How Best Buy lost a customer. Perhaps for life. Are brick and mortar stores soon to be a thing of the past?
By The Horse
@TheHorse (238370)
Walnut Creek, California
November 19, 2019 6:30pm CST
My buddy found his guitar strings at Guitar Center yesterday. But they "didn't have" the ones I was looking for--the ones that came on the guitar I bought there. I'll just order some more online.
We stopped at Fry's electronics, hoping to find a cheap cell phone for me (I left mine in Montana). They had virtually nothing in stock, and there were hardly any customers in their huge store.
Today, I called Best Buy, which also sells electronic stuff. I made it through to their menu, but could not get through to a human being. All I wanted to know was which phones they'd recommend I check out.
I tried again, clicked some different "selections," and got the same result. Nobody ever picked up. So I am done with Best Buy. I will check Amazon.
Are retail stores soon to be a thing of the past?
18 people like this
18 responses
@DaddyEvil (174748)
• United States
21 Nov 19
@TheHorse @just4him Most retail stores are starting to cut down on their on-hand inventory. After all, it is too expensive to keep products on a shelf just so you can destroy it while pretending to be interested in buying it!
A customer ask me where the new calculators were at Walmart a few days ago. I took him to the right aisle, showed him where the calculators were and ask if he needed anything else. He said no, so I went on to the next customer.
Fifteen minutes later, I showed another customer the same section of merchandise and gathered up the ruined box a calculator had been in but wasn't able to find the calculator itself... The ruined packaging went into the "Stolen" bin in the back room. *shake my head* (And no, the ruined box hadn't been there when I showed the first customer where to find calculators... 
)
)2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174748)
• United States
21 Nov 19
Honestly, it's getting more and more risky to allow customers access to a store's merchandise if the salesclerk can't stay right there with them.
Theft seems to be on the rise again... or, if not theft, simple destruction of the merchandise, apparently destroyed just for entertainment value.
People are getting stranger and stranger every day, I swear!
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (190011)
• Boise, Idaho
20 Nov 19
I think they are. Has been slowly happening for several years now.
2 people like this
@celticeagle (190011)
• Boise, Idaho
20 Nov 19
@TheHorse ......You can even buy a car online now.. Geesh.
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174748)
• United States
21 Nov 19
@celticeagle I was more weirded out by the online casket sales than car sales, CelticEagle. *giggling my tush off!*
2 people like this
@1creekgirl (44560)
• United States
20 Nov 19
I sure hope not. Our son is a store manager of an Office Depot.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238370)
• Walnut Creek, California
25 Nov 19
@1creekgirl The call center people I talk to are often hard to understand.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238370)
• Walnut Creek, California
20 Nov 19
@DianneN Dianna, When I go to elite guitar stores, I have great conversations with the guys who sell those guitars. We discuss the wood, playing techniques, the music and guitar business, etc. You like nice clothing (and other things) like I like nice guitars. I hope you have cool conversations with the sales people about how this makes you look, what occasions are correct for this garment, where the fabrics came from, etc. If "boutique" guitar, clothing and etc. stories simply die, then a part of what we enjoy is gone. That's what I'm lamenting here.
2 people like this
@Deepizzaguy (122336)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
20 Nov 19
I am sure that there are going to be some retail stores that will close since the service is not as good as buying online. Personally I like to and buy my materials at a retail store since I can get my purchases home quicker than waiting for at least one week to get my purchases.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238370)
• Walnut Creek, California
22 Nov 19
@Deepizzaguy We are peers. It is weird.
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (122336)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
20 Nov 19
@TheHorse That is how I feel sometimes even though I am 58 years of age.
1 person likes this
@louievill (28846)
• Philippines
20 Nov 19
Those with a brick and mortar store and an online shop at the same time would most likely have a higher survival rate, online shoppers tend to trust a seller with a physical shop the downside is the high cost of rent and labor to maintain one, perhaps they can stream line it but keep it well stocked.
1 person likes this
@louievill (28846)
• Philippines
20 Nov 19
@TheHorse business that treat clients and customers that way would soon go the way of the dinosaurs, extinct! Lol
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238370)
• Walnut Creek, California
20 Nov 19
@louievill I wouldn't be surprised to see Best Buy go bankrupt, if they have not already. I was really shocked by what I experienced today.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86892)
• United States
20 Nov 19
Maybe, maybe not. What happened to you was you were a victim of something that is DEFINITELY a thing of the past: customer service.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86892)
• United States
20 Nov 19
@TheHorse -- I sadly don't think so. Thanks to social media, I don't think there are a lot of people who have the proper attitude to be face-to-face customer service reps anymore. Plus, most of these kids want $30 an hour for doing nothing.....
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238370)
• Walnut Creek, California
20 Nov 19
@FourWalls It was odd talking to the "workers" at Fry's Electronics. Nobody seemed to know what they were doing. I was glad to get out of there.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (174748)
• United States
21 Nov 19
WOW! Your whole shopping trip was a waste, pony. *shake my head*
Uhm... if you'd like to give talking to a live person at Best Buy another try, you could do this: "If you need to talk to a live person in Best Buy customer service you need to dial 1-888-237-8289. To quickly speak with an agent, you need to say “I need something else” and stay on the line (typical waiting time is about 1-2 minutes)." Information taken from
*really grinning at you* Fry Electronics is really pushing their customers to purchase things like cell phones through their online site so the company is better protected (at least in that area) from theft. (Most customers want the newest tech out there, which means iPhones or Samsung Galaxies or Notes. Those phones are selling for around $800 to $1,500 each!!! You can't really blame them for trying to protect their bottom line.)
Just so you're aware, if you ask a Best Buy salesclerk what phone(s) they'd recommend for you, you're going to set him/her off on a sales spiel for iPhone 11 Pro Max ($1,600) or a Samsung Note 10+ (Starting price is $1,100 and can go up to $2,000, depending on what bells and whistles he/she can talk you into adding.
)
Possibly, one day in the future... far in the future, there will be a brick and mortar building with a ten by ten cubical with a company name on the door and a robot who will pretend to listen to your problem(s) with your latest device and then push you to replace your old (six months ago model) worn out device. Oh, and the robot won't have anything for you to purchase there. It will direct you to their online sales site. *shrug*
Personally, I won't mind listening to a sales bot since it won't be/get upset when I tell it I'm not interested and walk away from it. Sales people can become nightmares when they think you're almost hooked into buying their most expensive whatever, whether you're interested in it or not! (A sales person followed Pretty and I out of the store a couple of weeks ago insisting I needed to purchase whatever it was we glanced at on our way through his department. *shake my head*) 
OMG! The site just told me to "fix a bad word" before it could post this. The "bad word" I tried to post was sales bot. (Put the two words together and you get a gay woman. 
)Skip to content If you need to talk to a live person in Best Buy customer service you need to dial 1-888-237-8289. To quickly speak with an agent, you need to say “I need something else” and stay on the line (typical waiting time is about 1-2 minutes).If y
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (222898)
• United States
20 Nov 19
I love to shop online. I hate to go into a brick-and-mortar store anymore unless I absolutely have to. Automated phone lines are getting ridiculous. I've had that problem in which I can't speak to a live person. I swear they want it that way.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (222898)
• United States
22 Nov 19
@TheHorse Me too! It was always the customer first. Now I think it's the customer if we feel like it!
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
20 Nov 19
that is a question I've asked many times. The simple answer is the ones that behave like it is 2004, will be gone in the next few years.
Sears is gone (or nearly)
JCPenney is on its last legs
KMART was consumed by Sears
the world is evolving.
For the near term WalMart is safe.
Best Buy is one i never go to!
1 person likes this
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
20 Nov 19
@TheHorse Target seems to have a good model. Not Walmart, Kmart level clothes and I know my wife will only buy clothes she can try on first.
@BarBaraPrz (51839)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
20 Nov 19
I'm at the point where I buy very little, having just about everything I need, but when I do buy something, I like to do it in a real store.
(I Got Every Thing I Need) Almost by The Blues Brothers From The Album Briefcase Full of Blues
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
20 Nov 19
They will never entirely go away.
1 person likes this
