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Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

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Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#421

Post by megy »

mnm1 wrote: post #375
mimimihaha wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not sure why but I just got an email that said that my account might be in violations of their return policy. I stopped using them and a couple of months later, they sent another email saying the account was closed. Whatever I did, it was very typical shopping behavior for a small household and small business. There were a number of returns of fake / broken items. I figured that was Amazon's business. Selling a t…

> There were a number of returns of fake / broken items.

This is not typical at all.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#422

Post by btrettel »

jrnichols wrote: post #411
btrettel wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cancelled Prime because far too many orders would not come in on time. They kept giving me free months of Prime, but eventually I started thinking I could do better than free months of bad service. I rarely ever buy anything from Amazon now unless I don't mind when the product comes in, the price is competitive, and the product is not the sort of thing which is often counterfeited. Their Amazon Basics brand frequen…

I'm trying to think of the last time I've had something not show up within 2-3 days. I suppose that this issue may vary quite a bit depending on where you live. I'm in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, and there are 6-8 large Amazon warehouses in this area alone, and Dallas itself is an Amazon Flex area.

I live in Austin, and I had pretty bad experiences when trying to get packages delivered to my apartment. The problem seemed to be with the carriers, who basically refuse to deliver to my apartment. My guess is that the carriers believe packages are too likely to be stolen where I live, so they refuse delivery.

To be fair to them, I might have had one package stolen, perhaps by an employee of a carrier. I don't know what happened other than that delivery was claimed to occur but no package appeared. Amazon was kind enough to to resend that one.

I can recall one time where UPS told me to drive to their facility in north Austin to pick up a package. I told them that they were paid to deliver and I won't be doing that. I can recall another time where I got a door tag from USPS that told me to go to a particular post office to pick it up, and it wasn't there when I arrived.

The most annoying part is that I think no attempt was made to deliver a fraction of these packages. I often would not receive door tags, and I can recall one time where UPS claimed they attempted delivery but refused because I apparently was not there where I believe I likely was there. No door tag that time either. The UPS driver seemed irritated at me when they finally did deliver the package.

I can also vaguely recall at a previous apartment (also in Austin) having some problems where delivery was claimed to occur but did not actually occur. That problem stopped at some point.

Even before then, when I lived in the Washington DC area, I can recall having major problems with LaserShip, who would do last-mile delivery in the area. Amazon seemed dedicated to using LaserShip. I recall canceling Prime back then specifically because LaserShip was so bad, and then starting again when I moved and LaserShip was no longer an option. You can read horror stories online about LaserShip. I vaguely recall one instance where they left a package in the rain that made me look them up and not trust them any longer.

None of this is necessarily Amazon's fault. The vast majority of packages that I received were from Amazon, and I haven't had problems with others, however. Might be that the carriers figure Amazon packages are more valuable than other ones.

In contrast, I've had no problems receiving packages at work from Amazon, but my work doesn't want me to receive personal packages there and I don't have a car, so I can't take large packages from work.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#423

Post by scarface74 »

AlexandrB wrote: post #363
maxsilver wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ,…

Reading something like this I have two thoughts: 1. Why would PC manufacturers de-value their own brand like this!? 2. It almost makes sense why Apple can get away with charging a premium. No mystery meat hardware/crapware regardless of retailer.

PC manufacturers lost any perceived brand difference the minute they decided to take marketing dollars from Intel and add an “Intel Inside” sticker on their computers and add it to their ads and when they decided to co Rand with Windows even to the point of including a Windows logo to their keyboards. The only thing most consumers know and care about is that it’s a computer running Windows with an Intel chip.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#424

Post by scarface74 »

emodendroket wrote: post #379
AlexandrB wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading something like this I have two thoughts: 1. Why would PC manufacturers de-value their own brand like this!? 2. It almost makes sense why Apple can get away with charging a premium. No mystery meat hardware/crapware regardless of retailer.

Your two observations are connected. They do it because they are paid by the software maker, allowing them to sell the product for less.

People use to always talk about the “Windows tax” and say that computers would cost less if they didn’t come with Windows. Actually the opposite is true. With all of the deals they can make preinstalling bloat on their computers, OEMs could make more than enough to offset the cost of a Windows license. They couldn’t do that with alternative OS’s.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#425

Post by megy »

gnicholas wrote: post #85
josefresco wrote: post #15

Like most Americans I order a shitload from Amazon. However the last item I bought from Best Buy was a TV (my old LG just ... died). Ordered online, chose to pick up in store. Drive 35 min to store Pickup process takes 10-15 min Drive 35 min home. Left after dinner, was watching it that evening. The only condition that would have prevented me from using this model would be traffic, as it could extend the trip by 60-9…

One reason Best Buy is still alive is that they effectively price discriminate between online buyers and in-store buyers. I saw a deal for a 48” Vizio TV on bestbuy.com for $206 (in 2016, this was a screaming deal). I ordered for in-store pickup. When I went to the store, I saw the TV was listed for sale at $400 or so, with no indication of a better price online. So Best Buy makes tons of money off folks who wander i…

You think it is free to have that building, that staff, the parking lot, the electricity??

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#426

Post by scarface74 »

notheguyouthink wrote: post #135
jmuguy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ordered a TV from Amazon. They use a third party service that schedules delivery with you. Two dudes came out with TV, unboxed and set it up (put on stand, plugged in power to verify its working). A few days after delivery I noticed a red line running along the top of the screen. Contacted Amazon about replacement. There was some issue with doing a direct replacement so they had me purchase another TV and then refu…

Interesting. We ordered one from Amazon, I think a 50inch, and it was put on our front doorstep in the tv box. It was undamaged thankfully, but it looked like a normal Fedex(or w/e) driver, not a special delivery at all.

I can second that. I’ve ordered 3 TVs from Amazon over the past two years - all relatively cheap TCL Roku TVs ( < $350), a 32, 49, and 55. One was lost in transit and I ended up cancelling the order. Another didn’t arrive when they said it should so I ended up picking it up from UPS. I had to unbox it to get it in my car. I probably wouldn’t trust Amazon for a more expensive purchase.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#427

Post by taeric »

emodendroket wrote: post #405
taeric wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the same height. But I'd wager a large number of folks don't get heavily tailored solutions. The question is ultimately if shoes are more like ergonomic keyboards, or like eyeglasses. My hunch is the former, since it doesn't take professional training to find stuff like pronation. (Which, yes, I already knew.) Don't get me wrong, help staff can be good. I've yet to have a shoe associate give me any detail I didn'…

If you are willing to do all the research yourself figuring out what type of step you have and what type of shoe is good for it and then what kind of options there are in that style then I suppose you don't need anyone's help. If you don't want to do that you can visit a professional who knows what they're talking about and be done with it in minutes. I don't see that this is very different from any other service. If…

Ah, my point was a bit more rambled than it should have been. I actually had several thoughts that I blurred all together into one.

First thought was that you likely just got good shoes. Something surprisingly few people have.

That led to the thought that the sales people probably did give you attention, and did do well and suggest the correct shoes. However, my thought is that the correct shoes for most people probably align more often than we give credit.

My point about the effectiveness of paying for something was a complete aside that would only explain additional efficacy. I did not mean it accounted for the entire effect. (So, yeah, I should have left that out entirely.)

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#428

Post by callalex »

megy wrote: post #421
mnm1 wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why but I just got an email that said that my account might be in violations of their return policy. I stopped using them and a couple of months later, they sent another email saying the account was closed. Whatever I did, it was very typical shopping behavior for a small household and small business. There were a number of returns of fake / broken items. I figured that was Amazon's business. Selling a t…

> There were a number of returns of fake / broken items. This is not typical at all.

That sounds typical to me. This far I have had a slightly higher than 50% success rate with AmazonBasics items. I don’t think I will be purchasing many more. Especially since they have started forcing me to mail back $5 defective chargers before they will send a replacement.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#429

Post by twblalock »

jumelles wrote: post #370
jmuguy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ordered a TV from Amazon. They use a third party service that schedules delivery with you. Two dudes came out with TV, unboxed and set it up (put on stand, plugged in power to verify its working). A few days after delivery I noticed a red line running along the top of the screen. Contacted Amazon about replacement. There was some issue with doing a direct replacement so they had me purchase another TV and then refu…

I can't tell whether you're happy with Amazon's service. It sounds to me like you waited for delivery, got a bad TV, waited for delivery again ... but at least you don't have to deal with the box? No thanks.

He could have gone to Best Buy, drove the TV home himself if he had a car a 65-inch TV would fit in, dealt with the packaging and setup himself, and then found out it was defective.

It sounds to me like he got pretty good service and avoided a lot of hassle by doing it through Amazon.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#430

Post by anoncoward111 »

gshulegaard wrote: post #416
flerchin wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So their gig driver delivered to the wrong house. Amazon figured it out, and reached out to make it right. That seems pretty decent customer service to me.

Probably exactly what happened. Wasn't trying to make a negative stab at Amazon besides the fact their two day Prime deliveries have not been reliable for me recently (and it used to be very reliable). This is just one experience among others. Never had an issue for years ...and then all of a sudden a number of mistimed deliveries or incorrect deliveries all around the same time.

I think Amazon gets around this with legalese by guaranteeing it will leave the factory within two days ("shipping"), but they won't guarantee the day it arrives at your door ("delivery")
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