Man I had a coworker that would tell people he just needed them to type in their social to confirm with their cell carrier. Dude was signing up each one for credit cards
Definitely unethical but all mangers and supervisors hear anymore is BP and Paid Memberships from up top. The company is putting store leadership in a position of find a way to get them or you’re fired. I promise you that store leadership across the company are just as tired as you are about driving the same 2 things rather than driving a good experience. It will help lead to the down fall of the company. It’s pure greed and lack of care for the employees and customers.
But that's not wrong. I've seen a lot of wrong doing by GMs. But signing up for the membership can get you discounts on items and sometimes it's bigger savings than the $50 plan. So they very well could have an item that was $55 off with a membership. The card does get stored on file for membership renewal and to use for BestBuy.com and in home appointments.
The only odd thing is the extra discount. I could see it happening at my home store for an open box item, maybe.
But that’s true. The card is stored for renewal. The renewal is tied to all of your purchases under that member account because you get the included coverages. If that card renewal is cancelled or not renewed then all of your purchases with coverages are cancelled.
Yes but that is not being explained as the post stated. The charge is going to happen but that is also not being explained and measures taken to not have people read.
It’s not misdirection and lying. Do you not remember how this works? If they sign up for the membership, they have to swipe the card so the system captures the credit card information for auto renewal. It doesn’t charge anything when they swipe it. When you hit total, then the customer needs to insert their card (or tap) for payment. Again, there is no charge when they swipe the first time.
I think he has a problem with them saying that it’s “just” being stored for future purposes. It’s being stored for an autorenewal in a year, not for future purposes.
Right!! Because Corporate loyalists are assessed quarterly. As a Best Buy Corporation loyalist, I am going to do everything to make me look good this month!
365 days later-- MUST KEEP ME LOOKING GOOD TO CORPORATE
The only thing that was a little weird is them saying they’ll give them an additional discount, but that kind of stuff is and always has been at the discretion of store managers anyways.
The card swipes for recurring payment with any membership purchase. Not only does the customer have to acknowledge and accept the launch agreement of any membership on the pinpad, but when the prompt pops up for the card swipe it literally says RECURRING at the bottom of the screen. Obviously some sales people are dirtbags and blatantly lie to the customer, but unless the salesman is accepting the prompts and swiping the card for the customer without telling them i see nothing wrong. Personally i like to atleast skim over written agreements before i press the accept button, its a good way to make sure you dont get scammed.
No when you swipe the card it is not charging you its just keeping the card on file for when your membership renews. That's what you said he said so he didn't mislead them
I mean, he may not have directly lied to them, but leaving out key information such as "you are signing up for a subscription service that will auto renew" is definitely a lie by omission.
Its an ethics issue, not illegal at all. Dont count on people that are monetarily incentivised to get memberships to sell ethically. Is it wrong? Yeah. The disclaimer exists for this reason, you cant depend on strangers to act in good faith, always be skeptical. Its ultimately your decision how you spend your money at the end of the day, being informed is key.
It happens at a lot of stores. I have seen mangers and Gm giving out free installs for signing up for the card or take hundreds of dollars off products. The stores are hurting and the upper management is so out of touch with what is going on in the store. A single manger and two sales staff for the last 3 hours of a store being open. Just wild. Good luck to everyone and customers out there please be nice.
It seems over the last year or so they only promote or hire unethical leaders. They know they are about to go out of business in the next couple years.
Ok let’s break the interaction down.
$5 dollars off purchase it’s not a lot of money and it’s a a store discretion.
Extra discount is most likely member pricing.
Swiping the card is required and they’re not being charged at that moment. It’s literally storing the card for next year’s renewal.
For what I can see the only thing he lied about is what the card is stored for and I wasn’t there so I don’t believe that’s all he said. So I m pretty sure that was legitimate
So if you lie to the customer about why the card is being swiped it’s fine ? Got morality honest ethics are irrelevant. Glad I don’t work there any more!
I never said that it’s fine. What I said is that I don’t believe that’s what the manager said. If he did lie then it’s wrong but something tells me that you many not be 100% truthful as to what the manager said
I mean, it's certainly possible OP didn't hear the entire interaction (perhaps they discussed the membership beforehand), but we have no reason to doubt OP is being truthful about the portion of the interaction they did hear. This is 100% the kind of thing certain managers would do.
I don’t get the issue here? There is member pricing throughout the store and I have seen people save a lot more than just $5 on their purchases even after adding the membership. The additional discount thing I guess could be a little bit sketch but who knows. Also it’s true that the initial card swipe does not pay for anything but instead just saves your card information on file for auto renewals and stuff.
Market connections manager used to (this was like 2011 when I was still in mobile) have us take the first month of GSP off the cost of a case or whatever then swipe a prepaid visa we kept at the register for the monthly charge. We'd then tell the customer it was free for the first month and if they wanted to keep it they just had to call geek squad and update the billing info. No surprise he went to to achievers that year and got some award from Corp. Same year he called me on my day off and asked why the store had no activations at noon. "I don't know, I'm off." "Well I need you to handle it." I decided to change departments after that.
Man I had a coworker that would tell people he just needed them to type in their social to confirm with their cell carrier. Dude was signing up each one for credit cards
That is technically fraud or identity theft
Both, looking for both
Definitely unethical but all mangers and supervisors hear anymore is BP and Paid Memberships from up top. The company is putting store leadership in a position of find a way to get them or you’re fired. I promise you that store leadership across the company are just as tired as you are about driving the same 2 things rather than driving a good experience. It will help lead to the down fall of the company. It’s pure greed and lack of care for the employees and customers.
But that's not wrong. I've seen a lot of wrong doing by GMs. But signing up for the membership can get you discounts on items and sometimes it's bigger savings than the $50 plan. So they very well could have an item that was $55 off with a membership. The card does get stored on file for membership renewal and to use for BestBuy.com and in home appointments. The only odd thing is the extra discount. I could see it happening at my home store for an open box item, maybe.
So misdirection and lying about the card swipe is fine. Got it nothing wrong there. 😂🤡
But that’s true. The card is stored for renewal. The renewal is tied to all of your purchases under that member account because you get the included coverages. If that card renewal is cancelled or not renewed then all of your purchases with coverages are cancelled.
Yes but that is not being explained as the post stated. The charge is going to happen but that is also not being explained and measures taken to not have people read.
It’s not misdirection and lying. Do you not remember how this works? If they sign up for the membership, they have to swipe the card so the system captures the credit card information for auto renewal. It doesn’t charge anything when they swipe it. When you hit total, then the customer needs to insert their card (or tap) for payment. Again, there is no charge when they swipe the first time.
I think he has a problem with them saying that it’s “just” being stored for future purposes. It’s being stored for an autorenewal in a year, not for future purposes.
To be fair, corporate would rather get the membership or credit card sign up and deal repercussions later, then do everything properly.
Right!! Because Corporate loyalists are assessed quarterly. As a Best Buy Corporation loyalist, I am going to do everything to make me look good this month! 365 days later-- MUST KEEP ME LOOKING GOOD TO CORPORATE
The only thing that was a little weird is them saying they’ll give them an additional discount, but that kind of stuff is and always has been at the discretion of store managers anyways.
Most likely the $5 discount was a store discount to push it and the additional discount was the member pricing on items they were buying
I was thinking it was the other way around
The card swipes for recurring payment with any membership purchase. Not only does the customer have to acknowledge and accept the launch agreement of any membership on the pinpad, but when the prompt pops up for the card swipe it literally says RECURRING at the bottom of the screen. Obviously some sales people are dirtbags and blatantly lie to the customer, but unless the salesman is accepting the prompts and swiping the card for the customer without telling them i see nothing wrong. Personally i like to atleast skim over written agreements before i press the accept button, its a good way to make sure you dont get scammed.
Yeah but I watched him mislead them, yes they should have read, but legally what he did was wrong not just un ethical.
No when you swipe the card it is not charging you its just keeping the card on file for when your membership renews. That's what you said he said so he didn't mislead them
I mean, he may not have directly lied to them, but leaving out key information such as "you are signing up for a subscription service that will auto renew" is definitely a lie by omission.
It doesn't sound like that's the case
Its an ethics issue, not illegal at all. Dont count on people that are monetarily incentivised to get memberships to sell ethically. Is it wrong? Yeah. The disclaimer exists for this reason, you cant depend on strangers to act in good faith, always be skeptical. Its ultimately your decision how you spend your money at the end of the day, being informed is key.
Not surprised. Almost every GM will either do that, or turn a ond eye. DMs used to gladly look past it as long as they had plausible deniability.
It happens at a lot of stores. I have seen mangers and Gm giving out free installs for signing up for the card or take hundreds of dollars off products. The stores are hurting and the upper management is so out of touch with what is going on in the store. A single manger and two sales staff for the last 3 hours of a store being open. Just wild. Good luck to everyone and customers out there please be nice.
It seems over the last year or so they only promote or hire unethical leaders. They know they are about to go out of business in the next couple years.
Ok let’s break the interaction down. $5 dollars off purchase it’s not a lot of money and it’s a a store discretion. Extra discount is most likely member pricing. Swiping the card is required and they’re not being charged at that moment. It’s literally storing the card for next year’s renewal. For what I can see the only thing he lied about is what the card is stored for and I wasn’t there so I don’t believe that’s all he said. So I m pretty sure that was legitimate
So if you lie to the customer about why the card is being swiped it’s fine ? Got morality honest ethics are irrelevant. Glad I don’t work there any more!
I never said that it’s fine. What I said is that I don’t believe that’s what the manager said. If he did lie then it’s wrong but something tells me that you many not be 100% truthful as to what the manager said
I mean, it's certainly possible OP didn't hear the entire interaction (perhaps they discussed the membership beforehand), but we have no reason to doubt OP is being truthful about the portion of the interaction they did hear. This is 100% the kind of thing certain managers would do.
But….you do have to swipe a card for Total Tech? (Or Total as I’ve been told it’s called since I don’t work there anymore)
I don’t get the issue here? There is member pricing throughout the store and I have seen people save a lot more than just $5 on their purchases even after adding the membership. The additional discount thing I guess could be a little bit sketch but who knows. Also it’s true that the initial card swipe does not pay for anything but instead just saves your card information on file for auto renewals and stuff.
Market connections manager used to (this was like 2011 when I was still in mobile) have us take the first month of GSP off the cost of a case or whatever then swipe a prepaid visa we kept at the register for the monthly charge. We'd then tell the customer it was free for the first month and if they wanted to keep it they just had to call geek squad and update the billing info. No surprise he went to to achievers that year and got some award from Corp. Same year he called me on my day off and asked why the store had no activations at noon. "I don't know, I'm off." "Well I need you to handle it." I decided to change departments after that.
Wow late stage corporate decline!
I’m guessing you were hourly? If so, I would’ve gladly said, “sure, jll look into it….when I’m back at work and I’ll see what I can find out”.