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Best Buy
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Garage
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
16 reviews for Best Buy
In reviewing my reviews, I feel I need to review something worthy of a good review. (I must have been in bitch mode lately, I've got 2-stars going for everyone this week.)
Okay, moving along. Best Buy - in general, this place has always rocked my socks off whether I'm shopping online or any location on the planet. They usually offer what you would call, uhh - the best buy.
This location is nothing unusual, it offers a relatively normal selection of "stuff". My most poignant observations:
- It could probably be better organized, as it's rows and sections are not clearly defined.
- The customer service is one millistep away from being sucky. I asked this one chick which memory card would work for my camera, and she took me to a row and waved her hand over the entire selection (35+ items) and said, "these." Walks away. My eyes glaze over. "Huh?", says me. And then, well - you get it.
- The Geek Squad is pretty nifty. I had a laptop issue, and they demonstrated a good working knowledge of all things hard drive, motherboard, data recovery, etc.
- Good selection of gaming stuff for Wii, XBox, and Playstation. Actually, they had a whole heck of a lot for Wii along with a cool try-it-out station.
Overall, it's decent. It's a Best Buy, for crying out loud. Although I will say, I prefer the Best Buy in Alexandria's Potomac Mills shopping center (only because it smells better). If they patch up the customer service, I think it would be a Bester Buy.
Strike 1: It's in Pentagon City
Strike 2: It's small and old and cramped.
Strike 3: Their website said they had an item, which they did not, or at least I could not find it. Not that it's necessarily their fault, but it probably is since the section it was in (video games) was horribly, horribly disorganized. Meaning, I could find two copies of the same game ten slots apart with no apparent means of organization. Made it hard to find anything that wasn't the new hotness, which was not what I was looking for.
Other than that, everything is exactly like every other Best Buy. The sale prices on media and some electronics are pretty good, but not necessarily the regular prices compared to any of multiple online stores. "Accessories" for ANYTHING are incredibly overpriced. $50 for an HDMI cable? No, I'll spend much less than half online and get something made with professional grade cable and connectors, thanks. The only real benefit to this store is that it's Metro-accessible.
The only reason why I keep coming back to this Best Buy is because it's close to the Pentagon City metro station and I don't own a car.
The selection can be spotty. If you're looking for a specific item, most like you'll be disappointed. After a few visits, I learned to go to the BestBuy website, and check to see if the item is actually at the Pentagon City store.
The staff can be boneheaded. Last year I went to this Best Buy to reserve a copy of Madden 2008, the best selling video game of the year. You would think they would make this a first priority due to the immense popularity of the game. Not so. None of the staff I talked to could tell me how to reserve a copy, even though the game was going to be out in a few weeks. They were completely clueless. After getting the runaround for about 15 minutes, I walked over to Gamestop in the Pentagon City Mall and reserved a copy there. It took me all of 2 minutes.
I would give this Best Buy higher ratings if the service was better. I liken the staff here to the police. They're around when you don't need them, but when you do need them, they're no where to be found. One time when I went to this Best Buy I was buying a computer accessory, but was unsure what to buy. I couldn't find anyone around to help me. During another visit, I called my friend for some advice on what kind of blank DVDs to buy and this sales person keeps coming over asking if I need help. I'm like no I'm on the phone. I'm sure if I did ask for his help, he would spend the next 10 minutes running around to find the right person to help me.
This Best Buy barely gets 3 stars, mostly on sheer convenience and decent prices.
I stopped in here on my way back from Karman L's photo exhibition at Cafe Pizzaiolo. Prior to arriving in Arlington, I had made a few attempts at some camera stores to find a video cord to connect my XTi to a projector or tv. Having no such luck, I figured I'd try Best Buy.
I was helped by several different people before one of them finally found the compatible cord. Camera sent me to tv/home theater who sent me to computers. After I got to the computer section, turns out the tv guy kept looking for the cord and once he found it, brought it over to me. I was pleased.
I haven't actually tested the cord yet to see if it works, but he assured me that if it doesn't, I can return it. I also walked out of the store with a 62" tripod that was on sale. :-D Yay.
I definitely prefer the Best Buy in CH or Tenley, but I guess this is it if you're in Arlington sans car.
Worse Electronics Store EVAAAAAA'
Why isn't there a zero star...or a negative star?
Ok, so I am an audio engineer. I have a bachelors degree in audio and I did a huge independent study on surround sound techniques and theory. I know my surround sound!
Keeping that in mind, My brother and I, accidentally, steped into best buy. He was in the market for a meduim-end consumer surround sound/reciever combo thing. We go to their little home theatre section and look at some of their setups. Now they had these things setup COMPLETELY wrong. So we simply moved the chairs to the center of the setup to get a little, but not perfect, idea of what the unit properly sounds like.
Now this is 10 minute after we spent looking at the recievers themselves, with not one person coming over to offer help.
So after I move the chairs, some loser best buy goon comes over and tells me to move the chairs back. I said "no..you have this setup incorrectly, we will put them back when we are done". So he just stands there and stares at us for 2 minutes, and walks away.
The moron didn't even think...hmm maybe I should help these people and actually try to make a sale.
We walked out a few minutes later dumbfounded by how crappy this place is.
....ohh....we did put the chairs back.
There have been numerous times I trekked down here to find a movie that you just know they should have (i.e., it's popular) and they don't have it, but there's enough of a selection that I can still walk away with something I want. Store quality is quixotic. On some days, I can come here and everything is perfectly laid out. Other days, it looks like a herd of 5-year olds had a field day rearranging the shelves. Totally random.
Now, with prices so low on movies and other electronic goodness I could deal, but what makes them go down to two stars is the unholiness that is Geek Squad. Geek Squad used to be its own separate entity, but was bought out by Best Buy. Hence, my critique of this store also involves their Geek Squad.
I bought a Vaio from Best Buy online a while back (hint: never EVER buy a Vaio!) and after about a month, it started giving me all sorts of problems with the keyboard. Now, I usually don't want to futz with the manufacturer's warranty and have to ship the unit off. I'd rather pay a few bucks and get stuff resolved ASAP.
So I take my computer in to the Geek Squad at this Best Buy. Hey, they'll just swap out the keyboard. Simple, huh? I'll part with some green just to have my machine up and running ASAP. Nope. The clerk gives it a cursory once-over and says "well, it'll cost at least $200 for us to send it back to Sony."
Say whaaaa?
"Yeah, so you should really just contact Sony and see if your warrantee covers your problem."
Wait a sec... there's clearly a toolbench and tools in the background. Maybe you could take my computer in back and, I dunno, use the tools. You know, do some of that science sh*t I've been reading about lately.
Basically, all this Geek Squad does (as far as I can tell based on my experience) is serve as the middleman between you and the corp they mail your unit out to. Swapping out a keyboard is yeoman's work and takes all of five minutes. It ain't high tech.
Oh, and on last Super Bowl Sunday, they almost had a riot! They had a Toshiba laptop on sale for some ridiculously low price. They had absolutely no way of accommodating the laptop customers AND the people who were there to do their regular shopping. The store opened late, people were pissed, the store clearly had no way of handling the situation, the cops had to come out, and the masses teeming at the security gate looked like they were trying to catch the last chopper out of the US Embassy in Saigon. The precious few who actually got their mitts on the laptops had to be snuck out the back so they didn't get ganked.
The verdict: for DVDs, you'd be hard-pressed to find much cheaper, at least as far as brick-and-mortar stores go. But give this Geek Squad an atomic wedgie and shove it into the nearest locker!
If you want customer service you can find the employees in either the car audio section or gathered behind a both talking on the phone... You probably still won't get what most people consider customer service, but at least you'll find a TSA agent, er, a best buy employee.
None of their digital cameras have batteries so if you're looking at a $1200 camera you can't even test it out first. After playing hide and go seek with customer service i was told 'too bad.'
Also the geek squad is a total rip off. Never buy anything from there you expect to need service. I bought a Dell (mistake1) from Best Buy (mistake2) and windows had not been properly installed. Dell said Best Buy was responsible, Best Buy blamed dell. Either way i was stuck with a brand new computer that didn't work and the company that sold it to me wouldn't take responsibility. Though geek squad did offer to take a look at the problem for $129.
The place is a ripoff. You can get anything they have there cheaper on Amazon.
This is a great place to shop for electronics if you enjoy having your grandparents know more about technology than your sales people. The staff seems more focused on hair gel, tattoos, and facial piercings than on being helpful. Their displays are often appalling and they use gimmicks to try to sell worthless products like Monster HDMI cords for $70 rather than selling you the same thing for $3. It is sad that Circuit City is kaput because its a clearly superior store. I made the mistake of buying a laptop here which limits the willingness of the Apple store to deal with me.
Not the best "Best Buy" in DC, that's for sure. The prices, obviously tend to be the same as other Best Buy stores, but store is a bit older and seemingly smaller.
On the positive side, it is right next to the Pentagon City metro.
I went to Ritz looking for accessories to clean my camera, but no luck. So I was around Best Buy, I thought I will stop by and see if they have the cleaning material for DSLR.
Went to the digital camera section...didn't see what I was hoping for. Went around the corner to find a rep to help me, they were a little busy chatting among themselves. One rep pointed me to another guy that deals with digital camera section. He was busy with another customer, but I'm very surprise there's not another rep for this section!! (You will think they will staff up when it's getting close to holiday season, and digital cameras are popular).
Finally, another rep came by, asked her about the cleaning product that I was looking for. She didn't know much about it, and asked the other guy. He then actually told me to get those compressed air bottle for blowing my DSLR's mirror to clean it out....I'm no camera expert, but I read enough that I am not suppose to do that. Because the compressed air is too strong and can actually damage the DSLR mirror.
I would suggest to Best Buy rep who are not very knowledgeable should just shut it. Do not suggest a recommendation that can actually damage a fairly expensive camera.
I am confident this is the worst Best Buy on the planet, I only wish I had actual reviews from the store to confirm it. That is all I have to say about this particular iteration of an otherwise fine consumer-electronics institution. P.S. I only gave it one star because it made me, otherwise I would have given it negative three stars.
What's up with those receipts ? The only thing longer is the checkout line.
Took my laptop to this location two months ago. It was working when I took it to them, they gave it back to me, broken, and said they'd fixed the minor problem I'd brought it in for. Did not even mention they had broken it entirely. Took it back, and there it sits. The Geek Squad manager is a moron who compared a computer hard drive, loaded with data, to a car part, which can be just swapped with no problem. He works on computers? Seriously?
This store has tons and tons of sales reps, but don't think that'll make things easy for you because they aren't there to help you. Oh, no. Of course not. I tried to buy a computer at this store. I already knew exactly what computer I wanted, but when I asked a salesman, he said I had to talk to the one person who was working in the computer section. Never mind that it was a Saturday evening and the store was crowded and tons of people were buying computers and there were at least five employees doing absolutely NOTHING. So I trotted off to look for the lone computer guy. He made me wait literally over an hour (I should have just left) while he talked to this couple that was "just looking" and asking questions like, "Does this computer come with internet?" By the time he finally scared them away, the clerk had a line of about six people, but that didn't seem to motivate him at all as he still moved at a pace that would make even molassas and glacial floes seem like Olympic sprinters. When I finally got to talk to him, he started arguing with me that they didn't have the computer I wanted, despite the fact that I could SEE at least six of them sitting locked in a case behind me. I ended up going to the Best Buy in Tenleytown which is still bad but not quite as awful. And, they have two computer salesmen.
I second Tripp M's comment, and I have the experience to prove it. I actually think all Best Buys should be banished, but until people stop shopping there, that's not going to happen. I have so many bad experiences with this Best Buy in particular that I could write a book. Let's start with the time they claimed they did not have a laptop I wanted in stock, so they sent us to another Best Buy MUCH farther away (in rush hour), where they said they definitely had the laptop in stock. Went to the other Best Buy -- didn't have it. After my then boyfriend almost ripped the Best Buy manager a new you-know-what, we discovered, THIS Best Buy actually DID have the laptop and just didn't feel like emptying their stock. WTF?! Another incident involved the time my cousin received a TV from http://BestBuy.com and the remote was cracked (the TV was fine), but they wanted her to send the ENTIRE TV back to Best Buy. So, she went to the store to see if they could help her out. They made her wait an hour before anyone would even look at her, fought with each other in front of us on who wanted to to help her, and when I complained, the MANAGER said, "well, you can go shop somewhere else then." Again, WTF?! I will never even buy a battery from this Best Buy -- that's how badly they suck. If I could get away with giving them zero stars, I would.
it was nice, some of their demo video games were broken but it was big, nice and clean, good place to buy electronics
