Circuitcity seem to have better customer service than Bestbuy.

[Smokey]

During Christmas time and also last week, I've been to both stores several times and one come away feeling that CC have better salespersons-and more knowledgeable too. They take time showing you the product and most of time they seem to know what they are talking about.

But at BB, the sale scene is sometimes chaotic. First, you have to go hunt down the person that work in that department, and second, pray that he/she is knowledgeable enough to answer your questions or be patient enough demonstrate it to you.

Also, average age of salespersons seem to be lower in BB-more teenagers

[htfan14]

That does'nt surprise me. Although, being from Canada I've never been to CC, but the BB staff are uninterested and under trained compared to the Future Shop folk I've dealt with.

[poneal]

Yes this takes place at more than the two places you mentioned. Overall, here in Corpus Christi I too have had better service at circuit city. They seem to have more salespeople than BB. I guess thats why I usually go to CC instead of BB.

[jamison]

I wanted to share some of my experiences with the Big Box retailers so to speak.
I have noticed a lot of younger aged employees working at Best Buy and the ones I talked with seemed more interested in getting back to their video games than waiting on me. other times i have gone there i only wanted to shop uninterupted and had salesman follow me around the store asking me what im looking for or if they can help me. all good until it gets excessive. also at the store in Toledo Ohio I have noticed they have a large collection of DVD's however the aisles are so narrow it is impossible to browse them without getting in someones way they are laid out very poorly. at Circuit City the dvd's are laid out better, however i have had times where i have had to find a salesman to help me that was knowledgeable. for example when i was in there i helped a lady purchase a home theater system and i knew more about the setup than the salesman did. I also noted that the salesperson was trying to get a customer to purchase a set of $70 monster cables for a $150 dollar dvd player, nothing against monster cables but lets keep things in prospective.
if your buying a $500 dollar + dvd player than the more expensive cables might be worth it.
I had to put in my 2 cents and the salesperson tried to say i was uninformed.

[Smokey]

I also noted that the salesperson was trying to get a customer to purchase a set of $70 monster cables for a $150 dollar dvd player, nothing against monster cables but lets keep things in prospective.

Man, that is ugly. But I don't think that is salesperson false as it is store policy. They make more money selling accessories than components

By the way htfan14, do they have BB in Canada?

[scott113074]

During Christmas time and also last week, I've been to both stores several times and one come away feeling that CC have better salespersons-and more knowledgeable too. They take time showing you the product and most of time they seem to know what they are talking about.

But at BB, the sale scene is sometimes chaotic. First, you have to go hunt down the person that work in that department, and second, pray that he/she is knowledgeable enough to answer your questions or be patient enough demonstrate it to you.

Also, average age of salespersons seem to be lower in BB-more teenagers

One of the reasons C/C employees are more knowledgable in general is C/C use to pay their employes by commision only so It really paid off to do your homework where as Best buy pays theirs hourly so it dosent matter to them if they help you out or not, also Best Buy only has the younger employees cause when they hire anyone they only give you 8-15 hours a week to start .I almost went to work for them til I found out that at an interview. Circiut City does now pay their employees hourly as well.

[htfan14]

Yes, BB is in Canada, 3 stores within 30 mins. of me. Although the corporate bought out Future Shop, they have left all existing stores. All new stores going up are BB.

[Eric Z]

Both have their pros and cons. BB is good because someone isn't pushing a sale to increase their pay and CC is good because they might know thier stuff a little better. I think they are both terrible at price matching though. As everyone should know, NEVER pay full price for any audio equipment. I've been to plenty of places where you can haggle a bit. I've bought Mirage speakers at a good price, and my latest was a Def Tech PS80 for $75 under retail. Of course, beware of some of these web companies- do your research and make sure you heard/read other customer's expereinces.

My $.02!
ez

[goatspeed]

I agree totally. Bestbuy's warranty service on 2 different occasions has left me wishing I hadn't bought it. Circuit City on the other hand was overly helpful in dealing with a laptop hardware issue on a laptop i warranted there.

I also agree on the knowledge of the folks working there. BB seems to hire younger folks, which is great..but they need to train them. I've always found the staff at CC more than knowledgable.

[Woochifer]

I dunno, I think you tend to get a rather large contingent of cluelessness at both chains -- and this was BEFORE CC canned all their commissioned sales reps. My most recent foray into the sales force at my local BB was to buy a freezer, and the sales rep there seemed pretty good. Then again, my wife and I are pretty clueless about freezers, so anything that came out of his hole probably sounded like rocket science to us. And that sales rep did save us $150 by locating a closeout model for us in their warehouse.

My last visit to CC was not as fruitful at identifying synaptic activity. I was looking for a pair of tall speaker stands that could support a heavy speaker, and I might as well have been administering a field sobriety test! The sales reps had no clue and no prayer. I thought that CC's sales reps were already borderline when they all worked on commission (and I know for fact that CC never did any kind of technical training with their sales staff, so they were already well below the competence you typically see at other specialty chains like Good Guys or Magnolia), but this was a clear step down.

[vivisimonvi]

I agree *most* people at Best Buy are morons. One went as far as completely dissappearing off the face of the earth after I asked if they had more Imation CD-Recordables in stock. "Let me go check for you, sir," he assured me... never to return almost 30 minutes later (not that I really waited that long, there's plenty of electronic distractions at this place).

I asked another guy over a year ago what the difference between + and - DVD recordables were. He gave me a puzzled look and walked away.... HE WALKED AWAY!!! Ok, forget I asked the question in the first place... He seemed to have mumbled something and left!

I almost laughed at the next guy who asked if I needed help.

[vivisimonvi]

Some time ago during my search for main speakers at CC, one guy tried to convince me to buy a pair of Infinity Interludes (not sure what model but they were 800 bucks a pair.) He told me he'd sell me three of each for a grand... "Ummm, what would I do with the third one?"

Yeah this thing couldn't pass for a center channel as these *towers* weigh about 70 pounds each.

[Smokey]

Some time ago during my search for main speakers at CC, one guy tried to convince me to buy a pair of Infinity Interludes (not sure what model but they were 800 bucks a pair.) He told me he'd sell me three of each for a grand.

He must have worked in a donut shop since if you buy a dozen, they throw in an extra one for you

[PmR]

I agree totally. Bestbuy's warranty service on 2 different occasions has left me wishing I hadn't bought it. Circuit City on the other hand was overly helpful in dealing with a laptop hardware issue on a laptop i warranted there.

I also agree on the knowledge of the folks working there. BB seems to hire younger folks, which is great..but they need to train them. I've always found the staff at CC more than knowledgable.

I would agree with this totally. I just recently put in some orders for Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 and SVS 20-39 CS-+/Sampson1000 based on reviews here. But I also spent a good two weeks emailing the sales reps there talking about options for my system. They were all extremely knowledgeable, didn't try to sell me more than I needed and responded to every email within 24 hours. That's the type of customer service that tipped me in favour of online purchases with these two companies. That and an impressive set of reviews on this site.