I found a decently powered, inexpensive laptop on Best Buy's web page. The customer reviews seem legit, and mostly positive for the model I found. Then I went to the closest location to purchase one off the shelf. I found the model I wanted, double checked the stats and waived down a sales associate informing her that I was ready to purchase. She started in on her spiel:
"Do you have any questions?" She asked.
"No, I did some online research and I'm sure this is the model I would like to purchase." I replied.
"OK, then, can I ask you what sorts of things you'll be doing with this computer?"
Instead of taking offense at the impertinent question I dodged, "Um, really, I know this is what I want. I just want to buy this computer."
"You know this computer doesn't really come with any software." She stated, matter of fact.
I stared at her blankly, looked down at the Windows Vista sticker on the display model. An operating system is not software? She continued, "Would you like Microsoft Office? Some anti-virus software? Anything?"
I knew the gig, she was trying to sell me a bunch of extra crap. I had heard another sales associate telling a bewildered, but patient customer how for only $50 the crack "Geek Squad" would remove the extra bloat-ware installed on the computer he was about to purchase, promising gains of 30% performance. I wasn't about to allow this to happen to me. I can uninstall bloatware fine all by myself, thank you very much.
I replied, "No, thanks!"
She deposited me at a counter, while some white shirted 18-22 year old males with spiked hair and headsets helped other customers and talked on the phone. The girl told me that one of these guys had to actually sell me the laptop. I stood there for 15 minutes. About 20 feet away from us, were some blue shirted employees standing in a group chatting, as apparently, business was slow. I waited more or less patiently (OK, not patiently, but I didn't start shouting or anything).
Next to me a girl was returning a laptop because it "kept shutting down" while she was using it. The white shirted kid explained that they could only accept the laptop for return in "like new" condition. He further explained that if there were any viruses on the hard drive, that the laptop could no longer be considered "like new," and that they would scan the hard drive for viruses to make sure.
All they need to do is put in the disk that returns the laptop to factory state regarding the hard drive. This is not hard to do. I started to figure something out. The white-shirted kids with the spiky hair and computer "know-how" were indeed members of the so-called "Geek Squad." One of these intelligent young men would gladly uninstall my bloat-ware or otherwise fleece me of my hard earned cash with some expensive hand-waving and blatant lies.
Here's what I did to uninstall the bloatware myself when I got home, I uninstalled Norton Anti-Virus from the Control Panel. Pretty tricky stuff. I just saved $50, and increased the performance of my computer 30 percent. Of course, one of the things they were trying to sell me at Best Buy was more anti-virus software. Go figure.
Final thoughts:
Web page: top notch, told me everything I needed to know about the laptop, even let me know which stores had it in stock. The information was accurate and the customer reviews seem legit. It also told me where the store was, and how late it was open. Web page gets a 9/10. It loses a point for being ugly as blue and yellow sin.
In-store customer service: At best, ignorant. At worst, lying thieves. Several employees of the store stood around while I waited in an empty line to buy the laptop for 15 minutes. Why were there so many employees in the store? Why did I wait so long, with only a handful or other customers in the store? Why was I asked what I was going to do with my laptop? Customer service: 1/10. They get one point for actually selling me the laptop and letting me leave the store with it.
