Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Royersford, PA
Posts: 11

Another great Best Buy Quote...

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.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 195

Better watch out for those Solar Flares.



-Jason

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 2408

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

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Phila, Pa. "In the City" Not the Burbs
Posts: 1896

quote:

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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.

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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

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Royersford, PA
Posts: 11

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

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Registered: Jul 2002
Location:
Posts: 0

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*

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Registered: Mar 2002
Location: Kansas City, MO
Posts: 3145

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.

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Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Metro Detroit, MI & Denver, CO
Posts: 190

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.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location:
Posts: 412

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.

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Registered: Mar 2002
Location: New Orleans, LA
Posts: 1777

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:

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"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.

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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?

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location:
Posts: 26

quote:

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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

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Registered: Jul 2002
Location:
Posts: 1

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.

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Registered: May 2000
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Posts: 1413

quote:

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

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Registered: Apr 2002
Location:
Posts: 2

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.

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 2408

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

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Phila, Pa. "In the City" Not the Burbs
Posts: 1896

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 .

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Brighton, CO
Posts: 1624

quote:

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Originally posted by Squeak


well, at least they are being honest

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 425

quote:

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Originally posted by JasonE
Better watch out for those Solar Flares.



-Jason

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LOL

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 8

quote:

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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).

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Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Idaho
Posts: 2

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....

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