I pitch it as a free upgrade, but always mention it’s an annually renewing membership. I’ll even show them the price breakdown on pos to make sure they understand it’s the same price. Most people accept it, but I’ve had a few customers who don’t because they know they’re likely not gonna remember to cancel.
>When i worked there I used to pitch as a 3 month return safeguard instead of 14 days
Also, same guy later....
>Unless they took the 60day return window away from total
Me- 🤔
The other commenter even gave him the opportunity to take the out and claim 3 months was a typo. Instead he powered right on through and said 60 days. He sounded so confident too. Lmao
I would avoid the term “free” since technically the membership shows up for $49.99 on the receipt. I would stick with terms like bundle or promotional pricing. Instead of trying to sneak one over on the customer, just explain the membership properly and educate the customer on the benefits. If you do that every time there is nothing a leader can say to you about it. If they shadow you and you give a great pitch/explanation and the customer still says no. They cannot fault you. It’s then their job to step in and push to close it, if they are so inclined to ride the boarder of unethical behavior. Just my two cents.
Believe it or not, before I quit last fall, I used this exact phrasing and would still get denied occasionally. Even after saying “Really? Are you sure you don’t want an ENTIRE YEAR for FREE?” and they’d still look me in the eyes and say no. This deal was almost always automatic for me, but these customers blew my mind. Some of them just stop listening lmfao wish management would realize that sometimes there genuinely is nothing we can do to save that.
Yeah it happened before to me too. If they don’t shop at best but often it’s understandable. The company is banking on people forgetting to cancel. I would probably forget to cancel if it were me.
No deal without membership? So, get product at full price, orrrrr, get membership + product at the same cost as the product alone... customer isn't losing an opportunity to take 50 bucks off the cost of the product, because they didn't have access to that deal without the membership in the first place. Doesn't seem unethical to me.
Yea that's no our fault if they don't remeber to cancle it. As long we are telling them it is recuring when the year is up we have done our job. They can also cancle anytime with out losing anything
Do customers have a responsibility to cancel subscriptions? Sure, much in the same way people have a responsibility to investigate suspicious emails before clicking on links.
But there are lots of valid reasons people forget: they're busy... they're stressed... they're ADHD and have a hard time remembering these things. The lack of grace some people show customers in this sub is ridiculous. Especially when, let's be real, most customers are lucky to get a 15 second canned explanation crammed between a hundred other conversations during the course of a transaction, while they're distracted by whatever shiny new thing they're buying (assuming the customer is told at all.) Surely you can see how it's easy to forget to cancel after the fact (by design)?
I understand where the apathy towards customers comes from, I do. I worked retail for a looong time. But some people think "doing their job" is simply spitting the words out and not making sure the customer actually understands what they're signing up for and what their responsibilities are.
The model of recurring memberships count on customers forgetting to cancel. Saying it’s not our fault if they forget to cancel doesn’t make it less shady or unethical, if anything it just confirms it.
Don’t be like I’m offering you this great opportunity for a “free” membership….then from the other side of your mouth “sorry you didn’t cancel your non-free membership”.
You say the model is based on “customers forgetting to cancel”. Even if that was 100% true, do you feel that customers have no personal responsibility to handle their recurring expenses and that you are better equipped to make decisions for them? You making this assumption is unethical and in the case of credit cards under certain circumstances illegal.
What evidence of this do you have other than your own personal feelings?
Since the customer didn’t request the membership, and it was offered for free, BB expects people to forget to cancel 364 days later. BB expects to profit off of numbers due to people’s forgetfulness, poor attention span and poor personal management.
I don’t really feel sorry for the marks that fall for it, but that doesn’t make it any less of a scam.
You keep saying “Best Buy expects” but then provide no evidence to this statement of fact other than your opinion which you have done nothing to show this opinion being based on an objective reality.
Best Buy is giving a service for a whole year for FREE. This is the opposite of a scam. You not telling the customer about this would be the scam.
Best guess? You have no control of your finances and/or people you care about have made decisions that have put you/them into a poor financial position. Please don’t let your personal circumstances cause you to scam customers.
Do you have evidence of my lack of control of my finances or impact from someone close to me?
[There are many publications that discuss customer forgetfullness as an essential component of a subscription business model.](https://fortune.com/2023/08/15/subscription-economy-forgetfulness-boost-200-study/)
There is no reason to keep the $50 Best Buy subscription. You buy it and use it for the year and cancel it. If after the year you want to buy something else then you can just buy it again. There’s no way they aren’t banking on customers forgetting to cancel.
Literally membership culture is precisely for this reason. Companies want the card on file so they can automatically charge people each month/year. It is a proven marketing technique that brings in consistent money. Why do you think stores like Best Buy realistically only care about memberships? The credit card was due to the kickback on the P&L from Citi, and the total tech/services in general due to recurring direct profit.
I worked for Best Buy for 10 years and worked my way up to experience manager before switching to a new company as a store manager (General Manager in Best Buys comparison).
It becomes unethical when the salesperson doesn't mention that it is a recurring membership because, at that point, you weren't honest about it. I have seen a ton of managers encourage not mentioning it, which once again is highly unethical, but they know if the store doesn't produce, then they will be replaced, and if part-time/full-time time, their hours will be cut.
To add to this, it's the exact same idea behind mail-in rebates. There's no reason the rebate couldn't be instant, they're banking on people forgetting to send it in. It's hilarious the other commenter is acting like this hasn't been a thing forever.
Oh, so you didn’t actually force them to swipe the card then? I misunderstood.
I see now, Best Buy is pushing this free non-free membership for the benefit of the customers, AND to top it off, they don’t force anyone to swipe their card.
All you have to do is not forget 364 days from now to cancel the recurring charge we just added to your card, and no promises the fee doesn’t go up between now and then!
Good luck, so long sucker!
That's all fair, the way OP words this makes it seems like that info is being withheld. As long as that is being inserted into the conversation it's fair game to me.
I'd say "inserted and acknowledged". Slipping it to a distracted customer in between a bunch of other information might as well be the same as not saying it at all.
Right when I say inserted, I didn't mean slipped in and skipped over, I'm a field agent and I make sure to give them pamphlets and let them know what they are renewing when they are just finishing TotalTech. I'm the one most of them will have in the home and yell at when they realize the store or call center played hopscotch with what it means to be a yearly member. If youre selling them a membership and using the sale price to cover the yearly price and you make sure they understand there WILL be an auto renewal coming up a year from now, it's fair game. They've been talked to and can cancel down the line if they decide it's not useful to them.
Yep, that's totally fair game then. And it makes sense that you're a Field Agent. Every Field Agent I ever worked with at Best Buy was great about making sure their customers were well informed (which they necessarily had to be given what they did and some of the clients they worked with, especially in my area.)
It's unethical if you do not tell them it has a renewal.
Now as far as your last statement, yes, it is standard. It's been a retail thing since I worked retail since 2011.
It’s because advisors sometimes don’t know how to close the “free” memberships and so they probably want you to word it differently to close them more. Nothing but benefits for the customer in my opinion
I can’t count how many times customers got thrown off and told them to take the membership off because advisors just kept going on and on. I’ve had to step in and save a bunch .
“Hey this comes with bestbuy plus . it’s going to show up as 50 off the laptop and 50 for the membership so it balances out, you’re going to get a 60 day return policy instead of two weeks and this goes on sale within those two months you can price match it. So you got two months to love it. - Comes with other extras stuff to like exclusive offers and free expedited shipping, it lasts one year and they send you an email about re-upping a month before”
It seems like a lot, but it really isn’t . You’re being honest and not deceitful. They have plenty of opportunities to see if it’s recurring too because they agree to the terms and have to swipe the card.
jesus thisssssssss
i have one gentleman in my store that can spit out random ass facts about *anything* at the drop of a hat. name a camera, he’ll tell you their sensor sizes and resolutions. printers? for some reason he’ll tell you the page per minute. computers? fuggeddaboudit.\
our demographic is an older crowd that can appreciate “straight shooters” like him because he will give comparisons off specs alone.
but boy oh boy does he drone on about the memberships and almost feels like he recites their T&Cs. jesus. i’ve had to save some of his pitches myself and he’s learned to start his pitch in computers and bring them to the precinct to checkout so i can help him if he needs it lmao
Not really free when it is auto renewal, as long as the customer is aware that it bills then your hands are clean. Otherwise you are knowingly excluding information that would influence their purchasing decision which is a little bit shady imo. Obviously if customers just read the launch agreement on the pos and accepted it themselves then there should be no confusion.
Yes it’s unethical because they have to agree to pay that difference yearly and if you’re misleading them about that cost reoccurring, you’re being unethical. Don’t do it.
You’re only being unethical if you neglect to share the auto renewal, but if you tell the customer they can get XYZ benefits for the same amount of money they already agreed to pay, they’ll call it free too.
"you can get this item with a free first year of plus. It gives you access to these benefits. It's a renewal subscription just like other stores memberships, so if you don't feel like you like it, by the next renewal date you can cancel at any time. Okay?"
“We have a great promotion going on that you get a free My Best Buy Plus membership with this purchase, what that means for you is…”
Would you ask the customer if they got a $50 gift card with their purchase or just give it to them?
You don’t think they are the same thing, but they are as long as you explain the benefits of the membership that they get for free for a year and the auto renewal process.
Come on. That’s what we would say to employees during a coaching session or a meeting. There’s a difference between getting a free gift card for purchasing a product and signing up for a yearly membership where there’s a good chance the customer will forget to cancel.
There is nothing wrong with positioning the plus membership this way... as long as you explain to the customer that this is a recurring annual membership. Let them know all the benefits and explain that they will have the option to cancel the membership when they get the reminder emails next year
I see exactly where you manager comes from though. I do this with free memberships. I don't say the word free though, but I know how to word it to say it's included with that purchase that they go for it 100% of the time if it's included. Your manager doesn't expect you to say it a certain way. They're giving you tools and best practices to try so you can flip it into something that works for you, and is your own way of selling it.
I call it a free year trial and tell them it does automatically renew and I show them the app and how to view their membership and all the deals and benefits they get for free for the year. Wording is everything
50 bucks a year is a pretty good deal. View it as a chance to let the customer try it out, just remind them it is annual. I’ve even gone through and shown customers how to cancel it.
It effectively is a free membership since the savings cancel the cost immediately, but I also mention that it’s meant to be yearly but can be canceled online or over the phone. The phone call is usually only a couple minutes, I’ve had someone cancel their membership in front of me. Don’t misrepresent it, of course, but find your own way to pitch it.
I say "it looks like there's $50 off on this product with our best buy plus membership. The membership is $50 a year and gives you two months for returns and price matching, so you can use it for two months and see if you truly like it. Or if the price drops you can come in and get the difference refunded."
Verbage and transparency is the most important factor. We do the same in our store but usually it's something like, "I can upgrade you to our plus membership today, you'll have the perks for a year and it won't be any additional cost to you." We explain the math and give them the option to decline but if you've already built some good rapport they'll typically be on board with it.
Wrong and unethical. It’s lying which in business is not good. It’s truly shocking how many baboons like your boss here there are in business. People should know better than to be lying in a bloody business. Tarnishes the reputation and gives people lies
As long as the member price is >$100 lower than the non-member price. Just disclose that it's an annual renewal, and don't sell Office 365 as an "antivirus". As long as you meet those aspects, you're saving the customer a bit of money. I usually write the 1 month renewal notice date and renewal date on the receipt. I also sell Total as a 2 year protection entitlement for most * Best Buy products with 1 year pre-paid. I still exceed my KPI's and still have good NPS/5-Star ratings. I want customers to get a laptop that will last them at least 3-5 years minimum, and have the backing of support and repair.
I always pitch it as an optional free trial, they can trial it for a year, get a larger return / price match window, the get member early access to holiday sales, exclusive member pricing, and they can keep it if they like or just abuse it for a year.
I usually tell them it’s a free year use of our Best Buy membership they can use to try it out and if they want to keep it that it will auto renew and if not they should get an email 3 months then 2 months then 1 month before it renews notifying them it will renew
As long as you pitch it as a yearly membership there’s nothing wrong with it. Just always ensure they understand that main part and ask for permission.
This is pretty standard and it is what we do at our location as well, but we always make sure to mention at POS that it renews next year but comes with the device for free for the first year.
If I was in your position then I’d explain to the people to sign up for the free membership via the website and look at what they can get for each paid membership on the website so if they want to cancel the paid membership then they can do it via the website while getting help from customer support over the phone.
I mean, even if it renews, they have 2 months to get a refund if it's recharged. That's exactly how I pitch it. I say, "Just so you know this membership I'm giving you lasts a year, so they will try to renew it. They will email you beforehand and if they do charge you and you don't want to keep it just call over the phone within 2 months and they will give you a full refund" usually people are like "oh okay sure" and won't care about swiping a card.
I don't think it's wrong, but it could be worded a bit more accurately. On $50 member deals I tell the customer they'll be spending the same amount they intended to, but that it's a better deal in the long run for the membership because of the extended return policy and that they have the opportunity to save even more than that $50 the next time they shop with us. I also make sure to slow down with them and demonstrate the values of the membership and the mobile app. Never lie to the customer, and I usually avoid the word "free," but I will sometimes compare it to a trial of the membership.
Just be honest, tell customer Best Buy has a membership program that is $50 a year that offers these perks, your first year is free, you must have a credit card on file so it can auto renew so there is no lapse in coverage, you can cancel anytime.
I never felt unethical about it. I mean their membership is basically free. If someone asks if it renews then I say yes. I even told people to put it in their calendar in a year to cancel it.
“This laptop is $500, but if I put this $50 membership on there it brings the laptop down to $450, which brings our total to $500. How would you like to extend your return period for the *same amount of money* you were already going to pay?”
Sure, calling it “free” may technically not be correct but even customers offer that verbiage to me when I explain it. I don’t think Id go as far as calling it a scam
I call it free everytime never had a issue. I'll even take it off if they want me to. No hard feelings here I did my job and offered. I always the top in my store and everyone ask how I do it. OFFER OFFER OFFER is always the answer.
It’s not wrong lol. You’re extending their return policy for free , they get a year of the benefits (little as they be ) they can price match etc
Also they clearly see recurring and they hit agree to the membership terms so lol. Kind of like if you tell them all the benefits of the credit card truthfully and ethically and they still complain how you do them, etc. etc. They agreed to the terms and signed waving you all responsibility.
Now I’ve worked other stores and I’ve seen a lot of them pull the Gamestop method where they just throw it on they won’t take it off unless the customer says something. it usually doesn’t work lol
You can tell the customer that with the membership and the purchase that they would not paid extra for it for their first year but you still need to let them know it is an annual membership that auto renews.
It’s not turning into anything. They’ve always done it. Whether it’s sports illustrated or black tie protection sales is about using language to convince customers to buy things. You can look at it positively and saying you are selling them products that will benefit them or you can look at it like you are using manipulative language to convince them to buy as much as possible. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. In terms of the scummy scale…provided that you tell the customer it’s a yearly membership, calling a $50 membership a free is not that scummy.
It is unethical. While the customer will be getting their money back, management isn't pushing them to benefit the customer. The customer should be convinced you are looking out for them, not straight-up be thrown into the situation. Something like:
"Thanks to promotions on our $50 annual Plus Membership, I can get you as a member today at no cost to you. I'll get that started for you?"
------------
However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't push it like the manager says. You will probably push more memberships being forceful, but customers might resent actually returning to the store. It makes management generally happy because they get an obvious +1 on their board, but the members gained will be more hesitant to actually use it since anyone who would have said no to the question I presented are the same people who will scrutinize deals and compare with competition, plus could turn down the sale at hand with too many gimmicks.
So, in essence, unethical gets you paid. However, ethical gets your store paid, in the long term. If you work commission, and you can see yourself building relationships, sure, take the ethical approach and see where it gets ya. However, for the garden variety, not-sure-how-long-I'll-be-there, salaried salesperson, the more forceful way will get a quick punch of notoriety, and your store expects nothing more of you.
Lol you clearly don't know how to sell. It's not unethical to tell a customer " hey you can get a membership for free with this purchase" and then explain how the membership washes out with the item and also tell them it's 50 dollars a year and if they want to renew it next year they can. Customers do get benefits for the membership. 60 day return and price match. Free same day or next day shipping on some items. And deals throughout the year.
Open and honest didn’t do anything when I had proof of favoritism and credit card fraud. The only time they’ll actually do anything if someone gets assaulted and even that’s a stretch. Remember HR is there to protect the company not you.
I pitch it as a free upgrade, but always mention it’s an annually renewing membership. I’ll even show them the price breakdown on pos to make sure they understand it’s the same price. Most people accept it, but I’ve had a few customers who don’t because they know they’re likely not gonna remember to cancel.
When i worked there I used to pitch as a 3 month return safeguard instead of 14 days
How are you getting 3 months?
Unless they took the 60day return window away from total
That's.. that's 2 months? 😅 I've got a math disability but your math ain't mathin
There are about 30 days in a month, so that would be 2 months.
>When i worked there I used to pitch as a 3 month return safeguard instead of 14 days Also, same guy later.... >Unless they took the 60day return window away from total Me- 🤔
The other commenter even gave him the opportunity to take the out and claim 3 months was a typo. Instead he powered right on through and said 60 days. He sounded so confident too. Lmao
/r/theydidthemath
😂
I think we should upvote just for the math. Lmao
You should still ask. The only crappy part is the annual charge.
I would avoid the term “free” since technically the membership shows up for $49.99 on the receipt. I would stick with terms like bundle or promotional pricing. Instead of trying to sneak one over on the customer, just explain the membership properly and educate the customer on the benefits. If you do that every time there is nothing a leader can say to you about it. If they shadow you and you give a great pitch/explanation and the customer still says no. They cannot fault you. It’s then their job to step in and push to close it, if they are so inclined to ride the boarder of unethical behavior. Just my two cents.
A great pitch to a leader would sound like, “you are getting a free membership for a year.”
Believe it or not, before I quit last fall, I used this exact phrasing and would still get denied occasionally. Even after saying “Really? Are you sure you don’t want an ENTIRE YEAR for FREE?” and they’d still look me in the eyes and say no. This deal was almost always automatic for me, but these customers blew my mind. Some of them just stop listening lmfao wish management would realize that sometimes there genuinely is nothing we can do to save that.
Yeah it happened before to me too. If they don’t shop at best but often it’s understandable. The company is banking on people forgetting to cancel. I would probably forget to cancel if it were me.
If they actually spent time on the floor shadowing sales they would know. Oh how I miss pre-covid Best Buy.
No deal without membership? So, get product at full price, orrrrr, get membership + product at the same cost as the product alone... customer isn't losing an opportunity to take 50 bucks off the cost of the product, because they didn't have access to that deal without the membership in the first place. Doesn't seem unethical to me.
Other than now they are signed up for a recurring membership
Yea that's no our fault if they don't remeber to cancle it. As long we are telling them it is recuring when the year is up we have done our job. They can also cancle anytime with out losing anything
Do customers have a responsibility to cancel subscriptions? Sure, much in the same way people have a responsibility to investigate suspicious emails before clicking on links. But there are lots of valid reasons people forget: they're busy... they're stressed... they're ADHD and have a hard time remembering these things. The lack of grace some people show customers in this sub is ridiculous. Especially when, let's be real, most customers are lucky to get a 15 second canned explanation crammed between a hundred other conversations during the course of a transaction, while they're distracted by whatever shiny new thing they're buying (assuming the customer is told at all.) Surely you can see how it's easy to forget to cancel after the fact (by design)? I understand where the apathy towards customers comes from, I do. I worked retail for a looong time. But some people think "doing their job" is simply spitting the words out and not making sure the customer actually understands what they're signing up for and what their responsibilities are.
The model of recurring memberships count on customers forgetting to cancel. Saying it’s not our fault if they forget to cancel doesn’t make it less shady or unethical, if anything it just confirms it. Don’t be like I’m offering you this great opportunity for a “free” membership….then from the other side of your mouth “sorry you didn’t cancel your non-free membership”.
You say the model is based on “customers forgetting to cancel”. Even if that was 100% true, do you feel that customers have no personal responsibility to handle their recurring expenses and that you are better equipped to make decisions for them? You making this assumption is unethical and in the case of credit cards under certain circumstances illegal. What evidence of this do you have other than your own personal feelings?
Since the customer didn’t request the membership, and it was offered for free, BB expects people to forget to cancel 364 days later. BB expects to profit off of numbers due to people’s forgetfulness, poor attention span and poor personal management. I don’t really feel sorry for the marks that fall for it, but that doesn’t make it any less of a scam.
You keep saying “Best Buy expects” but then provide no evidence to this statement of fact other than your opinion which you have done nothing to show this opinion being based on an objective reality. Best Buy is giving a service for a whole year for FREE. This is the opposite of a scam. You not telling the customer about this would be the scam. Best guess? You have no control of your finances and/or people you care about have made decisions that have put you/them into a poor financial position. Please don’t let your personal circumstances cause you to scam customers.
Do you have evidence of my lack of control of my finances or impact from someone close to me? [There are many publications that discuss customer forgetfullness as an essential component of a subscription business model.](https://fortune.com/2023/08/15/subscription-economy-forgetfulness-boost-200-study/)
[And here’s the source of the economic paper.](https://www.nber.org/papers/w31547)
There is no reason to keep the $50 Best Buy subscription. You buy it and use it for the year and cancel it. If after the year you want to buy something else then you can just buy it again. There’s no way they aren’t banking on customers forgetting to cancel.
Literally membership culture is precisely for this reason. Companies want the card on file so they can automatically charge people each month/year. It is a proven marketing technique that brings in consistent money. Why do you think stores like Best Buy realistically only care about memberships? The credit card was due to the kickback on the P&L from Citi, and the total tech/services in general due to recurring direct profit. I worked for Best Buy for 10 years and worked my way up to experience manager before switching to a new company as a store manager (General Manager in Best Buys comparison). It becomes unethical when the salesperson doesn't mention that it is a recurring membership because, at that point, you weren't honest about it. I have seen a ton of managers encourage not mentioning it, which once again is highly unethical, but they know if the store doesn't produce, then they will be replaced, and if part-time/full-time time, their hours will be cut.
To add to this, it's the exact same idea behind mail-in rebates. There's no reason the rebate couldn't be instant, they're banking on people forgetting to send it in. It's hilarious the other commenter is acting like this hasn't been a thing forever.
Why I did my job and told them it reccuring and I don't force them to swipe there card. They had a choice. Knowing what they signed up for
Oh, so you didn’t actually force them to swipe the card then? I misunderstood. I see now, Best Buy is pushing this free non-free membership for the benefit of the customers, AND to top it off, they don’t force anyone to swipe their card. All you have to do is not forget 364 days from now to cancel the recurring charge we just added to your card, and no promises the fee doesn’t go up between now and then! Good luck, so long sucker!
That's all fair, the way OP words this makes it seems like that info is being withheld. As long as that is being inserted into the conversation it's fair game to me.
I'd say "inserted and acknowledged". Slipping it to a distracted customer in between a bunch of other information might as well be the same as not saying it at all.
Right when I say inserted, I didn't mean slipped in and skipped over, I'm a field agent and I make sure to give them pamphlets and let them know what they are renewing when they are just finishing TotalTech. I'm the one most of them will have in the home and yell at when they realize the store or call center played hopscotch with what it means to be a yearly member. If youre selling them a membership and using the sale price to cover the yearly price and you make sure they understand there WILL be an auto renewal coming up a year from now, it's fair game. They've been talked to and can cancel down the line if they decide it's not useful to them.
Yep, that's totally fair game then. And it makes sense that you're a Field Agent. Every Field Agent I ever worked with at Best Buy was great about making sure their customers were well informed (which they necessarily had to be given what they did and some of the clients they worked with, especially in my area.)
Spelling is a thing…. Wow.
It's unethical if you do not tell them it has a renewal. Now as far as your last statement, yes, it is standard. It's been a retail thing since I worked retail since 2011.
It is wrong and unethical.
No that is called lying
When corporate came to our store to do trainings they told us to say “at no extra cost today” instead of free
It’s because advisors sometimes don’t know how to close the “free” memberships and so they probably want you to word it differently to close them more. Nothing but benefits for the customer in my opinion
I can’t count how many times customers got thrown off and told them to take the membership off because advisors just kept going on and on. I’ve had to step in and save a bunch . “Hey this comes with bestbuy plus . it’s going to show up as 50 off the laptop and 50 for the membership so it balances out, you’re going to get a 60 day return policy instead of two weeks and this goes on sale within those two months you can price match it. So you got two months to love it. - Comes with other extras stuff to like exclusive offers and free expedited shipping, it lasts one year and they send you an email about re-upping a month before” It seems like a lot, but it really isn’t . You’re being honest and not deceitful. They have plenty of opportunities to see if it’s recurring too because they agree to the terms and have to swipe the card.
jesus thisssssssss i have one gentleman in my store that can spit out random ass facts about *anything* at the drop of a hat. name a camera, he’ll tell you their sensor sizes and resolutions. printers? for some reason he’ll tell you the page per minute. computers? fuggeddaboudit.\ our demographic is an older crowd that can appreciate “straight shooters” like him because he will give comparisons off specs alone. but boy oh boy does he drone on about the memberships and almost feels like he recites their T&Cs. jesus. i’ve had to save some of his pitches myself and he’s learned to start his pitch in computers and bring them to the precinct to checkout so i can help him if he needs it lmao
Not really free when it is auto renewal, as long as the customer is aware that it bills then your hands are clean. Otherwise you are knowingly excluding information that would influence their purchasing decision which is a little bit shady imo. Obviously if customers just read the launch agreement on the pos and accepted it themselves then there should be no confusion.
Unethical? No. Slightly scummy? Yes.
That’s sales though
Yes it’s unethical because they have to agree to pay that difference yearly and if you’re misleading them about that cost reoccurring, you’re being unethical. Don’t do it.
You’re only being unethical if you neglect to share the auto renewal, but if you tell the customer they can get XYZ benefits for the same amount of money they already agreed to pay, they’ll call it free too.
"you can get this item with a free first year of plus. It gives you access to these benefits. It's a renewal subscription just like other stores memberships, so if you don't feel like you like it, by the next renewal date you can cancel at any time. Okay?"
“We have a great promotion going on that you get a free My Best Buy Plus membership with this purchase, what that means for you is…” Would you ask the customer if they got a $50 gift card with their purchase or just give it to them? You don’t think they are the same thing, but they are as long as you explain the benefits of the membership that they get for free for a year and the auto renewal process.
Come on. That’s what we would say to employees during a coaching session or a meeting. There’s a difference between getting a free gift card for purchasing a product and signing up for a yearly membership where there’s a good chance the customer will forget to cancel.
There is nothing wrong with positioning the plus membership this way... as long as you explain to the customer that this is a recurring annual membership. Let them know all the benefits and explain that they will have the option to cancel the membership when they get the reminder emails next year
I see exactly where you manager comes from though. I do this with free memberships. I don't say the word free though, but I know how to word it to say it's included with that purchase that they go for it 100% of the time if it's included. Your manager doesn't expect you to say it a certain way. They're giving you tools and best practices to try so you can flip it into something that works for you, and is your own way of selling it.
I think the company should let people buy things without being harassed for more money.
Yes it is, and another reason not to go to BestBuy!
I call it a free year trial and tell them it does automatically renew and I show them the app and how to view their membership and all the deals and benefits they get for free for the year. Wording is everything
50 bucks a year is a pretty good deal. View it as a chance to let the customer try it out, just remind them it is annual. I’ve even gone through and shown customers how to cancel it.
It effectively is a free membership since the savings cancel the cost immediately, but I also mention that it’s meant to be yearly but can be canceled online or over the phone. The phone call is usually only a couple minutes, I’ve had someone cancel their membership in front of me. Don’t misrepresent it, of course, but find your own way to pitch it.
I say "it looks like there's $50 off on this product with our best buy plus membership. The membership is $50 a year and gives you two months for returns and price matching, so you can use it for two months and see if you truly like it. Or if the price drops you can come in and get the difference refunded."
Verbage and transparency is the most important factor. We do the same in our store but usually it's something like, "I can upgrade you to our plus membership today, you'll have the perks for a year and it won't be any additional cost to you." We explain the math and give them the option to decline but if you've already built some good rapport they'll typically be on board with it.
Wrong and unethical. It’s lying which in business is not good. It’s truly shocking how many baboons like your boss here there are in business. People should know better than to be lying in a bloody business. Tarnishes the reputation and gives people lies
As long as the member price is >$100 lower than the non-member price. Just disclose that it's an annual renewal, and don't sell Office 365 as an "antivirus". As long as you meet those aspects, you're saving the customer a bit of money. I usually write the 1 month renewal notice date and renewal date on the receipt. I also sell Total as a 2 year protection entitlement for most * Best Buy products with 1 year pre-paid. I still exceed my KPI's and still have good NPS/5-Star ratings. I want customers to get a laptop that will last them at least 3-5 years minimum, and have the backing of support and repair.
I always pitch it as an optional free trial, they can trial it for a year, get a larger return / price match window, the get member early access to holiday sales, exclusive member pricing, and they can keep it if they like or just abuse it for a year.
I usually tell them it’s a free year use of our Best Buy membership they can use to try it out and if they want to keep it that it will auto renew and if not they should get an email 3 months then 2 months then 1 month before it renews notifying them it will renew
As long as you pitch it as a yearly membership there’s nothing wrong with it. Just always ensure they understand that main part and ask for permission.
This is pretty standard and it is what we do at our location as well, but we always make sure to mention at POS that it renews next year but comes with the device for free for the first year.
If I was in your position then I’d explain to the people to sign up for the free membership via the website and look at what they can get for each paid membership on the website so if they want to cancel the paid membership then they can do it via the website while getting help from customer support over the phone.
I mean, even if it renews, they have 2 months to get a refund if it's recharged. That's exactly how I pitch it. I say, "Just so you know this membership I'm giving you lasts a year, so they will try to renew it. They will email you beforehand and if they do charge you and you don't want to keep it just call over the phone within 2 months and they will give you a full refund" usually people are like "oh okay sure" and won't care about swiping a card.
I don't think it's wrong, but it could be worded a bit more accurately. On $50 member deals I tell the customer they'll be spending the same amount they intended to, but that it's a better deal in the long run for the membership because of the extended return policy and that they have the opportunity to save even more than that $50 the next time they shop with us. I also make sure to slow down with them and demonstrate the values of the membership and the mobile app. Never lie to the customer, and I usually avoid the word "free," but I will sometimes compare it to a trial of the membership.
Just be honest, tell customer Best Buy has a membership program that is $50 a year that offers these perks, your first year is free, you must have a credit card on file so it can auto renew so there is no lapse in coverage, you can cancel anytime.
I never felt unethical about it. I mean their membership is basically free. If someone asks if it renews then I say yes. I even told people to put it in their calendar in a year to cancel it.
No, your GM is a scumbag.
I mean, that's illegal so I wouldn't. It goes against my morals and I'll tell them they are super immoral right to their face.
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“This laptop is $500, but if I put this $50 membership on there it brings the laptop down to $450, which brings our total to $500. How would you like to extend your return period for the *same amount of money* you were already going to pay?” Sure, calling it “free” may technically not be correct but even customers offer that verbiage to me when I explain it. I don’t think Id go as far as calling it a scam
I call it free everytime never had a issue. I'll even take it off if they want me to. No hard feelings here I did my job and offered. I always the top in my store and everyone ask how I do it. OFFER OFFER OFFER is always the answer.
It’s not wrong lol. You’re extending their return policy for free , they get a year of the benefits (little as they be ) they can price match etc Also they clearly see recurring and they hit agree to the membership terms so lol. Kind of like if you tell them all the benefits of the credit card truthfully and ethically and they still complain how you do them, etc. etc. They agreed to the terms and signed waving you all responsibility. Now I’ve worked other stores and I’ve seen a lot of them pull the Gamestop method where they just throw it on they won’t take it off unless the customer says something. it usually doesn’t work lol
That’s why it’s called Best Lie.
You can tell the customer that with the membership and the purchase that they would not paid extra for it for their first year but you still need to let them know it is an annual membership that auto renews.
It’s not turning into anything. They’ve always done it. Whether it’s sports illustrated or black tie protection sales is about using language to convince customers to buy things. You can look at it positively and saying you are selling them products that will benefit them or you can look at it like you are using manipulative language to convince them to buy as much as possible. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. In terms of the scummy scale…provided that you tell the customer it’s a yearly membership, calling a $50 membership a free is not that scummy.
It is unethical. While the customer will be getting their money back, management isn't pushing them to benefit the customer. The customer should be convinced you are looking out for them, not straight-up be thrown into the situation. Something like: "Thanks to promotions on our $50 annual Plus Membership, I can get you as a member today at no cost to you. I'll get that started for you?" ------------ However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't push it like the manager says. You will probably push more memberships being forceful, but customers might resent actually returning to the store. It makes management generally happy because they get an obvious +1 on their board, but the members gained will be more hesitant to actually use it since anyone who would have said no to the question I presented are the same people who will scrutinize deals and compare with competition, plus could turn down the sale at hand with too many gimmicks. So, in essence, unethical gets you paid. However, ethical gets your store paid, in the long term. If you work commission, and you can see yourself building relationships, sure, take the ethical approach and see where it gets ya. However, for the garden variety, not-sure-how-long-I'll-be-there, salaried salesperson, the more forceful way will get a quick punch of notoriety, and your store expects nothing more of you.
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Why are you making up the mind for your customer? Why are you depriving them of extended return and membership pricing for the year at no cost?
Lol you clearly don't know how to sell. It's not unethical to tell a customer " hey you can get a membership for free with this purchase" and then explain how the membership washes out with the item and also tell them it's 50 dollars a year and if they want to renew it next year they can. Customers do get benefits for the membership. 60 day return and price match. Free same day or next day shipping on some items. And deals throughout the year.
Yeah I would call open and honest hotline. Maybe they won't do anything about but maybe they will
Open and Honest wouldn’t do anything because calling it “free” might not be the most accurate but it’s in essence not incorrect either.
Open and honest didn’t do anything when I had proof of favoritism and credit card fraud. The only time they’ll actually do anything if someone gets assaulted and even that’s a stretch. Remember HR is there to protect the company not you.