Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 468 posts

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#251

Post by trentmb »

ahi wrote: post #87
paulgb wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I almost bought a calendar on Prime today only to see that it "usually ships in 1-2 months(!)" Increasingly it feels like as a Prime subscriber I pay for shipping twice: once with my prime subscription, and a second time with the shipping cost built in to the price compared to other retailers. I ended up getting an equivalent item from Target, which ended up being cheaper even without "free" shipping.

This is true even on Amazon. Very often the Prime price is exactly the same as their third-party price + shipping. This will be my last year of Prime.

> This will be my last year of Prime.

The refunded me the pro-rated balance of my subscription when I cancelled a year or two ago.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#252

Post by thaumaturgy »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #239
dropfrog wrote: post #172

But that call-in "customer support" is a deal killer. I made an online purchase, a cheap antenna (thank goodness). It arrived in a box with my address taped on it but with customized shirts inside. Boxes were damaged during shipping and when put back together, someone got my stuff and I got theirs. UPS - "it's not on us, contact Best Buy". So I decided to use this to test Best Buy's customer support. I call. Foreign…

I've had similar issues with Verizon support reps. What I've started doing is if I get the feeling they're not helping, I just hang up and call again. At least with Verizon I'd say 50% of agents know what they're talking about, so usually that works. I know this is a shitty solution (and to be honest, I've never had to do the same with Amazon) but it does help.

I recently switched to T-Mobile from Verizon, because they were willing to straight up pay off the phone I bought a few months ago, whereas being a Verizon customer for a decade has given me basically no benefits whatsoever.

Anyway, there was a screwup with the reimbursement, and the one thing I'll give T-Mobile's customer service is that any time you contact them, they text a survey to you afterward, and if you express displeasure through the survey, man, they are all over that. You get a call back shortly after from someone in a department dedicated to fixing customer service issues.

I'm pretty sure it's the very first time that responding to one of those surveys wasn't a total waste of time. I really wish more companies handled it that way.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#253

Post by 3rdAccount »

emodendroket wrote: post #212
metiscus wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes Best Buy has exclusive models that have specific software put on there by the manufacturer. You can usually verify if you are getting one of those models by googling the full model number to see if there are other sellers than Best Buy out there.

Walmart is famous for doing this with all manner of goods (usually their version has some sacrifices to achieve a lower price).

Chromebooks from anywhere including Walmart are of course free of any crap.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#254

Post by 3rdAccount »

kop316 wrote: post #91
sonnyblarney wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I don't have to give my information so I don't feel like I am being tracked." Uhhh, you for sure will. First - BB is very aggressive on getting this stuff from you cleanly, i.e. name, addy, phone number - so they can 'track you'. Second - VISA/MC transactions will absolutely be used for that and they'll try to match up their in-store with online experiences. FYI - Visa/MC/Amex will literally sell your transaction da…

I am curious how they are "very aggressive". What happens with me is they say "what is your phone number?" and I say "no thank you", and they just skip it. Though it may just be my experience with them. You are correct with the credit card, they will most likely track you, but you have the option to use cash if you wish.

Yea, I politely say no to everything. Boy, do they have a lot of questions though.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#255

Post by mgleason_3 »

tyu100 wrote: post #214
mimimihaha wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Amazon is a small miracle. They stock everything, it comes right to your door, the prices are competitive in general and with Subscribe and Save you are doing even better. E-books are also incredible and with Prime you get Instant Video thrown in for free. I'm sure bad experiences happen but compared to driving to the big box suburban wasteland to browse through a limited selection, Amazon is a godesend.

In my experience, Best Buy’s return policy and process has been awful. Granted it’s been years because it was so bad. Literally the worst of any store I’ve ever shopped at.

Last time I bought a router from them it was defective. I had to stand in line for over an hour. The clerk was surly and didn’t believe it was defective. Kept opening the box, pulling everything out, looking at all the pieces. Putting it all back. Over and over.

Then he didn’t said he couldn’t accept it because the receipt was ripped - which it was when the check-out person ripped it out of the register. He said they could take it back, but I wouldn’t be able to make any other returns.

I ended up asking for the manager who took another 15 minutes to arrive, argue and get it sorted.

The return took almost 2 hours. Absolutely crazy.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#256

Post by portaljester »

I was gifted a 25$ Best buy gift card, I thought I would never remember to use it. One day the lady is looking at makeup and I see a Best buy. I go in looking for a new mousepad. The place is full of washers and blenders etc. The only mouse pad they had was 60$ (extreme gaming blah blah). I ended up grabbing a Pink Floyd vinyl for 22$. I found it odd but if it works it works.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#257

Post by maxsilver »

dpark wrote: post #132
scarface74 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The bundled crapware has nothing to do with where you buy your PC. Best Buy doesn’t install anything on the PCs they sell. Dell does, HP does, Lenovo does. You get the same crap if you buy direct or from a retailer. If you buy a “Microsoft Signature” device, you pay a small premium essentially for the manufacturer to agree not to install crap. You might (or might not) get the same from the manufacturer if you buy a “…

> Best Buy doesn’t install anything on the PCs they sell.

This isn't necessarily true. Some PCs are Best Buy specific models, with extra bloatware from Best Buy (in addition to the OEM bloatware from Dell / HP / Lenovo).

This also affects physical components sometimes. I remember from laptop shopping a few months ago, that the MSI GS63 Stealth laptop ships with a crappier screen specifically for the Best Buy model, where as most other models had a decent screen. This was done so that the Best Buy model would have an artificially-low price in comparison to online retailers.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#258

Post by patrickxie »

mimimihaha wrote: post #232
mnm1 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no doubt you'll get flagged at some point. I felt the same way before I even knew they would close my account. It didn't matter that the account was created in the 90's or early 2000's or that I had been a prime member for years or that I was spending around $10k a year there. They even kept my prime payment and didn't refund it. It's just a game of chance with their systems. You simply will never know what yo…

Yikes. That sucks. I’ve heard once your account is flagged there is literally nothing you can do to use Amazon anymore. Can you elaborate on how it happened to you and when? I am pretty liberal when it comes to returns but I don’t use the system unless necessary.

If you believe your account is flagged, you can sell that account to people who are willing to purchase Aged Amazon accounts, they will buy out the remainder of your Amazon prime payments.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#259

Post by kowdermeister »

fhood wrote: post #89
Dayshine wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Walked back in the store the next day to return But they could have been difficult about this right? In the EU at least, buying online means you can always return no questions asked within 14 days. Buying in store means you are bound to the shop's returns policy.

Wait really? What's to stop me from setting up a side business selling mbp hard drives then?

Jail time

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#260

Post by mieseratte »

chris72205 wrote: post #30

Once Amazon started charging sales tax in my state, it was a no brainer to go to Best Buy first. - Same price (or sometimes less) - No waiting on delivery - High confidence that I'm getting a genuine product For me, it's the last point that's most important...especially with more expensive electronics purchases.

> High confidence that I'm getting a genuine product

Coming from a guy wearing a $50 pair of counterfeit Billabong shorts right now, that I bought off Amazon, I agree.

Post reply on HN