My Mister Man needed a laptop because his was eight years old. Yes, that is right. His laptop was older than most of our friends' children. Eat that, society!
So his eight year old laptop broke down, obvi. So we went to Best Buy yesterday evening to fetch him a new one. We went to this location because it is in our neighbourhood, but in retrospect we might have been wiser to drive out to the 'burbs. The stock was quite low so, although we ended up deciding on a model that fit our needs, we left sans computer because it was out of stock.
We were in the store for a long while, trying to look poised to spend some dollars so that an associate would help us out. This experience was magnified by my personal belief that giant box stores have way too many staff during the daytime hours, and not enough on evenings and weekends. So maybe we didn't wait that long, and I was just grumpy because of this conspiracy theory I've got about Best Buy et. al.
Anyway, I got sick o' waitin'! So I went to the desk to one of the fellows in ties. Did you know Best Buy has fellows with ties? They are the guys who fix the computers, I think. The Geek Squad. So I asked him if he could sell us a computer. He was OK with that, so he came over to help.
Now, what you need to understand is, we are not computer people. I mean, we can work a computer, and we have jobs and we barely remember a time when the internet didn't exist. But we also don't read ArsTechnica or Wired for sheets and giggles, you know? So we were able to communicate that yes, sometimes my guy plays video games from 2005, and that yes, sometimes we use MS Office. I tried to communicate that no, we don't watch Netflix, but that was too much for this guy to handle. But we couldn't tell you what the ideal processor is for our needs. I couldn't tell you the significance of a graphics card.
So Geek Squad tie kept telling us what *he* would get. I wish he would have told us what he would get if he were in our shoes.
So we finally pick a computer. Geek Squad tie guy is trying to find it, but it's not readily available in those cabinets under the display. He checks the system, which tells him that there is one in sock somewhere in the store; he speculates that it means it's in the storage cage high above the service desk. So instead of going to fetch it, he does the following:
1. Tells us to keep looking at other computers.
2. Starts helping another customer.
Cue the "Wtf."
Then came our knight in shining armour. And by "knigh," I mean "young man," and by "shining armour," I mean "a blue polo."
This is the part of the story where one awesome Best Buy employee rectifies all the of the mistakes made by one not-so-awesome Best Buy employee, thus saving the store from losing a sale.
Blue polo guy was totally helpful! He pointed out that if we're playing video games from 2005, we probably won't want the computer that Geek Squad tie guy showed us, because it doesn't have a CD drive. Then he helped us find a reasonably priced computer that would be perfect for *our* needs! Hallelujah!
Fast forward five minutes, and we find out that the Holy Grail of laptops is not in stock, and the sale price only lasts until Thursday. Blue polo guy gives us a raincheck slip, reorders the computer, and ensures we'll get the sale price on Friday when it arrives. Huzzah!
Best Buy experience could have been a 1-star. Blue polo shirt guy saved it. read more