I work for the GeekSquad in a Best Buy store. I love my job. I hate some of our clients.
1) @consumerist, gizmodo, engadget, etc... Best Buy is a chain with over 700 stores. If ONE store screws up and does some "cowboy" signage, it is a screw up, POSSIBLY a rip-off attempt, of that store, not Best Buy as a whole or the other individual parts. (Recent episodes coming to mind are the HD, Porn in DVD player (added bonus feature??!!) and the Calibrated/Non-Calibrated signs put in our "HD / Non-HD" display.
It is not in Best Buy's interest to rip off our customers. We are in it for the long run. Associates are trained on Building Relationships, not on "Rip-Off the customer to make the biggest sale TODAY!"
Our Brand Promises and Interaction guides (Changing from CARE+ to TRUST) embody this idea.
2) "Your serivces are expensive!" The company says they are competively priced, either way, I agree that they are expensive. So is a 50" TV, so are IMAX movie tickets (or regular movie tickets for that matter). Are they WORTH it? That's a question for individuals to answer. Sure, a calibration is something that can technically done by anyone (I calibrated my TV and my best friend's using an Episode 1 DVD). But, not everyone is capable of doing it. For them, it is worth it.
3) "OMG!!! This is my work computer! I'm losing $xxxx every day!" I'm sorry you are having computer problems, we'll get it fixed as soon as we can, while ensuring we get properly reimbursed for the fix. I offer a solution "Buy a backup computer." Response "I don't have the money" In my head "You're losing over $1k a day, yet you can't buy a $600 computer?? Does not compute!"
Do the math. Even if you buy a laptop and return it within 2 weeks, you pay 15% and are able to make money. Does it make business sense? Then DO IT!
4) "My computer died 3 months ago. You transferred the data from it to my new computer. Now my new computer died. Backup my data again, or transfer me to the person who handle lawsuits."
My first question - "Did you backup your information?" I know the answer already, "No." Think about this.... computer died, maybe that was a surprise, I understand, some people don't realize the fragileness of computers. However, that puts you on notice that computers can fail. You had to pay us $99.99 or $159.99 (depending on amount of data) to backup your stuff, maybe you should think about doing it yourself in the future. I can say with 90% certainty we recommended a long-term self backup solution so this didn't happen again.
Second thought, and answer to his last statement - 888-BESTBUY handles any mention of lawsuit, and at the store level I can no longer help you. If you are a douchebag, this is an out for me. When you first came up to the desk / called, I wanted to help you, I wanted to do the best thing for you. When you become a douche, I no longer want to, but I will because it's my job. If you say "sue", I'm not ALLOWED to help you any more.
Also, I / Best Buy would win that lawsuit. You paid for a "One Time Data Backup/Transfer." It says so on your receipt, which is a binding contract. One Time. We backed it up properly, you admitted this on the phone to me. We have a 30 day warranty on our work, and had you been in front of me/ not a douche bag, I might have done it for free anyway (which would upset my Services Manager I'm sure).
