Best Buy Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

if you are going to school, you can pretty much do your schedule the way you see fit. They are pretty flexible with that

Cons

For a place that brags about its employees, it doesn't do a great job of valuing them. That also might depend what kind of managers you get.

Advice to Senior Management

there us a need for real leadership.

Pros

Great employee discount. Generally A very home-like enviroment. Cool people to work with and cool gadgets.

Cons

No room for advancement unless you can brown nose. Loyality doesnt mean anything in this company. This company has a very evil side of doing business.

Advice to Senior Management

Take care of the people that are around you. Learn to become a god judge of character cause that definitly is key when running this business.

Pros

You can choose your hours and get days off if you need them. Getting employee discounts was also nice even though they were small.

Cons

Not very intellectually stimulating. A monkey could easily do my job. The people in charge have no clue what they are doing.

Advice to Senior Management

The management has a pretty good system with a high turnover rate that works out in their favor. You either get a normal job, get fed up, or get promoted.

Pros

Decent pay, decent discount...... the hours are ok....its a job.....lots of younger people with more energy to work, and to get things done

Cons

Long hours, not enough pay for experience, too much of the blame game from management, when you need tools to get the job done you constantly have to fight with managers for the tools to do the job, management just wants you to sell constanly without regard to the customers real needs or desires....too many people who get moved up or get let go for little to no reason other than favoritsm....the managers really need to get a clue and not constantly try to micromanage employess in their jobs when the employess have way more experience than that manager....if you are experienced and knowledgeable look elsewhere for employment.....

Advice to Senior Management

Stop thinking that only revenue makes a business as it pushes customers away......you can come up with all the acronyms you want (care+) but unless you truly care about the customer then they are going to see all the sales pushes as another reason to go online to buy elsewhere...

Also rethink about how you let managers have carte blance.......there are numerous incidents employees were fired that I saw when they should not have been because the mangers play games to get people terminated (not me). All in all you need to raise the pay caps and realize that its not all about selling products to people who are going to return them anyway a day or so later because they didnt come in to buy all that stuff. I would also say from working in retail for about 9 years in several supervisory positions there need to be more management training as 98% of the managers at B.B. have no leadership abilities other than imtimidation, and griping about the numbers.

Pros

Perks include: discounts up to 30%. Yearly pay raise (based on performance) Knowing and playing with the latest and greatest toys.

Cons

Best Buy does not give you hours unless you sell PRPS and Geek Squad services. Management is very pushy and does not understand the employee. Alot of sales pressure with no additional pay.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice is:

We bring in your bonuses.

Part-Timers don't get paid enough and have to much sales pressure.
Sales of PRPS and Services are not always the best solution for the customer.
One should understand the customer and really help them find the best value for the price.
We should not have employees use a customers lack of knowledge to sell PRPS and Geek Squad services for profit. We are all about selling and checking the numbers every hour but we never check on how we can really help out our community. We as employees are coached by numbers instead of personal development and use unethical tactics to sell products. I feel that our mangers care more about thier take home pay instead of taking care of our customers.

Pros

They pay well with good bonus structure

Cons

No values as a company...it's all about selling the customer whatever you can...CARE+, Customer centricity, CCCs...whatever...all they want you to do is sell as much stuff however you can to each customer. You get harassed by district leadership on a daily basis if you have a bad day. You could be having a great week, month, year...doesn't matter...if you're behind the district, region, company, etc today then you are worthless

Advice to Senior Management

If you want your associates to sell like commisioned salespeople pay them like one...this will motivate them to sell more "complete packages" that drive revenue and margin

Pros

Job was very challenging and fun. Pay was pretty good for the job requirements, I enjoyed it thoroughly and would work there again

Cons

Long hours were kind of annoying. Nights weekends and holidays can be tough to work if you're in college of have a family

Advice to Senior Management

Put smarter managers in the stores, make some of it commission based or something to encourage people to sell more.

Pros

The discount offered by best buy was fair. There was a small opportunity for a bonus quarterly. There was a wide range of age groups that you worked with and gained knowledge with each of those.

Cons

Never provided the tools needed to perform your job. Trying to repair PCs that customers pay for, feel like a criminal asking for money within a certain time frame. Managers care more about having you sell than having you repair computers. Bad reputation for the company. No room to advance as a repair technician, sales persons would move into your senior management spots with no clue as to what they're doing, this was the norm throughout. Working with the general public, who were clueless to what they needed but were sure it was your fault that they are spending their time and money at best buy.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your people, not just the representatives you have speak for the people. When a technician needs a tool to get his job done, don't make it a back breaking experience. I asked for a new set of tools 9 months before I quit, and they were not even ordered by the time i gave my 2 week notice.

Pros

The pay is decent compared to similar jobs, the employees are fun and most of us hang out outside of work, the discount is pretty amazing on certain products, the schedule is fairly flexible but you need to let them know way in advance if you need a day off, otherwise good luck switching with someone.

Cons

The managers run things their own way and dont really listen to employees, corporate is constantly changing selling strategies that are mainly a bunch of corny crap that doesnt sell, employees are STRONGLY pressured to sell everything possible to provide the customer with the "end to end solution"... which really means we are shoving things down their throats they dont need with little motivation considering we dont recieve commision. There are VERY FEW managerial positions now that corporate completely changed the employment structure. It is somewhat irritating i have been working here for 23 months and i still have not been offered so much as a full-time position, much less anything better (meaning i get absolutely "0" benefits while still working about 31 hours a week). I would have to say that Best Buy's biggest issue is that corporate is always trying to try new things, always trying to reinvent the wheel, and their policies are nationwide... This becomes a HUGE problem as not every best buy in the US should be run the same for painfully obvious reasons.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees, I understand the importance of SOP but sometimes you need to do things a little different to adapt to the type of customers you are dealing with (every bestbuy in every different economic area has different customers with different needs). Understand that we are people, and sometimes people makes mistakes.

Pros

Discounts on products is definitely a nice benefit and the environment was fun. The holiday season albeit crazy was fun and it was satisfying helping people out.

Cons

There wasnt much potential to grow. Training was pretty non existent and turnover was high. I felt we were not fairly paid for the hard worrk and dedication.

Advice to Senior Management

Recommend better access to tools and training as such not only adds more interest but also yields higher quality services and greater customer satisfaction.