Best Buy's new "Beta" program

[Nothing-]

for betas.  You can't make this stuff up.  

It's $200/yr for a subscription program that does things. Things like "extended returns" and  "free shipping" that you used to remember getting from free shipping and standard 30-day returns. 

Best Buy launches a new $200 membership program to fight Amazon

Best Buy's new Beta program promises concierge tech support for $200 a year

Best Buy Piloting Paid Membership Program in Select Markets

 

[vegisgod]

We need a bad deal sub forum for stuff like this.

 

[jesscal11]

Seems they might be aggressive about this. I watched an old man get a speech about it at the cash register, then he was sent to a laptop aisle and before I got helped, the cashier radio'd her staff telling them how far she'd gotten with the beta pitch and to push for it. Probably quite a decent commission on a sign up. Luckily it wasn't even brought up to me, who was just buying a game.

What a weird program. If they brought back GCU around $120 I'd consider it but this, this ain't it chief.

Ok boomer, let’s clarify some things.

It’s not the 90’s anymore. Instead of commissions, employees get the privilege of keeping their barely above minimum wage jobs and get the luxury of being scheduled hours for the next week.

Now, do some employees get paid by outside vendors (sanctioned and facilitated by Best Buy) and have minor monetary incentive to pitch something like big brands LG, Sony, Samsung? Absolutely. But it’s peanuts as a monthly or quarterly heavily taxed “bonus” and basically see above where the reward is actually getting scheduled barely full time hours.

P.S. I don’t work in the Best Buy store any more but I know several people who still do. Also I’m not defending anyone here, or taking a side, but that is the reality. I don’t care if you shop at BBY or not, what I care about is correcting misinformation.

 

[davemoseley]

All their rewards programs are crap right now. Purchased a dryer from them and plan on a TV this year, figure id finally hit elite status for their rewards program. Nope sorry sir your dryer purchase doesnt count since you got a financing deal with the best buy card. Im totally fine not getting reward points for that purchase but to not have it at least count towards money spent there is a joke.

I know this is an old comment but I just wanted to say this wasn't my experience with buying a $2000 TV recently... I financed for 24 months and I've got $2000 progress towards Elite status for next year.

 

[ppitchfork]

Ok boomer, let’s clarify some things.

It’s not the 90’s anymore. Instead of commissions, employees get the privilege of keeping their barely above minimum wage jobs and get the luxury of being scheduled hours for the next week.

Now, do some employees get paid by outside vendors (sanctioned and facilitated by Best Buy) and have minor monetary incentive to pitch something like big brands LG, Sony, Samsung? Absolutely. But it’s peanuts as a monthly or quarterly heavily taxed “bonus” and basically see above where the reward is actually getting scheduled barely full time hours.

P.S. I don’t work in the Best Buy store any more but I know several people who still do. Also I’m not defending anyone here, or taking a side, but that is the reality. I don’t care if you shop at BBY or not, what I care about is correcting misinformation.

Showing my age here, but I worked at Best Buy off and on from ‘97 to ‘00 and nobody got commissions then either. We got about a quarter an hour more than min wage, although I do think the people in the computers department were making a big 6 bucks an hour. It was a big “selling point” for them to be able to brag that nobody was on commissions. That said, there was HUGE pressure to sell those extended warranties, and they could fire you if you were caught not offering them. If you sold a lot of extended warranties you were likely in line for a promotion to department lead or whatever. I’d imagine it’s a similar case with this beta program.