Best Buy Will Now Send a Salesperson To Your House To Sell You Things (theverge.com) 144
An anonymous reader writes: Starting next month, Best Buy will launch a free service where salespeople will come to your house to make recommendations about gadgets and services to try and sell you stuff. The service has been in testing in five markets and will be expanded to more cities around the U.S., according to the Associated Press. The Verge reports: "Best Buy has found that shoppers spend more money when at home than in store. CEO Hubert Joly says the in-house service is one way the company will open up 'latent' customer demand. Sales associates are responsible for promoting the service -- when customers ask about certain products, the salesperson will suggest an in-home visit. The topics discussed during the home visits usually involve recommendations for products and gadgets, and other services. Best Buy says the salespeople working in the in-home service receive hourly rates, or a salary, and not commissions. The company already operates a 'Geek Squad' facility, but that's a paid service that offers repairs and installations."
No... (Score:5, Insightful)
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You go to the door carrying only the receiver from the disassembled weapon, along with a cloth. Nothing threatening. You answer the door. Once they identify themselves you mention:
. . . I knew there must have been a reason the voices told me I should clean the guns today. Can you hold on just a minute . . .
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My shotgun says "you have thirty seconds to get the hell off my property"...
Calm down, Fuzzy. Nobody's messing with your banjo.
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They wont.
When I visit their store once every few months, part of the experience is avoiding the sales drones so I can get out of there as quickly as possible. The idea of inviting one of them to my house?
Are they kidding?
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At the store, if it's in stock I can buy it today. If I ordered it online, it would take a day or two. Sometimes that's significant.
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Show rooms are a horrible way to gauge the picture quality of a TV. Unless you live in a big box store, the special settings the TVs are calibrated with to look good won't represent your home environment.
Re: No... (Score:2)
How is this possibly working well enough in test markets to move forward? It's like going to department store and having the salesperson say "hey, why don't I come to your house and see what's in your closet, so I can tell you what clothes to buy?"
Then there's the thought of having someone waking through my house making a mental inventory of my technology, which is easily the most valuable stuff I have (outside of a car). The cynic in me wonders how long before we hear stories of people getting robbed a f
Well (Score:2)
I suppose if there are enough people who are lonely and clueless enough to invite a stranger into their homes to suggest ways to randomly spend money on tech gadgets, then by all means. This will not be happening in my household any time in the foreseeable future, but maybe this seemingly desperate move in some way helps BestBuy find a way to stop the beating that Amazon is putting on them.
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I suppose if there are enough people who are lonely and clueless enough to invite a stranger into their homes ......
Or possibly just someone looking for a naked twister opponent.
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this seemingly desperate move in some way helps BestBuy find a way to stop the beating that Amazon is putting on them.
I think a more effective way would be for Best Buy to stop overcharging for their stuff, and to stop using the Geek Squad to scam people.
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If it works Amazon will just crib it.
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years ago best buy wanted $100 more for a PSU (Score:2)
years ago best buy wanted $100 more for a PSU then an other tech store for the same one.
limited supply!! on the $30 pack buy now before (Score:2)
limited supply!! on the $30 pack buy now before price go up.
only $2.50 each limited time. or you can get 24 for only $1.79 each
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I thought door sales people had been banned in most civilised countries? Don't they have to be invited (rather like vampires) for it to be legal?
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So, let me get this straight: they're taking one of the worst parts of going to Best Buy (dealing with the salespeople), and sending them to my home?
In the words of Lana Kane: Nyoooope.
Archer: Idiots doing idiot things, because they’re idiots.
Re: Ugh. (Score:1)
Optimistically this could mean there would be no salescritters roaming the floor in thecstores. Yes! Go visit with my Aunt Ruth and talk to her about her washing machine! Do it now!
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I can actually picture ways it would be good for consumers. Some things like home automation could really work well in this model. It draws a line between service and sales-- "my internet is broken" could be either type of call, but many people would benefit by upgrading equipment.
Easy to screw it up though, so it really comes down to the details.
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I can actually picture ways it would be good for consumers. Some things like home automation could really work well in this model. It draws a line between service and sales-- "my internet is broken" could be either type of call, but many people would benefit by upgrading equipment.
Easy to screw it up though, so it really comes down to the details.
I think you hit the problem on the head. These aren't going to be implementers...they aren't going to be helpful like that. They won't fix anything, install anything, set up anything. They just want to sell you things. Best Buy is literally taking the worst part of the in-store experience and sending it to people at their homes.
From TFA:
Best Buy has found that shoppers spend more money when at home than in store.
What I think they're missing is the fact that in the store, you're not enjoying the experience that their salespeople provide. For example, the asshole who humped my le
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You know, I've gone to Best Buy and gotten good help out of the salespeople. It's frightening. I have heart issues, and I don't need a shock like that.
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somewhere you go to look at a product before buying it on amazon, but this is embarrassing.
That's a terrible reason to subject yourself to the experience of setting foot in a Best Buy. I only enter them in emergency situations, like when I need a cable of some sort right now, and nothing else is open.
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Time for a sequel to Glengarry Glen Ross (Score:2)
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Put...the....coffee....down!!!!!
No commission, sure (Score:1)
If it is anything like when I worked there long ago when going to school, sure they don't pay commission. But don't sell enough service plans and see how long you stay employed.
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They are also why a "non-commission" sales person isn't any less pushy than one paid a commission, despite the image the store is trying to portray.
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But sales quotas on Best Buy service plans? That's like having a quota on sales people trying to sell people a kick in the balls. Be sure to mention how satisfied previous purchasers were. And why you seriously need it -- even though you never would have thought of it before you entered the store.
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Take your own advice. Start with learning the difference between a plural and a possessive, you pompous little turd.
Things must be bad at Best Buy... (Score:2)
...Time to short the stock, I guess.
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They're going the way of the dodo, and if this is what they're trying to pull to get more $$, then good riddan
Surprised by the pushback (Score:1)
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The pushback might have something to do with it being Best Buy, one of the most notoriously terrible chains of its kind.
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Also might have to do with it being completely unnecessary: Laundry, cooking, cleaning.. somebody has to do that shit and if you don't hire it out, you have to do it yourself.
Deciding on an arbitrary set of "gadgets" for your home though? That's not really something most people care about, especially given the cost of most of those gadgets ($50-100 per item adds up pretty fast if they're suggesting a dozen or two items.)
If they targeted this at the kind of people who would hire a home decorator or a perso
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You know, I was thinking and I might not mind it. Because I'd be happy if they could sell me a SNES Classic. Or a dozen other items that's hard to preorder and sell out so quickly you have to reload the website 24/7 to catch the 2 minutes where it goes on sale again.
If a salesdrone can help me purchase those items and do it coming to my house, I'd take them up on the offer. It's all too ea
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And yet they're also one of the few surviving chains of its kind. CompUSA, Circuit City, Radio Shack ... where are they now?
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Substitute "Best Buy Guy" for "Pizza Guy", and you have a whole new scenario for what is admittedly a tired Porn plot device.
With extra cheese.
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Except most people buy online to AVOID the "retail experience".
Yes, this is me. The thing that makes online shopping very appealing to me is specifically that I don't have to deal with salespeople. It wasn't always this way, but 99% of the time I encounter them these days, they're a useless waste of my time and they're doing their best to get me to buy stuff that I clearly am not interested in and have no need for.
There is a REASON why I avoid Best Buy (Score:5, Interesting)
The reasons I avoid Best Buy are due to two or more slashdot stories over the years.
The first is so long ago that I'm sketchy on the details. It involved someone getting arrested for complaining to the store manager about a graphics card. The problem was clearly something the store had done, not the manufacturer. Sorry, that's not very informative. But it was when I stopped going to Best Buy. That, and the fact that any time I set foot in the door, I was instantly and continuously bombarded by and harassed by sales people.
The second is more recent, but still some time ago. Again, a slashdot story. Best Buy had an "optimization" service where you could pay $100 to have them send a kid out to your house to make sure all of your TV / audio equipment was properly set up, and to "optimize" it to ensure you were getting the best picture. To sell this service, Best Buy had two identical large screen TVs set up. Tuned to the "same" channel. But the person reporting this could clearly see that one TV was tuned to the SD channel and the other to the HD channel. Yet Best Buy, and sales people when asked, denied that was the case, or the reason why their "optimization" made the image on one TV so much better than the other TV.
Oh, yeah, I remember another reason. Again, on slashdot. It was discovered and shown that if you browsed bestbuy.com on your smartphone, while in the Best Buy store, and using the Best Buy free WiFi, that they routed you to an alternate "fake" bestbuy.com. That fake site had artificially inflated prices to be higher than the in-store prices. That way you would pay the inflated in-store price rather than go home and buy online for less.
So despite not going to Best Buy stores for more than a decade, there is now another reason that I won't ever go there. They're going to send sales people to harass people at their homes.
No thanks!
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I love walking out the door without letting them see my receipt. At the local store, they'll go outside and yell at you as you go. But they can't legally do anything to stop you. I can't tell you why it's so enjoyable, but if they're going to treat me like a criminal, I'll act like one.
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Maybe don't wear a trenchcoat?
I hope (Score:2)
They will be price matching with Amazon.
Otherwise, I have nothing better to do than have them demo everything, saving someone else from them.
As long as they (Score:2)
Will price match with Amazon for the same products (regardless of model number fuzzing)
Otherwise, I'll waste all their time, and save others from them, I don't have much else to do.
Maybe they can bring some nice vacuum cleaners and clean and dust my house as a demo.
The Geek Squad? Selling in my yard? (Score:2)
I'm not interested GEEK! This is Texas, we can shoot trespassers here if we want too...
Now take that pitiful Volkswagen bug and get OFF my lawn!
I don't buy at Best Buy if I can help it. (Yes, I have my reasons, given they damaged two appliances while delivering them, hid the damage and then refused to fix them when I found out.)
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Uh... no. [davidbreston.com]
You cannot shoot someone, even in Texas, for simply ringing your doorbell and asking, however unwelcome they might be, if you will conduct any business with them.
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From the linked article:
It’s important to realize that you can’t use force on others for a simple act of trespassing. To shoot in Texas, you must fear for your safety when someone is breaking in or attempting to break in to your home, occupied vehicle, or workplace.
Apparently more Texans need to be made aware of this.
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Shsh... What part of "it's a joke" do you not get? Like I'm going to brandish a firearm even in my front yard, to make somebody leave, but I can/will call the police if somebody refuses to leave when asked.
Actually, it's a fine line in Texas. You have the right to protect life and property with force, even in your front yard. No, you cannot shoot solicitors who ring your doorbell, but you *could* shoot someone who was in your fenced back yard uninvited, or in your front yard if you had a reasonable fear
That $250K theater system... (Score:2)
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From the article, they will not visit unless the customer took the first step by visiting a BestBuy and setting up an appointment.
These visits would be useful to help clinch a sale for things such as home theatres, dish washers, and washing machines, etc.
The buyer might be hesitant to finish the purchase at the store because they can't visualize how the theater might be set up in the living room, or they don't know the dimensions of the dishwashe
it's not about "latent" demand (Score:2)
Best Buy has found that shoppers spend more money when at home than in store
.
Can we have sex with them? (Score:1)
If not, what's the point?
Full Circle (Score:2)
Best Buy sales people are the new Fuller Brush Men..
No Thanks, if I don't shop in their stores why would I want them at my door?
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It makes literally no difference if they're door to door or appointment.
They're 100% unwanted.
Hahahaahahahaha! (Score:3)
Oh, wait...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Man, thanks for the laugh. I needed that today!
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Oh, wait...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Man, thanks for the laugh. I needed that today!
Actually it makes sense.
There are still laggards who dont know how to do the internet, dont get down to a B&M store often and have disposable income. Typically we call them seniors or senior citizens depending on the state or country in question (old bag may also be appropriate).
Sure it's ultimately a dying market, but old people are more easily pressured into a sale by a person than an advertisement.
A question from a European (Score:2)
Do you really still open your front-door for random non-appointment morons ringing the bell?
For a couple of years now, since my postal office introduced depositing packages automatically at a specified location and the water, electricity and gas counters got a wireless reading system, I never react when the bell rings. :-)
It's mostly off anyway, because I like to nap and I'm not curious
It's only Jehovah's witnesses, real estate salesmen and other soliciting scum that comes to front doors, visiting friends k
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Do you really still open your front-door for random non-appointment morons ringing the bell?
Do you mean "answer the door"? Sure, why not? Unless I'm busy -- I'm not going to drop everything to do it.
Do you mean "let them in"? No.
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I see no reason not to. My "No soliciting" sign keeps most of the salespeople away, and the few who knock are easily gotten rid of by saying "leave my property" and shutting the door.
On the other hand, there have been times when people have knocked on my door because they were having an emergency and were in genuine need of help. There's no way that I want to let them suffer.
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Do you really still open your front-door for random non-appointment morons ringing the bell?
Of course you do. You don't want bullet holes in your door. It lets the rain in.
(Plus, of course, for them what can read, they're not talking about non-appointment visits.)
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In other news... (Score:1)
Gun stores across the US are now selling anti-best-buy-sales-rep ammo...
Excellent, I can't wait (Score:2)
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Maybe, but Best Buy will charge you twice as much, miss your balls, and shit on your porn.
All along ... (Score:1)
Will the salesmen also try to pawn off copies of the Watchtower for a small donation?
OR maybe Dianetics.
So much innovation (Score:2)
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They invented the totally new idea of sending a salesman door to door. Never before seen that.
Let's just hope they don't try to patent this innovative new sales technique.
Not to worry investors. (Score:2)
I'm sure these new Best Buy sales strategies will help keep the company as profitable and robust as Circuit City and Radio Shack ... oh, wait.
Yes, please send a salesperson (Score:1)
I live 15 minutes outside town in a cabin at the end of a dirt road. If you get to shallow hole next to a bunch of small earthen mounds, you've found it.
Interesting, maybe I can sell spam? (Score:2)
L-O-Fucking-L (Score:3)
"Starting next month, Best Buy will launch a free service where salespeople will come to your house to make recommendations about gadgets and services to try and sell you stuff."
As long as I get to rummage through their stuff when they try to leave my house like they do when I try to leave their stores.
Door Guy at Best Buy: "I need to look in your bag, sir. We just want to make sure you haven't forgotten anything..."
Me: "Fuck off and die. What's in this bag is MINE and NO, you can't look in it and NO you can't look at my receipt either. Have a nice day."
Door Guy at Best Buy: "But it's my job to check the bags as they go out..."
Me: "What part of 'NO' seemed unclear?"
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Somebody on /. once said that they don't trust their cashiers to be honest and ring everything up properly, and that's why they want to inspect your personal property as you leave the store.
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Somebody on /. once said that they don't trust their cashiers to be honest and ring everything up properly, and that's why they want to inspect your personal property as you leave the store.
It's not *my* responsibility to make sure their employees do their job properly, but with that said, I don't think that's why they want to paw through your stuff. It's just a simple intimidation/anti-shoplifting measure to make people think they'll be searched leaving the store.
If you're okay with them looking through your stuff, great....but not me.
I'm guessing this is 100% commissioned work (Score:2)
On another note, these scams have always been around. What's scary is seeing a company as large as Best Buy engage in them...
Warrantless ... (Score:2)
... premises search [slashdot.org].
How The FBI Used Geek Squad To Increase Secret Public Surveillance
Door-to-Door Sales Act (Score:2)
Just wait for them use fine print and other BS to get out that.
Comcast door to door Sales have misrepresented (Score:2)
Comcast door to door Sales have misrepresented terms. How can best buy do better?
With out them useing bait and switch to sell extended warranty's and over priced Geek squad stuff.
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They don't really need to. They can just sell people junk that they would never buy if they saw it or thought about it calmly. I mean cheap plastic junk that solves the inconvenience that you will likely experience once in few years, but the salesperson will convince you is an extremely serious problem you need to fix. Or they can simply sell you useful stuff (eg tools) that is just pretty useless for you personally. Good salesperson can create needs you didnt even know were possible :)
I don't think they're canvassing... (Score:2)
Ummmm..... (Score:1)