attempted to buy at retailer - bad experience
- Thread starter SamBB
- Start date
When I went to get mine at BB, there was the same issue with the display models. They seemed unresponsive at times - not a great way to show off a product. Thankfully, mine has never acted like the models at the store.
My rep was the opposite though - excited about the Surface products. Didn't know all the answers to my questions (mainly display calibration and color accuracy things - so kind of understand), but also did not try to get me over to the other camp lol. Flip of the coin when you walk in there, as well as many other stores.
Don't give them your money if you had a bad experience there, but also don't let a bad rep influence your decision - decide on your own. I do have a local MS store but have not visited yet - I assume the experience there is a little more positive. The good thing about going to BB though is that you can compare the many different display sizes between all the brands. The SP3 size is perfect for me (I did not like the display sizes on the SP1 or SP2 really - this is the first SP that I considered).
Good luck and have fun with it
My rep was the opposite though - excited about the Surface products. Didn't know all the answers to my questions (mainly display calibration and color accuracy things - so kind of understand), but also did not try to get me over to the other camp lol. Flip of the coin when you walk in there, as well as many other stores.
Don't give them your money if you had a bad experience there, but also don't let a bad rep influence your decision - decide on your own. I do have a local MS store but have not visited yet - I assume the experience there is a little more positive. The good thing about going to BB though is that you can compare the many different display sizes between all the brands. The SP3 size is perfect for me (I did not like the display sizes on the SP1 or SP2 really - this is the first SP that I considered).
Good luck and have fun with it
BB is the biggest joke out there, ask any questions and they can't even answer the simplest ones or deny that any issue exists. My BB does not have a MS rep, most I saw trying to sell Samsung tabs and such because that is the only actual real type of rep they have in the store and obviously is all they have had real training on.
Past that wait till you try and return something and they require to scan your Drivers License....do too many returns and get banned like me. Buy online or go to an MS store....if you are buying low end maybe you will be lucky and have a Costco in town that has one in stock.
Past that wait till you try and return something and they require to scan your Drivers License....do too many returns and get banned like me. Buy online or go to an MS store....if you are buying low end maybe you will be lucky and have a Costco in town that has one in stock.
annabanana
Active Member
I had a great experience buying the SP3 at Best Buy. The Surface sales rep is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the SP3. All 5 of the display models were working perfectly.
What happened with the OP is terrible. The sales guy should be reported to the store manager and so on up to the top if needed. OTOH, I had a bad experience with the Microsoft store, kiosk, at the local mall across the street from BB because the rep was too busy looking at her Android phone to notice customers and tried to argue with me when I had a question about the SP1.
What happened with the OP is terrible. The sales guy should be reported to the store manager and so on up to the top if needed. OTOH, I had a bad experience with the Microsoft store, kiosk, at the local mall across the street from BB because the rep was too busy looking at her Android phone to notice customers and tried to argue with me when I had a question about the SP1.
Most retail people are like that. They try to make it seem like they are helping you get a better deal.
They will suggest cheaper alternatives. Show their 'expertise'.
I don't know. It must be the training or purely personal preference. Apple is hugely popular in America. I'm pretty sure that salesperson won't get paid more if they manage to make you buy something. I work part time in a grocery and even if someone buys everything on the store because I helped them, it won't make a difference for me. I mean I occasionally get customers who ask for my name tell my manager about what I've done, I just don't have the heart to tell them "it won't make a bloody difference with my life so you're wasting your time but thanks for the thought."
They will suggest cheaper alternatives. Show their 'expertise'.
I don't know. It must be the training or purely personal preference. Apple is hugely popular in America. I'm pretty sure that salesperson won't get paid more if they manage to make you buy something. I work part time in a grocery and even if someone buys everything on the store because I helped them, it won't make a difference for me. I mean I occasionally get customers who ask for my name tell my manager about what I've done, I just don't have the heart to tell them "it won't make a bloody difference with my life so you're wasting your time but thanks for the thought."
megatronium
Active Member
Dedicated stores from MS popping up * Apple being the hot commodity * Best Buy on its last legs = your experience
Buy from Microsoft direct. No rep to deal with, overnight shipping, and everything in stock.
Buy from Microsoft direct. No rep to deal with, overnight shipping, and everything in stock.
ipaq_101
Active Member
I use to work for Best Buy (in the PC department) way back when they expanded to California, it was a college job and during the heyday of the PC.
Best buy is full of fanboys, I was one and it was great, but when I sold products it was only PCs (HP, Packard Bell, Acer, emachines, IBM, think retro) and nothing else really. These days the flavor is Apple, and the morons that work there think they are competent in everything and anything related to computing, they are terribly wrong. Anyone on this forum can run circles around these so called experts.
I had somewhat of a similar experience to the OP, I went to buy a passport hard drive at best buy and showed them that the in store price was higher than bestbuy.com. They couldn't get their computer working to do the comparison so I showed them on my Samsung Galaxy smartphone, I was very quickly derided over my choice of a smartphone and the associate pulled out his ipad to take a better look (completely not necessary), more to show it off than anything, and I really didn't even care, I just wanted the hard drive. At the same time another guy wanted to buy an Ipad and the salesman just stopped helping me and went on and on about apple with the other customer. Even the other customer said, shouldn't you finish up with him first, I said don't bother I am going to find the store manager. Luckily, I knew the store manager from my earlier days (he used to work with me during my time there) and got it resolved and the idiot best buy employee was written-up.
Now even though I worked at best buy when I was in college (some 14 years ago), I was smart enough to know not to lecture a customer, great customer service means answering questions without bias and delivering what the customer wants. Ultimately the goal is to make the right sale so it's not returned later. Secondly, you never ignore one customer over another, I know my $99 hard drive wasn't the same as a $499 Ipad, but they don't work on commission and shouldn't care.
Anyway, best buy sucks and karma is coming back to bite them, they put record stores and many other electronic retailers out of business and now Amazon and e-commerce is doing it to them. I won't miss them.
Best buy is full of fanboys, I was one and it was great, but when I sold products it was only PCs (HP, Packard Bell, Acer, emachines, IBM, think retro) and nothing else really. These days the flavor is Apple, and the morons that work there think they are competent in everything and anything related to computing, they are terribly wrong. Anyone on this forum can run circles around these so called experts.
I had somewhat of a similar experience to the OP, I went to buy a passport hard drive at best buy and showed them that the in store price was higher than bestbuy.com. They couldn't get their computer working to do the comparison so I showed them on my Samsung Galaxy smartphone, I was very quickly derided over my choice of a smartphone and the associate pulled out his ipad to take a better look (completely not necessary), more to show it off than anything, and I really didn't even care, I just wanted the hard drive. At the same time another guy wanted to buy an Ipad and the salesman just stopped helping me and went on and on about apple with the other customer. Even the other customer said, shouldn't you finish up with him first, I said don't bother I am going to find the store manager. Luckily, I knew the store manager from my earlier days (he used to work with me during my time there) and got it resolved and the idiot best buy employee was written-up.
Now even though I worked at best buy when I was in college (some 14 years ago), I was smart enough to know not to lecture a customer, great customer service means answering questions without bias and delivering what the customer wants. Ultimately the goal is to make the right sale so it's not returned later. Secondly, you never ignore one customer over another, I know my $99 hard drive wasn't the same as a $499 Ipad, but they don't work on commission and shouldn't care.
Anyway, best buy sucks and karma is coming back to bite them, they put record stores and many other electronic retailers out of business and now Amazon and e-commerce is doing it to them. I won't miss them.
Telstar1948
Active Member
My Best Buy doesn't have MS reps. They have a MS area in the store, along with Apple and Samsung areas. The displays aren't too bad there, not perfect, but usually functional. My nearest MS store is about 2 or 2.5 hours away.
