consumer reports does a best buy secret shopper trip

[dhex]

the results are exactly what you'd guess.

http://consumerist.com/2010/01/consumerist-investigation-best-buy-optimization-is-a-big-stupid-annoying-waste-of-money.html

that's some serious gall right there.

[dmauro]

That would be a worthwhile service if they did it right. It should be:

1) Remove all unnecessary programs including MSOffice and Norton trials. Anything the vendor gets paid to put on there and anything that runs in the system tray that you don't want (silly stuff like screen zoom drivers and such that you'll never use).
2) Install Avira or some other free anti-virus, Firefox or Chrome, and make sure Windows firewall is all set up.

Most people just don't know how to do these few vital steps and I know plenty of people that would pay $40 for it.

[FortNinety]

This btw is my latest reason for hating Best Buy with a passion...

http://consumerist.com/2009/12/great-best-buy-deal-get-free-software-tweetdeck-for-free.html

... It just irritates me to no end that the Circuit City in Union Square, which was like every other big/dumb electronics places, but never pulled any stupid dirty tricks (at least any that I'm aware of) has been replaced by the big blue.

Whom I'm still pissed off at after handing over a camera for their repair depart to fix (cuz when you pay for their extended warranty... which I will NEVER do again, had to learn the hard way... instead of passing along a product to the experts, i.e. the people who made it, they send it to some retard in Secaucus), it actually came back even more broken, which the manufacturer refused to touch.

Hence why, I might go in to handle various goods, but I haven't bought shit from there in years, never will.

[dhex]

dave, yeah, it would be worth 40 bucks to regular joe or jane if they did those two simple steps. that they don't makes me wonder if they just hold them for 2 days in a lot of locations and then release them, having been optimized by the geek squad aura.

fwiw, i shopped at best buy on new year's day and had zero problems, but i also went in knowing exactly what i wanted (new wireless router, wd hd tv live box) and going to the lic location, which is fairly lackadaisical when it comes to warranties and the like.

[isfet]

i dunno.  to be honest, i feel like what applies in this story applies almost anywhere.  if you go into ANYTHING not knowing a damn thing about what you're getting, then chances are people will try to take advantage of you.  it doesn't excuse the behavior, but it's pretty common in basically every kind of service industry.

[dhex]

well, there's poor decisions and research, and there's outright fraud. if the geek squad's optimization isn't actually optimizing shit but just erasing shortcuts, that seems rather clear-cut in the fraud department.

where's andrew cuomo on this shit?

[dmauro]

lol, yeah when they say stuff like "200% increase in processor speed" they aren't just misleading, they are LYING to you. Unless they are overclocking the processor's so hot that they melt the laptop casing, that's not gonna happen.

[FortNinety]

Well, what Joe says is true. It's not like the sales people at J&R any a better or worse at lying. If anything it's actually worse/more expected due everyone working for commissions and the such.

[dhex]

that's the thing, though. best buy don't work on commission. going laptop shopping with my sister back when she was in vet school was eye opening, as the sales pitch was hilarious when directed towards her (cause girls don't know anything about computers) and still fairly patronizing when directed towards me. i realize they're required by managers to be that way, but it either must pay off in the aggregate for best buy as a whole or their org will go the way of circuit city.

outside of several bad experiences in various sam ash stores over the years, i don't think i've ever really had too many bad clerk run-ins like that. think i just radiate fuck-off vibes, though.

[FortNinety]

I'm fairly certain that the numbers of sales that Best Buy employees rack up are heavily monitored, and even hinge on their employment, so they're gonna act like carnies regardless.

Sorta like Gamestop employees. Seems the ones that are the most honest and least salesmen like last the least.

[FortNinety]

I can't believe they do the same thing for Macs...

http://www.cultofmac.com/best-buys-40-mac-optimization-is-worthless/25217

[dhex]

i can. a large plank of apple's marketing platform is "computers are scary".

[FortNinety]

Well, I mostly equate Mac users are being computer snobs that are too smart for Window, but I had forgotten Apples news target demo (henceforth the annoying as fuck ads).

[dmauro]

Well, I mostly equate Mac users are being computer snobs that are too smart for Window

I lol'd

[dhex]

yeah, but it's been that way for years. it's been that way on the pc marketing side for a very long time as well, hence the rise of turnkey vendors and preconfigured systems (dell, gateway, etc). it's important to remember that separating the diy aspects from home computer ownership were impossible until the mid 90s, really. and that goes for macs as well before the "modern era" (the long history of folks hacking and otherwise grafting support for outside devices/communications into apple's largely closed software ecosystem, etc)

i have a friend who puts forth that as cars became more impossible to service from the enduser point of view (due to increased computer systems, interlocking designs that require a lift to get to previously standard parts, etc) that the tinkering aspect of the mental landscape has fallen to computers. while i'm not sure i'd go that far, i do think there's something to be said for knowing how to operate what you buy. now that every piece of everything has not only a manual set or three but dedicated official and unofficial online channels, it's not entirely crazy to assume your average person should be able to do basic installation, uninstallation and maintenance of pc/mac software and perhaps some hardware.

it doesn't mean it'll work out great all the time, but anyone who's known someone who really loved/was skilled at tinkering with cars knew they weren't out there on a flatboard for eight hours on a saturday afternoon because the process was 1-2-3 easy.

the "computers are scary" response can be said to really be something of a "i don't want to be bothered to learn about the things i spend money on" posture, and clearly full of some holes.