015 - Best Buy Employee Escapades (Part 1) w/ Andrew P and Luis G

On this episode, EnriqueVTee is joined by Luis G and Andrew P, both of whom are ex-Best Buy employees. Along with the host Enrique, the three reminisce on their times worked at Best Buy as they read some triggering Best Buy retail stories from Reddit and around the internet. Enrique, Luis, and Andrew all worked at Best Buy stores in the South Florida area in the time surrounding 2014 and 2015. 

We start with a personal Facebook testimonial of an older lady and her experience going to Best Buy. From there, we jump around to different stories from both customer and employee points-of-view but not before spilling some tea about all of our times working at Best Buy. 

This is the first of two parts. Stay tuned for all the other Best Buy stories coming soon!

Stories mentioned:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2qlprn/bestbuy_stories_ex_employee/?sort=top
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bestbuy/comments/6tng59/the_only_thing_worse_than_stupid_entitled/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bestbuy/comments/6y4y6l/my_first_experience_inside_a_best_buy_store/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bestbuy/comments/r220n3/best_buy_is_proof_that_not_all_retail_jobs_should/

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Transcript

0:00

On this episode, I sit with two guests. Luis and Andrew, both of which have previously worked at Best Buy for a number of years.. In this episode, we look at Best Buy stories from the internet and reminisce on what it was like selling consumer tech to the general public.. So if you've ever wondered what it was like to work in a big box American retail store, this is the episode for you. So grab your laundry. Don't let that bitch in the Nissan Altima cut you off on your way to work and remember to rack your weights because it starts, now, Hello everyone and welcome to the how tech podcast. Today we're talking about working at Best Buy. Joining me, I have two in person guests, both of which are ex Best Buy employees. My first guest is not only my roommate and my landlord, he's also my cousin. Louis Galvin, excuse me, Dr. Louis Galvin, Did you pay rent that yellow? Did you get a notification on your phone that I sent the payment yet? No Then I didn't pay rent yet. Damn. Luis, say hi to the lovely people. Hello, lovely people. My other guest is someone that I met in my first year of Catholic high school, and we became pretty good friends. But then he left after freshman year to pursue a high school career at public school Andrew Palomino, please say hi to everyone. Hello, peoples. Andrew, you have a very... Nice voice for podcasting and radio. Yeah, Has anybody told you that before? I've been told I have a radio voice but I don't have the radio personality to go with it. We're about to find out. after this episode, That or you never gonna invite me onto to another podcast ever again. 50, Okay. So. Our journey begins on Facebook. I found some Best Buy related stories on the the internet, And it's a mix of, like, experiences, customer experiences, employee experiences, and, like, employee going to the store experience stories. I went on Facebook looking for the Best Buy Memes channel. Because there was a Best Buy Memes page? page? I think there's probably like a subreddit for that. I think there's one page for each store. Oh, no way. I think there's a page for memes specifically about my store, Stop. Ha Holy crap. ha Depends on how avid the user base mean, yeah, that's, uh. But, that's So, visual memes are not a great medium for podcasting, so instead, I found a story. Yeah, Yeah. looking for the Best Buy Memes page, I found a story about this lady who was ranting. Now, to give you an idea of who we're dealing with here, This was her tagline on her Facebook profile, right? Ms. Senior Florida America, Ms. Senior Florida, USA, Ms. Super Senior Florida, USA, Ms. Super Senior USA, Ms. Super Senior Universe. No spaces, no punctuation. No, that's her, like tagline under her profile picture on Facebook. my god. was doing, like, doing, like, legit SEO, so that bit so people would find her on Facebook, I guess? But, I'm just gonna show you her picture real quick. a little Where is already have a great image of this person just based off super senior. Okay, Super Senior? So You don't want to be called Super Senior. I pictured That That is there's old is what I That is what I pictured. Super Senior. So I'm not gonna show her photo. we'll call her Jeannie her ever graduate high school or is she still a senior? No, she's So super duper the visual, the So it's it's an older woman. With blonde hair, you know, makeup did well, her hair is done, she That's one way to put and she has a sash that says, Ms. Super Senior Universe. is what her sash says. fabulous. So this, she wrote a story. she wrote story about her time at Best Buy. Alright, so this is her actual page I'm scrolling through right now. Okay, it starts. I have to vent. Oh, here we go. I went to Best Buy today. Went to the department. I was looking for no one, and I mean, no one was in sight to help I waited and looked and waited and looked. Finally, I saw someone and he said he was busy and I did put my name at the front when I entered to write down what I needed help with, Wait, hold on Put name in the front I don't know, I guess what the security guy like, is a Nah somebody played her. Someone, someone was Someone was, was pacifying angry people by saying, yeah, put your name we're gonna put your name, on the list, we'll have you next, call you as Yeah. Yeah. soon as we get an You know what? exactly what happened. Cause yeah, no doesn't make any sense. no, immediately what this a butcher shop where you take ticket What department was she in? Went to department I was She didn't it doesn't saying, so, I'm gonna continue. Of course I need help. Why else am I in here? So I went to the front of the store and had the man write down my name to get help. Still, saw no one until I saw a man helping a couple. So I waited until they were through. Thank heavens he didn't say he was busy and he helped me. It turns out Best Buy did not carry the charge card I was needing. I have stop myself because who, what is a charge card? is a charge was Is like a refill, like, phone card? That's what I'm prepaid phone? Yeah, so she probably had a phone line or some She had boost mobile prepaid Yeah, But they do those cards. the regular plans? T Mobile? She don't know how postpaid works, bro. with, with With, that Super senior uh, salary, you be able know the T-Mobile a better super afford. maybe why. that's what it was. my God. ha! Ha So, it it turns out Best Buy did not carry the charge card I was needing. He showed me that Amazon carries it. Go figure. We now have to sign upon entry that we need help. What the? It's going the way of Walmart. We check ourselves out and help ourselves. like first off, I really, I don't think I've been in a best buy long enough or like not long enough. have cashier less, like cashiers at Best Buy? I mean cashiers. Yeah. Like just people sitting at the front, just like the front checkout. Yeah. a sign in sheet to like get help. Like I'm talking that was, Bro, they wrote her name on the back of the receipt. Receipt? They hit the printer button, Get on paper, like, go ahead man, let me get your name. Yeah, we'll get you as What are they gonna do? call you over the intercom, Like, Mr. Senior, please come to the front desk where you, you're now ready to be helped. Oh my gosh. Okay, so we're We're gonna dig into these. Yeah, these replies. Oh, oh, Oh. so the you Oh, you know, I don't blame them. The thirst is immortal, just saying. So, uh, someone says, yes, I've noticed that in stores in the UK too Never anyone to ask. Then when you do spot someone, they seem reluctant to even bother, you they do, they have no knowledge of where their products are in their own store, or have any knowledge of their own products. Damn. That's almost like if they pay the minimum wage and then only hire seasonal For real, you You You know, that's crazy. I Like this one guy over here already, like I don't know, lady. Everyone wants to work remote or be creators online now, it's sad. Bro, get the f outta here like, I doubt that. These people have, mind you, these people have time to be on the internet. And they have time to read and then Not to mention, they're using the most outdated social media service of all time, Facebook, to be, you know, venting Facts. world is in trouble. Sad. The whole world? like that in Green Bay at Best Buy 2. I hate that. How disappointing. How sad. blah blah Very discouraging. I go to Home Depot, Lowe's, Costco, Target. All the same. No more customer service. Those are all Big box stores. You are, you are, not going to get personalized help at a big box store. Go to a, okay, listeners, if you want personalized help, Go well, yeah, leave the U. S. But if you want personalized help, go to a local store, go to a small business, go to... Ace Hardware, Does Harbor Freight count? Do Do they know what they're doing at Harbor Freight? I think so, right? I think every time I asked a question, they knew where it was. what do they sell? Freight trains? What is that? it's a hardware They sell Harbors there. Oh well, in that case. They sell harbors,. they sell tools and Oh, they sell tools. I never heard of Harbor Freight He was like, Harbor Freight I'm like they sell freight trains. I, I've never heard of the story. I had to get a freight train once, and they knew they knew exactly which model, what year would work And they wouldn't check in the back if they had any the back if they got a whole warehouse of freight trains. Different cabooses. Oh my god. Best Buy. They changed their return policy I buy on Amazon where I know the return I don't, I don't, think they've changed it. It's 14 days now. wait, it was 14 days before? yeah, it only it only, mattered depending on the, I guess the ranking of your, of your, item, yeah. No, No, no of the item or the, when you bought it. If it was during like a holiday. or you get the holiday, then you get the extra two weeks, Yeah. like you get like a 30 days plus two weeks Yeah. Or if you were like a super Supreme, epic Plus member that spends like a thousand something dollars. Yeah. Which is surprisingly not hard to do. no Yeah You buy one thing like that's worth like buy Mac. Yeah. You buy Mac. that's it. You're like a you're super senior rewards member, Yeah. There you go. forever? For a year. For a year. Oh, okay. You have to spend at least everything, like $2,000 a year if you the, cool thing is, if you shop a lot, like if you have a shopping problem, and you get their credit card, right? get a you could like, you could, yeah, you could just pay everything, your bills, your gas, all that. You get all those points and then those rewards cards, like pay for everything. They actually sent me a mail the other day. It was like, we're gonna upgrade you unless you say no. And I'm like, you know, at this point when you're trying to shove this visa down my throat and I don't have to do anything extra for it, I guess, you know, I'll take it. Why not? And then still not use it. Yeah, exactly. And still not used It's definitely still not used it. So any final thoughts about oh, I was gonna say really high expectations at Best Buy? high expectations of the best buy. they try after, after, I don't know where, oop. Hi, Tia, Hola, Mommy. The, my So remember at one point they tried to restructure because Amazon was kicking their butt. But the one thing. that. they they tried to make it more personal, By letting people wear jeans. No, no, no, it was like, oh, yeah, the argument was, the the reason people still come to us is because they can touch and feel the laptop versus online i'm like I'm, like like, that's an aging population that needs to feel the laptop, like. like, Like, for instance, if I was gonna do anything with regards to Best Buy, do anything I like, I have still bought a few things from there. Like, for instance the ROG Ally. I don't know if you know about that. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I got one. So I got it at Best Buy because they literally sell it there. So I'm like great What is it? like a little Steam Deck competitor. And it's like a little yeah, it looks like a, Nintendo Switch, but it runs Windows. I know, now I streaming games, it. doesn't... no, it runs it's a full on computer. Yeah, Yeah, it's a full on computer with its own chip and 16 gigs of RAM and all that good Dope, dope. Yeah, so, you know, funny enough, Steam Deck, despite how popular it is, you can only get it through Steam. With this one, because they already sell Asus products to begin with, routers, laptops, all that shit, You know, they actually sold that. And I was like... You know at least this way I can get the stupid geek squad nonsense for it And if it does happen to like explode on me I can just come in and throw it at them and be like, give me my 700. about to say like that's, that's the one thing That's the one thing. Like it's not that it was necessarily worth it all the time, but like it's like literally paying for not having to deal with a headache. Exactly. And that thing was so nude. literally the first version I got, I got, oh yeah. There was fixing it. Yeah, you get a new one exactly like I got it the first day and it came two days before the actual release date. Funny enough. I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. But then the moment I I started using I'm like the left bumper's like squishy. And I'm like, Oh hell no, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna keep this. So I go t try to return it. And they're like, so confused. They're like, I have to place another order for you. Like, the lady's like confused. And I'm like, why? And then someone else finally came over. and was like, yeah, it's not released yet. I'm like. I have it here. He's like, yeah, how'd you get it? I'm like, I don't know. Y'all it it to me early! to my house. Everyone that pre Y'all sent it to my house! Everyone that ordered, this thing got it two days before the official release date, but mine's happened to be busted. I wouldn't be here if I, you know, if it wasn't broken, But, but yeah. Also, in terms of like So there's, there's that the whole geek squad, like insurance policy, the credit card. I don't have a Amazon credit card, so I don't know what they do, like six months, 12 months, zero interest financing, you know, nonsense with them, if they I mean, they don't, they don't, if they do, they don't really advertise it. all they really do is like, Hey, order now. them Yeah it's like hey order now you get like a 60, uh, 60 gift card. I'm like, that does not incentivize me at all, but sure. Go ahead. if they really want that personal service, honest to God, like Asia, like you go to any stores in there, it's almost aggravating how on top of you they are. Like I was in the Philippines and I walked into like their, you know, their electronic stores. They're straight up, first off, they don't really have that many customers to begin with, because like not everyone's out there trying to buy like a 2, 000 laptop in the Philippines. But like, I walk in there, I'm like, Oh, let me see what kind of like, you know, interesting stuff they have here. And immediately just kind of like a swarm, like hey, do you need help? Do you Can I get you anything? Like like on my hands and feet, I'm just like. I just, I just want to walk. This is giving me anxiety but if they want that, hey, you know what? Go to the Philippines, go to the, go to the Asia you know, stores over there, you'll have Are you, are you out here. promoting Passport Bros? Is that I'm promoting Passport Bros non stop Uh, you know, like, you know, I have a phone I'm just saying because they're looking for crap that, like, the American worker does not want to do. And I don't blame them, because we already get, like, retail people, fast food people, like, they already get shit on enough as it is. Oh, yeah they get shit on by their their company. they get shit on by their managers, they get shit on by their customers, Like, Yeah, I wouldn't want to serve you guys either, y'all are fricking pretentious as hell, Hey, if you're enjoying the show, can you do me a quick fave and send this episode to Anyone that you think would enjoy the stuff we're talking about. The best way to do that is to go into your podcast player and look for that share button. Otherwise, you can tell them to find the show directly from HowTechPodcast. com. Thanks, and enjoy the rest of the show. when Andrew left my high school, I didn't really see him for a long time. Just kind of went our ways and you did your own thing. And I did my own And then we started working Best Buy together at the same store. So. My question for you guys, we're to get right into it. Starting with Andrew, what brought you to Best Buy? How did you end up working. there? I was working... Where was I? Uh, right after high school, I started working in GameStop, and then from there Subway and then from Subway to, like, some... retail pharmacy store inside, like, Century Village. That was a shit show. And then, finally... I got a break working in both Best Buy and Broward College as lab tech. so that was kind of fun. And then, started off as like seasonal like, you know, the holiday seasons. And it was only me and another, another buddy that we actually managed to, like, make it through the, the gauntlet of seasonal, seasonal, there. Yeah. so I think was like, I think they had like maybe like eight. or so Employees and like new, new employees in the computer department. And then literally it was just me and him that we managed to get through and become permanent. And I was like, yeah. why not? And within there, I said, I think it worked there for like a total of like five and a half, maybe six years in total over the course of like, you know, yeah, six years. and I did. Regular computer sales person, geek Squad. Then from there, like full-time, uh, at like Samsung, like technically outside of Best Buy, but still within Best Buy stores. And then from there it went back into Best Buy as a, a Verizon mobile rep. Damn. Yeah I know, I was, I jumping beds more than I can count. think I did you end up working at Best Buy? so, so Louis how did you end up working at Best Buy? Um, So, right out of high school, I had my job at Roasters and Toasters, the as a busboy. That one, it was not. It not. trash. Are they still around? I, they're not. Oh. closed down because they're trash. That makes sense. Or at least that one was. that's what I that's what I, when I realized food is not my calling. realized I'm not working in the food industry. Selling drugs probably makes more sense than working in the food industry. And thus, full circle, we come to be, to clarify. Uh, Louis is a pharmacist. Just wanted to clarify go. industry. the That's true. And Selling drugs. He He's licensed to do that. So... I... That job, they ended up closing down, got bought up from another restaurant, and I was in the middle of finding another job. And instead of working at a restaurant, I applied places, got nothing. before even Ended up working at Wendy's for three days I quit, cause That was, That was even worse. Oh my God, was terrible? And I was like, no I can't do food at all. And I ended up getting the job at Best Buy and that was right after high school. So I just needed a part time job. And then that's when, yeah, I got from there. I jump ship. I came back. uh, went to work at a doctor's office. I came back, got the position as geek squad. And then, but then after that, I left, came back again, because then they put me at Seasonal. And then, a boo boo that I will probably say later on, I did not come back from, did not make it past that gauntlet after that seasonal. Okay, Okay we gotta unpack that Seasonal, later. For real. Uh, I also worked at Best Buy, but I was not Best Buy employee. I was a Samsung rep. So I only worked as Samsung rep and I literally only worked there from like November to April. Like I was only there six months. Yeah, so I got taste of it and was at two stores So I didn't really get to like Nest into a store and really get know the people Um, but Yeah. but yeah, I I I, The first store I worked at was a store That was far from my house Then got transferred the to a store was closer to my house, And that's where I saw you Andrew working at that store. right? yeah. yeah. yeah. That's a nice store. Yeah, that one, that one was the best store I've ever a really nice store. Don't go to the highly owned nice the Hialeah definitely was not a fact. Well, the people are nice. The people when you work there. are great. don't know a customer. eh. Yeah, I can imagine the customer. Well, anyway. Yeah. When I worked, I started at Aventura and it was a lot of tourists. So many tourists. many tourists, a lot of Brazilians. yeah. Same thing with Sawgrass. Those Brazilians galore Portuguese at my store. All of them importers. Or exporters. Export. Yeah. All of of them. The ones sending the crap out to, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so if, if nobody spoke Portuguese, they would ask the people who spoke Spanish like, mildly translate barely understand them. So it's funny if that might have worked for the Brazilian like customer base Did not work for Portuguese for some reason they refused to speak Spanish They were like you speak English you speak bad English to me or Portuguese you pick one of the two Spanish They were not happy with it at all that's crazy And so like, yeah, I spoke in Spanish and they hoped that they understood or like kind of hoped that I understood what they were saying. And then that's when I got terrible advice from one of the Samsung reps who said, Oh, dude, you see my name tag? It says Andy. His name was Andres. He's not going to advertise he speaks Spanish at all. So you can't be bothered with anybody. yeah. So you put yours as Ricky? why I put mine as mine as Ricky. For sex. but then... no, no, no, no, no, I, no, I'm sorry, I did not put my name as Ricky, it was Enrique, was Enrique, Oh, no. And then I started calling myself Ricky after that, and that kind of brought me into my tech life as Ricky, and then like midway, I was like, I don't want to be called Ricky anymore. to be called Ricky anymore. I'm Enrique. Enrique now. Yeah, I'm that's, that's my name. Let's continue the next of universe over here. Ooh, I like, I like the title of that next one right this right here. All right Um, PC Master master Okay. This is from subreddit PC master race. and it's, it's labeled cringe. and it is best. it's titled Best Buy Stories, X Employee. Nine years ago. is is a, little bit older. Used to work front lanes in the customer service department. So I wasn't always dealing with customers that wanted to buy something. First off, no one on staff at our Geek Squad had proper certification to be doing what they were doing. Not one person had heard of comp TIA, old guys coming in with porn, CDs in their laptops, or young guys with porn windows frozen on their screens the whole time. You know what's funny? The whole time I was working Gig squad, I never once found anyone's computer, like just literally porn. Like I was expect. I was expecting, you know what I found literally with porn straight up A, P S P. A, Yeah, P S P. Yeah. Yeah. I was like some guy was like, oh, can you help me like connect to like, I think I was trying to connect to like the wifi of the, of the store or whatever and I was like, yeah, sure. Lemme just whatever. web browser Yeah And then I think no I think it was Avita. I'm sorry. I think it was Avita and I, the second I open up the thing 'cause You have to swipe. unlock swipe, I just big booty bitches right there I'm just like what what is this Like I immediately just like Like, gave it back to him like I'm sorry I think our wi fi is down so no When I was like you saw on that front I was on that front counter yo it everyone everyone from Abuelita, Abuelita, to, to, to, to whoever your daughter I believe I wasn't doing that on her computer. That was someone else's. that was probably someone else using Doesn't matter. But Abuelita is the one bringing it. Saying know what happened I only use my computer as a pay bill. Why? Well, someone's not paying on Yeah someone's paying bills on pornhub.com. Premium access At Point. yeah. Brazzers. They want access. Yo, that crazy. No, but the best one was this like, it was a college girl. She brought in her Mac Mm. and she's there freaking out, Whatever. She's like, it's broken.I don't know what's wrong. I can't get I'm like, chill, relax. It's fine. We'll fix it It's probably not that bad. I probably just gotta turn it turn it off and turn it back on again right? Bruh tell you, I opened up that screen and I saw the volume, you know, a little icon where it goes from like mute, like the speaker a line goes to normal Yeah. gayest I don't know what she was watching, but the gayest p*rn As soon as soon as you opened it was guy on guy And I saw that volume, like switch on loud and I went FWOOP was like we're to have reset this just FYI cause was like, she was saying, I can't log into, can't do anything. it was just... so it one of those viruses that was like a prank basically. Like was just made to just hurt your feelings kind thing. Oh did her dirty was some blatant thing And it was, you open it I like, oh my God Just going after like that that meme the, the people going to the college, going like their, their class, and they open it up, close the, just throw the laptop out the window oh my god, people, mean, and they got a lot of trust. Like, I don't, know these people don't back up. Photos clean. They're like, Hey man, my thing is not working. as slow. Yeah. it? Oh, if you to delete anything, just don't delete the photos. And they Yeah, you can't you delete the photos? But why? fix it? Like, what, No you back up the photos. and come back bro? No one ever wants to put their shit on an external hard drive, and I don't understand because it's too hard takes too much, listen, it it's brain power And you and and you can't expect Then pay Apple cloud or, or, Google cloud It's not even a storage too late. It's already there This is pre cloud. Y'all that's true. You know? Yeah. iCloud, iCloud, pre all that I mean, it wasn't as accessible, but no. Hold on, hold on. Wasn't Google Photos unlimited at this Yes Actually Google photos was unlimited and then they started limiting it. it but but like, okay, it's. the fact that someone's coming to a Best Buy to fix their computer, they don't know how to offload photos. They don't even know where their photos are. Like they just see, oh, a photos folder. They don't even, They don't know, bro. We're expecting too much from I know, I know, I know, Cause it's The drag and drop feature is very difficult for some people to understand. Because that's all it is That's all it is But I... I You know, get it. And there's a reason why we charge so goddamn, They used to charge so damn much for these photos. Every time they had to recover Now, Now it's a full blown like, service. What kind they'd recover was bipolar they had, they had like two or three levels. Yeah, if worst case in worst case scenario they would send it out to like a forensic lab to do data recovery and stuff they'd probably be charging like a... Oh, that was like, that was like 500 a day. It was like, 500 a until they got your shit back or you said, all right I give up. Yeah, it was something insane. it was not, cheap. This was like, this was like, you messed up You're it's like, you're a businessman, you're traveling, you messed up and and you need it by the end of this Because I think at that point they're contracting an actual, like, yeah, they're not doing it themselves. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's, it's, it was contracted. I remember it was like late with little. Three or some yeah, yeah, I shoot, I remember seeing some of these like little YouTube shorts now, like these days now. I don't know how they did it back then. But like, they would literally have to like, unsolder the, like a broken SSD. unsolder the, the little memory block and like put it onto a new one. And it's like this entire process. I'm like, there's no fucking way. This guy's not getting paid like insane amounts of money to do this shit. yeah. Ridiculous money for sure. Okay, so the next one is really quick. This is what's written on Reddit. Rather, Rather a large black woman yelled at me for not being able to take an Amazon gift card at my store. my god. I was looking at The snippet. The amount of people that have yelled black for not being able to take an Amazon What have they yelled at you for? they yelled at you for? for not speaking Spanish, was one. For not using Rakuten. For not using We're using ragazine for not What is it, for not saying that if we, if, what is it, the insurance. Mm hmm. Oh yeah, we'll fix it. No, we just give you a new one cause we can't fix Yeah. No, all my stuff is on there. you Oh, need to not part of the deal, man. you can tell you can get a new one. Congrats Oh, you get a free upgrade. I want a free upgrade. I want my data It's gone. gone. bro. I'm sorry. Yeah, unless you can crack that bad boy open, pull out the hard drive and it's not fucked up, then And even, And even, then. And even then, yeah. I think, I think my, my favorite situation being yelled at was I work with this guy who's Dominican, didn't speak a lick of Spanish So unfortunate, and We're in the middle of Hialeah. Everyone, we're, like, spanish is your, is your primary language Like, and I get why you have like, abuelita You know grandpa Like they all still only speak Spanish right? Cause they've been here for years but they only know, I get it cause they've been in that If you live in Hialeah, Florida, which is in Dade Little Little, cuba it's Little Cuba. You do not need to speak a word of English for the rest of your life living in Hialeah. Just so you have an idea, listeners of what area this is just, yeah, the community. Just the community is that massive. So it's just like it's, everybody will be able to translate for whatever reason. It's like Spanish, English, and then Creole. Creole. Yeah. Oh, as well. huge. Yeah. Yeah. yeah, huge. So so she comes in and I'm like, the line is, you know, how like line Oh yeah, was swamped. It was like 20 maybe more people in line. getting squad squat. Yeah, It was, I think it might have been just at the after holiday or something. Okay, Okay, Okay Or maybe some new computer came out something was happening. The surfaces. Oh my God. Oh my God. so We're handling, I'm handling those things. I'm handling them as fast as I can. I'm like, I'm dying. There's, there's no way to, to handle this line any faster. because each person needs at least a couple minutes, right? People getting upset. Customer services swamped to I say, Hey bro, You're doing, he was coming and he was doing like the the sales walk around thing and the computer department brought him back How about with I'm like, hey, help out with the line. He's like, oh man, but I don't speak Spanish. I'm like, that's fine. Let's go ahead and simplify this. because you're the only other person helping me So I say to the line who here speaks English only a few people raise their hand. I'm like, cool, you guys can be attended by my colleague here. Go ahead, go to this part of the line. You started a war. You started a race war. I can Oh my god. You started a race war. what is this? This is racist! I'm like, I'm speaking Spanish to you. what is the racism? part? Like, how can you do this? How come you're attending them first? I'm like... He only speaks English, He only speaks English, man. Like, what am I supposed to We gotta, we gotta freakin segregate the line some way. Like, do you want me to you? Like, I, he This is an M. I A. the Asshole prompt right asshole. M. I. A. D. asshole. like, Ma'am, I'm trying to help everyone. Like it's not my fault. he didn't get first Spanish in the household. You know what I mean? You called that first. You know Yeah. If all he can do is help out with the English people, then hey, so be it. Blame him. You No, no, you were you were delegating. You were trying to get as many people helped as possible. But the people that were waiting in line in wanted to help themselves to learn that second language. No, I'm kidding. No, that's no, but I mean, come on you've been here a couple years though. That's fair Speak a little A little Americanese. A little Americanese. bro. That's not y. I can't be going to other countries and be like why don't you speak Yeah no, That's true. it. You get what I'm saying, bro? God, I was like, come on, be a little fair You passed that citizenship test somehow right Right? Oh my God. Oh my god, this lady was going off on me. At that point, she was going off on me for so long, I was like, this is my lunch break. break. This is it, Did you just Did did you just leave, like you were done and No, I was just like, I sat there, I was just like, all right, man, I'm just, and I just like blanked Yeah, I just like, meditated, I was just just like... you just, yeah, I would've done the same. he literally unplugged themselves. Yeah, the she gets mad. I wanna speak to manager. I'm like, bet my, boy Armando, he speaks English too. only two. Oh my god. I got Oh my god. I got one Of of my boys because I'm like, all you wanna speak to the manager? ahead, and step out of line and stand right there. I, I, signaled, I'm like, yo, she wants to talk to the manager. Done, Done We got the line. And I'm like, all right, Next person. Next person. I was like, that person lied. Hell of a divide. Then she had to wait what? Another hour now waiting for the manager because he's swamped Giving everyone discounts so nobody's pissed off then she's gonna come back and do the fucking line Oh my god Yeah you can't pay me enough to be a manager at Best Buy. Fuck to be a manager. Oh my god, yeah, Okay. That was a great story.. Hey everyone, thank you again for tuning in. I just wanted to remind you that it's actually really easy to subscribe to the podcast. If you're listening to this directly from the website, what are you even doing?, I made it really easy to find the show on your favorite podcasting apps. So whether you use Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts, Google Podcasts, tune in iHeartRadio, whatever it is, you can go to how tech podcast.com on your phone, and right in the homepage there's a section where you can just tap on the icon of the podcast platform that you use. And it'll take you right to the show on the app of your choice where you can listen and subscribe. So, do that now. Okay, thanks. I don't think I've ever been yelled at, You got, no you wouldn't be yelled at yeah, because you're not the guy ringing them up. no, you know what? You're right. hundred percent. That's what I loved about not being a buy employee. I was just. In Best Buy? But when someone needed buy something, was like, Oh, let me, let me set you up with a blue shirt right quick. you ring me up I don't do I can't. I don't have access to register. I'm sorry. such a good line. what I loved when I, when I was, cause I was there full time and no, I there part time And then when I got when seasonal employees in, and they had needed cashier training, I was like, oh, this is great. And so in Best Buy, they don't work on commission. so we don't give a fuck if you buy or don't buy. Right. So immediately these guys training. I'm like, oh You like this one All right, cool. Boom right here. This guy's gonna finish ringing you up. Yeah I could just leave and then they can yell at him over the number Exactly. Why can't you use my records and uh, special discount? I swear to god. How many times do people ask for discounts? Dude, Every single day, Do you Every single discounts or, that reminds me of story too. Okay, ahead. Yeah, no, I, I was gonna say it's discounts or freaking price matching God knows what fucking websites that are located on the internet that are not Amazon, not Walmart. Just like the most reka dink, you know, mom and dad. websites that I'm just like, there's no way I'm gonna price match I used to, I used to tell, I used to tell people to look for the SD card on Amazon and price match Yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's totally fine. That's too hard. That's too hard. This is before, is, this is, what is it, iPhone what, 4G? No, four G. no 2014 no, they had like the iPhone. no, but this was before that when you were probably telling people. no, no, no, no, no, no. This was during the Samsung S5, Yeah. Yeah. It's too Hard Wait didn't, no. S five, I think it was like S six at that time. Yeah, when we were was, so the S5 was out. The S6 came out while I was working there. Oh, okay. Okay. yeah, yeah. Yeah. So speaking about coupons and rewards, my god, let me tell you this story about this finesse. God Right? Okay. This guy I gotta, I gotta, like draw a mental picture for everyone. Yeah. Paint the scene. this, was, this guy was like a dude, right? Like small height, like my height, That stick, big head, look like a little Martian guy just just, I don't know, like a funny looking dude, right? Cool guy, whatever. he was new and I remember him working and then suddenly he disappears. He just stops working suddenly. Oh, he just stops showing up. just stopped showing up. stops showing up and I'm like, oh, what happened? And they told me, oh yeah, they let him go. And I'm like, what you mean they I'm Like, this man made it past seasonal Yeah! stayed. don't just blah, and go, right? So it turned out this boy, genius. I gotta give it to him. because I should have thought of saying thanks. This is great. As he was ringing up people, he'd be like, yo, do you want, uh, do you want to sign up for the Best Buy rewards, Best Buy credit card, all that shit, right? And Of course, when you get everybody out of this information, what do they do? Nah, nah, Nah nah, not right now. I just want to pay for this and leave. Right. So he would do, Oh, okay. No worries. Cool. I'll say that. You said no. Boom. He would scan her awards card. Cause you know, it's like not a credit card. It's like that little points thing. So He would do that. So was collecting rewards. And so he was doing that for every single person. he rang up. And then he made it to the seasonal time, right? Which is like black Friday and everything, So it's just a line. So you were all the cash here, and and all you're doing is bringing up people. Oh my God. Every single one. Wait, what was he doing with the, what was he scanning the his best buy rewards card. Yeah, for everyone that didn't have theirs, yeah. single purchase. Wow. If they didn't have a credit card, they didn't have their own. then he would just, yeah. That boy walked out with A new Mac laptop, a new Mac computer, one of the IMAX. He walked out with a new big screen TV how many points did he? so he, no dude, Did he ever say? think about holiday season, bro. think about it. but I, oh my god. At a certain point you get a hundred dollars worth of rewards after a certain threshold and that's all you keep What are the, what are the point categories for like the, the rewards? Like what is it, 5 is like what, 200 points something like that? Something like that So, and it's based off how much money you spend, right So he had so many points He walked out bought everything and I'm guessing at this point. He knew he was going to get caught because he was just waiting They told him to return the stuff. I'm guessing he said no cause he bought it already Like he's I bought it with legal tender mofo you know? Right? Like they couldn't what are they going to do like tell the people to it Yeah. Like it's already, it's already in his I'm guessing, guessing. and it was technically paid for I guess. I don't know how it worked, But then he got like go for it? I was like damn that's Damn that is, that is... pretty dope. I have a similar story have a similar story I heard. Okay. So I think he was at Pine. even. Oh, No, actually, whatever, Where was it? Pines, Aventura. So there's this, this new blue shirt comes in and he's like, you know, around my area and I'm like, oh cool, you know, we're going to see some pretty dope. He's been pretty cool down to earth and I only saw him for like four days. or like a seasonal? I I don't remember, I don't think he was seasonal Cause this was already when I was past seasonal. So So this is like beginning of the year, like January, let's say, right? Yeah. let's say, right? January, February. So he got let go, I stopped seeing him. go. someone told me that he was Ringing people up and then the people who didn't know about a gift card that took the gift cards. who didn't know about a gift That's straight up. stealing. That's that's you're taking something from someone kind of thing. Yeah. Oh my God. So they would they wouldn't even notice. He probably do like underneath the counter. Just kind of card promotion, he took the gift cards. yeah, probably just leave it wouldn't even notice. Or maybe, maybe maybe he would just like keep records of like the numbers and like No, cause you have to physically scan the gift card at that moment to be like, to activate it. Oh, it's activated. to activate it. So like the purchase, I mean, I would love to seem like receipt though? it's on the receipt, but who reads the receipts? Oh, but you could reprint the receipt You could, oh yeah, you could reprint the could just reprint it per, per transaction, just repeat reprint. But the, like that would, that would mean that they still walked out without reading the receipt and noticing, Hey, I got a gift card on the receipt Oh, but they don't read the receipt. They didn't know. true. Yeah. They didn't know he got fired. doesn't read receipt No, that's true. Loss prevention is like, they gave that highlighter Yeah, going. they, they see like two items on the receipt but the guy's walking out with like 15 Oh, Fuck it. Here we go. Many of the employees were caught doing it on the very counters you check out at after hours or at corporate parties. my God. I've never I've heard some corporate party I've never heard of stories. like that. Yeah, but I've never heard of anyone doing it at the store. But I guess it's just the managers are there after hours. Unless it's your manager. himself. You're boning the manager. You got to get that raised somehow, you know? mean, get that, I guess most of, most of the managers I remember were all, there was like one or two young managers, I remember. a guy decided that the toilet was not a proper place for his perfect poop, so he went ahead and pooped in the corner of the bathroom. yeah, for sure. Code Browns Code for sure. Cole Browns. the time at Best I've seen one. I've witnessed, yeah I'm sure, there's been a couple there's like sometimes you go in the bathroom I guess I'm not taking a crap this this shit I'm gonna go back home to use the bathroom. I I remember a friend of mine. The same guy that got in with me. He was in the we're doing that that little training thing where like, The first like three or four days that you're They sit you in that room? Yeah sit you in that room? for like you know, those three or four days that you're doing that intense training. And he was in the bathroom taking a, you know, taking a trip, a sh*t whatever. And he's there like playing like some phone game. And like, it sounded like a little ninjas, like, KWPSH KWPSH KWPSH And He's and some guy's like knocking Ugh Are you playing games in there He's like, yeah I'm taking a cr*p I can still play games. yeah, I can still play games. The guy was just Oh, like absolute disbelief. Who, knocks? Who knocks in the public style because that's how I guess he was then be Who knocks to then like ask a question and then who responds? Like Well I at that point you got caught you're like, you who it was. It was a customer waiting for him to come out so he would help him. Yeah. Yo, straight up. Hey, I mean, there's been times, there's been times, it was the routers were in front of the bathrooms at my store. And I'll be like, Hey, do you need help no, no, no, no. no. I'm already being helped. I'm waiting for him. And I'm like, where's, who's helping you? Like, Oh, it was such and such. And they point to the bathroom. I'm you are you seriously seriously eating on here Like that, bro in there Cause he probably said, I'll be right with you, and then kept walking Yeah. And Going to the restroom, you know? Yeah, Oh my god. That That man had Taco Bell and He was not coming out. I'm telling you. Pause for right. So next Black Friday was nuts and everyone was just so pissed off about having to buy stuff. The break room was promised to have food and refreshments for employees after working 12 plus hours. Well, it didn't. A bowl of nuts and some Damn. absolutely not. No, we always got pizza, Thankfully. Wait, you got, you guys got pizza? Oh yeah, we got candy bags with like five hour energy. Oh yeah. I got candy bags. I got candy bags in between the shift and then oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. your lunch, you got your okay. Yeah, I know. And I think us, they actually did go out and like. Load up the grill like one of the test the demo grills and yeah and did like burgers I was like, thank God because we can't survive on pizza yeah, that's true. They would use some of the Yeah actual stuff. that's can't remember my Black Friday. I just remember not being used to you wouldn't you wouldn't. have been in the store well you might have been on the store, But you wouldn't have done like anything really Cause I started like November and then Black Friday was like 3 weeks after I started. But honestly, I just remember working like a long shift. Maybe like a 10 hour shift. Yeah. Oh no. We were there for like 14 16 Bruh. was insane. hours. It was an all hands on deck kind of thing. Yeah. Like you could never have enough people and it's just for more organization and keeping Apparently now, they don't even do, they don't even open on Turkey Day anymore. No. they don't. Yeah. I mean, it's probably too much loss They're better off because, Yeah. I had to, did I have to go on Thanksgiving? I think I went on Thanksgiving night. And then the next morning I went to work at like, seven in the morning, night and eight in the morning. no, No. bro. No. yes, I went super, I was, sick. it was dark. It must've been you you probably had to go in at 2 a. m and then set up the store for like the 4 a. m. or 5 a. m. Opening. No because, no, Samsung was different. But I remember showing up to the store It was already open and the line was wrapped around the store. Yeah, yeah. And they're probably looking at you like salivating at the door. You're gonna open the door, and it's like, No! No, Not for you. And you're like banging on the door, Let me in! That was probably, that was probably my favorite part of going to work. going to the store. Not today! He was waiting at the door and then just walking in and looking at them like, Oh, you're not You're not allowed in in? You're not allowed in? You're not, You're not part of the Cool Kids you have to wait, man. That's unfortunate. It would just knock and then you'd look at them like just dead in the face. sucks to be promoted to customer. open, last person you would open you'd walk in and you'd see them closed it's like, shhh. And they're just staring like really? not gonna let me in early, You're not gonna let me in early, bro. Blah Friday. Black Friday. is the reason I did not get to stay my second time after seasonal. did you do? I think this is the time. so that's the thing. Yeah. I had to come in at like two in the morning to set up you know, help out and stuff like that. that. was my shift. It was gonna be like from you didn't work the actual like Thursday night? It was, no, it was. that set. it was not the Thursday night. It was after that, Oh, okay. but I was so tired. I was like, all right, cool Let me let me get ready for work. It's 10 p. m. 11. I'm like You knock down, you forget to wake up. let me not lay down in my bed so I don't fall asleep. bet Let me sit down and watch TV until it's time to go to Mm. Turn on the TV. this is like 11 11 and a it 10 And had been at 2 now It's a 30 minute drive. So I'm like I just gotta watch like an episode or Yeah. So I sit on the couch. And I and I blink. He's out. He's out. And I don't know what time portal, or teleportation or Doctor Who episode it was. But I blinked, The sleep paralysis demon. is what woke me up me up. She just got a my god. say yes. It's hard not Did they notice? I'm guessing yeah, they noticed There's no way for me to hide Oh my god. get you something to help out, And he Yeah, it was, it was no saving it. I called my supervisor like, dude, I am so sorry. I was like, I can still come in and help out. He was like, yeah, come in bro. My poor,'cause it was, it was one of my supervisors that like vouched for me when I came back after it. for me, But I can't you fucked your boy over. it wasn't on purpose. right? Mm hmm, mm hmm. No, yeah the Superastrous Demon gets the best of us. And uh, yeah, man, um, and I, and I show up to work and I pull in and I pull in a nice solid like 13 Something hours 14 something hours, but and it was fine I got my shift whatever the whole, the rest of the day, the rest of the week, but then when it came to that, like, seasonal ends, and they're telling you if they're gonna keep you or not. That was, that was my death. That was my Did they actually say it? Did they legit tell you? like, no? you? no? they didn't say it, but it's like, that was the only thing. Like that was, that's the deal breaker. Like if you're later, you don't up that day. Like, you're not, they're not, they're never big, yeah it's a pretty big, you have to basically save someone's life at that point to be considered. You literally performance life. You need to perform CPR in the store. Literally. Yo. Form performance CPR on the general manager, and at that point, he'll He'll consider, consider, like you missed out on the thing You might have saved my life but you still missed out on your shift. And so I don't, your life, but can you save my job? it was, If it was my old general manager, maybe I could have sweet talked it in because me and him were kind of like boys, but the new guy they hired, was like douchebag. was like the second time you worked at Best Buy? Or, or like this yeah, so I had left to go work at a doctor's office, but the hours were too crazy for me. so I couldn't study at, school. Gosh. So then when I came back, they, they brought me back, I think, as regular computer, and then immediately, like, I was able to get back into, like, Geek Squad. Mm-hmm. And then from there, at least I think that's the order it went, or it went back. I left from right before computer, then I came in as a Geek Squad, I don't remember. So. Yeah, I came back and then that was the thing, it was like they got, we were allowed you to come back as Seasonal, and I'm like, okay, that's fair, yeah, Cause I'm I'm like, I'm good. I'm like, I know I'll be able to prove my right. Yeah exactly I can sell, I can make these numbers work. crazy. I would've, I would've felt like iffy about the whole, like Oh, we'll bring you back as a season. I'm like, exactly, right? Because I No, exactly. Right Cause I was like, you let me go as part number, you know you damn well You could put me part time, bro. At least permanent part time. At least. But they were back But they're like, no, we're gonna do season, then we're going. like, alright, but at this point, it was the new manager. That's why yeah. He didn't know me. He So yeah, he was like, he didn't know me. He didn't know my work either. The other, my other boy, he knew me. Like he would, he would buy, he would like, if not buy lunch for the department, he would buy me lunch. You get me? Or like, he'd be going out to get food and shit. and like, he'd be like, what you want, something, bro. Look me over. want some? It's a the thing, you know? you know? So I was like, ah, Yeah, literally about who you know rather than what you know. exactly. Yeah. Oh my So, let's close this, this this list of stories off real quick. This is the last one of this part. I swear, every single day, I was not clapping my as cheeks. I was, I was not clapping my ass Cheeks. I promise you I don't think that anyone, any mic cocked that, but that was hilarious. I think it. did. It did. Oh, that'd be great.. Okay, so it says, every, uh, I swear, every single day for my entire time at Best Buy, someone would turn this Big Bang Theory board game around and read the back of it and leave it like that on the shelf. And every single day, I would have to turn that thing back around and make sure it was straight again. So someone else could do it again. what the hell? Why, why, why was that? I'm so One, I'm so sorry That that's Cause that, that's That's this guy's final Yeah You know,, That was the one that broke the camel's back. exactly. that was the one. You know, I can handle the Karens. I can handle the, whole you know, overtime shits. But so help me God if I have to flip that board game around one more damn time! So, Oh my what if it was an employee fucking with if I mean, I it was a Psy op. I would not put it past him cause we would do shit like that all the time. would know who does it too. like bro, kevin has come over here and flipped this board game 20 times over. wearing, he's not wearing, a mic. So you'd be like, yo, yo, come here. He's like, get it now, get it now. Get it, now. get in, I gotta Flip the board game over. And he's just, He's just looking in the, they're probably recording him too He's like flipping out like, why the fuck? every single fucking time! Oh Every time! Oh So that's, that's, that's the last one for now. Oh boy. Oh yeah? a break. who are you sponsored by, sponsored by? I I have, I'm sponsored by me. Oh, okay. and and and nobody else. Reddit. Okay. What, what's Okay, what's your, merch.. store? RickySavage. com? I don't have any merch.. I don't have any I don't have any merch not yet. Not not yet. Not yet. maybe maybe gotta do like a silhouette of your face with little sunglasses on like your little hairdo that you do all the time. There you go. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. see? Love Yeah, Alright guys, let's actually for real take a break. Let's for real, take a break. Oh okay, okay. for real. For real, We've reached the end of this episode, but don't worry. There are more Best Buy stories from all of us on the next episode of the HowTech Podcast. This recording went on a little too long and I just, I couldn't make you guys sit through all two hours of recording. of Best Buy Rants, because honestly, it's kind of triggering. So subscribe to the show so you can be notified when the next episode drops. In the meantime, I have a request. For all the listeners out there, send us an email or a DM on Instagram with your most unhinged, ridiculous, absurd, craziest stories from working at Best Buy or any other retail store. You can send us an email to howtechpodcastatgmail. com or send us a DM to at howtechpodcast on Instagram, no spaces, no punctuation, and feel free to make it a voice message too, The best stories we get might just make it to a future episode of the show. Thanks again for tuning in and I'll see y'all on the next one.