BestBuy Gaming Employee *Ask me anything*

deathfromace

deathfromace

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I tend to see a lot of questions about the gaming section in Best Buy so I wanted to make this post and see if it would be of use to anyone.

I've been working for Best Buy for about five years. A majority of those years I worked in Inventory/Merchandising (warehouse) and for the past few months I moved to the gaming section because I enjoy games and thought I could be of use in that section as most people that work in the section in my store and most stores I've been to tend to know nothing about games and just try to guess on what people are looking for.

So if you have any questions about any promotions or really anything at all ask here and I'll see what I can do to answer the question or help you fix an issue you have.

Common Issues *These are issues I run into with the systems in Best Buy
Issue: Time to time the 5$ pre-order credit is not being taken off the total of a game once you pick it up.
Solution: Check your receipt to make sure the 5$ you already paid is indeed being taken off. If the 5$ is not taken off bring it up to customer service and they will give you back the 5$.
 
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As a fellow 5+ year (inventory)associate I've noticed that unless you're in a smaller box store that (sometimes) gets less stock or are attempting to secure a collector's edition of a game there's almost no reason to put down a $5 preorder on anything. Best Buy typically only offers preorders on the larger releases that get about 50+ copies in anyway. The chances of you walking in and not finding a big release like Starcraft or Tomb Raider are slim to none. Its much better to just place your order through bestbuy.com and do an instore pickup.
 
[quote name='deathfromace']

Common Issues
Solution: Check your receipt to make sure the 5$ you already paid is indeed being taken off. A normal 60$ game should come out to $59.94 (if I'm doing the math correctly) if the credit was taken off as it should be. If it did not take the 5$ off bring it up to customer service and they will give you back the 5$.[/QUOTE]

That price is only accurate in your state/city. Different states have different amounts of sales taxes.
 
That's correct so I'll edit that part out but still something that people need to keep an eye on as I doubt many people will catch it.
 
1. Why does in-store POS system never ring up the correct sale price for pre-owned video game deals of the week? Is this a "known" issue within Best Buy structure, e.g. it is unfixable/intentional/nobody cares?

2. Can you confirm/deny that @Gamer coupon for pre-owned video games (e.g. March issue - Modern Warfare 3) not working together with the GCU 10% discount off pre-owned video game is a POS level issue, i.e. even if you correctly scan the coupon and click the GCU member prompt onscreen, the computer will incorrectly kick out the GCU discount?
 
Why did Best Buy decide to completely remove Gaming/Media staff? I really love being more knowledgeable than the people getting paid to sell the products.

Also thoroughly enjoyed spending an hour picking up my Gears Judgment preorder this morning, when neither of the advertised deals would bundle. Customer service (1-800) had no clue and there were no emails.

Sincerely,
A former Best Buy CS1/CS2 and Media Rep
 
Here's an odd one for you(and probably outside your realm), the past two times I've been in (Crysis 3 & TR) my checkout in the gaming dept. has taken 20 minutes for some unknown reason. The gaming guy is friendly enough but for some reason my RZ Card(?) needed a manager override both times. Any clue what would cause that or how to fix it?

[quote name='perfectmf1386']Its much better to just place your order through bestbuy.com and do an instore pickup.[/QUOTE]

No offense to the gaming dept. guys, but I can walk in, browse a bit, grab my own copy off the shelf, checkout, leave and have lunch in less time it takes to go through the CS line for a pickup.
 
[quote name='Ki77a KiD TRe']Why did Best Buy decide to completely remove Gaming/Media staff?[/QUOTE]
At my local store they have to watch 2 sections now. Gaming and Digital Cameras.
 
[quote name='Blaster man']Why did your dumbass employee tell me that Xcom is an RTS when in fact it's turn based?[/QUOTE]
222px-The_Simpsons-Jeff_Albertson.png



My question is similiar to Corvin's: I have a fantastic rep in my gaming department, but nearly every sort of "special" transaction (placing preorders, picking-up preorders, subscribing to gamerclub and even upgrading my iphone last night) seem to send BB's systems into a tailspin which requires the rep taking me to the customer service desk where they then spend about thirty minutes talking to managers and looking puzzled until they finally decide to perform an override. It seems everytime this comes up the rep tells me it is an issue with finding things attached to my name and/or account: i.e. my gamerclub was not attached to my name, they couldn't find my preorder in the system, etc. Any thoughts?
 
[quote name='phoenixlau']1. Why does in-store POS system never ring up the correct sale price for pre-owned video game deals of the week? Is this a "known" issue within Best Buy structure, e.g. it is unfixable/intentional/nobody cares?

2. Can you confirm/deny that @Gamer coupon for pre-owned video games (e.g. March issue - Modern Warfare 3) not working together with the GCU 10% discount off pre-owned video game is a POS level issue, i.e. even if you correctly scan the coupon and click the GCU member prompt onscreen, the computer will incorrectly kick out the GCU discount?[/QUOTE]

1. I've never personally seen that issue but in my store pre-owned games don't sell that often. There is a way for employees to send up customer issues from the computer in the store so it is possible for you to ask if they can tell corporate about the issue but remains to be seen if anyone actually reads those issues as I've sent many about my displays being broken in my store and no one has fixed them yet. But odds are the issue is corporate does not actually change the price in the system when they announce the sale because when they announced all ps2 and PSP games were .99c almost no store had the changed done in the store and all items had to have the prices changed automatically. The real answer is probably no one cares that is in power to have it changed but you can always have an employee change the price for you but sadly that can take a few minutes more then it should have to take.

2. I can't confirm the gamer 10% off not working with the gamer coupons as I've only ever meet one person that has it in my store and they have not bought a pre-owned game that I'm aware of but once again there is a way for an employee in checkout to add both. If it is not working they can manually add a % off on top of the coupon.

[quote name='Blaster man']Why did your dumbass employee tell me that Xcom is an RTS when in fact it's turn based?[/QUOTE]

Seems to go in with my original post in this thread stating most people that I've meet in gaming in my store and other stores don't actually know anything about games.

[quote name='Ki77a KiD TRe']Why did Best Buy decide to completely remove Gaming/Media staff? I really love being more knowledgeable than the people getting paid to sell the products.

Also thoroughly enjoyed spending an hour picking up my Gears Judgment preorder this morning, when neither of the advertised deals would bundle. Customer service (1-800) had no clue and there were no emails.

Sincerely,
A former Best Buy CS1/CS2 and Media Rep[/QUOTE]

About a year ago Best Buy officially ade gaming it's own department, trying to become a bigger name in the gaming world as most people don't really think of Best Buy for games. Well shortly after they did that...lets say 6 months I guess gaming was not doing as well as they wanted so they combined gaming with appliances, movies, music, and cameras so now all those departments share the same hours. I "work" in gaming but they also want me to cover music, movies, car-fi, and mp3 and for one person it's a pain...with all that the knowledge they want people to have is very basic knowledge on every area so they can "help" people instead of the employee having a lot of knowledge in one area...you know a specialist like it says on our name badges.

I've posted somewhere else about the pre-order system. Best Buy did actually change the system for this but they taught no one how to use it and it's been buggy the last few days.

[quote name='Corvin']Here's an odd one for you(and probably outside your realm), the past two times I've been in (Crysis 3 & TR) my checkout in the gaming dept. has taken 20 minutes for some unknown reason. The gaming guy is friendly enough but for some reason my RZ Card(?) needed a manager override both times. Any clue what would cause that or how to fix it?

No offense to the gaming dept. guys, but I can walk in, browse a bit, grab my own copy off the shelf, checkout, leave and have lunch in less time it takes to go through the CS line for a pickup.[/QUOTE]

No idea why he needs a manager as the only reason we ever been one is we are overriding the price of an item or we just have no idea what we are doing...normally only done when you first start. But RZ card wize I've never needed anyone as that is simple. You scan the card pops up and it's over.

Yeah the pre-order thing is horrible as we almost never sell out of new games and it causes people that decided to pre-order through us to wait longer because our own system is messed up.

[quote name='iamsmart']
My question is similiar to Corvin's: I have a fantastic rep in my gaming department, but nearly every sort of "special" transaction (placing preorders, picking-up preorders, subscribing to gamerclub and even upgrading my iphone last night) seem to send BB's systems into a tailspin which requires the rep taking me to the customer service desk where they then spend about thirty minutes talking to managers and looking puzzled until they finally decide to perform an override. It seems everytime this comes up the rep tells me it is an issue with finding things attached to my name and/or account: i.e. my gamerclub was not attached to my name, they couldn't find my preorder in the system, etc. Any thoughts?[/QUOTE]

The only things I've ever personally had an issue with were people picking pre-orders up but that was recent as something was actually wrong with the system, subbing people in gamerclub mainly because I was never taught how to do it and just had to learn on the fly but the reason it personally took so long for me was I didn't want to ruin the customers account by just scanning his card and another unlocked membership as I was unsure if it would work that way...but seems it does. I've had very few customers where they information wouldn't come up and those were people that seemed very unsure as to if they made an account or not but I've never had my personal account come up so can't say I've seen an issue but on rare occasions the RZ system can be down and if that happens no information on anyone can be brought up.

If I missed any questions let me know or if I didn't answer it well enough I'll take another crack at it as I tend to ramble sometimes.
 
Here's my question:

Why is it EVERYTIME I go in to trade a game I have to goto 5 different register stations? This is all due to the step when "scanner" is suppose to take a picture of my license. Seriously, I start at customer service.. they dont know how to do trade, so they send me to gaming. Gaming dept, gets all the through to the license scan. No go. Back up to customer service with gaming dept employee, scanner problem there too. Then to the mobile service desk, 1st station...Nope. Then Finally the 2nd station at the mobile phones section allowed the scanner to take the picture.

All employees in the gaming dept are awesome, most of the employees at the service desk are great also. Except for this one time I was pricematching, the guy at the service desk rolled his eyes at me... I felt that was rude.
 
[quote name='iamsmart']
My question is similiar to Corvin's: I have a fantastic rep in my gaming department, but nearly every sort of "special" transaction (placing preorders, picking-up preorders, subscribing to gamerclub and even upgrading my iphone last night) seem to send BB's systems into a tailspin which requires the rep taking me to the customer service desk where they then spend about thirty minutes talking to managers and looking puzzled until they finally decide to perform an override. It seems everytime this comes up the rep tells me it is an issue with finding things attached to my name and/or account: i.e. my gamerclub was not attached to my name, they couldn't find my preorder in the system, etc. Any thoughts?[/QUOTE]

Actually you described my situation better than I did. Sounds like we have an identical situation. They scan my card and it brings up my account fine. It's something after that step where things begin to tailspin out of control. Also like you said, (on Tomb Raider pre-order pickup) the rep had to go to the CS counter to ring it up(?), check my account(?), not really sure. They end up pulling up my info 3-4 times in the process. All I know is it's jacked up and picking up games is a 15 minute ordeal, minimum. Sucks for me, but it really sucks for anyone in line behind me.

Thanks for the response deathfromace.
 
[quote name='IMikeU']Here's my question:

Why is it EVERYTIME I go in to trade a game I have to goto 5 different register stations? This is all due to the step when "scanner" is suppose to take a picture of my license. Seriously, I start at customer service.. they dont know how to do trade, so they send me to gaming. Gaming dept, gets all the through to the license scan. No go. Back up to customer service with gaming dept employee, scanner problem there too. Then to the mobile service desk, 1st station...Nope. Then Finally the 2nd station at the mobile phones section allowed the scanner to take the picture.

All employees in the gaming dept are awesome, most of the employees at the service desk are great also. Except for this one time I was pricematching, the guy at the service desk rolled his eyes at me... I felt that was rude.[/QUOTE]

Well I'm not sure why they are scanning your card. To trade-in a game all you have to do is give them the game and in the trade-in system they scan it or type in the name if it's a disc only. After that if you have an account they can bring that up or type in the information for the first time then they just have to use your drivers licence for the trade-in and after that they give you a gift card. I've never had an issue with the trade-in system because you could do a trade-in and never have to scan anything.
 
This might be outside your realm so if you can't answer don't worry. I recently purchased a LG computer LCD monitor, and I bought the $30 warranty on it. Now if something happens to my monitor would they just give me a new one (pick a comparable current model from the floor) or store credit instantly, or would I have to go through the Geek Squad and wait for a replacement monitor from them or would they try to repair the monitor? Also would they give me a loaner monitor while mine is being repaired, or is it my responsibility to provide my own backup while they look at or repair the monitor? The reason I ask is because I do not have a backup monitor and I need to use my PC every day so I cannot be without a monitor for a long time.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']This might be outside your realm so if you can't answer don't worry. I recently purchased a LG computer LCD monitor, and I bought the $30 warranty on it. Now if something happens to my monitor would they just give me a new one (pick a comparable current model from the floor) or store credit instantly, or would I have to go through the Geek Squad and wait for a replacement monitor from them or would they try to repair the monitor? Also would they give me a loaner monitor while mine is being repaired, or is it my responsibility to provide my own backup while they look at or repair the monitor? The reason I ask is because I do not have a backup monitor and I need to use my PC every day so I cannot be without a monitor for a long time.[/QUOTE]

Yeah that is outside of what I normally do. I would think monitors are not the type of thing they personally fix and I can't say I've seen them sent out to be fixed before but I never really looked into the items being sent out by them when I worked in Inventory. Best bet would be to call them and ask what they would do. If you call I believe hitting number 3 will be the sales support or whatever they call that person and she should be able to answer it or if not she is near the people that would know for sure.
 
Like clockwork my Bioshock pre-order wouldn't go through. Instead of wasting 20 minutes though, the clerk got a manager pretty quick. She wanted to credit me the $5 and just sell the the game which would result in losing the $20 bonus. She couldn't figure it out either so she just took the $20 off the price.

Not ideal since I lose my ability to price match if it drops lower (since the receipt says I paid $39.99), but oh well.
 
Not really a question but yes pre-orders are still proving to be a pain in the ass. On top of the 5$ not coming off the price of the game it seems to be asking for a membership # even if you are not a rewardzone member and if you are scanning the card or just typing in the number does not seem to work. So it seems like they are still working on it but it appears as if they are working on the live version all stores have to use and that is the dumbest thing they could possibly do.

A workaround we have been doing at my store is just taking 5$ off of the game and you should still get the 20$ RZ cert.
 
Ok, so was I suppose to get a code or something for pre-ordering Dead Space 3 and Tomb Raider? I did get a code for Bioshock. They have my email up to date and I am a member of the gamers club unlocked.

Now when I was trying to pre-order Tomb Raider using both the shelf card and the pre-order kiosk display, several employees had trouble getting it to ring up. The computer kept on saying that it could not purchase. I was like 5 days from the release and within the time frame of the pre-order on the back of the card. The manager on duty made some excuse saying that its because they have met their pre-order amount and can't sell anymore. I went to another store and was able to pre-order it no problem.

Went back to the first store on the day of release and the manager on duty had problems applying the pre-order to the sale.

What the hell happened? I had trouble picking up Dead Space 3 as well and expect trouble when picking up Bioshock this week.
 
I've never personally had issues with pre-order bonuses so I couldn't say if the excuse for running out of them is valid but I'm going to go ahead and say that if a store does have a limit I'm sure it would be a higher amount that they wouldn't run into on normal release games.

During checkout most games that have come out recently have a pre-order prompt a cashier can do to add pre-order to the game for free and the code will print out on the receipt. I had a guy buy DMC the day of release and while I was getting it ready he mentioned that he wanted to pre-order it but couldn't because he was unsure if he would have the cash for it that far in advance. On top of that he was one of the first people in the store so I went ahead and gave him the pre-order bonus because I felt it was something he actually wanted....that or he really wanted the game and I wanted to help him out.

Now I wish I could say I know for a fact the DLC prompt is on every game but I can't say I have personally looked but next time I work I will see if it's on all the newer games and let you guys know so if there is a problem you can tell them how to get you the pre-order bonus.

As for Tomb Raider I could be wrong because once again it was not a game I gave much attention to but I believe the bonus was the first X amount of copies that came out in the bigger package of the game..right? When I read the card on what you would get then looked at the box with a comic and such it seems like the bonus was not a code or anything but the first editions of the game itself. I could be wrong but that is how I looked at it and had no issues with people coming to get their copies of it.

Oh I think I misread your Tomb Raider question. I've had the card not work for me for unknown issues but they should still be able to do it by searching ETK for something along the lines of "pending pre-order list" and a whole list of pre-order games and codes will come up.
 
Ok hmm...so the comic box version was suppose to be only for those who pre-ordered it? It's funny because my store had both the regular and the comic version right next to each other.. I thought they were suppose to put the comic version aside for those who pre-ordered it...so that means that anyone who didn't pre-ordered it could have bought that version anyways??!?


If it wasn't for this 20 dollars promo I would have been pissed.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']Ok hmm...so the comic box version was suppose to be only for those who pre-ordered it? It's funny because my store had both the regular and the comic version right next to each other.. I thought they were suppose to put the comic version aside for those who pre-ordered it...so that means that anyone who didn't pre-ordered it could have bought that version anyways??!?


If it wasn't for this 20 dollars promo I would have been pissed.[/QUOTE]

Not saying that is what it was meant for but what I personally saw as the pre-order bonus was what was in the first run of Tomb Raider games. If any stores happen to of had extra games then yes others were able to buy that. I could be wrong but on the display of the game I made it said the perks of the pre-order with the comic and such as the games I had just happen to have comics so I just connected the two. If there was something else that Best Buy personally had as a bonus then I'm not aware of it.
 
My store was able to penny out the $5 pre-order bonus as a workaround, so be prepared to ask for it if they're not aware. Not sure about the $20 credit as I was picking up a PC copy and don't subscribe to their shit magazine anyway.
 
Here's one for you ; I was gamer club unlocked when I pre ordered bioshock but my unlock was set to expire on (or through) release day, the same day I picked it up. Think I'll get my $20?
 
[quote name='ToddManG']Here's one for you ; I was gamer club unlocked when I pre ordered bioshock but my unlock was set to expire on (or through) release day, the same day I picked it up. Think I'll get my $20?[/QUOTE]

It should if when you buy the game you are still an unlocked member but I couldn't say with 100% certainty as I'm not sure exactly when in the process it gives you the 20$ but it seems like the ideal way to do it would be based on when you buy the game and it's based on that receipt.
 
[quote name='greyzieoriental']Why do you guys like to over tighten and destroy collector's edition boxes with the anti-theft spider wrap?[/QUOTE]

Sadly this goes back to my first post on most people just not caring and/or knowing anything about games. I personally refused to spider wrap the new collector edition of Heart of the Swarm when it came out and just kept them under my desk...but sadly no one is coming to my store asking for them so hard to tell if people are just not coming to the store asking for them or are coming but don't see them then leave. So now I have one very loosely wrapped in the gaming section.

With that it's because people steal things....if people would quit stealing games then we wouldn't have to wrap them and damage the item. I do my best not to damage them when I have to wrap them but sadly it's a requirement.

Edit: Maybe this story will cheer you up and let you know not all Best Buy employees are monsters and I would like to think I would of done the same thing.
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-buy-will-not-destroy-rob-toy-robot-2013-3
 
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