Khell_Sennet:
Bad! No! No!... /rolled-up-newspaper

There is PLENTY wrong with BestBuy, with or without b-Tard interaction. They repackage returns and sell them as "New", they mishandle and damage merchandise, returns are difficult going-on impossible, and every sale makes them more powerful.

Not to mention, the price gouging... Futureshop is the original Canadian BestBuy, OWNED by BestBuy Inc and supplied from the same warehouse... I find Futureshop's prices to be lower than BestBuy's, and its the same damn company. Most recent example, Stargate SG1 10-season box set is $10 more at the BestBuy that is 3 city blocks from our west-end Futureshop.

Please read what I said.

Credge:
There's nothing wrong with Best Buy as long as you don't interact with the people there. They have some pretty good prices on large merchandise (T.V's, sound stuff, etc). Just don't buy your cables there as they jack up the prices on them to cover the loss of the T.V. stuffs.

I didn't mention games... nor is repackaging an issue when you're buying, oh I dunno, a T.V. Believe it or not, stores sell more than just video games.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the stores if you get a large product. Every Best Buy in my area (Hampton, Virginia) sells all of their T.V.'s for about 100-200 less than all other stores. The price gouging starts when you get to the smaller, lower priced items such as cables, video games, movies, etc. The reason they do this, which is rather obvious, is because once you buy a higher priced product (T.V., gaming system, audio system) you're probably going to be buying all the other stuff that comes with it, such as the cables, and you're also probably going to pick up a few games or movies.

Different stores do things differently. Some will have a few dollars off smaller products and have higher prices on the larger products. If you shop smartly, you'd save a ton of money. For example, buying my T.V. at Best Buy and buying all of my cables online saved me, about, $200. If I had bought everything from Best Buy I'd have spent as much as your average joe would.

Again, nothing wrong with the store if you realize what the store is good at; selling high priced merchandise at lowish prices.

Wow... i realise that this isn't a serious thing (installing xbox games(but still hugely entertaining)) but it sounds like best buy is an amazing store. Shame its not here in the UK. On the other hand my local store (Chips) is absolutely genius. Firstly they have little knowledge regarding games, (For the record Chips are a games retailer not an electronics shop) i remember asking about DoW: Dark crusade to be told, nah i've sold it. Confused i said i was asking for a release date at which point he revealed he'd never even heard of DoW. Luckily i'd ordered it online already and was asking just for fun. They regularly only get 1 copy of a game in. EG: Mass Effect, Fire Emblem, Resident evil on the wii. So when i enquire the sales assistant usually replies, no i'm afraid i sold it. (IT!)
Finally the douches nearly bumped me MONTHS down the wii waiting list after accidently deleting me off the system; i was the second to pre-order my wii from there insuring that i got one day of launch. After their mistake they refused to move me back to the top of the list despite the fact that my receipt proved i was still the second person to pre-order, they claimed it simply wasn't possible. I threatened to complain (i threatened to do alot of random shit actually) and magically, i was able to get my wii day of launch. So America isn't the only place with retarded gaming shops. Hell Even Gamestation and Game have their moments of complete and utter idiocy (Biggest gaming retailers here in the UK) I could share a few more stories but i've rambled long enough about something that is sort of off topic really... Its not my fault i've never experienced BestBuy for myself.

I'd just like to point out that buying games is for chumps, unless its a really good game. Like say, Fallout 3 or Spore. Otherwise, well i think you get the idea... Regardless, Bestbuy is perfectly fine, simply because i like to not be pestered by employees and the prices are reasonable in comparison to the likes of other technology stores in my area.

yeah GAME really sucks. Every time i go in there, i end up wanting to really, really hurt people, you know you are off to a bad start when you walk up to the counter and ask "hi, i dont suppose you have any copies of Super smash brothers melee available do you?" and they retort "no mate, it ain't out yet". gamestation is better, or atleast was but seems to have gone downhill recently. (i still maintain the requirements for a job there are: a beard, vast knowledge of final fantasy fanfiction and the ability to hand out the almighty penny)
Luckily now i have cex
(yeah there is a shop near me called cex, that sells all manner of awesome)

topic derailment aside: i presume this is some sort of cock-up on thier part.

Apparently I'm just somebody to be ignored. Very well. I wonder what it takes to get you people all riled up. Guess I'll have to break out the big guns.

TheRealMcFly:
Apparently I'm just somebody to be ignored. Very well. I wonder what it takes to get you people all riled up. Guess I'll have to break out the big guns.

Just mention Halo, not neccessarily even as part of a sentance. That or try and critise Portal.

Back on topic, my local Gamestation is fine, the employees generally know what they're selling and you can have a balanced discussion with them on their products rather than walk into the store to buy a 2nd hand gameboy and have them try to tell you how much more worthwhile buying a PS3 would be. GAME on the other hand seems to be full of no-nothings and limited stock unless its multibuy pc games you are after. Of course, neithers a patch on the internet for price but retailers have been fighting a losing battle for years in that regard.

I heard from a Best Buy employee (admittedly, I heard this on 4chan /b/ so it's hardly reliable) that they just put those stickers on anything just so they can look like they're doing something when a manager's watching. Having worked in retail and needing to look like I was doing something for the manager, I can completely understand why they do it. Even if it does look a tad daft.

wilsonscrazybed:
My vote is for: some f'n new guy put the signs in the wrong display. My backup guess is shenanigans. Either way, the thought of having "technician" come over to my house and turn on the Xbox for me doesn't really do it for me, but it does sound like the beginning of a porn movie.

Couldn't have said any of it better myself.

Do you know how hard it is to get of my fat ass, walk six, I repeat, six feet to my Xbox, take out the game I want, replace the disc in my Xbox, and walk back. Thank God for Best Buy. (I'm trying to be ironic (the real definition of irony (I say one thing but mean the complete opposite)))

Khell_Sennet:
Well since BestBuy is the birthplace of retail idiocy, I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't a thoughtless screwup... Now I have a question... Is anyone here stupid enough to shop at bestbuy?

I would be that stupid. But with these places YMMV, honestly. I've never had the experience that the OP had with Best Buy employees, but the one I go to has people that actually are helpful and know something worth a damn. Going to Circuit City or Fry's, at least here in my neck of the woods, gets me the "stoner" experience Landslide got.

The service is no different than all the other installation services they offer. I question the need for it, but I suppose there must be enough people having trouble that they think they can make something off it. Whether that is a testament to the apparent instability of some of the 360 consoles out there or to the number of people that don't understand how to do installs is up to you to decide.

what a fantastic idea. i'm tempted to go do this. why? because i want to see if they'll do it. i want some punk with acne to show up at my house and do the things that are beneath me, like inserting my games into my 360. DO IT NOW PEASANT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahaha, this is funny. I worked at CompUSA a while back, before its impending doom. We did this crap all the time, its just the security cases being reused from hard drives, cd drives, chips, motherboards, everything...i just cant really think of much best buy has that would require help installing. Sound systems?

Well guys, you know how the 360 has an "open tray" option? Well, I can't count how many times where I open the tray, and then I realize "woah wait a sec, how am I gonna put a new game in? I'm ALL THE WAY OVER HERE!" - I'd love a best buy (maybe even a GEEK SQUAD guy!) to walk over and switch the games for me! [/sarcasm]

(but we've already established that it's probably some stupid screw up with a RAM case.)

Khell_Sennet:
Well since BestBuy is the birthplace of retail idiocy, I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't a thoughtless screwup... Now I have a question... Is anyone here stupid enough to shop at bestbuy?

They will have a good deal every now and then, but overall, Frys > BestBuy...I was very tempted to spam the ">" symbol on that one, because comparing Frys to BestBuy is almost unfair, especially in Price and Inventory. Too bad Frys isn't as "widespread" as best-buy, mainly because their stores are so gigantic. Frys is the only place where I can find brand new games for 40 freaking USD (as oppsed to..y'know, 60..50 for PC) - I don't know how they are able to pull this off. Hell, most of their computer hardware is dirt cheap on holidays and they usually have some amazing deals every week.

BestBuy's name is basically an oxymoron, because the real best buys are always at Frys ;) (or Newegg and Tigerdirect..but AAAANYWAAY...)

They just re-use the plastic cases for PC games.

Kiytan:
gamestation is better, or atleast was but seems to have gone downhill recently. (i still maintain the requirements for a job there are: a beard, vast knowledge of final fantasy fanfiction and the ability to hand out the almighty penny)

Holy crap, been for job interviews at two Gamestations, and that describes the manager of both of 'em :)

Here's a little criteria I use for judging game retailers: When they ask me if I want the warranty, if I have to say "no" more than three times before they figure out that I'm not going to buy it, the store officially sucks.

Best Buy officially sucks.

EDIT: Yes, I am aware that the employees are required by policy to pitch the warranty to customers. However, they are NOT required to keep asking after the third time the offer has been rejected.

Hey, getting off your ass and putting the disk in the tray is one of the only fragments of excersize gamers without a Wii get! And even the Wii is just barely moving your arms to a correct position.

Landslide:
I don't like Best Buy already. But this is just frighteningly stupid.

http://consumerist.com/381845/let-best-buy-professionally-install-your-xbox-games

Can anyone adequately justify this?

You know what makes me laugh even more in that picture? The price tag on Cod4 59.99$

Here in Italy we have to pay 69.90 euros for it.

That is 109$ at today's exchange rate.

I work at a Best Buy and I can say that it's entirely possible some associate used hardcases that had that sticker on them, or put the stickers on them as a joke. Those stickers are probably from the car-fi department, or the computer department ... probably Car-Fi.

.... I had one new guy in my department put price stickers on the games themselves THEN hardcase them, so hey.