Improving

[dr_tectonic]

Stayed home yesterday, except for a trip to the clinic around noon. The infection is definitely on the wane, but I have probably the worst sore throat I have ever had. Doctor gave me a prescription for viscous lidocaine, which doesn't do squat if you dilute and gargle it, but works quite well if applied directly to the sore spots with a Q-tip or finger.

Other than triggering of the gag reflex as you apply it, of course.

I've actually made it in to work today! How exciting! Maybe I'll have something new to talk about later today!

Oh, and we picked up Jerry's laptop from Best Buy. It was not fixed. We have sent it back again. Best Buy is the devil. We're starting to plan our complaint to corporate.

Comments

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

Here in the frozen North, we have two different types of electronics stores.

Future Shop: All salespeople on commission. Swarms of obnoxious people descend upon you immediately upon entering any part of the store, offering to give you advice that you don't need and sell you extended warranties that make them profit.

Few checkout people, loud unpleasant stores. Loathesomely awful.

Best Buy: No staff people have ever been seen in this store, except for security people, of which there are roughly 15 per shift, and random people standing behind the returns desk who seem to be chatting amongst themselves. They don't work commission. If you need help, you're on your own.

Once you find whatever you wanted, you go up to the completely empty front of the store, which has five tills, but zero to one clerks, none of whom can get their UPC scanner to work.

Once you get to the front of the line (25 minutes), they discover that there's something wrong with their cash register. Ten minutes later, you think you're about to pay for your product, but then they realize that they're supposed to sell you an extended warranty. Yeah, right.

Recently, Best Buy has put "special service" people into their stores ("Geek Squad?" Something like that), whose job, supposedly, is to actually answer questions from customers. Imagine that. I've not yet seen one, though.

Ironically, the US chain Best Buy bought the Canadian Future Shop in 2001 or so. (Despite that, Future Shop stores still have a "Proudly Canadian" logo near their entrance.)

Given the choice, I actually prefer the peace and quiet of Best Buy, though the eternal waits to pay for things just drive me insane. But they're both completely, totally, monstrously evil. Future Shop has an ok website, though.

There. I feel better now. But I feel even better when I buy computers from local suppliers.

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Geek Squad guys ("we actually understand computers, and will fix it in-store if possible") have been pretty decent. They're just totally hamstrung by corporate policy when it comes to doing anything besides attempting to troubleshoot.

Our Best Buy is not nearly so quiet.

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

My least favorite Best Buy in the US was the one at the Galleria in Cambridge. (It's in the site that used to be Lechmere, back when we were undergrads.) Not only is it completely void of people working in it (except the omnipresent security people), but since it had two exits (one to the street and one to the mall), the one store clerk on any given shift might be a five minute walk away from the exit I had chosen to use.

(By which time he or she would have moved to the other till, sneakily.)

I remember one 30-minute store visit for a 4-pack of batteries.

[There. I promise I'm done venting. Hope you get well soon...]

[detailbear.livejournal.com]

You need to come to London. Sunday, with about 10 customers in the computer department, I had a junior clerk helping me within 2 minutes and a senior clerk and a geek squadder within 5. Entire time from crossing the carpet strip to getting the receipt: 25 minutes, including getting a Best Buy card. 40 minutes later, they had my drive partitioned the way I wanted it (I think. I haven't turned it on yet.)

It's funny cause it's true

[drdeleto.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's hilarious. In my experience, so-called "superstores" pretty much all have the problem of being as unmanned as a pirate ship at port after a lucrative raid.

That said, there are certain strategies for dealing with these entities, and I learned one in working at one (CompUSA, way back in the day).

My last trip to Best Buy was great. Our digital camera had broken (Andrew did something to it, I'm not sure what), and I brought it back to get it fixed. The key: I had paid a small price for a "replacement plan." These companies love these things because they bring in cash for, usually, no expenditure on their part; people never redeem them. But I'm always sure to use them when I buy them, like a warranty on a car. So not only did I walk out of the store with a new camera, it was an upgrade to a model that cost the same price now as the one I bought a year and a half ago.

Now, I did have to wait in line forever and have the customer service guy ask ten of his supervisors how to do the exchange. Certain obstacles are insurmountable.

[arcticturtle.livejournal.com]

Erk. Just reading that almost triggers my gag reflex.