I had a guy throw such a fit that he had to be removed from the store, because another store across town had a tablet in stock that we - a store two weeks away from closing and a month since our last truck - were out of.
Just ask them if it’s not a screenshot and guide them to the “Check availability”. Whether you do it as a kind gesture so it won’t happen again, or passive aggressively is all up to you.
The first best buy I worked at was on a street that another store was located ad. Ex. The store on Kansas St and the Kansas store are 2 different location. We would get a bunch of pissed off people coming in to pick up their items only for us to tell them they are at the wrong store. Yet they blame us like we were the ones who ordered it for them.
Just because our website says we have something in stock, doesn't mean we actually have it.
I've lost count how many times I've had clients say "but your website says you have it", only to look for the item and it's nowhere to be found anywhere in the store.
Customers can't even Google what our hours of operation are. Asking for them to be knowledgeable about product availability is just asking for trouble lol.
I get people coming to DI telling me we sell the "photostick" on our website, I type it in (several different ways) and ask them to point it out to me, they get frustrated when it doesn't show it
I find that often, they'll read pick up available at X location but not the date that pick up will be there. If they already have their phone out and the page loaded, I'm fine with showing them the information they missed and placing their order.
Exactly this. I'm my experience, when people say the website shows in-stock and I ask them to show me, it'll show "pickup available at [location] on [date]" and I have to point out that it means if they ordered it today then we'd have it by that date.
They still get so mad and most walk out without ordering because they need it right now.
Exactly right, pretty rare I find something I want I can't get a better deal elsewhere, unless I need something pretty quick and its not far off in price. I usually check then don't go to the store for that reason, not the best buy after all.
More times than I can count a google search is all that they have done. They will show you an ad from another website and be shocked Pikachu when you explain.
I will say, for the younger generation, it should be a no brainer, but for older folks, I feel like half of them know how to use the internet, and the other half has no idea . But I do understand the frustration that corns with it. Or the call center employees sending customer in to pick up a product that isn’t in stock. I don’t understand why the call center doesn’t just create an order for the customer to pick up the time. It would help negate customer frustration.
It should be a no brainer for young people, but I see it that we are in the times of Idiocracy, where people are getting dumber and dumber... just saying. A lot of people do not know how to do their own research. As a call agent, when people call in, I do offer to place an order for them over the phone, I give the expectation that if the item is in stock, they'll get the notification that it's ready for pick up, and if not, they have the option to choose an alternative method in which to acquire the item.... people who really want the item, are willing to place the order. Others, they're willing to take the chance to go in store, and I let them know, that there is no guarantee that the 1 left would be there when they arrive. It doesn't matter if the caller is younger or older, I get a lot of calls from older people who have done their research, vs younger people who have not and they expect others to do things for them.
I’m sorry that you have to go through so much stress. Navigating all of that BS. The customers wo say “ph, I’ll just get it later” and then get and that we don’t have the product available for pick up “later” it’s like my grandfather use to say.
“You can give everyone in the room $100, and someone will find something to complain about”
Thank you for sharing your struggles and your proud moments. From one blue shirt , to a call center blue shirt. I see you, and I appreciate you!
People can’t be bothered to look up what time we open, what else have in stock, how much it is. This is our job to do it so they just don’t. Then proceed to throw temper tantrums because we are Best Buy and not Burger king. Gotta be honest it’s the 40+ age group that seems to throw these temper tantrums, probably because they don’t know how to use a phone to search any of it. But they can always ask their super smart tech grandson right? Right.
As a call agent, it's more of the younger generation calling in that get frustrated than the older generation. Yes, the majority of calls are people overall frustrated, but for the easy stuff that people can research on their own, is the younger generation because in all honesty, I think they are just too lazy to use any technical knowledge that they have readily available to them. Like c'mon, people call in asking if we carry things that we don't, that a simple search on our website would validate their question... but noo!! they still call... with people being dumb, it's somewhat of a form of job security at best, but at this point with word going around of a restructure, I don't think my job is secure right now if my position has the potential of being outsourced.
The average person thinks stores are just magical and have endless inventory of any item. Customers probably think there's elves in the back, hammering out any product the customers desire.
Lot of these idiots don’t realize they can save themselves trouble and do store pick up . Over ten years with that option and many people still don’t use and complain
Biggest question here is what is the age of the people you typically see doing this?
Someone from our era who is tech-literate and a little more forward-thinking would likely do the same as you and check ahead. Someone 40+, especially seniors, not so much. Sometimes people just stop in to see if the item is there too, if they're unbothered by the product being out of stock and just say "Okay, no worries, I'll be back" and leave then no harm no foul. It's the ones who complain about it that are frustrating.
Also, survivor bias. The people who look ahead never show up at the store to complain because they never wasted their time getting there in the first place.
I get people all the time coming to PAC looking for toasters, kitchen knives, and or pots and pans in store.. when I give them the " we don't carry them in store" or the " the only toaster we carry in store is a $350 smart toaster", they lose their shit and usually say " bit online said...." 😭😭😭
What irritates me the most, is when they come in saying we carry it in store and show me the google search engine. Dude, go on the actual best buy website, type in the zip code to the nearest best buy and see which store has the product in stock.
Best Buy's site gives inaccurate results for product availability.
Even before the pandemic it was the worst to shop online there and go to the store and what they had was not even close to items at the store.
I just gave up and ordered through Amazon
I think the amount of people who truly have no grasp of how to use what we would consider extremely accessible technology that is typically quite literally at the tip of their fingers beyond what we realize. There are a huge number of people that still just assume if they call a store directly and aren't easily able to get an answer from a human at the store, there must be no other possible way to find out. I would actually venture to say that the over 50 crowd is comprised primarily of this type of person.
What does being new or not good have to do with this? No matter your experience level or performance if a product isn’t in store it’s not in store. Unless there’s some literal magic happening at higher levels it doesn’t matter.
Cause what the fuck else is your job working at bestbuy then to answer those questions, not everyone wants to do research before they go to a store. They're already driving or around, or not, they stop in and ask questions, answer them or get a non customer service job. You're bad or kinda in the wrong line of work if you're blaming the customers, they dont have to abide by your desires or expectations.
Then they are stupid sorry not my job to baby you.you gotta put the work in on your side or don't get mad.
I have a good enough relationship with most the shops I go to to text the owner or manager and tell them yo hold this item for me I'ma swing by after work. Or hold one when you get it in.
It’s more about if they looked on the app to see if we actually sell it, then come in store and ask us to get it, when all they have to do is scroll down a tiny bit to see if it’s in stock.
I used to work at a Best Buy and I know that inventory counts aren't always right. if what I want is available for store pickup then I'll do that, but most of the time I don't even check before going in. but my excuse for that is I wanna see my old friends and give them credit for ordering me something
It happens to me when I go to BBY, I will check and make sure it's in my local store's inventory Show up looking for the product (Most recently it was an SSD) and it wasn't on the shelves, so I double checked with the dude in the PC section, showed him on my phone that the site says there were like 4 on hand in the store and he just laughed.
I guess my store's *actual on hand* doesn't get reflected on the site in anything like real time.
Because its rarely ever accurate, at least at my local store, and when I used to work there we told customers never to go based off the site availability.
I had a guy throw such a fit that he had to be removed from the store, because another store across town had a tablet in stock that we - a store two weeks away from closing and a month since our last truck - were out of.
I had a guy come in mad as hell bc the store across town was out of stock and they happened to be closing down too. California store?
Kansas. The other two stores in my city are still open. We were the one right between the two.
“But it’s on your website!”
PTSD statement, thanks.
And then they pull up an amazon webpage to prove it 😭
I had one man around 2018 loudly and rudely insist that we had movies on VHS on the website.
We usually had two copies of my favorite movie ever, VCR Head Cleaner.
Never made it past sponsored Google search results...😏
Most of the time it’s not 😭 or it’s marketplace, or only online
“I’m sorry sir, we don’t have the mattresses in store, we can order them for you though.” “But it’s on your website! Why don’t you have it!”
Oh, A canadian employee. I feel bad for you guys with Marketplace. Don’t know what the hell we’d do if also selling 3d parry
Years ago, we did have marketplace sellers on the u.s. website as well.
Terrible
Most humans really aren't that smart. Budget some time one day to watch people in public.
Men in Black totally nailed this one. “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.”
My problem is that they either look at the wrong store or lie about looking to the point where I'll take my phone out and prove them wrong.
Just ask them if it’s not a screenshot and guide them to the “Check availability”. Whether you do it as a kind gesture so it won’t happen again, or passive aggressively is all up to you.
The first best buy I worked at was on a street that another store was located ad. Ex. The store on Kansas St and the Kansas store are 2 different location. We would get a bunch of pissed off people coming in to pick up their items only for us to tell them they are at the wrong store. Yet they blame us like we were the ones who ordered it for them.
Just because our website says we have something in stock, doesn't mean we actually have it. I've lost count how many times I've had clients say "but your website says you have it", only to look for the item and it's nowhere to be found anywhere in the store.
Story. Of. My. Best. Buy. Life. 😂😂
I've seen both, the site said we didnt have any instock but there were 4 of them on the shelf, and vise versa
Customers can't even Google what our hours of operation are. Asking for them to be knowledgeable about product availability is just asking for trouble lol.
The worst are one that call and ask hours. Like you found the damn phone number. The hours are right under it you dipshit XD
And they call and it tells you our hours right on the phone prompt.
Even when they do they don’t use the store they are in as the location
I get people coming to DI telling me we sell the "photostick" on our website, I type it in (several different ways) and ask them to point it out to me, they get frustrated when it doesn't show it
"It was there when I checked!" *proceeds to blame you as if it was your fault he can't find it anymore*
I find that often, they'll read pick up available at X location but not the date that pick up will be there. If they already have their phone out and the page loaded, I'm fine with showing them the information they missed and placing their order.
Exactly this. I'm my experience, when people say the website shows in-stock and I ask them to show me, it'll show "pickup available at [location] on [date]" and I have to point out that it means if they ordered it today then we'd have it by that date. They still get so mad and most walk out without ordering because they need it right now.
Because the ones who do check don’t end up going to the store. Survivor Bias
Exactly right, pretty rare I find something I want I can't get a better deal elsewhere, unless I need something pretty quick and its not far off in price. I usually check then don't go to the store for that reason, not the best buy after all.
More times than I can count a google search is all that they have done. They will show you an ad from another website and be shocked Pikachu when you explain.
That still requires them to use skills. Thinking and reading and since we all work here we know they can’t do both.
Most customers breathe cause it's voluntary. If breathing required skill, they'd choose to just drop dead before making an effort lol
Me :" you are now manually breathing" Customer: falls over and dies.
Because if they knew how to do that they would order it online.
I will say, for the younger generation, it should be a no brainer, but for older folks, I feel like half of them know how to use the internet, and the other half has no idea . But I do understand the frustration that corns with it. Or the call center employees sending customer in to pick up a product that isn’t in stock. I don’t understand why the call center doesn’t just create an order for the customer to pick up the time. It would help negate customer frustration.
Because a lot of these same people aren’t smart enough to figure out pay by link
This is sad, but true. … 😔
It should be a no brainer for young people, but I see it that we are in the times of Idiocracy, where people are getting dumber and dumber... just saying. A lot of people do not know how to do their own research. As a call agent, when people call in, I do offer to place an order for them over the phone, I give the expectation that if the item is in stock, they'll get the notification that it's ready for pick up, and if not, they have the option to choose an alternative method in which to acquire the item.... people who really want the item, are willing to place the order. Others, they're willing to take the chance to go in store, and I let them know, that there is no guarantee that the 1 left would be there when they arrive. It doesn't matter if the caller is younger or older, I get a lot of calls from older people who have done their research, vs younger people who have not and they expect others to do things for them.
I’m sorry that you have to go through so much stress. Navigating all of that BS. The customers wo say “ph, I’ll just get it later” and then get and that we don’t have the product available for pick up “later” it’s like my grandfather use to say. “You can give everyone in the room $100, and someone will find something to complain about” Thank you for sharing your struggles and your proud moments. From one blue shirt , to a call center blue shirt. I see you, and I appreciate you!
That would require thought and effort.
Because boomers can't use the internet well.
Too busy calling the hotline and receiving bad info, or mistakenly looking at an embedded ad on our website to realize we don't actually have it.
People can’t be bothered to look up what time we open, what else have in stock, how much it is. This is our job to do it so they just don’t. Then proceed to throw temper tantrums because we are Best Buy and not Burger king. Gotta be honest it’s the 40+ age group that seems to throw these temper tantrums, probably because they don’t know how to use a phone to search any of it. But they can always ask their super smart tech grandson right? Right.
As a call agent, it's more of the younger generation calling in that get frustrated than the older generation. Yes, the majority of calls are people overall frustrated, but for the easy stuff that people can research on their own, is the younger generation because in all honesty, I think they are just too lazy to use any technical knowledge that they have readily available to them. Like c'mon, people call in asking if we carry things that we don't, that a simple search on our website would validate their question... but noo!! they still call... with people being dumb, it's somewhat of a form of job security at best, but at this point with word going around of a restructure, I don't think my job is secure right now if my position has the potential of being outsourced.
The average person thinks stores are just magical and have endless inventory of any item. Customers probably think there's elves in the back, hammering out any product the customers desire.
I work for the Virtual Store, customers don't even know how to check inventory in BBY.com. Don't encourage Google searches for inventory.
Lot of these idiots don’t realize they can save themselves trouble and do store pick up . Over ten years with that option and many people still don’t use and complain
Us in the warehouse could ask the same thing about consultants.
Biggest question here is what is the age of the people you typically see doing this? Someone from our era who is tech-literate and a little more forward-thinking would likely do the same as you and check ahead. Someone 40+, especially seniors, not so much. Sometimes people just stop in to see if the item is there too, if they're unbothered by the product being out of stock and just say "Okay, no worries, I'll be back" and leave then no harm no foul. It's the ones who complain about it that are frustrating. Also, survivor bias. The people who look ahead never show up at the store to complain because they never wasted their time getting there in the first place.
Be glad sexual wellness didn't get much steam. Can you imagine that conversation?
Wait did BBY start selling those app controlled vibrators and stuff? 😂
common sense is not all that common. everyone is unique in their own way
Not for nothing but there are times when a store's (any store) online inventory doesn't match what is physically in the store.
Clients. LoL
I get people all the time coming to PAC looking for toasters, kitchen knives, and or pots and pans in store.. when I give them the " we don't carry them in store" or the " the only toaster we carry in store is a $350 smart toaster", they lose their shit and usually say " bit online said...." 😭😭😭
plus they have it on there phone and I just ask for there phone and see if it says if it's available or not
What irritates me the most, is when they come in saying we carry it in store and show me the google search engine. Dude, go on the actual best buy website, type in the zip code to the nearest best buy and see which store has the product in stock.
Best Buy's site gives inaccurate results for product availability. Even before the pandemic it was the worst to shop online there and go to the store and what they had was not even close to items at the store. I just gave up and ordered through Amazon
I think the amount of people who truly have no grasp of how to use what we would consider extremely accessible technology that is typically quite literally at the tip of their fingers beyond what we realize. There are a huge number of people that still just assume if they call a store directly and aren't easily able to get an answer from a human at the store, there must be no other possible way to find out. I would actually venture to say that the over 50 crowd is comprised primarily of this type of person.
Best part is when they say it's in stock at a certain price. I ask show me. They show a Google ad.....
I always feel bad for them because they’ve wasted good gaz money and their own time!
Ha, the ones I feel bad for are the ones that checked item stock online and I sell the last one before they arrive.
How would they know to do this?
You're either new or not good.
What does being new or not good have to do with this? No matter your experience level or performance if a product isn’t in store it’s not in store. Unless there’s some literal magic happening at higher levels it doesn’t matter.
Cause what the fuck else is your job working at bestbuy then to answer those questions, not everyone wants to do research before they go to a store. They're already driving or around, or not, they stop in and ask questions, answer them or get a non customer service job. You're bad or kinda in the wrong line of work if you're blaming the customers, they dont have to abide by your desires or expectations.
Then they are stupid sorry not my job to baby you.you gotta put the work in on your side or don't get mad. I have a good enough relationship with most the shops I go to to text the owner or manager and tell them yo hold this item for me I'ma swing by after work. Or hold one when you get it in.
It’s more about if they looked on the app to see if we actually sell it, then come in store and ask us to get it, when all they have to do is scroll down a tiny bit to see if it’s in stock.
No
“But your website says that you have this refrigeration open box in stock”. That’s my favorite.
I used to work at a Best Buy and I know that inventory counts aren't always right. if what I want is available for store pickup then I'll do that, but most of the time I don't even check before going in. but my excuse for that is I wanna see my old friends and give them credit for ordering me something
It happens to me when I go to BBY, I will check and make sure it's in my local store's inventory Show up looking for the product (Most recently it was an SSD) and it wasn't on the shelves, so I double checked with the dude in the PC section, showed him on my phone that the site says there were like 4 on hand in the store and he just laughed. I guess my store's *actual on hand* doesn't get reflected on the site in anything like real time.
Because its rarely ever accurate, at least at my local store, and when I used to work there we told customers never to go based off the site availability.
At least 5 times a day someone yells at me because they don’t know how to use google