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Another great Best Buy Quote...
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Posted by: dgilbert

A friend of a friend went to BB to see if he could purchase a D-Tivo. The sales person told him that "they don't sell the DirectTV with Tivo anymore because surges coming in from the satellite would burn out the Tivo unit". He also told him that UTV did not suffer from the same problem.

Posted by: JasonE

Better watch out for those Solar Flares.;)

http://www.answersingenesis.org/images/sunmain.jpg

-Jason

Posted by: walters

OK, so TiVo: when does the Best Buy training start? Please tell me it hasn't already happened :eek:

Posted by: jones07

quote:
Originally posted by dgilbert
A friend of a friend went to BB to see if he could purchase a D-Tivo. The sales person told him that "they don't sell the DirectTV with Tivo anymore because surges coming in from the satellite would burn out the Tivo unit". He also told him that UTV did not suffer from the same problem.

Now that's a good one. Sometimes I wonder if BB gets a kickback from Billy G. for NOT pushing Tivo's out the door. No sales person is that uninformed ;)

Posted by: dgilbert

I would agree. BB sales people have been told to push UTVs.

Posted by: teradia

No kidding. They didn't offer me TiVo, didn't mention that it was possible to get it - just said "you'd get UltimateTV." *sigh*

Posted by: AJRitz

At what point does this rampant ignorance on the part of supposedly specially trained Best Buy sales people start violating TiVo's exclusivity agreement with Best Buy? This is getting downright absurd. TiVo is locked into this one-vendor system, but the one-vendor is not upholding its end of the bargain. Come on TiVo - start spot-checking Best Buy stores -- you'd have plenty of current users willing to play "secret shopper" for you. Use the secret shopper feedback to enforce your contractual agreement with Best Buy to provide all of this specialized training for their sales force.

Posted by: timf

Best Buy only has an exclusivity agreement on the standalone Series 2. Since they don't carry the D-TiVo anymore (except for an occasional open box unit), UTV is the only thing they can offer in a combo unit.

Sure, they may make up BS about why they don't carry the D-TiVo anymore, but it has nothing to do with their standalone exclusivity agreement. They may or may not carry the Series 2 D-TiVo when it comes out (I'd guess they will), but they need to clear out their stock of UTV as well.

Posted by: borghe

I gave up on Best Buy over 10 some years ago. I go there to get good prices on stuff and if a "sales person" ever approaches me I just respond "just looking" and never make eye contact. For every employee there who knows something there are 10 employees who are clueless. Some wonderful things I have heard from Best Buy recently:

"Tivo doesn't make a unit with DirecTV. They only have these units (Series 2). I've never heard about what you're talking about." - They haven't been out of the stores for THAT long.

"HDTV needs a special HDTV antenna. We don't sell it though." - I bet THAT will sell a ton of sets.

"A progressive DVD player is the same format as HDTV."

There are more, but these are the recent ones. Anyway, the next time you see a slaes rep, run, don't walk, away from them.

Posted by: Fish Man

One of the good things about Best Buy is that their sales people do not work on commission.

This means, that when you tell them, "just looking" and ask them to leave you alone, they typically do!

Circuit City, OTOH, does pay their salesmen on commission, this means that even when you ask them to leave you alone they usually stay in your face.

This "in your face" behavior will lose the sale for that salesman when I'm the shopper, every time. Stupid of them.

Case in point:

A few years ago my wife and I were remodeling our kitchen. At the same time, our washing machine was dying.

We set out one Saturday with the mission to purchase a new gas range, a dishwasher, and a washing machine that day.

We arrived at Circuit City, and I told the salesman:

quote:

"We are going to be making some major appliance purchases today, but we will walk out of the store if we are not left alone to browse first!" Please, give me your card and then leave us alone. If we have questions, and are ready to buy something, I promise to seek you out so you get the commission.

The guy stayed right in our face, yammering at us continuously. We were out the door in under 10 minutes.

We proceeded to Campo (now out of business :( ). I gave the Campo salesman the same spiel quoted above.

The Campo salesman abided by our wishes. As a result, that day he got a commission on our purchase of a fairly high end gas range, fairly high end dishwasher, and fairly high end washing machine!

Salesmen out there: See what happens when you listen to your customer, don't insult his/her intelligence, and treat him/her with respect?

Posted by: Kash76

quote:
Originally posted by jones07

Now that's a good one. Sometimes I wonder if BB gets a kickback from Billy G. for NOT pushing Tivo's out the door. No sales person is that uninformed ;)

Regardless of a agreement with TiVo, I wonder how much pull MS has at BBY. Remember when the PS2, XBox, and GameCube all went down in price??? Well the Xbox was the last to reduce their price by a week if not 2 weeks. Well, Best Buy came out with a Sunday add that had all three systems but only the Xbox had the new price of $199. Don't you think that's a pretty convenient screwup??

Posted by: Tivolatile

They are that uninformed sometimes. I used to manage a retail store for one of their competitors, so I've had a lot of dealings with their staff. It's not their fault really, they don't get trained on anything. You have to decide what's more important to you, cheap prices (which Best Buy generally has) or top notch service, which you should expect to pay more for. The thing about America, at least it seems to me, is that we always want the top tier service at the rock bottom price, and we get indignant when it doesn't happen. IMHO, BB is the type of place where you do your homework first, and then purchase there if the price is right.

Posted by: Squeak

quote:
"HDTV needs a special HDTV antenna. We don't sell it though." - I bet THAT will sell a ton of sets.
.

well, at least they are being honest

quote:

"A progressive DVD player is the same format as HDTV."

That is true!! Just depends on your definition of HDTV. Most people consider 480p one of the HDTV formats, which a progressive scan DVD is.

Posted by: yzf600

I worked at Best Buy in the computer department 8 years ago. There was no training program at all. I showed up for my 1st day on the job and they tole me "ok, go sell some computers". It is a damn good thing I knew a lot about computers. I could answer any technical questions about the computers, but I had no clue what to do once someone was ready to buy one.

The other associates that didn't know anything about computers would just make up answers. Sometimes they would ask the more knowledgeable associates like me. This was the exception, however.

They used to tell us that one of the things customers liked about Best Buy was that they could come in and help themselves to the products they wanted without having to talk to an employee to get it (like at Circuit City or Service Merchandise). Even the computers used to be located within reach so you could put it in your cart and buy it.

So look at Best Buy the way borghe does: 1 out of 10 employees know their products (if that). They are there to help you if you don't see what you are looking for or need them to walk up some high ticket item to the front. Don't ask them any technical questions.

It is a shame that they aren't trained in their products. But I'm not sure Best Buy could afford to based upon the margins they make.

Posted by: walters

Yes, well, the thing is there is supposed to be training in this case. It was part of the agreement between TiVo and Best Buy

Posted by: jones07

I'm sure there was some training:

This is a Tivo. It's spelled T-I-V-O. Now if someone ask you about one.Sell them a UTV. Training class is over . :)

Posted by: dr_mal

quote:
Originally posted by Squeak

well, at least they are being honest

No they aren't. OTA HDTV only requires any UHF antenna. DTV gets carried on a UHF frequency just like ordinary channels 13+. It's a common misconception that HDTV requires a special antenna, but it's not true (I get a couple of DTV channels using a pair of $9.99 rabbit ears from WalMart).

quote:

That is true!! Just depends on your definition of HDTV. Most people consider 480p one of the HDTV formats, which a progressive scan DVD is.

480p IS a DTV format, but not an HDTV format. HDTV is defined as 720p or 1080i.

Posted by: JLWINE

quote:
Originally posted by JasonE
Better watch out for those Solar Flares.;)

-Jason

:D :D LOL

Posted by: TomF

quote:
Originally posted by dr_mal
No they aren't. OTA HDTV only requires any UHF antenna. DTV gets carried on a UHF frequency just like ordinary channels 13+. It's a common misconception that HDTV requires a special antenna, but it's not true (I get a couple of DTV channels using a pair of $9.99 rabbit ears from WalMart).

And just to be COMPLETELY correct, some stations in some cities broadcast HDTV on a VHF band, so OTA HDTV can be broadcast on either a VHF or UHF band.

Squeak, the source for the definition of HDTV is the FCC, not just anybody's definition. Regardless of what YOU think "most people think" is HDTV, 480p definitely isn't, only 720p and 1080i.

Posted by: kprinkki

I have to share my experience from this weekend when I was at Ultimate Electronics in Boise, ID this weekend. The guy asked if he could help me and I asked if they had any DirectTV / Tivo units. He said that they had DTV, but there never was a combo unit. He also said that Sony has discontinued all of their models of TIVO and are not making them anymore and that TIVO is out of business. ROTFLMAO. He said they had an open box Sony SVR2000 unit that they could sell for a "reduced" price. I asked how much and he said he could let it go for the cheap price of $349.99. I told him why would I buy something that is discontinued by Sony (warranty issues) and buy a product from them that I supposedly no longer could buy service from. It was priceless the look on his face as I laughed and got my son and left the store....

Posted by: sean67854

I was in Ultimate Electronics a couple of weeks ago looking at stereos and DirecTV. They had 2 room deals for 50 bucks after rebate with professional installation. I asked how much it was if I installed it myself. He said, "You want to install it yourself? Good Luck!" I told him I had installed a Dish Network system twice. He said, "And you knew where to point the dish?" I told him you can get the coordinates on the webiste. I then said that maybe he was thinking of the difficulty with aiming the elliptical dish (which I understand is a little trickier). He said, "Oh, you'd only the olympic dish if you wanted HDTV."

Posted by: javo

quote:
Originally posted by dgilbert
A friend of a friend went to BB to see if he could purchase a D-Tivo. The sales person told him that "they don't sell the DirectTV with Tivo anymore because surges coming in from the satellite would burn out the Tivo unit". He also told him that UTV did not suffer from the same problem.

No, this is actually a well known problem with satellite TV, but it also effects UTV units, not just DTiVo. The govement actually monitors people's brains over the DirecTV satellite and signal surges are an artifact of this monitoring. You can wear a tin foil pyramid hat to avoid the monitoring, but there is no documentation on whether this will also protect DTiVo units.

Posted by: denverguy

quote:
Originally posted by kprinkki
I have to share my experience from this weekend when I was at Ultimate Electronics. He said that they had DTV, but there never was a combo unit. He also said that Sony has discontinued all of their models of TIVO and are not making them anymore and that TIVO is out of business.

Ironically, Ultimate Electronics was at least a few weeks ago, one of the few places that was still receiving SAT60's (at that time, the Denver Warehouse in Thornton was getting shipments of 40-60 units every couple months; units manufactured in February and later of 2002). Of course, they were selling them for about $429 as I recall. But it actually might be a source; ask them to look up the info on their merchandise computer ....

Posted by: SgtClueLs

Best Buy employees (no offense to anyone who works there) are generally a bunch of drooling idiots. There are two, and only two questions that the average Best Buy employee can answer.

1) Where is XXX.
2) How much is this?

Both question MAY get you an answer, but no guarantee that it will be correct. <sigh>

Posted by: Zirak

I'm a fan of test questions, because sometimes there are people who will know more than you. You just have to find out.

I remember buying a camcorder, so I teed up a test question that would be misssed if the salesdrone was guessing. "Whats the difference between digital zoom and optical zoom? Which is better?" You can imagine his response, to at least the second part.

Nobody beats the Wiz. (for wrong answers)

Posted by: Bilbrey

I too have fought the war of ignorance at retail stores.

But instead of giving in to it, I respond with:

� "Microsoft withdrew UltimateTV from the market."
� "TiVo is bringing out a whole new second generation of products."
� "TiVo offers BOTH DirecTV AND standalone support."
� "TiVo is NOT being sued by the motion picture studios and entertainment industry."

These responses usually leave the sales person with a whole new perspective. And I tell them to check out www.TiVo.com.

Posted by: jmgonzalez

quote:
Originally posted by Kash76

Regardless of a agreement with TiVo, I wonder how much pull MS has at BBY. Remember when the PS2, XBox, and GameCube all went down in price??? Well the Xbox was the last to reduce their price by a week if not 2 weeks. Well, Best Buy came out with a Sunday add that had all three systems but only the Xbox had the new price of $199. Don't you think that's a pretty convenient screwup??

:confused:

Isn't it common knowledge that these flyers are prepared far in advanced....??

And, the Xbox was going down in price first, but the others decided to get in the lower price game after the flyer was prepared for printing.

I don't see it as a convenient screwup...just part of the store flyer business.

Posted by: edrock200

quote:
Originally posted by Bilbrey

� "Microsoft withdrew UltimateTV from the market."
url]

That's not true...that's sounds like something a sales rep would say...Microsoft scaled back their UTV team but did NOT stop supporting...it is still on the market.

Posted by: edrock200

When I first went to get a DTivo I wasn't really sure what I wanted...but my local Best Buy had a stack of Hughes DTivo's for $100...so I asked the sales person:

Can these units record two shows at once? (I truley didn't know the answer, I hadn't researched these boxes at all)

"No, you will need to purchase another DTV receiver and it will plug into the Tivo and act as a second tuner to record."

Are these 2 drive units (A friend had asked me to ask this question)
"Yes, one drive to record, one drive to play"

So, it transfers a recorded program over the the "play" drive?
"Yes it does, also, you can just buy DTV now and get one of these Sony Tivo's (points to a SVR-2000) and it will work exactly like this combo box."

So I can record two things at once?
"Yes"

If I want HD TV support, do I need any special equipment?
"No, you just need the round dish, but an HD reciever requires at least 2 cables from the satellite, 3 is better."

Needless to say, after I found out the truth (from these forums) I never asked a Best Buy rep for help again.

-Ed

Posted by: sullivancp

Sounds like BB sends their sale people to the same training as Sears. I actually overheard a sales guy at Sears tying to convince this poor older gentleman that DishNetwork was better than DirecTV.

Apparently, as he explained, DirecTV has way more subscribers than DishNetwork. So, you'll get better reception with DishNetwork!!

No kidding! I never realized broadcast signals degraded the more receivers you have out there "listening" to them.

You learn something new each day!!

Posted by: Fezmid

Speaking of great quotes by clueless salesdroids....

I was in Best Buy several years back and a woman had two boxes - one with Netscape, one with IE (this was before the "Your OS is a browser" nonsense). Anyway, she asked the salesdroid, "So which one should I buy?" He responded with a straight face, "You should buy IE because Netscape is going out of business." This was a few days after AOL bought them out, and I'm thinking, "Yeah, AOL spent millions of dollars to shutdown a company. Uh huh..." Nevermind the fact that the lady could've downloaded either of them for free... Silly droids.
CW

Posted by: rsmith

When faced with people like this I take a deep breath and remember "It does no good to yell at the kid in the McDonalds drive up window". That's the job 90% of the BB "Sales Associates" graduated from...