Carphone Warehouse splits with self

Support?

> Best Buy has high hopes for the UK market, and will be targeting Currys. But with real supermarkets like Tesco and Asda rapidly moving into electronics it remains to be seen if UK consumers want advice and support from blue-clad experts, or discounted boxes balanced on top of shopping trolleys.

BestBuy competes effectively with WalMart in the US, I see no reason why Asda(WalMart) or even Tesco will be a more effective competitor on price alone in the UK.

Moreover, the staff are *not* what drives BestBuy's business. They're no more clued than the idiots you typically find in a Currys. Some will know what they're talking about, and a few more will try hard to be helpful, but BestBuy is a box shifter, and its staff are trained accordingly. The reason most people shop at BestBuy is because they are ubiquitous. For most of America, the BestBuy will be in the same strip mall as the big box grocery store. If you're just after some Cat5 cable in a hurry, BestBuy is easier to deal with than a grocery store, and you aren't driving any further to reach it.

If the major grocery chains are easier to reach, and provide more parking, they'll cream BestBuy in the UK, but BestBuy is not a stupid company, so I would give them at least an even chance.

experts on the high street?

WTF? All of the electrical retailers are staffed by clueless numpties that can barely tell the difference between a teapot and a telly. The only difference between the supermarkets and Comet/Currys etc is the clueless droid at the supermarket check-out will ask for your loyalty card rather than attempt to flog a worthless extended warranty.

Charlie Dunstone is no fool

He picks the right opponents. First he picked BT - hardly an athletic business adversary.

Now, he picks a fight with Dixons Store Group - hardly the UK's most popular business.

With BT, even when Dunstone totally underestimated demand and cocked up operational delivery, he has still built a massive business.

I imagine it will be much the same with Currys and PC World. Crucially, it is not only the consumers who hate DSG. The PC and electronics businesses do too. They won't be able to wait to give Kalm's old empire a good kick in the goolies.

I had no idea.

9 weeks training? Can you verify that? It seemed more like 9hours-using-only-single-syllable-words last time I spoke to one.

Re 'experts'

After a 9-week 'training' course? I don't hold out much hope. I expect epic PC World-like failure.

I once confused a PFY in Currys several years ago. It was when 100Hz televisions were just coming out at a premium over their lesser 50Hz brethren. I innocently enquired why I should pay more for twice as many flickers.

Cue much furrowing of brows and accompanied head-scratching before giving up and telling me, "I'll have to ask my manager."

I left before he embarrassed himself further.

evil smurfs

Take heed, friends from across the pond! _Every_ Best Buy I've shopped at in the States is staffed by the sort of folk who'd pawn their first born child for a rack of Budweiser. Even though these people don't make commission, they still feel the need to lie through their teeth about anything and everything. The corporate mentality, so far as I can gather, is "if you don't know the answer to a question, just lie, and make something up. We'll back you up!" Even the managers get in on the game, deferring to their loyal underlings, no matter how outrageous the claim. E.g., "every monitor can display every color a computer is able to output! theres no such thing as a 'color gamut'," or "[brand] doesn't ship defective products...we won't accept your return because you're the only one who could have damaged that product!" And try finding ANYONE there who even understands the Magic that goes on underneath the hood of their POS terminals, or who could explain why my card was charged $250 for a transaction that was canceled before I'd finish paying the balance. It's the Wal-Mart electronics, but at least Wal-Mart doesn't hide from the ugly truth about their business schemes. Keep large American corporations out of your country if you know what's good for you!

Will it fly?

If "they" will also sell a USB cable at £14.99 ?

experts

based on the USA Best buy

genuinely helpful , yes

knowledgeable types, yes to a point

they have there "tech" side called geek squad who drive VW beetles AKA "bugs"

I had a friend who payed over $150 to fix a problem with a video card he bought from best buy.

yep they failed but still took the money.

Just needed to edit the INF file, 5 mins on "our friend" google

9-week training course?

I'm sorry, what?

I used to work for Best Buy here in the States, and I never received any sort of 9-week training course. Neither, I recall, did anyone in the store I was in. It was more along the lines of 1 day of watching the mandatory corporate videos and filling out paperwork, then 2 or 3 days of 'shadowing' someone on the floor and not doing any interacting while I learned the register and internal systems, and then a boot going "Hey, go sell crap now!"