I would be very surprised if I found out Best Buy was the only retailer with a "secret" site.
I worked at Steinberg's years ago before it closed down. This was before Best Buy had a national presence. It was basically us and Circuit City. There was a lot of overlap in people. One of the managers in my store (Field Ertel Road) was a former manager at Circuit City. We had people leave to go there. Heck, I even interviewed there when I worked at Steinberg's. In sales training at both places it was all about the warranties. They care a lot more about that than they do about your actual sales volume. The reason is that these waranties are almost 100% profit. They're one of the biggest ripoffs out there. The commission percentages on these things were ridiculous. If you wanted to make to good money in sales at a place like that, you did it through selling the warranties.
At one point, there was a policy in my store that if you didn't close an extended warranty on a customer, you were required to bring in one of the "closers" to give it a shot. If they were able to get the deal done, you had to split the commission. This policy was my last straw and the primary reason why I left a few months before I planned to (took a year and a half off school during undergrad. This was when I worked there). I hated spending time with people, getting to know them, feeling like I was really helping them get what they needed, only to have them absolutely beaten down by someone else because they didn't want the warranty.
But Best Buy came in and changed this. Heck, that's the only reason I started going to Best Buy for these things. I hated being hounded about the warranties. At Best Buy, the simply ask you if you want it while you're going through the check out line. If you say no, that's the end of the discussion. It's just the beginning at some of these other places. Radio Shack is the worst. I bought a couple of cell phones there and both times I was about the punch the sales person out if they said another word about the warranty. But Best Buy, as a company policy, does not push people on warranties. It's a one time question and nothing more. They don't get paid on them, nor are they evaluated on them.
Grape works as a soda. Sort of as a gum. I wonder why it doesn't work as a pie. Grape pie? There's no grape pie. - Larry David
It doesn't matter to me where I buy my high tech items, all it matter is that I'm getting the best deal. Now that I live less than 2 miles from Fry's, I'm enjoying shopping there a whole lot more. With CompUSA closing over half their stores, I think Fry's and MicroCenter will expand to take up the void.
You know what's funny about that is when I bought a computer a few years I went to Best Buy first. I decided on something and the kid who was selling me the computer asked me about buying a service plan. I politely said no which was fine until the "closer" came in and started pressuring me. After he got really really pushy I left the store and told the man I would never be back. The look on that guy's face was absolutely priceless. I went to Circuit City and everything was fine, no pushy sales people or anything.
Alright, you obviously HAVEN'T worked at Best Buy. They push people so hard they made people quit! They have numbers on yellow signs at the front of the store and if your FLOOR TEAM doesn't meet the goals posted in the allocated time frame, the manager is gonna have you head that night at closing. It's disgusting.
By the way, Circuit City hasn't been on commission in about 4 years...
redsrule2500
Go Reds!
“I’m a normal guy blessed with the ability to hit a baseball.” - Sean Casey
I feel great about the warranty I purchased from Best Buy for my computer. I went ahead and got the total coverage, no questions asked warranty for my laptop figuring I would probably drop it and need it at some point. Well, I have had 2 mother boards fail, and I have dropped it causing damage at least twice. Furthermore, I will be taking it in in a couple months to complain about battery life and get a new battery before the warranty runs out in October. That warranty has been the best thing I have ever bought. I have probably had over twice to three times the value of the computer fixed (almost exclusively because of my own stupidity). And every time I just laugh knowing Best Buy is bearing the cost of it.
Whenever they ask me if I want to purchase an extended warranty, I ask them, "Why, don't you stand by your products?".
"Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women." - Nora Ephron
Purchase extended warranties or insurance coverage only for items that you cannot afford to pay to fix or replace on your own. In other words, most people should have coverage for their house, their car (if it is worth much) and their lives, but not for something purchased at Best Buy or Circuit City.
"Hey...Dad. Wanna Have A Catch?" Kevin Costner in "Field Of Dreams."
You'd be better off giving that money to your favorite charity.
Selling the extended warranty is pretty standard for all of those places. My sister gets the same kind of pressure at CompUSA. Of course I never buy the warranty because my sister is a tech manager and fixes my stuff for free anyway. I just have to pay for the parts. Her advice is that you only really need to buy an extended warranty if you get an expensive laptop, and when you do, make sure it covers damage or failure to the screen. According to her, a lot of warranties don't cover replacing the screen, which also happens to be the most expensive repair on the laptop.
Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!
I've never had anyone anywhere get pushy with me when I turned down an extended warranty.
Of course, being a 6'2" female, I've never had anyone get pushy with me about much of anything I've said no to.
Will trade this space for a #1 starter.
If you can show you know more about the products than the sales guys, you'll get left alone. They don't want to look like they don't know what they are talking about.
Last edited by paintmered; 03-04-2007 at 12:26 PM.
All models are wrong. Some of them are useful.
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