Best Buy — Attraction in Conroe

Note updating to a 1 star as a result of a decrease of management experience. Best Buy refused to price match a target.com item that was on sale that was sold directly by Target and shipped by target (the company, not third party). There was not a special promotion, etc. Note amazon.com also had the same sale. They said they don't price match target.com. Not sure why people will purchase any of the best buy plans if they won't match major competitors such as target.com for items sold directly from their competitors. They seem to price match nobody.

Went to the manager and he also agreed. Not sure what going on with price matching here. They had an attitude as I poletely pointed out their policy. They said go to target to buy it or Amazon. Very surprised as I use to work at the store years ago and they use to be customer focused and honor the price matching policy. Very sad to experience.

First off, this is not a Magnolia (limited flagship store that has all the high-end items, large size, etc) so you have less items like most best buys. They have a decent selection but don't have all of the the high-end range items (usually the top line or the top two lines they won't have). The Magnolia store (Woodlands0 would be your best bet to see/buy those niche items. Everything else, you can get here including all top selling items (phones, TVs, etc).

Prices are sometimes higher at best buy, fortunately, they are willing to price match select competitors such as amazon though that have restrictions nowadays. The price matching is quite limited compared to the past in which they would match everyone (when they wanted your business). Price matching is only for major competitors (not suppliers) and excludes major sales.

In terms of maintenance, best buy has transformed dramatically as they outsourced all their space to 3rd parties for them to maintain (Bose, Sonos, Samsung, etc). As a result, some things simply don't work anymore. To get something fixed, the best buy store needs to open a ticket to have one of these 3rd parties fix it (they can't fix it themselves anymore and lack the expertise). This defeats the purpose of showing up in-person to get a real experience / demo. This also means they have less knowledge about the items today that when they managed themselves years ago.

Historically, the best feature is knowledge of the people there and getting first hand demos / experiences. This is now a mixed bag as you get some really good experiences and knowledgeable people (which is fantastic and closer to the old days). This was their old business model in which you would want to go to best buy in-person. You also get a ton of bad experiences with products not being available, incorrectly installed so you get a bad first impression and you have a good chance of finding sales people with limited or to no knowledge (my pet peeve is when they tell you something that is completely wrong and say I'm 100% positive - this happens a lot nowadays).

When they tell you something, please verify nowadays with websites (especially the manufacturer) and take what they say with a grain of salt. Before making a purchase, definitely search to see what's cheaper. In-terms of getting a working demo -- good luck. You may be better off simply buying the item at a place with a great return policy and the...

I’ve shopped at Best Buy for years, and this particular location has to be among the worst I’ve shopped at. I actually cringe whenever I look online and it shows the closest location to me with what I’m looking for in stock is the Conroe store. It’s not every employee, nor every time, as a few visits have been pleasant or normal. But twice now I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with Kimberly at this location. The prior also involved the store manager which was just has argumentative as she is. The first issue was over a simple misunderstanding, and once we figured out what happened the store manager and myself were fine. The fact it turned into an argument is what’s bothersome though. As both Kimberly and the store manager at the time seemed all to happy to push it to that point. And again, I look online and the only store in my area to have both items I wanted in stock was Conroe. So I drive all the way to Conroe to pick everything up. Only to find they don’t match Amazon on prime day. Yet, prior to driving out I tried to call the store to confirm the items were available. If I could have reached the store they could have told me then that they didn’t match Amazon. But you can’t call the store directly anymore. So I get to the register and she scans everything, I mention the Amazon price. And she quickly tells me they don’t match Amazon yesterday or today (prime day). I ask why, as that seems ridiculous. She says they don’t match prime day. No real, I’m sorry or anything more just a very short we don’t match Amazon yesterday or today. I say okay I’ll buy them online and turn to leave. To which I hear “good”. I then realize it’s the same girl I had the issue with before. I stop, turn around and ask her name she tells me Kimberly. I ask to see her name tag which was covered up, she shows me and again mumbles something when I turn around to leave. I again stop to ask what she said and then leave. She like the store manager I dealt with prior seem all to happy to be argumentative with customers if the opportunity presents itself. Admittedly, it may very well be Best Buy’s policy not to match Amazon’s Prime Day. But it’s how you choose to explain that policy to customers, and handle their obvious frustration with that policy that determines how well you do your job. I can say with all certainty that Kimberly, has no concerns in helping customers and is happy to argue with them if given the chance. While I might not be pleased with some of Best Buy’s changes over the years, employees like Kimberly would make even the best...

So, I recently moved into the Conroe area, and this happens to be the closest store to me. With that being said, I have been to this store about 4 times since I moved here within about a week. The first couple times I came to this location, I had a great time. I was debating on which tv to get for a very long time and the TV expert Shaun was very helpful, patient and informative (THANK YOU SHAUN). I ended up going back to the store today to get the TV that Shaun had suggested the LG C1 OLED. I come into the store today 12/27/21 and was not greeted by anyone. I knew exactly what I wanted so I requested assistance with getting the tv (It is heavy) and there were plenty of them near front of the store near the rest of the TV’s. Assistance comes in the form of a not so pleasant associate, (I cannot recall her name, but she had red hair) but she goes straight to the computer to I assume to check that if the tv was in stock, but as I mentioned earlier it was apparent that there was an abundance of TV’s available in the size that I wanted. I told her where the TVs were and she proceeded to ignore me and continue searching. Of course, she sees they are available and goes to where all the tv’s were. So, we go to ring up and I had complications with my account lookup (Fraud was suspected because I am new to the area) I wait on the phone for quite some time, approximately an hour with the fraud prevention. I am not holding the store associates accountable for that as that has to do with the best buy credit card. After I get the fraud suspicion noticed lifted, one of the store associates I believe his name is Sean (not the awesome tv expert) this associate was a big burly bald guy finished my transaction. He was very unpleasant, after completing the transaction, he did not offer help with taking the tv to my vehicle or have an associate assist me. He went right in to ringing up the next customer, no goodbyes, offers for help etc… I then have to ask the greeter for assistance with tv, and he was very unenthused about assisting with bringing the tv to my vehicle. Keep in mind, it is a 65inch tv and was pretty heavy. Furthermore, I spent over $2500 on it and have been an elite plus member and often spend money at BestBuy I usually have a great time at bestbuy and enjoy getting immersed in the new tech even when I am just looking around. I will not be back at this location EVER. Horrible experience here and feel I bad for the awesome TV expert Shaun (Not the other Sean who was rude) who seems to be the only person who enjoys what he does...