not anymore).

[colterphoto1]

I buy an occasional CD or DVD title there. That's about it. Got my plasma at HHGregg (Midwest) they were cheaper with better sales people that BB. Maybe bought an echeapo DVD changer or the like but no serious components or appliences that I can recall.

In the area of sales staff training, it's an uphill battle. Lots of employees at the big box stores are there for a short time, many to get the discounts offered on gear then then split. Manufacturers like Klipsch have small training forces that they send out around the country (world) for regular seminars but it's impossible to keep everyone up to speed with the terrific turnover of employees. Usually training sessions are several days long with literally dozens of presenters. Imagine listening through all of that and trying to comprehend how to tie your shoes at the end of the day!

[seti]

I buy an occasional CD or DVD title there. That's about it. Got my plasma at HHGregg (Midwest) they were cheaper with better sales people that BB. Maybe bought an echeapo DVD changer or the like but no serious components or appliences that I can recall.

In the area of sales staff training, it's an uphill battle. Lots of employees at the big box stores are there for a short time, many to get the discounts offered on gear then then split. Manufacturers like Klipsch have small training forces that they send out around the country (world) for regular seminars but it's impossible to keep everyone up to speed with the terrific turnover of employees. Usually training sessions are several days long with literally dozens of presenters. Imagine listening through all of that and trying to comprehend how to tie your shoes at the end of the day!

You would think they'd reintroduce the Dope From Hope articles they used to send out. It was a brilliant simple educational tool. I refer to DFH often.

[Tom Adams]

<snip>

I bought an LG gas dryer from them. Had a small issue. They sent this idiot out who had absoulutely no clue about LG gas dryers.The dryer would run but make no heat. he insistet that the dryer sheets I was using were causing sensor problems. He said if I would run it a few times it would"fix itself???" He insisted that it was making heat- It was not. The repair company would not return numerous phone calls to the service subcontractor afterward. I finally went online and diagnosed the problem myself-Heavy rains has flooded one end of the crawl space and had allowed water to enter and colaspe the exahust line which was shutting down the heating element. This is the first thing they should have checked. Bottom line- the warranty service sucks- you are on your own after the stuff leave the store

<snip>

OMG......I can't believe that. Winchester - almost the exact same thing happened to me. My horror story......

The wife & I bought an LG electric washer & gas dryer. I took out the old GE gas dryer (which had been working fine for two years) and hooked up the new LG gas dryer. The wife does a load of clothes and is thrilled with her new washer. But half way through the first load of drying, she notices that the dryer isn't warm anymore. I check it out and sure 'nuff - it ain't working (I could hear that the gas wasn't igniting). We call the LG hot line and the first thing the (Indian) guy on the phone says is, "Have you used a dryer sheet in it?" I say, "Yes. What difference does that make? My old GE worked fine with them." He says, "Dryer sheets will mess up the dryer sensor." I tell him he's an idiot and hang up. We call the BB store and they arrange for a service guy to show up the next day. I'm impressed. The wife meets the guy and he spends two hours trouble shooting the dryer. She tells me that he calls LG factory service folks and even a couple of guys that work for other companies looking for answers, but the unit fails to ignite. He suggests a new unit. So I unhook the LG and hook up the old GE. At this point we're please with the prompt service.

BB delivers new dryer 3 days later. I unhook the GE and install the new LG and????? You guessed it. It does the same thing. Works for a little bit then quits igniting. By now I know my way around the internals of the LG almost as good as the service tech. We call BB and they schedule a tech for the next day. I get home and tech is there with dryer all apart. He & I noodle through all the possibilities - gas supply, duct blockage, anything and everything and nothing helps. He unhooks LG and hooks up old GE and it fires off and heats up just fine. He's floored. He calls BB and tells them to deliver another unit. By now I'm getting a bit irritated.

The BB appliance manager (whose been absolutely great through all this) and the wife have a discussion and in order to rule things out and as a good will gesture, the manager orders an upgraded dryer that was $400 or so more with no cost to us which restores our faith. New dryer shows up and guess what????? Yep - exact same thing happens with it. By now I'm contemplating running a 220v line and buying an electric dryer.

The wife is telling a friend at work about our ordeal and the friend says, "I have a close friend who works for Liberty Propane & Gas. I'll ask him to come out and see if he can get it to work. He's worked with gas appliances for years." The wife meets this guy at the house and when I get home from work this guy has come & gone and the dryer is working. I ask her what he did and she tells me he came in and poked around a bit and then said, "He!! Mrs. Adams....here's your problem right here." And when she walked into the wash room he's holding the gas supply flex line (disconnected from dryer) and opens the shut-off valve and gas is screaming out the end and he says, "That's way too much pressure. See???" And then she says he takes out a lighter and ignites it and this flame shoots out and he says, "See?? Way too much pressure." So he closes the valve and says, "I ain't got the right parts to fix it properly, but I got some suff the truck I can rig-up to regulate the pressure." And once that was done, the dryer worked perfectly. A couple weeks later he installed a proper regulator.

Tom