Hacker News Reader

Comment by aswanson | Hacker News Reader

Right. I hate their "bait and switch" tactics with the low tagged price on a given machine acting as a trojan horse for their ridiculously expensive warranties. They must place a ton of pressure on their salespeople to push them; I refused one a few years back and the customer service guy put me through a gauntlet of managers drilling me on why I needed it before they all finally fell back. The average non-tech savvy customer is just going to cave in.

View on HN

> I refused one a few years back and the customer service guy put me through a gauntlet of managers drilling me on why I needed it before they all finally fell back.

You must have really, really needed that machine. I think I would have been escorted off the premises somewhere between the introduction of Manager #1 and the attempted introduction of Manager #2.

It wasn't so much the machine, just the fact that I had to confront the arrogance. I knew what I wanted. I also knew that if the sale was lost (me walking out), it would not have shown up in said managers performance metrics. I purposely bought it without the warranty, knowing that they would have to account for why I wasn't an "upsell".

I worked at BB for a year back in the day. I can say that the blue shirt employees were only good for 2 things: attaching overpriced high-margin peripherals/cables to sales, and pushing the extended warranties. Those who were not good at either did not last long there.

This is what bugs me. I used to want to work at best buy being a geek, but instead they hire people with selling knowledge rather than technical skill.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com