Best Buy — Attraction in Seattle

By far the worst Best Buy location I have ever been too. The phone associates have the speed and technological expertise of a deaf eighty year old with dementia. There were two associates who were extremely slow. I waited a total of fifty minutes before getting help - though honestly, the wait doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that after waiting thirty minutes without acknowledgement, when the (very slow) associates finally were ready for the next person, they let a woman who had been waiting five minutes cut in front of me. I mentioned that she had cut; the associate shrugged his shoulders, said there's only one person now cause he has a meeting so I just have to wait, and left. Instead of being efficient, the remaining associate proceeded to waste time flirting with the customer. When another employee clocked in, he also started his day by flirting with the customer instead of, you know, working.

I'm still glad he came, because the other associate was still not finished helping the customer when I had left (I'm really impressed how he managed to waste so much time chatting; I wish I could get paid to stand around and chat at my job!), but he was not knowledgable at all regarding the product. He gave me a webpage with instructions showing me how to transfer my data from my old phone; it was outdated instructions. I can google myself; if you don't know how to do something, just tell me that and save me the time so I don't stand around thinking I'm missing something.

Also, Northgate lies about the conditions of their products. I have gotten open boxed products in premium condition from Best Buy many times before. Don't expect the same here. When I said I didn't realize the phone would have scratches on it, the associate said the box said so; he had asked if I wanted to inspect the phone before purchasing, but since he didn't bring up the scratches or give me the box beforehand, I presumed this location would have the same quality control as other locations.

So in summary, be rude and cut in front of other customers; the employees here will reward you by ignoring the people who have been patiently waiting their time. Next time, I'll drive to Lynnwood and still get done before the Northgate associates bother to acknowledge me - heck, I could bet I could drive to Marysville and be...

My first negative experience with the store was a few years ago, I had a knee surgery and the person helping driving me around etc. because I was not able to drive on pain meds went into the store to get the store wheelchair. The store manager accused my helper of being some sort of homeless person trying to steal the wheelchair. A few moments later he could see me coming in on crutches and getting into the wheelchair, I would think any normal person would come over to apologize for characterizing the person helping me as someone less than reputable. I watch the same manager a few weeks earlier absolutely humiliate this poor old woman who didn’t understand the difference between store pick up and customer service and kept getting in the wrong line. He shouted out her across the line so that everyone could watch. She was completely humiliated and all she wanted to do was exchange something. Absolutely pathetic

Most recently I called in for help with a very expensive preamp tuner I purchased several years ago, I need a little help troubleshooting and trying to determine whether or not the unit needed to go in for repair. It took 11 minutes to get through the poorly designed phone system, I was transferred four different times to what was supposed to be tech-support only to find out on the last call that there was no tech-support.

Also last but even more frustrating is every time I visit the store, and I have to go in frequently because I own a computer repair business and need to go in and purchase routers and replacement hard drives etc., they stop everyone at the door with a security guard and a gun . This is under the premise of Customer Service but it is extremely frightening bordering on threatening. I have to say that it has been my experience with Best Buy although convenient to purchase products because of their location they are by far the worst customer service retailer to ever exist. Someday I hope this company fails miserably. They care nothing about the people who make it possible for them to own a company . It is no wonder that no one wants to work there. I would recommend going any place...

Hands-down the most informative and helpful technical advice I've ever received in a store. I was considering migrating from Windows PC to Mac after ANOTHER of my surface book 3's "bricked." (warranty finally ran out too).

The employees were thorough in asking me exactly what I wanted. Then they specifically outlined what would or would not be able to accomplish those tasks. They let me know the pros and cons of what I could do later if I changed my mind as well.

I say "they" because I had to see three different people. Geek squad for the PC. They got it up and running and gave me all the info about a recent update push that caused the Surface models screen to crash on restart, so everyone just thinks their computer is dead, and when you restart again, it just keeps repeating the same attempt to update--then crash. I got a lot of great info about what issues the geek squad sees from Windows and what they see from Mac.

Next person was at customer service. I was returning a Lenovo laptop I'd purchased a few days prior as an interim computer while I sorted out my Surface issues. Absolutely no problem with a super quick factory reset and return. All the while, they asked me what I wanted and made recommendations. Funnily enough, that person said they didn't even use any of the products I was looking at, but gave me recommendations they thought were the best fit for my needs.

Finally, once I'd made my choice, the sales staff helped me figure out what bells and whistles and warranties I could choose from, and what I could easily opt out of. I'm pretty basic, and they were not pushy when I said "no" to some things.

The employees at this Best Buy should be getting regular and competitive raises to retain their expertise. Everyone was so knowledgable, prompt, and just plain nice to someone who knows enough about computers to understand there's a lot I don't know. I appreciated the experience and will definitely be back for...