Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[TechSavvyChick]

Retail is a tough business to work in no doubt. The pressure that management puts on its employees to push sales can be sometimes outrageous. Sometimes to the point that they end up firing the knowledgeable, trustworthy, and customer oriented sales person all because they missed their sales "goal". Which in turn is why you end up talking to "drones" that are trying to get you to spend more money and not actually provided solutions to fit the customers needs.

[Art646]

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Criminal's wrote:

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ArgoTech wrote:

CrimsonRain, you seem to have a nose built to sniff out all of us phonies: "All the alleged CEOs with decades of customer service experience under their belt here who are so quick to give advice to a multi-billion dollar company...". It also seems you have enough intellect to navigate these murky waters of complaints in hopes of reaching a solution. You might also grasp the fact that where there's a complain a solution is short to follow - at least at companies I worked for. Well then, CrimsonRain, do you perhaps have an idea (or an "educated guess") on how to fix BestBuy (with the number of posts you've amassed on this forum and elsewhere you must have an idea or two). Ladies and gentlemen  - Mr. CrimsonRain, to the podium, please. Can't wait to finaly hear some common sense!

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I don't know all of the problems Best Buy has right now and I certainly wouldn't know the magical fix-all solution for them. For one, I no longer work for them and many things have changed in 2 years. For another reason, my knowledge on business mechanics is limited. My forte is in legal matters. I'm sure I've posted it several times in my 1k posts, but I can see 4 areas of opportunity that Best Buy can improve upon: 1) employee morale, 2) dot com presence, 3) services and support, and 4) real estate.

These might be great ideas, but they don't have as much direct impact as 1. Treat your customers like honest customers and not like mastermind criminals ...an unopened return with receipt within the time period shouldn't be a hassle. 2. Treat your loyal customer better than your average Joe...example, the CS say something like "Normally we don't do this, but since you are a silver member, we will make an exception". This would give customers more incentive to become and stay a silver member. I'm not saying that the CS should give the store away, but the little gray areas, they can help out the loyal customer.

[Art646]

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Mbrguy wrote:

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Art646 wrote:

I just read this article and I wanted to share it.

BB future

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Hey, that looks familiar.  That looks like the story that's been posted here about 99 times already.  Do you know what this means?  This means that you're the 100th person to post that here.  You've won!!!  I'd say that calls for a celebration.

I'm only reading this one thread now...so I didn't see the other 99 posts, but it must hurt that 99 other people read the same article and posted it since it was written on 1/9/2012 6:18 PM ET.  

Also, I don't remember exactly who said it, but someone mentioning that BB future isn't looking good and they compared it to Circuit City or some other bankrupt company and someone else show me proof.  So from what I recalled, I posted the "BB future" link.

 And I think that link should be on every thread because then we, customers, would know why we are getting the shaft.

[Jimmienomam]

As to the "normally we don't do this", sadly this has lost all meaning to consumers. I would say a large percent of consumers would just expect it to be an exception next time also.

There are multiple posts in here that mimic the above and there have been countless times that I have told customers "this is outside our policy" or the like only to go nuts the next time when I don't break policy stating "well last time..."

Good concept, but consumers seem to not understand the concept of breaking policy once. Also what happens when one CSR breaks policy, but the CSR right next to him doesn't? This is when consumers play Race, gender, status etc cards.

Amazon and other online places it's easier to make exceptions as it is always a 1 on 1 conversation. When in store at BBY anyone in line can hear if you make an exception.

Compounding it is the feeling the consumer gets of "I'm not as valued as that other consumer, so I'll take my business elsewhere"

[Mbrguy Emerging Expert]

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Art646 wrote:

I'm only reading this one thread now...so I didn't see the other 99 posts, but it must hurt that 99 other people read the same article and posted it since it was written on 1/9/2012 6:18 PM ET.

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Actually, it was not written on 1/9/2012, it was only posted to MSN money on that date.  It was originally posted on Forbes on January 2nd and all the people are having issues with Best Buy, whether they are real or imagined, have been posting that article as "proof" that Best Buy is going out of business.  One internet news contributor posts a tirade based off of a bad experience in a store and now all of the people on the internet who read it think that they are financial experts.  It'd be funny if it weren't so sad.  There were plenty of holes in that article, but the article achieved what the writer wanted it to, whether the facts were reported accurately or not.

[CrimsonRain]

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Art646 wrote:

These might be great ideas, but they don't have as much direct impact as 1. Treat your customers like honest customers and not like mastermind criminals ...an unopened return with receipt within the time period shouldn't be a hassle. 2. Treat your loyal customer better than your average Joe...example, the CS say something like "Normally we don't do this, but since you are a silver member, we will make an exception". This would give customers more incentive to become and stay a silver member. I'm not saying that the CS should give the store away, but the little gray areas, they can help out the loyal customer.

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And that is where you are wrong and why I laugh when complainers come here to give business advice to Best Buy. At least my suggestions look at the organization as a whole. Every other complainer that comes here to whine somehow blow up their minor incident to a problem with the whole company. They think, "I received bad customer service so that means everyone else is receiving bad customer service." Or, "I dealt with a rude manager, which means all Best Buy managers are rude. Must be a company-wide thing." When you generalize things like that is when your argument lost credibility. Not as much impact? Again, I am looking at the bigger picture, not a few isolated incidents. Look at my examples again. They affect the entire company and its business structure as a whole. Again, they are just my observations and suggestions for change unlike other complainers on this board that only complain but offer no real solid suggestions (Get better customer service is not a solid suggestion.).

As for your suggestions: 1) I don't see how a store would deny a return if the product was unopened and has an accompanying receipt within the returns/exchanges period. Elaborate please. 2) I think this is dangerous territory. Reward Zone Silver Premier members already get some perks that the average shopper does not. The biggest counter to your suggestion is that whether a customer spends $1 at Best Buy or $1000, every customer should be treated equally. Would you not agree? I'm sure all the non-RZSP members here would. I'm also sure that if Best Buy offered super perks to RZSP members, the non-members would be in an uproar. Reward Zone Silver members don't always maintain their status and non-members wil sometimes become RZSP members. Then they'll think, "Remember when I was a nobody and you treated me like crap? Now that I am somebody, I am not going to patronize your business."

The primary criteria to be a RZSP member is to spend $2500 with Best Buy in a year, however, just because a shopper spends $2500 per year at Best Buy does not make that shopper a profitable customer. As I'm sure you all read the news, margin on electronics is shrinking. Best Buy and all other retailers and e-tailers alike make very little money off the core product. Most of their money is off the services, accessories, and content. So, even if you purchased 10 naked TVs from Best Buy, the other guy who purchased only 2 TVs but had some accessories and a service plan on it probably generated Best Buy more profit. According to Best Buy's recently released earnings report, revenue (that 10 naked TVs) isn't their problem. They managed to hit their revenue goal and exceeded by 3% I believe; it's the profit margin (the 2 TVs with all the attachments) which they missed and people are all doomin & gloomin about.

I was with Best Buy before they even had the Reward Zone Silver Premier program. I was part of Best Buy for Business team when they started to bounce ideas around on how to show appreciation to the 20% of their shoppers who spend oodles of money with Best Buy. We had to strike a balance between showing appreciation and not ticking off the other 80%. We thought about offering the so-called super perks but then we thought of the ways it could be abused. The best example being one person being the sole RZSP member of the household and just having him/her make all the purchases but then the whole group could enjoy the RZSP benefits. The other one I could remember was someone making mass purchases for their business but then enjoying the RZSP benefits personally (this was back when small businesses were booming).

So no, I don't think offering unlimited wishes and super perks to RZSP members would be a good move for Best Buy's business. In fact, I think it would even hurt their business by way of isolating the general consumer base. The perks that RZSP members enjoy now are sufficient given the criteria, circumstances, and competition. Personally, I am a RZSP member and a holder of an Amazon Prime account and switch between them. Sometimes Best Buy has the better deals/perks and sometimes Amazon does. The $80 annual fee for Amazon Prime does suck though.

[TechSavvyChick]

I agree with you CrimsonRain. It's hard for most to try and look at the big picture as a whole. The key is to try to appeal to every market type, not just one.

[parkerthon]

Per the bigger picture, I'm sure there's potentially multiple issues going on with Best Buy from a business operations perspective that potentially nobody except the CEO grasps as a whole, with the backdrop of some serious competitive headwinds. Surely though, the answer to those challenges is not to start squeezing your customers with poorly implemented and communicated policies based on the sales pitch of some 3rd party systems integrator that promises instant ROI and reduced costs. Part of the reason I still shop at local retail at all is because I have the freedom to change my mind without the inconvenience of having to mail something back. Now best buy is essentially saying "don't buy from us unless you're positive A) you will keep it  B) you won't price match it and C) it won't be defective." There goes any competitive advantage their physical presence had over a virtual store front to the point that online retailers clearly have that convenience advantage now. Whoever made the call on implementing TRE has their head way up there.

[CrimsonRain]

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parkerthon wrote:

Per the bigger picture, I'm sure there's potentially multiple issues going on with Best Buy from a business operations perspective that potentially nobody except the CEO grasps as a whole, with the backdrop of some serious competitive headwinds. Surely though, the answer to those challenges is not to start squeezing your customers with poorly implemented and communicated policies based on the sales pitch of some 3rd party systems integrator that promises instant ROI and reduced costs. Part of the reason I still shop at local retail at all is because I have the freedom to change my mind without the inconvenience of having to mail something back. Now best buy is essentially saying "don't buy from us unless you're positive A) you will keep it  B) you won't price match it and C) it won't be defective." There goes any competitive advantage their physical presence had over a virtual store front to the point that online retailers clearly have that convenience advantage now. Whoever made the call on implementing TRE has their head way up there.

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I don't think preventing return policy abusers brings any instant ROI into Best Buy's pockets. If anything, it's there to prevent them from bleeding money. You're making it sound like Best Buy is attempting to prevent anyone from returning anything when in fact they are just trying to weed out the people who abuse their return/exchange policy. How many returns/exchanges do you think a reasonable shopper undegoes in any given timeframe? If you want to use the complaint posts on this forum as a sample size, then it's not very many. There are more posts about the holiday dot com fiasco than there are about the TRE system locking out returns/exchanges for 90 days, and the holiday dot com fiasco affected approximately 30k people which is a fraction of the millions of customers Best Buy has. Less than that is, well, you do the math.

If you think Best Buy is and ever will be (or is even currently the only one with this type of system), then you should prepare to be surprised. There's a trend when companies know they have the consumer base, they will make their move. Look at Bank of America and their endless fees. Look at Chase. Look at Verizon and their thwarted $2 convenience fee. Businesses exist to make money. And if they want to survive and grow, they will find new ways to make (or save) money. Last time I checked, the love and warm cuddlies of "customers" don't exactly pay the bills or put food on the table.

[parkerthon]

They're had to be some ROI proposition in implementing this system even if it's simple predicted cost savings derived by some bogus statistics . I'm sure the software, integration, and ongoing maintenance costs them a fortune.

I'm all for the profit motive, but this return policy effectively loses customers of best buy forever. I'd never shop at a store where I have zero option to return what I am buying. It's a pretty bad deal how they implemented it with no real warning to the customer... so bad I wouldn't be surprised to see a class action come of this if it ever gets highlighted by the press. The dot.com fiasco was pretty bad as well, but that was simply being overwhelmed with demand which isn't necessarily a bad sign for the future. Best Buy isn't the first to have their systems collapse under the strain of too much demand. It certainly ticked some people off, but consumers have some tolerance for a company dropping the ball every once in a while even if they're extremely aggravated when it happens.

As far as general trends, even when companies think they "have" the customer base, it only takes a push or two to really cause an uprising and competition will get the better of them by taking those unhappy customers away. Netflix is a recent example of this after unseating awful blockbuster before them. They're still trying to stop the hemorrhaging after they pulled that nasty service change that caused a price increase. The reason banks are tightening the screws on "free" accounts is because they can't get their overdraft fees from debit card transactions anymore. It's now opt in for the consumer to have that happen to them due to the change in laws so they're trying to come up with creative revenue generating solutions that ultimately are giving them terrible press. Verizon is probably the worst offender of screwing their customers, but they were also thwarted. I'm in a field where monopolies rise and fall all the time. It made me realize that, worse case scenario, it takes a little bit for competition to get to dominant companies nut, once it does, they pay the price because they're too complacent to adapt.