OK, this is a double-feature!

How hard is it to make a purchase at Best Buy or Apple Store in Topanga?

Very very hard if not impossible!

Our tale starts off at the Best Buy in Topanga.

A client wants a new computer, so we go to Best Buy. She decides on an iMac! Awesome! We wait… and wait… and wait for a salesperson… nobody around! Uh, okay… we start hunting for and chasing down workers; we hunted down four and none of them were able to help us - claiming, “I don’t work in this department,” or, “I don’t have the key,” and some other bullshit excuses. One even totally forgot that we needed help! As for the ones we were able to talk to—one was saying we need a driver for the printer because the Macs come with iLife ‘08… wait… what??? And another said they didn’t offer a rebate on a printer when I knew specifically that there is a rebate.

Frustrated, we finally storm out of there—and as luck would have it—what we think was a manager was near the exit as we were leaving and we let him get an earful of what we thought, and continued on our way to the Apple Store.

The Apple Store is in the Topanga Mall, which means a lot of walking and trying to figure out just where you are going. Hopefully you are not making a big purchase because you will have to figure out a way to get all that back to your car!

In a few moments a salesguy comes up to us; we ask about the printer rebate and tell him everything we want: 20” iMac, printer, Airport Base Station (I actually picked up the base station and handed it to him)… everything we need to get her online and running. Should have been a quick in-and-out and not taken more than 5 minutes—10 minutes tops.

30 Minutes later after the very pushy salesman insists on showing us a demo AND insists on us buying “One to One training” which we said NO to repeatedly - he’s FINALLY ringing us up and we noticed he scanned some card… we ask about it and he was trying to brush it off as “nothing”, we insist he stop and explain it and he says “oh it’s the One to One training” and we both practically scream at him at the same time “NO! WE TOLD YOU WE DON’T WANT IT! TAKE IT OFF!!!”

We finally get back to the office and I start setting everything up. I’m ready to do the network - I reach into the bags… and… uh… where’s the Airport Base Station???

Did he actually remove the base station and tried to sneak in the “One to One” training???

We were furious at this point!

I handed the base station to him at the register!!! 
Are they getting a major kick-back for every “One to One training they sell???

APPLE, THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! 
SERIOUSLY! I am sick to my stomach over this!

You need to retrain your employees to listen to what the customer wants and NOT PUSH SOMETHING THEY DON’T WANT ONTO THEM and going so far as to actually ring it up!!!

So a few days pass and Apple sends me an email requesting feedback… so I let them have it - with very bad ratings on just about everything.

Rating:
Best Buy

0 out of 5
Pros: no customers in the store, no lines… wait… maybe it’s because of…
Cons: good luck trying to buy something! or finding someone to help you! and if you find someone to help you - good luck on them knowing what they are talking about! (iLife 08 needs a printer driver! WTF???!!!)

Rating:
Apple Store

1 out of 5
Pros: If you can just walk in, take something off the shelf and buy it, it’s not bad.
Cons: Good luck trying to get what you want from the sales people. Double-check your receipt and make sure they didn’t sneak anything in that you didn’t want! Good luck finding parking. And you better not buy anything heavy because it’s a long walk back to your car!

Editor’s Note: This entry was originally published on SogniX’s blog, and reposted here with his permission. We have edited it to a small extent for grammar and spelling.