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12/21/2004 @ 12:19 am

Steve’s Tips for Shopping at Best Buy™
Feel free to check out my Best Buy holiday shopping tips on the Eat My Bomb Games site (run by a friend of mine, Jeff Seamster). I give advice on how to get the best deals and talk about how

Comment by Ryan

12/21/2004 @ 10:27 am

I feel stupid now. That’s where I bought my big TV last year, and yes, I bought the extended warranty (I was afraid that in a fit of rage I would through something at the screen while watching a Saints game). I must say, though, down here in New Orleans, our choices are limited. There’s Best Buy, Circuit “we only work on commission and are like locusts” City, and the smaller outfits that are often considerably more expensive. Basically, what I’m saying is that I’m boycotting all electronics, starting my own village, dressing up in red-hooded monster outfits, and killing my townspeople.

Comment by Jeff

12/21/2004 @ 9:54 pm

Ok let’s take a step back here. See the title bar of your web browser up there? It says “Eat My Bomb - Games”. I’m trying my hardest to extract the gaming content in here, Steve but I just can’t find it. Listen I think we all know what Best Buy is about. For the educated customer, Best Buy can provide lower prices than most stores because they keep a lot of stock and move a lot of product. And even though it might be cool to talk with a guy at a smaller electronics store (not that I actually know of any in Boston), I tend to do my own research and have my own answers. I’m also going to take exception to your recommendations to avoid 0% interest deals and extended warranties. If somebody offers me 0% interest over time, I’m going to take it. I have no problems making my payments on time and the time I take to pay it off is time that my money is earning interest elsewhere rather than sitting in their coffers. As for extended warranties, I’d say it depends on the product. It costs more to fix appliances nowadays than it does to buy a new one, so if it’s a high-cost item that you plan to have around for a while, I’d say go for it. They gave me a direct swap-out on a receiver I bought that got a faulty LFE jack. And Steve, if you find yourself waiting more than 10 minutes to do a return, go back when they’re less busy dude! Now get back to the f*&#ing games! All of you!

Comment by TimF

12/21/2004 @ 10:14 pm

I have had experiences to the contrary at Best Buy, When I bought my ATI card a salesperson actually talked me into buying a cheaper model becuase he didn’t think I needed the more expensive one. How rare is that?

Now to comment number by number:

1. “Make sure you send in your rebate”

- This is true, but it is not Best Buy specific and usually the manufacturer is responsible, not Best Buy.

2. “If Best Buy sales staff ignore you, don’t let up”

- The idea that employees doen’t want people to shop at their store is ludicrous. If they ignore you, it’s probably because they’re trying to finish facing or restocking the shelves and people keep interrupting them. Again, not Best Buy specific. I used to work at CVS and felt the same way…

3. “If you take advantage of their credit card deal, be careful not to use it for 0% interest credit purchases.”

- NOT BEST BUY SPECIFIC. In fact, this is true of ALL credit cards, retail or otherwise. If you make one late payment on most credit cards, they’ll jack your rate up to 28%. In fact, other credit cards can use this to jack your rate up even if you haven’t missed payments on they’re particular card. So Pay Your Damn Bills, Bitches.

4. “Never get the extended warranty”

- I actually agree with Steve on this, but every single other electronics store runs the same racket. I’ll add this about Best Buy specifically; beware of the free magazine offer. They roped me into 10 free issues of Sports Illustrated and told me I wouldn’t be charged for additional issues, but they lied. I had to get a refund from SI and cancel my “volunteered” subscription over the phone.

5. “You don’t have to buy from Best Buy”

- I challenge this claim that smaller shops have better deals and more helpful staff. In my experience, they don’t. Case in point, walk a couple stores down from the Best Buy at Cambridgeside Galleria to the “smaller” Sunset Boulevard and you’ll not only pay $5 more for your DVD, but when you ask the sales person (that’s right, it’s singular)to help you find something, they’ll search the racks alphabetically like you’re a moron just like they do at Best Buy. On top of this, since there’s only one register, EVERYBODY gets to wait while people return things after Xmas. But at Best Buy, they have four separate registers specifically for this task. I also note that you fail to mention ANY alternatives to Best Buy in this entire essay of yours.

6. “Best Buy will give you 10% off plus the price difference if you see a lower price at a competitor’s business”

- This is actually a great reason to shop at Best Buy.

7. “Do your research before you go into Best Buy”

- Do your research before you shop ANYWHERE. I’ve rarely had someone at any store actually help me with intelligent answers to my questions. That includes Circuit City, Radio Shack, Target, you name it. The only place I get consistently good advice is the information desk at the Apple store.

8. “If Best Buy is out of stock, check other stores”

- This is excellent advise. I can actually look somewhere else if Best Buy doesn’t have it in stock? Man, I use to just stand in Best Buy and stare at the empty rack for days until someone restocked the item. This will save me loads of time!

9. “Just avoid shopping at Best Buy altogether”

- How about “Avoid shopping in stores period”. Fucking shop online and stop making everyone else in the store miserable. Enough said

Comment by Jeff

12/22/2004 @ 5:50 am

Man oh man oh man. Can you feel the holiday spirit? I know I can. If you guys keep this up, I’m going to start a comic strip on EMB about you. Now let’s lighten the mood with a good-spirited holiday Myth 2 throwdown. Steve, your army will fight for the causes of conspiracy theory and consumer awareness. Tim your army will do battle for the causes of vegetarianism and no-nonsense contrary positioning. I shall challenge you both in the middle where I continue to fight for boobies.

Comment by Chris

12/22/2004 @ 10:09 am

I have only three things to say:

casualty
casualty
casualties

Get used to hearing it.

Comment by TimF

12/22/2004 @ 2:20 pm

No-Nonsense Contrary Positioning? I don’t think so!

Fuck you Jeff!

;)

Comment by Steve

12/24/2004 @ 2:26 pm

Let me address some of the comments presented above:

– I agree about Jeff’s 0% interest comment–if you’re very careful about making payments, then the 0% interest can be a good thing. I should have said be careful when choosing to use the 0% interest. However, I’d like to repeat that if you miss just one payment, you’ll be hit hard with very high interest.

– I stand by my tip to never use extended warranttees at Best Buy. Essentially what you’re buying is insurance for your item. Do you have homeowner’s insurance? Check your policy–chances are your expensive equipment is already covered, so there’s no need to have it covered twice. Also, you could put the money you would have spent for these extended warrantees and put it in a bank or money market account; the cash you would have spent could cover repair costs to your equipment.

One other related point: when you take your item in to be repaired under the extended warrantee, it’s up to Best Buy whether they will replace or repair it–they may even choose not to repair it. I’ve heard that Best Buy sometimes decides that the damage was your fault (even if it wasn’t), and will refuse pay for the repairs; Best Buy appears to be particularly bad about this.

– Tim makes a good point about some of these tips not being Best Buy specific; the same tips can apply to other stores. However, that doesn’t make them any less valid–you still should watch out for them when you shop at Best Buy.

– “I challenge this claim that smaller shops have better deals and more helpful staff.” Many stores have more helpful sales staff than Best Buy. My point is to shop at these helpful shops instead of Best Buy, especially if you’re buying stuff that’s at the same advertsed price at each store. In my experience, almost any other electronics or game store I’ve been to have much more friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful sales staff than Best Buy. Occasionally you’ll run into a store that’s just as bad as Best Buy, and of course you’ll probably want to avoid it.

– “The idea that employees doen’t want people to shop at their store is ludicrous.” The idea that Best Buy doesn’t want certain people shopping in their stores is ludicrous indeed, but it’s true. The articles I linked to in my post talk about this.

– Best Buy does tend to offer more rebates than other stores, and quite a few of these rebates are offered directly through Best Buy, not necessarily the product manufacturer.

– You should certainly do your research before you shop anywhere, but Best Buy is particularly bad for the impulse or uninformed shopper. For example, just yesterday a friend of mine was at Best Buy, he saw a middle-aged couple shopping for their daughter. The couple asked the Best Buy salesman about iPods; he said he was out of stock. Then he went on to say that the iPod only worked with Macs (not true), and stated a few other incorrect reasons why the couple should by aa different mp3 player (one that they conveniently had in stock). My friend then walked up to the counter, showed the couple his iPod, and was able to show them that the salesman was lying to them. The couple then left the store.

– I stated that “if Best Buy is out of stock, check other stores”. I should have said check other stores first for hot products, because they’re more likely to be in stock and have shorter lines.

– “And Steve, if you find yourself waiting more than 10 minutes to do a return, go back when they’re less busy dude!” It’s a long story, but Best Buy messed up the amount of money they were supposed to give back to me for the return. I didn’t want to leave the store until I had gotten a full refund. Also, it’s never taken less than 10 minutes for me to return something at Best Buy, even on a good day.

– One other tip I forgot to mention: Best Buy often has loss-leader products for sale; they’ll sell a product for less than cost to bring you into the store, hoping that you’ll (perhaps impulsively) buy something else at a no-so-good price. In this case, I recommend buying from Best Buy–purchase the loss-leader product, and make sure you don’t buy anything else.

Finally, sorry for the post, Jeff; I thought I was on-topic when I originally wrote it. I’ll stick to the games with future posts.

Comment by Jason

12/26/2004 @ 5:29 pm

I have to chime in about Best Buy here, because of some awful times spent there this holiday season. Both my wife and I have spent a lot of time at Best Buy this season looking for video games (there you go Jeff, video game tie in).

The number one awful thing I saw at Best Buy was a bizarre hording of iPods and game consoles. If you were looking for an X-box of a PlayStation during the holidays, you would have seen an extreme drought. My wife searched hi and low for on of the new PlayStation 2 consoles. Every where she searched she was told they were sold out. The Best Buy in Danvers told her they were out each time she called. She learned from one clerk when the shipments came in and she would call back on shipment day again and again. Finally, several days before Christmas they had one and would only hold it for her because she knew the guy on the phone by name and she guilted him into it.

In a similar situation, my step-mom was in Best Buy and saw a lady asking the clerk if they had any iPods. They told the lady they were out. The lady walked away, but my step-mom was still at the counter when the clerk turned to another clerk and made fun of the woman because he knew they had 100 iPods out back, but they were holding on to them. Well, my step-mom tracked the lady down and told here. Ah, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when the lady went back to that clerk.

Well, Merry Christmas to all of you. I am going to spend the rest of the evening watching the Pats and then playing my new PS2 and San Andreas which my wife bought me. Yes, my wife bought it for me, again!