161–170 of 468 posts
But what really matters to me is the lock-in, or lack of it. When I order from Best Buy online (I don't go in person anymore) I don't need to pay $100 for just the privledge of shopping there. That kind of anti-consumer practice I simply won't abide.
This is rather off-topic, but the only thing that saddens me about Best Buy is that it just doesn't feel the same walking in as it used to. I remember when I got my first job, at age 14, in 1998. I cut, baled, loaded, hauled, and stacked hay in a barn for a local farmer. It was extremely hot and tiring work for an overweight geek, but it paid better than anything else I could have gotten at that age - I was paid by t…
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I also was recently in the market for a laptop and the listings for Amazon were so confusing and full of pitfalls it reminded me of the bad old days of eBay. Like three-line item titles making it hard to discern what model you were buying. I ended up buying from Best Buy.
I would never buy a laptop from Best Buy, Amazon, or any other third party retailer. Consumer PC laptops are like most Android phones -- full of third party crapware. I only buy either the business line of laptops from Dell or HP or I'll buy from the Microsoft Store - either online or physical store.
Their prices are not too bad anymore. They usually are about the same as online prices and returns are easier in store, so I have got a few things from Best Buy. Most recently a Macbook for my wife was $50 cheaper in Best Buy vs in the Apple store.
When amazon has no competition left, the experience will worsen. If for no other reason than that the stockholders will insist.
I can't speak for the Geek Squad (as I have never needed to use them), but they price match to Amazon (and several other online stores), and will generally have what I am looking for (at least for consumer electronics). I know that I will get it that day (vs. Amazon's "two day shipping" that regularly turned into three or four days) at an Amazon price, it will certainly NOT be a counterfeit, and I don't have to give…
I was sold a set of counterfeit Powerbeats3 headphones at Best Buy about a year ago. No reason to be suspicious initially, but battery life, range, and pairing were never great. They stopped working after a month, and I brought them back to Best Buy. The attendant looked carefully at the headphones and told me that they wouldn't accept the return because the serial number on the headphones didn't match the one on the…
Or, a middleman unloaded, knowingly or unknowingly, a shipment of fake shit to Best Buy.
For big ticket items like TVs, Amazon usually isn't much cheaper if they are at all like it seemed to be a few years ago. Being able to see them in person and take them home same day is also nice.
Amazon's listings are mess. Sometimes the listing are just skeevy looking and have missing or wrong information. Even when the listing looks good, I'm not always sure I'll get quite what I ordered. I've already started to basically not use 3rd party sellers, but even when Amazon is listed as the seller, I've gotten items that were clearly used(when they were supposed to be new) or just not the right item, once being a counterfeit of what I was ordering.
I also noticed that for "gravy" items like cables and stuff, where Amazon was often 3 or 4 times cheaper, Best Buy is at least not as bad as they were in the past. They've still got some very overpriced options, but they also have some more reasonably priced options. So now its a decision to spend $3 or $4 more on that HDMI cable at Best Buy when I get the TV rather than $15 more. The decision to to spend the couple more dollars at Best Buy for the cable isn't just convenience, but is bolstered by cheaper items on Amazon being even more of a crapshoot than they were in the past.
I actually think it's Amazon that has the poor business model, and I'm puzzled how it's working for them. They are usually not competitive on price compared to other sites, and sometimes it's the same price off the shelf at Best Buy. Big ticket items from Amazon usually have free shipping, but it's a 3-4 day wait unless you pay for "free" shipping by joining Prime. But I quit Prime a few years ago after 10 out of my…
I have a hard time believing this. I've never had late shipments with amazon nor have any of my friends. Are you exaggerating or is there any omitted context?
You really can't beat going into a physical store for a large ticket item purchase. No waiting for shipping, easy to return, viewing the product in store. Recently purchased a MBP from Bestbuy. The first one I received had noticeable back light bleeding near a screen corner. Walked back in the store the next day to return. The process from an online retailer would have taken weeks.
Just out of curiosity, why didn't you buy the MacBook Pro directly from Apple? If I'm not mistaken the price is exactly the same in both stores. Is Best Buy just closer to you, or do you have a specific reason for going to Best Buy over Apple?
Ended up being a very good deal. If I bought from Apple would have missed out on free rewards, msrp discount, and the drive to Apple store is a bit longer
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Lately my items generally show up on time but badly packaged. I would say 9 of the last 10 books I bought on Amazon have had some kind of visible damage, from minor cover dings to folded covers and ripped pages. The worst is when they put a single book into a bubble envelope that is so oversized the book can slide around and rotate a full 360 degrees inside the packaging. This is essentially a trade paperback book in…
Honestly i’ve bought and returned plenty of stuff from Amazon. I never deal with their shit when something comes to me less than par. When I pay for prime, I expect to be paying for any mishandling of my items as well. Nearly every item i’ve wanted to return i’ve been told to just keep and i’ve never had any trouble with them. I always tell them i’m more than happy to send it back but they always refuse and just tell…
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It's great for a big-ticket, low-margin purchase like an MBP, but poor for cheap, high-margin items like cables and accessories. Which is, of course, where they really make money. They'll price match a laptop to Amazon, but cannot price match a $2 Ethernet patch cable because they're retail space, not a warehouse.
I've bought plenty of SD cards online for my raspberry pi and dashcam. They all die and start giving errors within a month or two. Even tho I went of my way to buy name brand, and not the cheapest 4 star cards. :-/