back to article Best Buy opens first UK store tomorrow

Best Buy is opening its first store in Thurrock, Essex tomorrow morning, but it will not have a working ecommerce site until autumn. The Essex shop is one of four due to open this year. It promises 50,000 square feet of floor space. But Best Buy will not have a functioning website ready until the autumn - a spokeswoman said …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. DuncanL

    How big is your town?

    To be outside a 15 mile radius they would have to be a flipping long way out of town! And they will be right next to their only real competition Maplin and Curry\Dixons on out of town estates anyway.

  2. Ralph B
    IT Angle

    Newegg

    Can we have Newegg as well (or instead)?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Geek Squad... ahem...

    Geek Squad in the USA and Canada have a bit of a reputation. I'm not going to repeat the accusations here, but let me put it this way: The words "Geek" and "Squad", in that order, have made the national news several times in recent years. Isolated incidents I'm sure...

  4. adam payne
    Alert

    Hmmm..

    Just what small independent IT retailers need in a recession. Another PC World type business to give bad advice, rip customers off and undercut everybody else.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      Adam Payne...

      you mean, just like small independant IT retailers do?

      i fail to see your point.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Fail...

      'rip customers off and undercut everybody else'

      By everyone else I guess you mean the small IT retailer, PC World and Currys? And by undercutting the small IT retailer they are STILL ripping customer off?

      1. adam payne
        Stop

        @Anonymous Coward

        When I say small IT retailers I sure as hell don't mean PC World or Currys, i'm talking small shops.

        By undercutting I mean big businesses buying pallets full of hardware, selling them at a loss to get more business and trying to recope the loss else where. Small retailers can't do that.

        So to recope this cost they charge high prices for other things such as Windows reinstalls etc.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Best Buy will not have a functioning website ready until the autumn

    >a spokeswoman said it was busy reworking its website for the UK market.

    It can't be that dificult to change all the dollar signs to pounds.

  6. Wade Burchette
    Alert

    Be very careful

    Maybe it will be different across the pond, but here in the US, people often call Best Buy "Worst Buy" because of their dirty tricks. The website, consumerist.com, is filled with horror stories about Best Buy and their subsidiary Geek Squad. Some of their dirty tricks include mandatory "optional" extras. I shop at Best Buy, out of necessity and not by choice. If you are alert to the games they play, you'll be fine.

    1. Sooty

      sounds just like...

      PCWorld to me. They do the completely optional extras that are not listed as optional and included in the shelf price. Things like "hp laptop, only £400 with norton internet security" when it's only £350 without.

      As PCWorld are going down the toilet, even when they're the only one in the market, it seems an odd time to open a like for like competitor.

      1. Annihilator
        Unhappy

        Worse than PC World

        It does sound like PC World, but manages to be even more soulless, depressing and shamefully disingenuous. Made the mistake of going into one or two in NYC and overheard worse advice than I've ever heard in PC World.

        I did see them handing out flyers near London Bridge y'day and hoped that it was a different Best Buy. Unfortunately not.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I've heard the same thing...

      ...but have generally had positive experiences - though I've never used the Geek Squad, for obvious reasons. The customer service and so forth is generally good, which for me means being left to my own devices unless I need someone to find something specific.

      I tend to use BB as a fallback if I need something -now-, which in my business happens often enough for me to throw a few grand a year at them. I haven't found any reason to slate them with the extremity often done, but then I'm not wandering in asking which TV to buy, and they probably know me by now.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      Necessity, Wade?

      What possibly could Best Buy sell that no one else sells? There are plenty of alternatives to Best Buy.

  7. Jacqui

    novatech

    15 miles LOS or by road?

    Because I think novatech is going to be just out of range - intentionally as I cannt see them beating NT on quality, sevrice or price...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      14 miles...

      Longest route (according to Google) is 14 miles from the Hedge End to Fareham Novatech so a result there.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      re Novatech

      I did a quick calc using the OS maps and Novatech are inside the 15 mile limit. As is the PC world store at... Hedge End hmmm just like the PC world store at Lakeside. So my guess is that all the prices will be the same or 1p less than PC world but the will have a problem with Novatech unless they plan to nick all the Novatech customers with a massige advertising campaign.

      I'll carry on using them though. They have given me great service over the years.

      The arrival of BB might be why Novatech are having a store revamp next month.

      BB == Big Brother naturally.

  8. John Ridley 1

    Congratulations

    BB is a mediocre, soulless big box store, and GS is inept at best, and immoral on average (see any number of documented cases of their "service"). I know the UK is no stranger to cruddy retailers, so this should give them some competition in the race to the bottom.

    1. Chris Harden
      IT Angle

      Dixons

      So they are going into direct competition with Dixons Group then?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Geek Squad or Extortion

    Items advertised with missing bits. Ad of laptop with mic but no mic in the real thing. No recovery cd and geek squad promised to remove all unnecesary software for 200$ s which should not have been on it anyway.

    1. TheRealRoland
      Boffin

      As with everything

      You don't *have* to shop there. You don't *have* to use GeekSquad's service. As one of the other posters said, he's using it as a backup. Same here in the US.

      What's wrong with another company trying to muscle in on the existing market? If the service and prices at the existing stores are as good as they say you are, there shouldn't be a problem and BB will fold within a year, right?

      And, as with everything, people probably should be doing their homework before buying something, goes for any store.

  10. Sureo
    FAIL

    Shady practises

    Bet Buy Mobile here in Canada advertises low prices but when you go in to buy you find out that there is only a "manufacturer's warranty". To be able to return it to the store even if defective you have to pay extra for their warranty. Another malpractice is to bundle options so that if you need an item such as a cable, you end up buying (and paying for) 3 other items you don't want. Needless to say I really hate that and don't shop there anymore.

    1. Neill Mitchell

      Hopefully

      The UK consumer protection laws will prevent such shenanigans here. Not providing a returns service for a defective item is illegal here in the UK, for example.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Indeed

        In the UK, the sale is between the shop and you.

        if the ttem sold turns out to be faulty, within 4 weeks, shop must replace or refund.

        4 weeks to six months, they must at least repair (unless they have PROOF it was OK when you bought it)

        there's also Section 75 if you bought it on the credit card.

  11. Roger Stenning
    Thumb Up

    The lesson here is...

    Sooty's bang on, there.

    Do your homework, and check out what you need online first.

    My Desktop PC's monitor went down a couple of months back (two CRT guns, red and green, went at almost the same moment, dammit), so it made the perfect moment to upgrade to an LCD monitor. Having decided via my phone's web browser (or I would have been well and truly up the creek) on the 22" LG W2243 (Analogue), it was a choice of Comet or PC World. PC World were a fiver more expensive, but had them in stock. They got my hard earned wedge. And no, I didn't want extended warranty. No, I already had a cable (there's one in the box as well), and so on.

    Thus, if you go in forearmed, and forewarned, you should encounter no problems at all.

    1. bluest.one
      Alert

      Lesson still waiting to be learned

      Let me know how it works out when the item breaks down, because by all accounts, that's when you realise the huge mistake of buying from PCWorld (and other DSG clones) - they'll take your money, but once they have it you're persona non grata.

      For a damaged laptop power supply, under warranty, a friend was told he had to send in the whole laptop! No laptop, no service! Other friends have had huge issues trying to get items repaired after the warranty ran out (even just by a day or two) - despite the sale of goods act saying a warranty is in addition to your rights to purchase goods of durable quality.

      I would never buy anything more substantial than a USB stick from them - and I wouldn't buy one of those unless I was desperate, as their prices are a ripoff.

      Seriously, DSG (Dixons, Currys, PCWorld) - AVOID. Google for due dilligence and recoil in horror.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Geek Squad?

    If they were REAL geeks and knew a decent amount about computers or software they'd be working in the IT industry... not on peanuts salaries for high street retailers fixing Joe Blogs virus infections...

    I wouldn't trust them to use the on button, let alone fix the computer - at best they are kids who think they know something because they once re-installed Windows (badly) after one of their gamer mates told them they could get extra fps by doing so.

  13. TK
    Gates Horns

    Why couldn't we export something good?

    Definitely do your research on how BB acts here in the US. Between the craziness of the Geek Squad employee's behavior, getting caught having two sites (external and internal to the store) that showed different prices, 'optimization' of computers, and the nightmare around their price matching policy, I wish the people of the UK good luck.

    As another poster mentioned, consumerist.com has a whole slew of stories about BB and their ilk.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Now the folks in the UK can suffer

    Now you too can be screwed by unscrupulous business practices just like in the USA.

  15. Andrew Tyler 1

    Best Buy

    Best Buy is a fine store if you know what you're doing. They make their money exploiting the ignorance of customers, so most Reg readers would probably find it useful when looking for a quick pick-up of some specific product.

    Typical example is they'll have a good price for some primary product (say a TV), and then try to screw you by charging $80 for an HDMI cable (they're big on Monster Cable), $150 for a wall mount, and $300 for a largely worthless extended warranty.

    Really what the world needs is more Fry's Electronics. It's been years since I've lived by one, but that place was great.

    1. madferret

      I think I know what I'm doing?

      Agree with you all the way, though when I was in Southern California for a few months last year and needed various tech bits I found Fry's disappointing in terms of range compared to what I remembered from a previous visit. In the end the (nearer) Best Buy store was my usual port of call - buy the kit that's 'on offer' and refuse all the extras and you're sorted.

      I also didn't have a problem with their customer service. They refunded me a defective MP3 player no questions asked, even though I had been using it for a couple of weeks and had lost some of the packaging.

  16. IR

    They are

    just the same as a PC World that also sells CDs, DVDs and a few other home appliances. All the usual complaints you'd levy at useless sales staff and overpriced electronics will apply just as suitably.

  17. John Dougald McCallum
    Stop

    Worst Buy

    Thanks to all you that have told us of this Corp and their antics I for one will avoid them like the PLAGUE any how I have 3 online retailers that I can collect from within an hour of where I live as well as PC World.OH and if they do try any thing underhanded in the UK Trading Standards will no doubt love to see them

  18. John A Blackley

    Good news

    Best Buy opening in Britain? Based on my experience in the US, that's great news for shoe salesmen looking for a change of job.

  19. Michael J Evans

    Harrassment by sales assistants.

    One can only hope that their sales people leave us alone to browse without being bothered by sales people. In one BB store in the US I was interfered with ten times in twenty minutes by sales people wanting to help me find things. Why can they not understand that if I want any help I'm quite able to ask? On that particular occasion I was close to asking to see the manager and making a complaint about harrassment. It's almost as bad in every other BB store I've been in over there.

  20. adam payne

    @rickykemp

    I don't know what experiences you've had with independant IT retailers but at the ones I worked for in the past we provided the best service we could.

    I saw a PC World repair job last month. They charged a person £130 for a reinstall of XP from a recovery disk. The recovery disk was SP1, they didn't even bother to install any updates.

    I charged the person an hour labour to install all the updates, install an AV scanner/firewall and a chkdsk/defrag. Isn't that value for money?

  21. Dylan Fahey
    FAIL

    Be prepared for the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!

    Be prepared for the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Welcome

    its the same the world over

    You want cheap toilet rolls buy them in one of the big 4 supermarkets.

    You want decent tasting beef go to the butcher.

    From the big guys buy what is on offer and ignore 'link sale' items and its cheaper than you can get elsewhere.

    Used to be that a tin of beans cost 70p in the local store and that's what you paid for them. They cost 18p for own brand at Tescos. The local store now only sell Heinz at 50p.

    I can buy a some tat for £400 at 'lights are us superstore' , I can get a cheap one from a DIY shed or I can get an attractive and serviceable light fitting at a decent cost from a local electrical factor if I look around. Before the electrical factor was charging £400 as well. The DIY sheds have brought the price down.

    Competition is good. If the service is poor from their support people and the cost is high then it can't do independent support people any harm setting the bar so low.

This topic is closed for new posts.