Yet Another Bestbuy Rant

[VirtualLarry]

A relative wanted a laptop. So they called BestBuy, with me on the other phone.

Told the woman we were interested in lower-priced laptops. She mentions some that were $179.99 and $199.99. I wonder why they are so cheap, so I ask if they are Chromebooks.

BB woman replies that they are. So I say, what are your cheapest REAL laptops. She replies back, Chromebooks ARE real laptops. I say to my relative that the BB woman is clueless. Relative turns around and tells her she's clueless, then she hangs up. (LOL)

Go to BB, some guy helps us, tell him we are looking for lower-priced laptops, specifically some with 1007U IB-based Celeron CPUs. He goes on a rant about how Celeron chips are a 25-year-old architecture, and how they were not designed for running modern OSes.

I didn't have time to re-educate him, about how Celeron is simply Intel's branding of their lower-end CPUs, with less of the "extra" features. And that, clock-for-clock, they match other chips of the same architecture (for the most part, in standard code that doesn't use the extra features), and that an Ivy Bridge-based chip was NOT based on a "25 year-old architecture".

They did have an Asus 15.6" laptop with the 1007U, for $269.99, but the relative didn't want a laptop that big.

So we went to Target and picked up an Acer Aspire V5, like my recent purchase, except this one had a Celeron 847 and Windows 8.

 

[Ruptga]

Best Buy will never change. Why did you even try talking to them?

 

[Eug]

Chromebooks are real laptops. They just suck.

But then again, so do most sub $300 laptops. Sub-par screens, and terrible battery life. Ironically, the Chromebooks do better in the latter department.

 

[Ichinisan]

I'd be pretty happy with a Chromebook.

 

[sandorski]

Shop Online. Sales people are unnecessarily annoying to deal with if you already know what you want.

 

[rockyct]

Personally, I would never recommend someone an Acer or HP laptop. I got a higher quality HP Probook for me last year but overall I wouldn't risk those brands for others if I'm going to give recommendations. Chromebooks are a joke to me as well though.

 

[kyrax12]

I always wonder why smaller laptop are usually more expensive than bigger ones.

I mean shouldn't it be the other way around?

 

[Turbonium]

Honestly, I got this $300 (before taxes) netbook a year ago from Future Shop, on sale. AMD C-60 CPU, 4GB of RAM, Win7 Home Premium, and a relatively high res screen with good viewing angles. Very long battery life as well (at the very least, 3+ hours of relatively heavy usage).

Other than that gem, laptops in that pricerange suck. You could even argue that the machine above isn't a real laptop, since it's quite handicapped (though the 4GB of RAM makes it just fine for normal, light use). That being said, I managed to play through Torchlight II on it (albeit I had no clue wtf was going on in some boss fights, given it was a slideshow).

EDIT: more on topic though, yea, BB employees are fairly newbish. No big surprise there. I don't see the point in bitching out the OP though. This is ATOT, so who cares.

 

[Crono]

It's a shame that there is a bias against Celerons among non-computer enthusiasts. They are as capable as the i3's in a lot of cases, which is usually more than enough for most scenarios except gaming and video encoding.

Celerons are a good value, they were only bad versus identically clocked Pentiums in the Pentium III and 4 days. It's probably a bad marketing choice to keep around the name because of the stigma that still survives today. I have a preference for the AMD A-series APUs in inexpensive laptops, though. You get decent CPU and light gaming performance for the price.

I don't expect Best Buy sales people to be particularly competent with computers, though you will find some exceptions. Usually when I go to Best Buy I already know what I want and don't really want to ask sales people for help choosing between products. I'm often tempted to interject when I see them telling customers wrong information or not giving enough information about a product. Makes me cringe sometimes. Micro Center and Fry's is where you'll find people who know what they are talking about. I had a good conversation about overclocking with a guy about overclocking last time I went to Micro Center. I wish there was a Fry's here, too, only been to one once in California. I'd be in geek paradise if I could live between a Fry's and Micro Center, lol.

 

[Vaux]

I had a Best Buy kid a while back telling me how I absolutely have to buy one of those $100 HDMI cables or my picture quality will suffer. Yeah, ok man.

 

[mmntech]

I love that we still have threads where people moan about Best Buy. It's well known that they're borderline retarded, so why keep shopping there? If only there were some sort of store that sold everything that Best Buy did, but through this magic box on your desk. :hmm:

 

[HeXen]

*sigh. When will people learn to do some research and just shop online. You never, ever ask a BB employee for directions much less anything else. I don't feel the least bit sorry for anyone who rants about BB

 

[olds]

I love that we still have threads where people moan about Best Buy. It's well known that they're borderline retarded, so why keep shopping there? If only there were some sort of store that sold everything that Best Buy did, but through this magic box on your desk. :hmm:

This.
And it would never occur to me to call them. They have enough problems in person.

 

[destrekor]

I love that we still have threads where people moan about Best Buy. It's well known that they're borderline retarded, so why keep shopping there? If only there were some sort of store that sold everything that Best Buy did, but through this magic box on your desk. :hmm:

*sigh. When will people learn to do some research and just shop online. You never, ever ask a BB employee for directions much less anything else. I don't feel the least bit sorry for anyone who rants about BB

This.
And it would never occur to me to call them. They have enough problems in person.

Yeah - my goal is to include a Best Buy person in a conversation as rarely as possible. I don't have the patience, and I'm way too nice to people when face to face.


That said, I just do my research online, and most things I buy are from online stores. However, there are times when it's far more convenient (and with price matching, sometimes just as good) to buy something at a local BB.


If I need to find exactly what BB has, it's pretty damn easy.
Their website has good category tools, and once narrowed down you can also see exactly what they have in-store.

 

[bearxor]

I used to work as an HP sales representative that worked in a Best Buy. It was part time weekend work that paid pretty well, $15/hr and all I had to do was stand around and talk about HP computers and printers whenever one of the associated needed help closing a customer or something.

The BB reps loved me because I was super knowledgeable about everything and, unlike most of the reps that are there to do as little work as possible and collect a paycheck, I would actively engage customers that were just wandering around looking. Of course, I'd talk about the HP products, but if they told me they absolutely didn't want HP or maybe they wanted something HP didn't have or not in the price range, I'd happily show them whatever else the store had, regardless of the brand.

So I guess I'm just saying that not EVERYONE you'd meet at a BB is clueless but a lot of them are. They tend to hire people they think are really geeky because they feel that's what the customers want. Because of that they tend to usually have clear biases and focus attention on things they like instead of general knowledge. Then they tend to "talk down" to customers because they think they're in a better position, knowledge-wise. Best Buy doesn't hire real sales people.

 

[MotionMan]

OP, you sound like you know computers and recently researched and purchased a laptop. So, why would you waste everyone's time by calling BB in the first place?

MotionMan

 

[Number1]

A nerd ranting about other nerds not as nerdy as he is......D:

Why would anybody call BB ? They do have a website with all the info you could possibly need on everything they sell.

 

[kranky]

Would like to hear about the expert sales staff you encountered at Target.

 

[VirtualLarry]

OP, you sound like you know computers and recently researched and purchased a laptop. So, why would you waste everyone's time by calling BB in the first place?

MotionMan

Sigh. Because Mom insisted.

I was even going to donate my new laptop to the cause, but she insisted on purchasing a new one so I wouldn't have to give up the one I just bought.

A small consolation is that the V5 with Win8 at Target was cheaper than Newegg. (Newegg's model was similar, but with Linux instead of Win8.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

Would like to hear about the expert sales staff you encountered at Target.

Actually... one of the guys was older and worked in IT for most of his life. Had a productive discussion about Lo-Jack for laptops.

 

[HeXen]

Now that I think about it, the only retail store I ever encountered knowledgeable staff was Gamestop when it comes to console games. Those darn kids know everything there is to know about COD

 

[Cuda1447]

OP, you sound like you know computers and recently researched and purchased a laptop. So, why would you waste everyone's time by calling BB in the first place?

MotionMan

Exactly this. It sounds like the OP was searching for someone to tell them they didn't know what they were talking about.

Really, how hard would it have been to go to bestbuy.com, find the laptop you want and go in to buy it? You were clearly looking for a fight/argument.

 

[noobsrevenge]

A nerd ranting about other nerds not as nerdy as he is......D:

Why would anybody call BB ? They do have a website with all the info you could possibly need on everything they sell.

yea for reals, thats what I thought too, sounds like he researched, knew exactly what he wanted, but wanted to sound impressive about it to a random stranger on the phone about his laptops needs, and not even take into consideration the needs of his relative who would probably suffice with a chromebook but instead he requires an IB based core ? Why ?

Agreed that chromebooks are sufficient for most of everybodys relatives that are not power users. For OP to dismiss those easily he probably is the one that needs education. Thinking outside of his box, instead of mandating their relatives CPU be based on an IB core, that may be more misleading and show lack of education than saying a Chromebook will not meet the needs of a layperson.

Chromebooks are small and light and just fine for most of our relatives.

 

[rudeguy]

A relative wanted a laptop. So they called BestBuy, with me on the other phone.

Told the woman we were interested in lower-priced laptops. She mentions some that were $179.99 and $199.99. I wonder why they are so cheap, so I ask if they are Chromebooks.

BB woman replies that they are. So I say, what are your cheapest REAL laptops. She replies back, Chromebooks ARE real laptops. I say to my relative that the BB woman is clueless. Relative turns around and tells her she's clueless, then she hangs up. (LOL)

Go to BB, some guy helps us, tell him we are looking for lower-priced laptops, specifically some with 1007U IB-based Celeron CPUs. He goes on a rant about how Celeron chips are a 25-year-old architecture, and how they were not designed for running modern OSes.

I didn't have time to re-educate him, about how Celeron is simply Intel's branding of their lower-end CPUs, with less of the "extra" features. And that, clock-for-clock, they match other chips of the same architecture (for the most part, in standard code that doesn't use the extra features), and that an Ivy Bridge-based chip was NOT based on a "25 year-old architecture".

They did have an Asus 15.6" laptop with the 1007U, for $269.99, but the relative didn't want a laptop that big.

So we went to Target and picked up an Acer Aspire V5, like my recent purchase, except this one had a Celeron 847 and Windows 8.

Who does that?

What kind of superiority complex do you have? Browse their site or look at the tags. Calling them and being a dick in the store makes you much less of a person than the guy making $8/hr trying to feed his family.

I hope you step on a lego

 

[T9D]

Don't be a douche to people that are just trying to help.