bob
Salacious Crumb
The "other" Bob. FOC COURSE!
started the Madness Wars, Proudly the #1 Nana Hater on FAN
Posts: 78,300
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Post by bob on Jan 1, 2011 11:44:21 GMT -5
I don't really understand how Borders and Barnes & Noble stay in business. They sell movies and CDs at about a 50% mark-up and they let you sit and read the books/magazines all day without buying if you want. I HATE Barnes and Nobles. Long story short. They offered the complete Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Blu Ray pack for $19.99. I bought it immediately. I'm so used to Amazon.com, where they e-mail you EVERYTHING. So I'm waiting 2 days for an e-mail about "we received your payment" (which they did, it was taken out of my account), nothing. Finally, three days after the purchase, I received an e-mail from Barnes and Nobles that says only "Your order has been canceled". Nothing else. I took a Technical Writing class (which was pretty much professional writing course), which had a chapter dedicated to "why did you do this e-mails" (for both consumers and retailers), so I sent them a very meticulous, but polite e-mail asking them why it was canceled. Another day or so later, I received an e-mail saying "we didn't have it in stock. Sorry". Again, that's it. I asked if they were going to reimburse my purchase, or offer something else as an apology (citing the recent example from Amazon.com, where there was a problem with a pre-order for Dead Rising 2, so they gave me half off for Marvel versus Capcom 3). A few hours later, a more professional (and higher on the chain, obviously) e-mail came back. He did apologize for the payment issue, and sent proof of a reimbursement. He then stated that "you should look around at our other fine products". I sent an e-mail stating "if you couldn't meet the request I had, going so far as to almost cheat me out of money, how could I, in good faith, trust your company again". I never heard from him again, but got an automated "how was our service" e-mail. I've NEVER given anyone (or anything) "firewall 1's/Very Poor/Unacceptable" before, but that's the first. I'm willing to accept people are people, and they err. I'm willing to accept electronic problems. But the last thing a publicly traded company should allow is this much leg work for the consumer to attempt to be made right by their fault. I've also been added to their "spam-a-lot" list, so every e-mail from them promising "AMAZING DEALS AT B&N" I block as spam, another e-mail gets sent to me immediately after. Back when I lived in Cheyenne, and I wanted books, my options were either Barnes and Nobles or waiting for Amazon.com to ship (2 days isn't bad, but still). With no WiFi in the area, Kindle and the iPhone are rendered useless. My concluding e-mail with them stated that I was disappointed and refused to ever use them again for any reason. To this day, I refuse to even look at their wares, keep pushing their daily e-mails to the spam list on my e-mail account, and talk to my friends about not using them for book purchasing. ...that, and like you mentioned, bud, the horrible mark-up on all CD's and DVD's. For me, I'm surprised most brick and mortar book stores are still in business. EDIT: My roommate is a part of one of those "scam door-to-door" companies. He sells knives. However he doesn't own a car, and I refuse to drive him anywhere. But I've listened to him talk on the phone with "friends from class" trying to peddle these knives off on other people (which you can find at a better deal, better quality at any store within pretty much WALKING distance in Lubbock. One thing about Texans, we love our sharp things...). I spoke to my older roommate who has lived here for a while, and one of the other individuals who lived in my apartment before I moved in worked with them to. I refuse to belittle my roommate for his decision, with as much vigor as he has for this "job", anything I say wouldn't be taken at face value with him, so it's one of those things I have to watch him fall, then pick him up and help him understand why it was a mistake. I feel bad for the guy. For "working" so many hours, he barely scrapes in $20 a month or so. If I donated plasma again, I'd make more than that in an hour of my time. I've even been tipped more than that at restaurants and at the Texas Tech Museum (when I volunteered there as a tour guide for the dinosaur exhibit). heh, I worked selling those knives one summer, barely broke even with gas expenses and I hated it my boss had the nerve to call my house,on a day I told him I wouldn't make a meeting because I had a long day at my other job which I had for years as a wedding photographer and almost got me to feel guily about daring to do my other job saying person X was disappointed I didn't show up this same guy pretty much told me that selling knives was more important then my grades in college
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Post by Shameful_Lobsterhead on Jan 1, 2011 12:38:27 GMT -5
Toys R Us
-There is only one I know of around here and it was the one I went to when I was a kid; I went there with my grandma to help her Christmas shop for my cousins and the place was PACKED but on a normal day, you hardly see 10 cars in the whole parking lot
Circuit City
-I only know of two around here and I am damn surprised they are still around since the popularity of Best Buy
I second Chuck E Cheese as well.
FYE
-They are def. hit & miss with a lot of their prices and I am very surprised they have lasted as long since the name change.
I am not surprised by K-Mart or The Shack lasting as long as it has; K-Mart is the cheapest of all department stores & The Shack is a mini Best Buy; no long lines, no huge store, no hassle
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biafra
El Dandy
Biafra Who?
Posts: 7,617
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Post by biafra on Jan 1, 2011 12:49:16 GMT -5
RF Video. I'd have figured if the underage sex thing didn't sink it the consistent shitty customer service would. Then again..how much overhead does the company have? He probably mails the stuff out of his bedroom at this point.
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vashondude
Samurai Cop
in the name of love before you break my heart
Posts: 2,294
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Post by vashondude on Jan 1, 2011 13:03:31 GMT -5
Circuit City -I only know of two around here and I am damn surprised they are still around since the popularity of Best Buy Circuit City shut down in early 2009. Were there any signs that these two locations were open at all (perhaps as other stores, but with the Circuit City signs still on them)?
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Post by Lord Bendtner on Jan 1, 2011 14:48:06 GMT -5
Sam Ash, and to an extent, Guitar Center. Sam Ash really bunk their prices up on all their items, and every time I've gone in there the staff have been anything but helpful, rude usually, and I just get a very cold vibe walking in to the place when I have had to as a last resort or last minute pre-gig purchase. Guitar Center are a little more friendly in-store, and more willing to help you out, but again their prices compared to many online music stores like Musicians Friend and even Amazon are a lot higher. Being a drummer is a fairly expensive choice; so saving a precious buck or 2 is really important as nothing in drums comes cheap. Also with the likes of eBay, buying new or used is a lot cheaper than those places too. Basically, there is little to no need for them anymore, and I only go in those places when I'm on the road with my band and I need new drumsticks, drum heads etc.
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CM Dazz
King Koopa
Chuck
Posts: 10,475
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Post by CM Dazz on Jan 1, 2011 16:30:32 GMT -5
Any place that sells CDs. I know people claim they will never not buy them, but I don't know if I know anyone who actually spends money on CDs anymore. They either just buy the albums online, or steal them. It's been a good five to seven years since I last purchased a CD. Even then, it was a gift for my wife (girlfriend at the time). I can't honestly remember the last time I bought a CD for myself. I've made CD's to listen to in the car, but even that has been a couple years.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2011 17:52:28 GMT -5
I HATE Barnes and Nobles. Long story short. They offered the complete Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Blu Ray pack for $19.99. I bought it immediately. I'm so used to Amazon.com, where they e-mail you EVERYTHING. So I'm waiting 2 days for an e-mail about "we received your payment" (which they did, it was taken out of my account), nothing. Finally, three days after the purchase, I received an e-mail from Barnes and Nobles that says only "Your order has been canceled". Nothing else. I took a Technical Writing class (which was pretty much professional writing course), which had a chapter dedicated to "why did you do this e-mails" (for both consumers and retailers), so I sent them a very meticulous, but polite e-mail asking them why it was canceled. Another day or so later, I received an e-mail saying "we didn't have it in stock. Sorry". Again, that's it. I asked if they were going to reimburse my purchase, or offer something else as an apology (citing the recent example from Amazon.com, where there was a problem with a pre-order for Dead Rising 2, so they gave me half off for Marvel versus Capcom 3). A few hours later, a more professional (and higher on the chain, obviously) e-mail came back. He did apologize for the payment issue, and sent proof of a reimbursement. He then stated that "you should look around at our other fine products". I sent an e-mail stating "if you couldn't meet the request I had, going so far as to almost cheat me out of money, how could I, in good faith, trust your company again". I never heard from him again, but got an automated "how was our service" e-mail. I've NEVER given anyone (or anything) "firewall 1's/Very Poor/Unacceptable" before, but that's the first. I'm willing to accept people are people, and they err. I'm willing to accept electronic problems. But the last thing a publicly traded company should allow is this much leg work for the consumer to attempt to be made right by their fault. I've also been added to their "spam-a-lot" list, so every e-mail from them promising "AMAZING DEALS AT B&N" I block as spam, another e-mail gets sent to me immediately after. Back when I lived in Cheyenne, and I wanted books, my options were either Barnes and Nobles or waiting for Amazon.com to ship (2 days isn't bad, but still). With no WiFi in the area, Kindle and the iPhone are rendered useless. My concluding e-mail with them stated that I was disappointed and refused to ever use them again for any reason. To this day, I refuse to even look at their wares, keep pushing their daily e-mails to the spam list on my e-mail account, and talk to my friends about not using them for book purchasing. ...that, and like you mentioned, bud, the horrible mark-up on all CD's and DVD's. For me, I'm surprised most brick and mortar book stores are still in business. EDIT: My roommate is a part of one of those "scam door-to-door" companies. He sells knives. However he doesn't own a car, and I refuse to drive him anywhere. But I've listened to him talk on the phone with "friends from class" trying to peddle these knives off on other people (which you can find at a better deal, better quality at any store within pretty much WALKING distance in Lubbock. One thing about Texans, we love our sharp things...). I spoke to my older roommate who has lived here for a while, and one of the other individuals who lived in my apartment before I moved in worked with them to. I refuse to belittle my roommate for his decision, with as much vigor as he has for this "job", anything I say wouldn't be taken at face value with him, so it's one of those things I have to watch him fall, then pick him up and help him understand why it was a mistake. I feel bad for the guy. For "working" so many hours, he barely scrapes in $20 a month or so. If I donated plasma again, I'd make more than that in an hour of my time. I've even been tipped more than that at restaurants and at the Texas Tech Museum (when I volunteered there as a tour guide for the dinosaur exhibit). heh, I worked selling those knives one summer, barely broke even with gas expenses and I hated it my boss had the nerve to call my house,on a day I told him I wouldn't make a meeting because I had a long day at my other job which I had for years as a wedding photographer and almost got me to feel guily about daring to do my other job saying person X was disappointed I didn't show up this same guy pretty much told me that selling knives was more important then my grades in college It's crazy that he said knives were more important than your college grades, because don't they try specifically recruit college kids? I almost applied for that job myself until I realized they never made it clear what they sold and had to do research to find out they sold knives. Sounded like a gip so I skipped it and am still jobless.
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bob
Salacious Crumb
The "other" Bob. FOC COURSE!
started the Madness Wars, Proudly the #1 Nana Hater on FAN
Posts: 78,300
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Post by bob on Jan 1, 2011 18:00:50 GMT -5
heh, I worked selling those knives one summer, barely broke even with gas expenses and I hated it my boss had the nerve to call my house,on a day I told him I wouldn't make a meeting because I had a long day at my other job which I had for years as a wedding photographer and almost got me to feel guily about daring to do my other job saying person X was disappointed I didn't show up this same guy pretty much told me that selling knives was more important then my grades in college It's crazy that he said knives were more important than your college grades, because don't they try specifically recruit college kids? I almost applied for that job myself until I realized they never made it clear what they sold and had to do research to find out they sold knives. Sounded like a gip so I skipped it and am still jobless. yes, they prey on college kids additionally, if you weren't super great at it they tell you that you suck and they keep repeating "anyone can do it" as they did from training that's bullshit, you can only be good at it if you know a lot of rich people with money to spend on something as trivial as knives, and if you don't mind lying using their sales training manual
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Post by Confused Mark Wahlberg on Jan 1, 2011 18:49:01 GMT -5
I admit I do like to have CD art and inserts.
Like a band like Tool would really make having the packaging worth it.
But there's no way I'm paying $15-18 dollars for something I can get for $9 or most of the time for much less.
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on Jan 1, 2011 20:33:25 GMT -5
Any place that sells CDs. I know people claim they will never not buy them, but I don't know if I know anyone who actually spends money on CDs anymore. They either just buy the albums online, or steal them. You do (kind of, that is.) I've bought 6 in the last month.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jan 1, 2011 20:42:05 GMT -5
K-Mart. I know they're not doing so hot lately anyway, but it feels like the kind of place you shop at if Walmart is too high class. But where will Rain Man buy his underpants if they go out of business?
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SAJ Forth
Wade Wilson
Jamaican WCF Crazy!
Half Man-Half Amazing
Posts: 27,214
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Post by SAJ Forth on Jan 1, 2011 21:39:22 GMT -5
It's weird to read this thread. Funny how much you remember.
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Post by i.Sarita.com on Jan 1, 2011 21:51:27 GMT -5
Any place that sells CDs. I know people claim they will never not buy them, but I don't know if I know anyone who actually spends money on CDs anymore. They either just buy the albums online, or steal them. You do (kind of, that is.) I've bought 6 in the last month. Ok, well people I know in person. ;D
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