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Thread: BestBuy, any good?

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    Studmuffin Flibb's Avatar
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    BestBuy, any good?

    Has anybody visited the Thurrock bestbuy store yet, and beyond the flashy advertising are they any better than PCW? I am after some odds and sodds including a gigabit switch and am podering driving up there for a visit. The photos of the store I have seen look very nice, but seemed to neglect any price info or idea of what kit they stock. Are they just a CPW/BB version of PCW?

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    jim
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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    Quote Originally Posted by Flibb View Post
    Are they any better than PCW?
    My powers of deduction tell me that they must be. It would be difficult to be worse.

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    Studmuffin Flibb's Avatar
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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    My local PCW isnt that bad, and some times have some good deals, and some people working there are do actually care about the work they do. I dont generally need any advice when I visit a PCW, all I want is a good price, and stuff to be available. They do sell some c**p, the choice of PSUs is terrible, but when I needed a HD quick, and at a good price they had it in stock at the same price as scan.

    Should add tha the worst computer work I have ever seen was done by local computer bodgers, one customer wanted an extra HD added to a sytem, a now vanished company used glue to stick the drive to the top of a power supply.

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    jim
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    Re: BestBuy, any good?



    That's pretty good.

    My local PCW store is dreadful to be honest. The only things it's good for are laptops and overpriced software.

    They have a tech corner with ancient graphics cards at ridiculous prices, two motherboards (usually), two soundcards, and one or two broken cases... that are hideous. I had a look at the server/HTPC section a while back, which was utterly miserable. One HP ex485 was sitting on the floor, looking like somebody had put their foot through the front door, with absolutely no servers in boxes, and then they had two Western Digital HTPC things sitting in boxes.

    A lady came up to me and said "Did you need any help?" and I said I was just looking at their HTPC offerings. She said "You'll need somebody else then." And walked off.

    And I once asked them about surround sound speaker systems, so the guy triumphantly led me to the back of the store where they had one covered in dust and with scratches all over it. "It's the only one we have I'm afraid. We can give you a 10% discount."

    So yeah, I'm not enamoured with them.

    Oh, and they sold me two faulty pairs of headphones in a row.

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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    Quote Originally Posted by snootyjim View Post
    They have a tech corner with ancient graphics cards at ridiculous prices, two motherboards (usually), two soundcards, and one or two broken cases... that are hideous.
    lol its the same at mine just a bunch of overpriced old tech etc, however to give them some credit they do have the odd bargin on now and then. Although tbh I havent been there in quite a while.

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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    Looking at Stringents twitter feed, he was at the Best Buy store a while back so he would probably be the best person to ask about it. From memory I am sure he raved about it

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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    In the States they were great. Not a huge amount better than PCW, but certainly worth visiting.

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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    Yep I went. They are pretty good, they even have a Tesla car in there for sale if you like. The staff very friendly and knowledgeable unlike other stores. Prices aren't bad, cheaper than DSG I think, and can compare to some on-line retailers. Its worth a visit, even just to mosey around the stuff.

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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    I hear from Americans that best buy must be worse than PCW. I might pop in if one is close by but have not really been into one so can't comment.

    Our local PCW is a bit of a ghost town in terms of hardware; exactly teh same as described above.

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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    Quote Originally Posted by snootyjim View Post


    That's pretty good.

    My local PCW store is dreadful to be honest. The only things it's good for are laptops and overpriced software.

    They have a tech corner with ancient graphics cards at ridiculous prices, two motherboards (usually), two soundcards, and one or two broken cases... that are hideous. I had a look at the server/HTPC section a while back, which was utterly miserable. One HP ex485 was sitting on the floor, looking like somebody had put their foot through the front door, with absolutely no servers in boxes, and then they had two Western Digital HTPC things sitting in boxes.

    A lady came up to me and said "Did you need any help?" and I said I was just looking at their HTPC offerings. She said "You'll need somebody else then." And walked off.

    And I once asked them about surround sound speaker systems, so the guy triumphantly led me to the back of the store where they had one covered in dust and with scratches all over it. "It's the only one we have I'm afraid. We can give you a 10% discount."

    So yeah, I'm not enamoured with them.

    Oh, and they sold me two faulty pairs of headphones in a row.
    Thats a very accurate discription of my local PCW store too. All old over priced GFX cards that noobdy buys unless they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    Just back from lakeside, visited bestbuy and pcworld (refitted recently).

    To be honest they appear to use the same shop designers, buyers and have very similar prices. If your expecting bestbuy to redifine computer shopping in the UK guess again. Like DSG they seem to be more interested in selling TVS, rather than computer kit, choice of componets and network gear was pretty bad.

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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    I never go into a retail store expecting to see a great range of networking kit. Its normally always the same array of Netgear and Belkin routers at high prices anyway.

    Ask a PCW member of staff sell you a router and you normally end up with a Cable router when what you really should have had was an ADSL one and they SHOULD know to ask you which type you want.

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    Studmuffin Flibb's Avatar
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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    I also looked at graphics card, cases, hard drives and joysticks. Out of the 4 shops I visited Currys had a suprising array of network kit, but all the shops (except Maplins)l looked and felt the same. The graphics cards and cases in bestbuy were about the same if not worse than pcw. The annoying thing is that pcw business section list kit at a good price, they just dont carry it in store. A lot of fuss was made about bestbuy opening over here, very much over hyped imho.

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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    I heard through the grapevine that when Bestbuy were opening they were selling 32 inch Samsung TV's that retail out at £350 for £180 to get people in through the doors. Alot of stores do this when they open first, they sell alot of kit that people want (mostly TV's) at stupidly low prices with little to no margin on opening day just to get people in and spending.

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    jim
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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    Quote Originally Posted by Behemoth View Post
    I heard through the grapevine that when Bestbuy were opening they were selling 32 inch Samsung TV's that retail out at £350 for £180 to get people in through the doors. Alot of stores do this when they open first, they sell alot of kit that people want (mostly TV's) at stupidly low prices with little to no margin on opening day just to get people in and spending.
    Not so much no margin as a negative margin... the old loss leading approach.

    As for Maplin, last time I went in there they had an FX5200 AGP in a glass case for £50.

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    Re: BestBuy, any good?

    Never been into Maplin, as we don't have one down here. The closest we have is the one in Plymouth, don't fancy driving 60 odd miles to do a bit of Window shopping to see old kit thanks very much !

    That said am not surprised at that at all. Have seen people selling 5200's down our local market for £55. I had to laugh when a chap showed interet in buying one "will it play Crysis on full detail?" asks the punter "Yes it will at full resolution too !" Says the market trader.

    I had to step in at this point and told the hapless bloke "No mate, it won't. It's 5 year old tech that could only just cope with Doom 3. He's ripping you off"

    The look on the market traders face was classic, oddly enough I haven't seen him there since that day.

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