Best Buy closing all UK shops

I have been to Best Buy quiet a few times in the US And their stores are pretty good. Reasonably knowlageble staff, great pricing (Most things cheapest in the area) and usually a lot of stock. In the UK the staff are the same as comet/currys etc so rude, obnoxious, unhelpful, poor knowledge of goods and attempt to apply pressure and bs to get sales. The prices are the same as other places such as comet/currys with exception of a few things. So at the end of the day what was needed was the US stores in the UK But all it was in the end was a rebranded comet/currys.

I recently bought a Motorola Xoom from there and the only reason i did was that the alternative was the internet or PC World...
 
They said they had over a thousand staff for 10 shops! seems somewhat excesive staff levels for just 10 shops.

10 massive stores, and then all the head office functions like marketing, operations, etc.

It was never going to work as they focused heavily on on the customer experience and after-sales and all that jazz that the yanks care about, whereas in the UK lowest price wins.
 
I knew they'd opened over here but never actually saw one, and thus never went in one.

I guess that means CompUSA and Fry's won't even attempt coming over here!
 
I also had no idea this company was operating in the UK. So they obviously didn't spend much on advertising.
 
Do Currys staff etc still get commission on sales?

If so, down here they are the laziest staff ive seen... I mean I have to ask for assistance, which is fine.. but if they are trying to get commission then its ridiculous.

One example would be looking at the IPads, 2 staff members were stood at a help point just yards away, none of them came over to try and 'sell' the item or even suggest getting the expensive 3G version. In the end I asked them if they had the one I wanted in stock.. it was a no :D

Even bigger purchases like a TV were just a case of me walk in, pick it, go to pay, go home.

Im not moaning as im happy to do all that, just find it weird that someone mentioned that they put pressure on to get sales, so im assuming there is some commission involved somewhere along the line... yet my local store the staff would be better off in the next shop selling cat food.
 
I can honestly say I've never even seen a Best Buy in England. Are they all in London or something?

Croydon
8.99 miles

View store
2 Enfield
10.67 miles

View store
3 Hayes
11.98 miles

View store
4 Thurrock
17.2 miles

View store
5 Hedge End
65.45 miles

View store
6 Bristol
106.15 miles

View store
7 Merry Hill
107.77 miles

View store
8 Nottingham
108.59 miles

View store
9 Derby
113.71 miles

View store
10 Rotherham
143.23 miles
 
Do Currys staff etc still get commission on sales?

If so, down here they are the laziest staff ive seen... I mean I have to ask for assistance, which is fine.. but if they are trying to get commission then its ridiculous.

One example would be looking at the IPads, 2 staff members were stood at a help point just yards away, none of them came over to try and 'sell' the item or even suggest getting the expensive 3G version. In the end I asked them if they had the one I wanted in stock.. it was a no :D

Even bigger purchases like a TV were just a case of me walk in, pick it, go to pay, go home.

Im not moaning as im happy to do all that, just find it weird that someone mentioned that they put pressure on to get sales, so im assuming there is some commission involved somewhere along the line... yet my local store the staff would be better off in the next shop selling cat food.

That's not my usual experience of such stores.

Usually they tend to ask you if you need help.
Then tend to talk rubbish to sell products they don't know much about.
 
I've been in the Bristol store a couple of times, prices seemed pretty good compared to comet et al, but the staff were over friendly in a stupid Americanized way, even down to saying 'have a nice day' when leaving the store. It just felt so false and forced.
 
That was a surprise. Why did they even try.

You can't compete with online prices and that means you have to price high due to low sales and there's already plenty of competition in that area.
 
I've been to the Nottingham one and whilst it was a pleasant experience than going to the usual UK chains I didn't really see any deals which made me want to reach for my wallet.
 
great pricing (Most things cheapest in the area) and usually a lot of stock.

i purchased a 37" samsung lcd tv from best buy in merry hill for £400. 2 days later, i went to tesco and noticed they were selling 40" bravia's for £400, i was not happy. i took the samsung back to best buy and got hit with a 10% re-stocking charge and went and bought a bravia. the samsung was originally up at £430 in best buy but they price matched argos and sold it to me for £400 (well, £399.99) bottom line is, they weren't competitive and i should have shopped around more.
 
Back
Top Bottom