I used to be the guy who would order every single thing online, to save on tax, and it used to be a great deal.
So within the past year, I have started wandering around the best buy near my house.
Buying a few things here and there, always seemed like a hassle.
Anyways, so my mom was in town this week. She wanted to buy a tablet, and she needed a new cell phone.
I checked the best buy ad, and they looked like they had both items at a good price.
Here is my experience.
Walked into best buy on a weekday. Nearly empty store, tons of employees.
Talked to the samsung guy at the samsung booth. Said we would take the 10 inch tablet.
20 minutes later he says tablet is out of stock but we can drive to best buy in another town (about 15 minutes away), and pick it up there.
He insisted that we pay for it in advance so that they would hold it.
Ok fine.
We walk over to the cell phone department, and find a 4g LTE phone for her carrier (prepaid). I say to the guy, we will take that phone.
Again, wait 20 minutes for him to tell me that it is out of stock, and it is in stock at the other best buy.
I tell him to hold it for us at that location.
It takes him 20 minutes to announce to us that he can not hold that phone at another location, we just need to go there and buy it.
Ok.
So we drive to the next town, receipt in hand for pickup of the tablet.
Tablet order did not come through on their system. Told us to wait.
45 minutes pass by.
The girl has the tablet on the counter but can not give it to us until it gets into their system.
So I say just please bring a manager over.
Manager says, ok we can return the tablet on the receipt, then ring it out again.
Another manager comes over and says just give them the product they paid for instead of annoying them.
So that was 1 hour waiting to pick up a tablet that was sitting on a table.
Finally, we go to buy the cell phone.
Cheap 79 dollar android phone, mom loves it.
Tell the guy to activate the phone and move her contacts over. Guy is wearing a badge that says mobile phone specialist.
Guy spends 30 minutes messing with the phone. Can not figure out how to activate new phone. Keeps scanning barcode over and over again.
I tell the guy to just move the contacts over to the new phone and I will activate it at home. Guy seemed like he did not know how to do this either.
These are two simple android phones, not anything major.
So guy had to call someone over and ask if I could just buy the phone without activating it in the store. Person says "i don't know, I will check".
At that point, I tell the clerk to just give me the phone and I will activate it.
I went home and activated the phone in 10 minutes using the web portal.
I moved contacts over in 10 minutes.
Is this the reason why I have an amazon prime account, and have been avoiding stores for the past few years?
So within the past year, I have started wandering around the best buy near my house.
Buying a few things here and there, always seemed like a hassle.
Anyways, so my mom was in town this week. She wanted to buy a tablet, and she needed a new cell phone.
I checked the best buy ad, and they looked like they had both items at a good price.
Here is my experience.
Walked into best buy on a weekday. Nearly empty store, tons of employees.
Talked to the samsung guy at the samsung booth. Said we would take the 10 inch tablet.
20 minutes later he says tablet is out of stock but we can drive to best buy in another town (about 15 minutes away), and pick it up there.
He insisted that we pay for it in advance so that they would hold it.
Ok fine.
We walk over to the cell phone department, and find a 4g LTE phone for her carrier (prepaid). I say to the guy, we will take that phone.
Again, wait 20 minutes for him to tell me that it is out of stock, and it is in stock at the other best buy.
I tell him to hold it for us at that location.
It takes him 20 minutes to announce to us that he can not hold that phone at another location, we just need to go there and buy it.
Ok.
So we drive to the next town, receipt in hand for pickup of the tablet.
Tablet order did not come through on their system. Told us to wait.
45 minutes pass by.
The girl has the tablet on the counter but can not give it to us until it gets into their system.
So I say just please bring a manager over.
Manager says, ok we can return the tablet on the receipt, then ring it out again.
Another manager comes over and says just give them the product they paid for instead of annoying them.
So that was 1 hour waiting to pick up a tablet that was sitting on a table.
Finally, we go to buy the cell phone.
Cheap 79 dollar android phone, mom loves it.
Tell the guy to activate the phone and move her contacts over. Guy is wearing a badge that says mobile phone specialist.
Guy spends 30 minutes messing with the phone. Can not figure out how to activate new phone. Keeps scanning barcode over and over again.
I tell the guy to just move the contacts over to the new phone and I will activate it at home. Guy seemed like he did not know how to do this either.
These are two simple android phones, not anything major.
So guy had to call someone over and ask if I could just buy the phone without activating it in the store. Person says "i don't know, I will check".
At that point, I tell the clerk to just give me the phone and I will activate it.
I went home and activated the phone in 10 minutes using the web portal.
I moved contacts over in 10 minutes.
Is this the reason why I have an amazon prime account, and have been avoiding stores for the past few years?
