I was silly enough to go to the FutureShop today and I got a creepy feeling as though I was in Rome at the peak of Roman excess and gluttony. I was overcome by 5 foot tall TVs (the picture quality of a TV signal will only stretch so far) and stereos that look like totally x-treme moon landers. Egypt, Rome, Maya, and now America. I smell a civilization ripe for collapse!
This got me to thinking about a critical failing of capitalism (NOTE: this not constructive criticism, it’s just plain criticism). Companies exist to make a profit. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with this but it does have dangerous side effects. One of these side effects is that products are designed to make the sale in the showroom rather than actually perform well in day-to-day use. For example the automatic seatbelt in old Saturn cars. It was so cool on the lot, but two days later once you had bought the car it was like fingernails on a chalkboard. I should note that Saturn is the only car company I know of with a 30 money-back guarantee (GM deserves a nobel prize for mass consumer manipulation for the Saturn project).
The FutureShop salesman (or “associates” as they call themselves) may as well have ‘I get paid commission’ written on their foreheads. The company has overlooked the fact that generating more sales in the short-term is less profitable then creating long-term relationships with customers by being helpful rather than pushy. The sad truth is that I may be wrong about this.
Good ‘sales associates’ are helpful rather than pushy because they make more in commissions that way. As an ‘entertainment associate’ at Futureshop, I make no commision so do I really care about your level of customer satisfaction?
Then why are you working in Retail, where customer satisfaction should be the top priority? (A rhetorical question, no answer required).
Of all my encounters with FS Sale Associates, they were more interested in selling the extended warranties than selling the products. In fact, during my friend’s purchase of a $1100 Sony camera I intentionally clocked the SA. The time spent to push the extended warranty was three times the time spent on selling the expensive camera.
I am not blaming the SAs here. It is the way the system works, and at the end of the day everyone has to put bread on the table. It is the system that sucks, IMnotsoHO.
Commission salesmen know more about the products than non-commision staff in general. Unfortunately there are bad salesmen anywhere you go, but there are also good ones too that will make you feel good about your purchase and follow up on it after. There is a trade off between having knowledgable staff and running into the odd pushy salesmen. Suck it up.
Every store has a few good salesmen, ones who will help you out, try to give you a deal, and/or sneak cables and stuff into your tv box that you just bought. The store i worked at (as entertainment) had 2 of hte top salesman in canada working there…. They were great guys, had lots of “Celebrity” customers etc… the rest of hte people who worked there were all crap…. the psp is GOOD to buy, only on things that will for sure break… the amount of times people say its not worth it, try being on teh sales side, when you get 10 ps2’s a week or 3 xboxs back defective with no warrantees, im always like, i told you to buy it… now im not defending them, god i hate that place (6 years working). I told my customers, im not commision you can listen to me, im not gonna cut your arms off… it worked, i had at least 2 complimetns a week from customers, but what happens, i dont sell my psp and they start giving me flak? Bullsh*t…. so after 6 years of being probalby the best and most honest no-com sales person… i leave…. taking a good chunk of my customers with me….. but hey the new people they hired to replace me and the others that left… steal at least 15 games a week…. will i tell them? no… f*ck FS and Bestbuy..
Sales Dorks, Morons, and Doritos.
The Sales Associates at Futureshop don’t care about customer satisfaction.
Example 1. Harddrive purchase. Asked the sales associate numerous questions I had about the harddrive and he paused and then answered all my questions ‘yes, it will definately work, blah blah blah’, I then turned the box over and read the complete opposite of what he just told me. Moron. I went to the cash and had no trouble buying a great bag of Doritos though, maybe he would like the commision on that purchase. DORK
Example 2. Digital Camera Purchase. Was comparative shopping for a Sony Digital Camera. The one I wanted from another store had 3X Zoom (Optical not Digital). Long story short, the young female associate said she had a floor model the exact same as the one I was playing with in my hands at the store. I was zooming the lens in and out and she said she had that model for 200 bucks. The camera listed at 300. I asked her if it was the same camera and she ‘definately’ 3 times. It wasn’t the same camera. It had digital zoom not optical. Told her I wanted optical. She excitedly told me she had another floor model for 250. The price on the rack was 480. I said ‘ARE YOU SURE, that is the price,” again she said ‘definately’ 3 times. Go to the checkout and the camera was 460, the exact same price as the freakin tag in her hand. MORON, bought a bag of Doritos, set them on the floor and stomped on them BANG. They make more on selling Doritos and chocolate bars than selling electronics.
I went to the future shop in lethbridge today w/ my grand daughter looking for a phone for her and a digital camera for myself, I stood at the counter for 15min while 2 employees stood and shot the bull together,they did not ask or even seen interested in helping us as they both left the counter totally ignoring us. A@b sound or visions will appreciate my business more than futureshop.
Why would anyone wait 15 mins at a counter at FS? I mean, tell the freakin’ cronies to quit yappin’ and get to work. You’re too polite, man! You’re the customer.
Well I went to FS and had a great afternoon out!
Well enough of the BS. Here’s the truth…
Story 1:
Went looking for a wireless router in FS, Coquitlam.
Salesman who clocked me introduced himself and made a point of saying he was “a Cisco network certified engineer [therefore no BS shall pass my lips]”. I thought, and should have said, ‘If thats the case then why the feck are you working here!!’. Anyway, explained what I was looking for. Low an behold he recommends the most expensive thing in stock!
Anyway, after making him all depressed by being more interested in a cheaper [and, oh yeah, more suitable] model he said, “I have that one at home and I find that to get a decent signal I have to open my bathroom window. Are you _sure_ you want it?”. Cisco certified – really? Certifiable perhaps.
Story 2:
I went to FS looking at the cr*p PC audio equipment that they had to offer. I already had my eye on a nice little gadget from a different store, and was just doing the usual…can i get it cheaper? I also needed to get a new mouse for my PC.
Anyway, I had the mouse in my hand and was looking at the PC audio, a sales guy that clocked me and saw that i was looking at the audio stuff. As soon as I said, “look I’m only browsing right now [blah blah bah]” he thrust his ‘business’ card into my face and said when I go to pay for the mouse I _have_ to present them with this card. I said “thanks” walked off and threw the card. If I’d been more with-it i should have asked him what it’s worth to him and tied to get a cut of his commission. Might try that next time.
I am guessing this is not all Future Shop, I have shopped in 2 Future Shop’s in Calgary, the North Location did not help me at all and ended up leaving but When I went to macleod I wasnt even plannign to purchase anything but the Sales person cut me a great deal on speakers and a deck plus he gave a lot of useful information and I ended up buying 300 dollars worth of merchandise and 3 months later as I ready other competitors advertisements it’s still cheaper and works great.
here is a new complaint for you , i bought a “house brand ” computer system from the calgary n.e futureshop store in 2002 , still under warranty (snickers) , since i bought this pile of sh@*, the motherboard went,which took out the secondary hd, seeing how it wasnt installed by them ,they wouldnt replace the hd,np , then the video card went ,then on my most recent repair spree , i found ot the power supply isnt the one that the computer requires , i have also had it in 3 times for software issues , i was told the software issues were viruses, so after all this , i filed a complaint with fs , what a waste of time that is , by the way , on the last repair visit i found out i am the 3rd owner of this computer,lol , and to top it all off , i have been told by their tech. support people , there were many house brand computers sold with improper power supplies , and the recovery disc for the same computers all had issues also , guess what ? nobody was told about these problems , whan a good tip ? DONT BUY ANYTHING FROM THESE CROOKS!!!!!! , by the way the house brand is cicero
When I used to work at futureshop about 2 years ago (Information Products Group… computers in customer terms) there was alot of emphasis placed on the selling of extended warranties, percentages were to be kept, both on individual and store levels. The situation that often arrives in complaint fiction I hear about futureshop, is that somebody tried to sell them a $30 warranty on a 10$ keyboard. This is far off. The most expensive warranty sold on a printer is 49$, and thats for models over 500$. Keep it in line when you’re making up your sob stories please. A good sales associate can make 30$/hour easily just by being a well-informed and receptive person.
Situation 1: You want to buy a laptop. You have shopped around, laptop models are one thing that are not unique to stores, hence, a toshiba p20 will be the same model in futureshop as it will be in staples. Knowing this, you haggle for the price a bit, you get your lowest price guarantee, and then after you’ve asked the mandatory 100 questions that your friend told you to ask and quite frankly, you don’t know what they mean, you remember he spoke of a 1 year manufacturer’s warranty. Now you remember that your friend told you about the vicious salespeople at futureshop and their bloodthirsty warranty pitch, but somehow this person doesn’t seem to be like that. He is informed, knowledgable and curtious to boot. He explains that most people keep their laptops for more than 2 years, infact the average is closer to 3 years. He then explains that it is only covered for 1 year by the manufacturer, hold on. Is he pitching the warranty? Some light goes on in your brain and you immediately say “No, thank you, i’m fine with the 1 year warranty” without even thinking for yourself. Now if you’re a sheep, this is fine, you can just regurgitate opinions and decisions that somebody else force-fed you earlier. If for example, you’re a professional making an intelligent purchase that you intend on keeping, you might just want to listen to what he has to say and then make your OWN decision. After all, your friend probably wont pay to replace your harddrive when it fails. So instead of being naive, you decide to listen in and hear what there is to hear. Through your amazing powers of deduction, you learn that manufacturer warranties only cover what is in teh main shell, screen excluded, battery excluded, power adapter excluded. So what usually breaks on a laptop you ask, however you aren’t the one who has been working with them for 3 years, processing the returns and repair requests. So instead you ask him, what usually breaks on a laptop? And this is where you can tell if he’s a liar or not. If he says the screen breaks most often, then he’s interested in the “that could cost you more than the laptop” pitch, which is quite frankly bs. If he tells you a harddrive or power adapter, he’s right, and he’s giving you honest feedback based on years of experience with the product that you’re considering purchasing. He also tells you it covers theft transfer, but laptops don’t get stolen, do they? Also if you have a repeat problem (such as a faulty power adapter that blows the motherboard capacitors) then this problem is likely to happen more than once. Meaning you are going to have to sit there with your pompous thumb up your pompous ass for 2 weeks while it gets repaired, 3 times. So finally you get to the point where your laptop breaks again. You are about to go postal on some suspecting customer service representative (who make 9$ an hour, next time you are thinking of bitching at them). This is, fortunately for you, something that the warranty company (federal warranty) has thought about, and instead of wasting their money and your time, they give you a new model off the shelf, JUST LIKE THAT. You walk out with a new computer and your warranty coverage continues on that model. But that only happens about 10 or 12 times a week, compared to the 40-50 laptops a regular class A store will put out. Wait a minute, 10-12 times a week out of 40-50 sold? thats almost a 25% ratio. meaning that for every 4 laptops sold, one gets replaced. So why the hell is the warranty so expensive… I wonder. Face it, extended warranties offer better service to customers. When your shit breaks most likely do to your gross incompetence and lack of expertise on teh object in question, you will bring it back and get it resolved. Instead of throwing it out and getting another one, or hassling the manufacturer to cover it when its 2 days out of your warranty coverage or somethign isn’t covered.
Some products are exempt from this, obviously a laptop is expensive and fragile, and to be honest, they are making them alot cheaper nowadays than they were 3 years ago (when they came with 3 year warranties and costed 2,000$ anyways). Stuff such as printers and scanners rarely break within the extended warranty period, and if they do, its probably worth your while to accept defeat and buy another one, “the quality will be impeccable” compared to your 3 year old model. Rule of thumb is, if the warranty doesn’t bother you in terms of price, its not worth it. If you’re buying a $5,000 tv, chances are the warranty isn’t going to be $99.99. This is because to send a service rep to your house costs over 100$. Go figure. Assuming the average large screen lcd projection tv needs to be realigned every 2 years to keep even a shallow 480i resolution sharp. This will cost you, without a service plan, 150$, assuming the guy takes cash, with an invoice and credit card payment, you will be in the close proximity of 200$. Minimum 2x during the 5 year lifetime of your tv. Most people who know what they’re doing will perform this once per year (example, the salespeople who DO own the tv’s you drool about in the projo room). I’m sure that if you were able to read your way through this reply all the way to here without incurring brain injury, you can work the math on that.
Just for the record, staff commission is 15% on extended warranties, meaning on a “30$ keyboard warranty” they make 4$. Hardly worth the effort, don’t you think, considering a printer cartrige (from hp) pays close to 3$ each. Where they make money on warranties, is on big ticket items that even consumer reports recommend buying warranties on.
So why is it profitable for these companies to sell you warranties? First off, they can pay technicians 8$/hour to fix your defective products, where as you pay 80$ an hour for manual labour on the same product. They also have a large spare parts depot they can pull resources from in the event of a repair. Since the defacto standard manufacturer warranty has dropped to 1 year (3 months in some cases, ex. ps2, xbox, most computer accessories), some small companies like HP, Toshiba and Dell, have realized they can save upwards of 400$ per laptop by eliminating the 2 last years of the warranty. Hence the 400$ computers and 1000$ laptops. Bottom line is, its cheaper in bulk, and when you buy things in the quantities futureshop does, you get bulk prices. On a scale this large, its called wholesale.
Warranties have costs too, futureshop does not ‘make’ these warranties nor do they enforce their policies. They are a merchant of a service, they buy them from a company called Federal Warranty, and they sell them to you, so you’re getting a bulk price on service. It has margin like every other accessory for a product, and margin = profit, just as it does with cables and cartriges.
Lastly, instead of being ignorant and dumb, use the warranty to your advantage. Most sales associates that push the warrantise hard are doing so because their percentages are low, and they are stressed about sinking further. Here’s where your cutthroat negociating skills come in. Ask him what he’s willing to do for you in terms of product price or accessory leeway if you do take the warranty, I think in terms of financing offerings and ‘goodies’ you can make up for that difference in price quite quickly. An associate will take the commission cut on the accessories to make it back off the warranty, and keep his percentages high. Plus you’ll find your associate to be MUCH more helpful if you listen to what they have to say about the warranty. Its your tool, use it.
And for those of you that STILL have a problem, well, sometimes life does that to you, i’m sure you’ll get used to it some day.
I agree with Alex,
Stuff that is sold in futureshop is only there because alot of people buy it. Bestbuy (Which owns Future Shop) is the biggest electronics retail chain in the world, which tells you that obviously they must be doing something right. In any situation/business there are some people that get a poor opinion of that company, I’m sure all of you reading this right now can even find one client or employee of the company you work for that is not pleased by something about it.
The point is some people on this earth were put here to complain about anything they can’t quite comprehend or control and that’s the way life is. If Radio shack were the biggest electronics retailer in the world, This entire post would be of people complaining about that company and different aspects of it. If you don’t like something, you are not forced to buy it in any store.
But in reality, the people who are in this world making a difference, also have money because what they focus their energy on is making that difference; not complaining about something they have the freedom of choosing, Like what store they will buy their electronic product.
We all know it, Murphey’s law states that if everything is working right, then something will go wrong. Statistics state the same thing. no matter what, there is not a single product that will last forever, everything has a little timer on it that will, at one moment or another, run out; no matter what store or company you have bought it from. We can all agree, BMW makes a high quality car. Behind every BMW Car sales depot, there is a repair center, Meaning even the high quality product will break.
So instead of wasting your time whining about your product that broke, do like those other people I mentioned above and make a difference in this world. First thing you should do is open your own retail chain in electronics and then make it more successful than Future Shop/ Bestbuy.
Just in case that doesn’t work for you, Shut up anyways!
HEY ALEX!
I found you. I hope you are doing well.
oxox
SANDY
You;re all retqarted
You are indeed the most retarded, with your exemplary punctuation talent.
Moron.
I worked there also. I know as a fact you are highly pressured to sell warranties that are more then the product themselves. Even when its over the counter exchange so you could not possibly come out ahead. Check out headphones(personal electronics category?) and I remember once $9 clearance speakers with like a $29.99? warranty for car. If you don’t do the entire bullshit presentation and attach the psp to the recipt and they noticed at the door they would write you up. Horrible place to work or shop.
I used to be a manager at futureshop. Reading some of the stupid things people say makes me laugh. Sales associates are not pressured to sell service plans they are pressured to present them properly. Todays electronics are more complicated and can be a major problem when something happens outside of the manufacturers warranty. Why do you think manufacturers keep reducing the length of their warranties. Customers need to know all the details about the service plans that are available so they can make a wise decision.If service plans were such a bad idea, then why does 90% of futureshop staff members buy them. Answer:because they see the number of people who are getting repairs or exchanges when things go wrong. They also see the idiot who comes back to the store and insists that futureshop should do something for them because their product should last longer or my favorite, they expect that a good brand name should never have a problem. Looking at half the crap that gets posted here makes me sick. The same people complaining have problems everywhere they go. If its not futureshop its someone else. Some of the associates who post are the same idiots who can’t follow simple instructions like how to tie your shoes. They should quit futureshop and get a job at McDonalds. Sorry, you wouldn’t cut it there either, you need to ask customers if they would like a drink with their meal. Imagine the pressure. Futureshop: great company.
BUNCH OF NOOBS… JUST DIE
numbers4 = idiot
I am rep at future shop so I technacally don’t work for they I just work with them and every day I hear complaining about when one of the sales staff made a sale they did not buy Product service plan or what I have come to know it by (Juice). One other thing I did not see mentioned above was monster cable and how they are harped on to sell that when in actual fact unless you ahve a giant screen plasma with the latest sound system, they don’t really make a whole lot of difference. They treat their employees like garbage and unless you have that loud annoying fake laugh you hear all the time there when they are processing a sale, you will always be treated like that there. Being a rep there I am not told to push future shops Juice but I actually explain the manufacters warrenty because trust me the sales associate has no clue what the warrenty you get with your product covers, they will actually make up something to sound bad adn plant the seed in your head for you to buy juice. I have a poliocy on the future shop product service plan and that is anything purchased over $600, because that is what I am willing to loose before I get really PISSED OFF !!!
Warranties are great. I, like millions of consumers, have an inherent tendency to fuck stuff up. Expensive stuff, at that. I do consider myself to be very thrifty, but when I was offered a 3 year extended warranty ($35 CND) on a DVD burner ($130 CND), I took it. Not because of the economics behind wholesaling, or the fact that they seemed a little too eager to sign me up, but because I knew my chances of having something crap-out days after the manufacturer’s warranty expired were extremely high. In 2 years, and 10 months, I didn’t want to be sitting at home with a DVD burner that doesn’t read CDs, and refuses to let Windows in on exactly what it’s so ‘busy’ doing.
Wouldn’t you know it, my drive broke a year and thirty days after I bought it – a month outside the manufacturer’s warranty. Luckily for me, DVD drives, and other similar items are straight-exchange. So I walked out with a new (now top-of-the-line) DVD drive, AND another 3 year warranty.
I’m not a statistics major, but this makes sense to me:
$130*2 (new drive) + [shitload of frustration] > $130 + [costs of intricate repairs] > $35 – [worrying about it crapping out early]
not bad.
why is it that a lot of the people that are customers sound like retards, and former employees bitches. If you want service, ask for fks sakes, don’t stand there like a retard, no one can read minds, stupid fks. If you don’t want to buy something, don’t, no one holds a gun to your head, dumb fks, if you want an answer to something ask a question, fking retard. As for the employees you know what you were getting into when you started, if you can’t hack it leave, losers. God, quit fking bitching about shit that aren’t even problems, people are poor in the world with no food, water, money, future, with diseases, and you fks complain about somebody talking to you, or how you don’t like working for money. Give me a fking break
Future Shop is the shittiest place to shop ever.
Fuck that company and their fourth rate staff.
Never again will I shop there.
I bought an emachines laptop[1][2][3] at Future Shop in October last year. Three weeks into daily use, the hinges started to crack and I went back to Future Shop to replace the unit.
I was suprised to hear that FS doesn’t replace or exchange laptops past a two-week period of use. I requested to talk with the sales manager and I pointed out the obvious fault on the product. He told me that FS doesn’t conduct business with emachines anymore because of a lot of product returns and that I needed to get in contact with emachines and handle the issue myself.[3]
I was flabbergasted.
Am I expecting too much? Wouldn’t a retailer be responsible for these kind of defects? I am definitely not going to buy anymore merchandise from FS, if FS doesn’t feel responsible for their products after x days of sale.
[1] More like a portable workstation.
[2] I know that it was a horrible mistake.
[3] Without the extended warranty.
[4] Later I contacted emachines and the lappy was repaired.
Well, now for that last comment, ask your self one question… Who Made the Product (not future shop). E-machines made it so I only see it far that they turn you away. Just think of all the products in the store. There are a lot of them, and future shop offers a 14 day return poliocy as well as a product service plan (which you should of bought). If you ever do not want this to happen again either buy that service plan or buy it from costco (return poliocy is 6 months) or staples (Return poliocy is 30 days).
someone posted that future shop is owned by best buy and since they are big they are doing things right. hello? just because you’re big doesn’t mean you do ANYTHING right. nike making kids in china put their shoes together for a nickel an hour then selling it for 120 bucks… where is that right?
check out best buy’s history with the better business bureau. what? you can’t find it? oh, thats right. its because the bbb pulled their membership until the best buy’s next board meeting due to excessive complaints.
I made the mistake of buying something online. I received an E-Mail from the shipping firm that they would deliver my product on a certain date between 8am and 7pm. I waited all day and nothing. I called the customer service desk at 11 am that morning and they said it’ not 7pm yet. I called again at 6:30 pm and I received the same answer. I called again at 7 pm and they said tey would E-Mail the shipping firm. I requested a full refund. It’s two days later and after repeated calls to customer service I still don’t have my refund. FS did not meet there obligation and now I’m waiting for a refund. This is the most incompetent company I have dealt with. Do the people who work there not have a conscious. We are hard working people.
3 Full Years Warrenty! No Lemon Guarantee!
How about everytime they take time for repair, which you paid for, they add it back, you paid for three years repair
warrenty, but in reality, your product may have more lifetime on the repair store’s shelves waiting while you suffer without
it.
Easy solution: Add that store’s 30 days of uselessness to my original purchase date, make my time worth while, or give me
half the time plus another one to borrow?! I mean you’re working hard for me and your technicians are all A+ Certified?
BTW, what ever happened to the good old days where you could just buy something knowing it was made well and going to work
well even though you had no returns, and now’a days we have all this technology but where’s the human mind left at?
I couldn’t find a soul out of 4 people I asked, all futureshop employees, and they were all in less than 10 feet of where the
product I was looking for was supposed to be, with all the other keyboards, right?!
So they didn’t even know how to finish a sentence, I found myself dumbfounded! Unbelievable that four ‘smart’ techies
couldn’t help me out, maybe they didn’t want to admit the product was sold out, or maybe they were just too stupid to hear
the words that were coming out of my mouth!
So I am trying to type on this stupid MS keyboard here, and it’s not that good, but why spend $100 on a wireless key+mouse
when I can just spend $30? at Futureshop? Especially when I can’t find the damn thing!
The Extended warrenty would be ok you’d think. Well, in this case: NO.
I bought this HP All-In-One printer from them, and (read on):
“No Lemon Guarantee
If your product requires more than three major repairs, we’ll provide you with a replacement product.”
I guess having them help me for the 3rd time was a mistake. I brought it back for the 3rd time (I recall, may have been 2nd
time) for a tune up or something was wrong possibly, but not the same as what I got back, they returned it too me after 30
days or so damaged.
I brought it home once again, only to find that one of the “certified” techies busted off a peice by mistake, so I was unable
to install the printer cartridge, which probably may have lightly damaged the connection face of it (the cartridge) on my
initial try.
So I bring it in again, and they give me a replacement, now, I do think I only brought mine in for a tune-up, not a major
repair which after 3, they will give a replacement, and I know I hadn’t brought it in for any major repairs yet, so why do I
get screwed and end up with a machine that someone else used, who in fact smoked;
when I did a color copy from the 3-in-1 device (hadn’t used very often, mainly printed), I got this weird thick yellow line
on the right side inside of the scanner lid, so I scanned a movie cover (not with the plastic) and I see all these strange
lines about a millimeter apart, green like all over the image, (keep in mind I did an alignment and cartridge clean before
this), and on the right, a fat yellow (like smoke) line.
Since this product is a referbished unit, and not NEW like the device they screwed-up as I earlier mentioned, I am stuck with
crap.
So these sales men at futureshop are great! they tell you all the exciting things about their warrenties and why you should
“sign here” as I had when I paid with my PC Mastercard.
So they got this No Lemon Guarantee they explained to me, and also a Replacement Guarantee.
Will someone tell me how a new unit needing a tune-up is supposed to be replaced by a upgraded referbished model (which isn’t
any better, as the design is ugly, and it’s a 5-in-1, sure! great right?! nope!
I don’t have the need to use it as a fax machine, nor can I use the 3 card slots as my Camera card is SD, which isn’t
supported, I don’t see how that helps, you fucked it up FutureShop, so you should make amends and fix it! Not to mention the
the LCD screen is scratched and looks yellowy besides the natural new green which still looks fading.
Back to the future right? I think that they are living in the past, they have forgot what it means to give a no lemon
guarentee to a customer, because I am that customer and I think I am in a bit of a lemon here don’t you?
Why doesn’t futureshop consider that eventually all their cheap advertising cons will be easyier to see, and the blindfold
will come off the people and the store will go out of business. Times change, People change, Life changes, and it’s a painful
process!
Does it have to be the way I just above mentioned? No! Customer Service, humm? lets think about that one! Why do we tell
customers all the nice things we’ll be happy to do for them, when we deny them that same service when a real problem (lemons
are yellow) arises!
Especially since they have plenty of shoppers, great advertising and plenty of other things, like extended warrenties that
keep bringing you back into their store, where when you have returned you will be treated much differently than when that
sales man talked you into buying that item you were looking at.
Lets all live in the present, until Futureshop corrects my matter in a customer appreciative way, I don’t think I will be
doing further business with them, and maybe you should consider that too!
I bought a fridge from future shop nothing but trouble
with no help from future shop date purchased 11/08/05 todays date 06/10/05 and they refuse to help never purchased extended warranty I wish they told me that they wouldn`t help after 30 days I will not buy from them again WAYNE A
I worked there for 4 months was top 10% in sales i sold alot of PSp but when my 51 inch big screen broke which i spent 349.99 on the psp they said they could not find me so i am shit out of luck so i quit PSP is no good they fire people who do not sell psp very good they want 8% or better i was 11.5% …..
I also worked there and i was horrified when i caught a girl sucking the managers cock . Then i knew why she was getting away with stealing sales and saying lies about people. when i went to the manager a week before to complain i was told i was wrong that “she was not like that” there were like 20 complaints about her but my friend jack was fired for tewlling her off for stealing his sales….. Just goes ot show cock suckers get ahead no matter what..
I would like to respond by saying jack got fired for not selling enough psp he was at 7.5% that is not good enough we want to take all the customers money because we deserve it
fs is a scam i will never buy from there agian this salesman stole my wallet and the store manager stuck up for him and said no he did not but i called the cops and he got arrested serves him right !
Yes i agree with almost everyone futureshop is full of a bunch of thieves my cousin worked there and her manager asked he to suck his penis or he would make her life hell . The entertainment worker was having sex with a warehouse worker she is married with 3 kids and he has a girls friend with kids sex at futreshop is running rampant
Here is a little tip for someone who works at future shop and wants to catch people lying or whatever. BUY a Recorder, you could get them really cheap with your employee purchase. Then you wont have to suck anyone off!
I too have experienced the aggressive, condescending, and blatantly insulting manner in which many of their “sales Associates” push the Product Service Plan or Extended Warranty. They nearly always try to embarass you to take it, “You’d have to be STUPID not to buy it”, I’ve been told more than once, on declining the offer.
But their lower prices and a lack of serious competition allowed me to just barely tolerate their pushy behaviour with what has become an automatic response – NO! I’m not interested in the PSP!
But my latest sour experience with them was delivered by my friendly postman. I didn’t even have to visit the store to be aggravated by them this time!
This was truly “The straw that broke the camels back!”
Over the last week I have become a target of FUTURE SHOP’s Credit Services Supplier’s – NEW automated telephone harassment strategy.
It has left me with such a bad impression of their store(s) that I felt that I just had to mention why I intend to no longer shop there.
First of all, let me tell you that I haven’t purchased anything on their FUTURE SHOP credit card for years. Then all of a sudden I get a bill! – For the “Privilege” of using THEIR card. Well needless to say I promptly called the number on the bill and cancelled the card. Then arrived, a few days later, the confirmation of cancellation letter. (End of story? – oh, NO!)
The next week brings 2 automated FUTURE SHOP harassing phone calls, from a “Blocked Phoned Number!” – that spits out some provocative message about calling the FUTURE SHOP CREDIT SERVICES… IMMEDIATELY – Even on a Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. while I’m having dinner with my family.
So, after calling back to find out what the hell THIS was all about and being forced to remain on hold for more than 20 mins, a person who would only identify herself by her first name, argued with me for another 10 mins, that I owe money on an account I don’t use, and for a card I don’t want – and certainly won’t PAY for!
Basically, the amount that I supposedly owed them was the NEW $25.00 so-called MEMBERSHIP fee itself!
So, It appears that “NO, I’m not interested” is now interpreted as, Oh Yeah! We’ll just see about that Mister! -> Transfer to FUTURE SHOP Collections Services – [We Have Ways of Making You BUY Our Credit Card! -> [Insert Harassing Phone Calls Here]
It appears that rather than offer “basic” customer service and appreciation, their strategy is to harass you with their credit agency for services you don’t want – and then buy up all the competition and leave you no place to go [Don’t like FutureShop – Go to BestBuy – Same difference!]
Well, no more – Good-Bye [Future Shop/Best Buy] – Whatever!
I can only wonder what they might do if you really did owe them a past due payment!
Former [FUTURE SHOP]…and now -> former [BEST BUY] customer as well!
(Heck, I Feel Better Already – Anybody know where I can get a really good deal on an MP3 player?
GO and buy stuff from costco if it is in the area, they have the best return poliocy in the business 1 year for almost everyhting and computers and laptops the return poliocy is 6 months heck future shop and best buys return poliocy is just 14 days so from now on if you do not want to get hasseled by anyone go to Costco and buy something and in some cases return it 364 days later for a full refund even if you don’t have the reciept or the box it came in, they will give you cash back, I know because it returned something that stoped working, it rules. Also if you wan’t a cell phone and costco has a bell or rogers or what ever cell provider get it from there, the reason is that every business that sells in costcos doors has to adopt their return poliocy so if you want a cell phone get it from there and if 6 months rolls around return it for the refund and a free break of contract. The cell phone bit is what a senior employee told me. Thanks and to everyone who is looking for an alternative chooose costco even though they are a massive american company they treat their “Members” with a tone of respect and it shows just use their washroom and read the sign that all employees are to wash their hands with hot soapy water.
Wow. You all need to live in a third world country and worry about something that REALLY MATTERS!!!
does it matter if the fking associate was PUSHY?
did you still go home and eat your lovely dinner with your quaint family?
god people, pick up some anti-depressants or something.
Wow as if you brought out that card. I know that some of the people on this site complain alot but hey it’s in our nature to complain. I am sure that if I was living in a third world country my perspective would change but this is our reality and I often know that there are other people out there who are far worse off than I am. So I think how I will never complain again and then I find something new to complain about. What I am saying is at least we are talking about money we spent to better our economey and not drinking beer and kicking the shit out of eachother. Let us complain and those of us when the day of reckoning comes we will get our punishment. We can’t help where we live we all did not choose to live in this world so what did we do, we learned how to adapt to our sourndings.
I can honestly say that a lot of the stuff I am reading on this site is false. A company as large as FS is going to have some bad apples in the mix….what large company doesn’t? However, being pushy and getting fired for not selling PSP is completely and utterly false. There are a lot of emotions being spilled on here and heresay. The lady regarding the FS card and being billed for a $25 membership fee, is completely false as well for the simple fact that THERE IS NO MEMBERSHIP FEE. I am sure you have a valid complaint for something, but there is no need to make stuff up to make your complaint seem bigger and mightier then it really is……get a life!
How do you know about not selling PSP I work as a rep and I am there all the time and everyone I work with always complains that if they don’t sell enough psp they are getting the can or getting demoted. As for the lady with the membership fees, ya I agree with you on that one she is a crazy bitch.
Future Shop sucks….period. I hate that friggin store, I realise there are way bigger problems in the world, but in the scale of annoying salespeople…they are definitely up there. I have never come across such rude, inempt, pushy people in my life…where do they get these workers. It pisses me off when they bombard me with unwanted help on the salesfloor or ignore me at the counter, but worst of all is when they give the wrong info…morons…I try my very best to not step foot in there. FS needs more competition.
well interesting enough i worked at FS for 4 years and at business depot for 2 and compusmart for 2 years and every one of those jobs rely on selling warranties to help service you better. It’s easy to say you never got service when you never paid for it. but reality is everything costs money even good service……I won’t say that Future Shop sales guys can be pushy but realize that these days every company is a little pushy when it comes to warranty even non commissioned places like Staples. If you don’t ever want to worry about warranty by sesposible stuff at Wal Mart and Costco. I left FS because they made me dust and restock, i am a salesman and My PSP was 13 percent in the st catharines store, they shouldn’t make a salesguy bringing the bread and butter clean dust off of scanners and ink cartridges,,,,how drole!!!!!! Either way Everything i have ever bought from there i bought the warranty as well and out of 15 times purchased i used 7 times so i pretty much broke even… You just have to be smart and look at the facts of every product, Business depot covers batteries on laptops and palm pilots what a concept. Cosco sells crap compared to any of these places i worked at, I love compusmart for computer stuff even the sales reps are A+ certified including myself…..small store with only important products not a giant store with 50% crap surrounding the worthwhile stuff. After all said and done buy warranty with confidence and piece of mind and remember quality is not always judged my size of store or marketshare……..from joe know it all…
I too have had it up to here with futureshop.
Time for a change! If people would just stop buying because ”
Dam You Can’t Beat That Price!!” Well when its broke and noo nes intrested in helping you cause its work with out a reward to them!
I bought a car stereo and for some reason I decided to let them install it, they told me it would take 4 hours to install. They got my car and pulled my factory radio out and told me that it had a seperate amp in it so they wouldn’t be able to install the new stereo without replacing all the speaker wire and all the speakers in the car. I told them not to touch my car and I took it to a small local stereo shop. I had to buy a 6″ RCA cable and they installed it without any problems.
So I couldn’t help wondering which of the following was true;
1. The ‘qualified’ installers at this FutureShop don’t actually know what they are doing with anything other than your basic chevy cavalier.
2. The ‘qualified’ installers at FutureShop work on commission.
or
3. A little of both.
An email to Futureshop customer service, should I send it?
To whom it may concerned,
I am sending this email to describe to you my unpleasant experience with one of your sales associate (SA) at one of futureshop’s store, his lack of honesty and zero commitment to provide good costumer services are, well, VERY disappointing.
I recently visited a Futureshop store, looking for a LCD monitor. When I found out that one of the same LCD was on-sale at Staples, and the price there is $80 lower, I decided to take advantage of the ‘lowest price guarantee’ policy you have.
Once I mentioned to the SA that I have seen the same model but cheaper ones at staples, and asked about the lowest price guarantee policy, I felt that he absolutely has no desire to serve me.
It took about 20 minutes for him to confirm that the same model is in stock at the staples, and when I decided to buy the LCD, I got a chance to see the ‘real’ SA in action.
First of all, the lowest price guarantee states that Futureshop will beat the price of the competitor by 110%, and I am VERY sure he knew about that. But at first, the price he entered was just a 100% match. After I asked him, he said “sure, we can do that”, and then he subtracted $3. Well, it should have been $8, so I asked him again. He said something, but I don’t think he knew what he was doing (or he just wanted to fool me). Anyway I let it go because it wasn’t a big deal.
I didn’t test the LCD at the store (which is a terrible mistake), and when I set it up at home, there is a dead pixel right at the center of the screen. So we went back and asked for an exchange. His services got even worse. He first tested the unit and confirmed that there is indeed a dead pixel. After that he grabbed a new unit and tested it. He then came back and asked me to check it. I immediately spot one, even though they (he and the tech guy) didn’t make the inspection any easier.
If you have some knowledge in computers, at least for the tech guy, you should know that showing a black screen and a white screen are the easiest way to spot the dead pixels, but they didn’t show me those, instead, they maximized the IE (it is not even blank) with a search page at google.com. At that point, I realized that they don’t really want to help me with the inspection, they just don’t want me to spot the dead pixel. They even laid the LCD down so that the dead pixel isn’t that obvious at all from a different angel.
After I pointed it out that there is still a dead pixel, they first said it is just dust and tried to clean it. But it was still there. And then, they spent a minute or so trying to convince me that it is no big deal that LCD has dead pixel on it, and I should just go with this one. This is the MOST upsetting thing I have ever heard at any store. What kind of SA would tell the customer, “Look, this is good enough for you, take it.”? Was I buying the LCD or was I begging for it!!!??
But at the end, the manager came, took a look at the LCD, and then he told the SA to get another unit. This unit has no dead pixel, and I am glad that that was it.
Anyway, what I would really want to know is that, did the SA behave like that because of your training, or because of lack of training? Either way, please make sure everyone of your SAs knows that they are there to serve the customers (us) only, and they should never attempt to make extra bucks by fooling the customers.
Thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
One pissed-off customer
I was working there for 2 years,,,I love it soooooo much that the day i got fired i pissed all over females washroom!
Futureshop rocks!!!
It is really too bad to hear all the negativity that some people have. I have been a Future Shop employee for nearly three months now, and honestly I really enjoy it. It is a fun atmosphere to work in and to be able to work with all the latest technology is a great perk.
With that said there are some things that you should really be aware of, so I would like to dispell some myths.
1. SA’s are not commission. SA’s (Sales Associates) only make money on selling Product Service Plan. PE’s (Product Experts) like myself are commission. Why you may ask? PE’s are expected to have a high level of knowledge, most people with this level of knowledge require a high rate of pay. By selling on a commission base I am motivated to be the best I can be so that I can make more money. This doesn’t mean being pushy, this means being the best educator I can be so that the customer can make the best decision.
Because SA’s are not commission and the wage is usually lower for them the quality of knowledge does at times seem to be lacking. Often times they are students that are part time or seasonal. I have witnessed how Future Shop does the best to train them, but there is only so much training you can do in a staff room before you have to let them out and try their knowledge out on real customers.
2. Product Service Plans are not just a money grab. It was not Future Shop that reduced the manufacturers warranties to one year or less. It really was the greed of the companies that has done this. We also see less quality in the components themselves along with the manufacturers quality control dropping. Product Service Plans are there to protect the consumer so that they can get more than just one year or less life expectancy out of the product. Yes Future Shop does profit from the Product Service Plan, just the same as the insurance company that I pay my $35 a month to does.
3. Lowest price guarantee does not work. As much of a PITA they are I have seen some people get some incredible deals due to price matching. We will match the price plus give you another 10% of the difference. The store does make us as salesmen call the other store and verify that it is in stock which makes sence, but trying to get a hold of some other stores to verify this may take some time.
4. Future Shop is perfect. Look, Future Shop the last time I checked was still run by humans, and also the last time I checked humans were inperfect. Yes Future Shop does employ some bad eggs, but the majority of us are doing our best to make sure that you the customer are fully satisfied. I have witnessed many, very satisfied customers and some vocal disatisfied but over all I know that Future Shop’s puts customer service as its number one priority. I welcome any comments or questions.
First of all, I would like to thank ‘Future Shop Employee’ to clear things up a bit. Your information certainly is helpful, but I do have some comments on your responses and some follow up questions.
1. What is the purpose of having SAs and PEs in the stores? I would think they are there to a) provide customer services and b) to sell as many things as possible. But from your comment #1, I don’t see ‘providing customer services’ can affect your earnings at all, and this really worries me. Note that selling a lot of things doesn’t necessary mean that you provide good customer services, people sometimes buy something simply because they need it.
Let’s be honest, things at futureshop don’t come cheap, I can only think that most of the extra money goes into customer services and maintaining the stores. But for my last visit, I ‘paid’ for the customer services which I didn’t get.
On the issue of ‘commissions’ or ‘making money from selling PSP’, personally, I don’t think they should be there at all. The moment your livelihood is depended on something, your suggestions / recommendations are no longer objective (untrue for really really good, but rare eggs), and I don’t think that is fair to the customers who pay to get some decent services and some honest opinion.
How to make it fair? Make sure the customer satisfaction (not product satisfaction) is taken into account when paying the employees.
Here’s what I think how it should be done.
For every closed sells, the SAs or PEs should give the customer their names (or whatever can be used to identify them), and ask the customer to fill out a simple form (online or at the store) with the sells’ number and employee ID to provide some feedback on his/her customer services (can be as simple as ‘good’ or ‘bad’). And if the number of ‘goods’ is much larger than the number of ‘bads’, then I think this employee deserved the commissions, or money from selling PSP, but if it is the other way, then ‘You’re fired!’.
2. For the Product Service Plans (PSP), although I think it is a good option to have, it should really depend on what kind of product you are looking at, and the SAs should not blindly recommend it. For example, for the 19″ LCD ($379) I purchased, it would cost me $109 for a four-year PSP, and $139 for a five-year PSP. Do you think it is a good deal? I don’t.
The LCD is from SAMSUNG, and the chance of the LCD stops working all of a sudden is very slim. Moreover, the LCD already comes with three-year warranty, if something does go wrong, shipping fee is all that will cost me. Finally, PSP will extend the warranty period to four or five years, well, technology is changing fast, I might not even keep the LCD for three years, why would I want to extend its warranty period? I don’t know what others think, but I think in my case, the PSP is more like money grab than ‘insurance’.
Then again, I think PSP is a good option to have, but there are times when the customers just don’t need it. Your SAs, at least the one who served me, do not think for the customer, and only push for the PSP regardless of what kind of product you are buying. Just like most people hate the telemarketing people, or insurance salesman who ask you to buy things you don’t need, we dislike the SAs.
3. Maybe I didn’t make it clear, I don’t really care about the 20 minutes it took to verify the other retailer is selling the same model cheaper, I am disappointed by the fact that this particular SA knowingly give me only 100% price match, and when I asked him about it, he gave me only $3 off instead of $8. And later on his words and actions during my inspection of the LCD were even more disappointing. I would like to think of those as human errors, but apparently, those are no honest mistakes at all.
4. I partially agree with you in your comment #4, (it should have been ‘Future shop is not perfect’, right?). There are bad eggs everywhere and we meet them everyday (and they manage to piss us off every time), this is no different in all the organizations, but what can be different and hence make you stand out are, a) you try to find out who the bad eggs are, and b) you are going to do with the bad eggs.
Unfortunately, I don’t think futureshop is doing anything, or even trying to do something. (Please let me know if you do have some kind of evaluation.) If you look at the ‘contact us’ page on futureshop.ca, there is no such things as for customer feedback/comments, and the closest thing is ‘general inquires’. If all the customers are satisfied, then indeed, I don’t see the need in having an email address or webpage for customer feedback/comments, but the reality is, not every customers is satisfied with your services, otherwise, this webpage won’t even exist.
This leads to the comment of yours, “Future Shop’s puts customer service as its number one priority”, well, let’s look at the slogan on Futureshop.ca, which is “We get it”. I don’t think this slogan means that “We get the best customer services”, but rather, I think it means “We get the thing that you are looking for”. Therefore, I can not agree with your comment above. If futureshop indeed puts customer service as its number one priority, then the slogan should have been “Future Shops’ puts customer service as its number one priority”, if that is too long, we can try “We get zero bad eggs”, or “We just get rid of our last bad egg”. Anyway, my point is, you have to do something, anything, to show the people, and the unsatisfied customers who left messages here, that futureshop do care about the quality of its customer services. Promises are just words without any actions!
I welcome for comments as well, especially from Future Shop Employee. I hope I am not being unreasonable here, and hence offend anyone; a sincere discussion is all that I am looking for.
Thank you for reading.
Ok so tonight, I did ok. I sold some people some digital cameras, got a guy a 3 year cell phone term. I made 117 dollars. I have had better nights but oh well. I know how to sell psp(product service plan) and have done very well with it on prevous nights. Well tonight I sold 0. I did try to present it nice but no one was biting. I was kindda dissipointed in myself, it only got worse when I got a visit from the floor manager, who made some rude remarks about how I seemed to be proud of the fact that I had sold 0 of these which by chance have the biggest profit margin. I told him I was using proper technique to sell them and that people wernt seeming very interested in buying one when it was just for a gift. He told me to go to the back room and study the computer program and find some weak point, he asked my if a agreed and I said yes and then he good really mad and said “If you agree then why are you standing behind this counter”. It came across as super rude. We were trained to supply people with what they needed, not some bullshit warranty plan that frankly is a total rip off and most people will never use. I have not had one enjoyable experiance with any manager at my store because they are always rantingabout how yourfigures are low and that they are gonna bench you soon if you dontpull psp together. What bullshit. People are catching on to the fact that it is a rip off. HMMMMM i think i wanna get a 3 year PRP on a fucking 20 dollar mouse for 6.99. WHAT BULLSHIT
Generally FS is overpriced and the staff overbearing – IF they decide to help you. I’ve had them walk right by when I said “excuse me” and also continue their conversations when I’m waiting at their counter. To judge the stores by these slacker employees isn’t right though… encouraging stereotypes isn’t the way to go. Every place of employment has their aces and their assholes. I’m sure if FS MANAGEMENT could MANAGE… perhaps develop better human-resources / training programs – perhaps initiatives… they’d do better at what they should be focusing on: customer satisfaction. As for electronics, they break easily… if you didn’t get FS’ warranty, then you’re boned to settle things with the manufacturer. But since everyone’s complaining about being accosted by the “pitch”… I guess they’re all being “boned”.
/drunk.
// rambling.
i work as a product expert at future shop
been with the company for 2+ year
top 10% PSP (Product Service Plan) usually 15-20% mtd
future shops psp is a great program… it not only covers you for parts and labour but it will also give you accessory coverage, no lemon guarentees and power surge protection…this plan covers a lot of expensive things on your unit; the average cost to future shop per unit exchange is 3 repairs then the cost of the new unit…. really think about it.. if you didnt have the plan you would have to pay shipping and handling back and forth to the manufacturers repair depot.shipping alone on a 20 lbs computer would be at least $150 using the preapproved courier purolater. do the math… the thing that gets me the most is the fact that people say they were pushed, forced, tricked into getting this service. Come on people grow up… if you have that little of a backbone that you cant say no to a salesperson you deserve to be taken for all you have….ok now think about this…even if you cant gather up enough strength to do so you still have 14 or 30 days to return anything NO QUESTIONS ASKED..but since you all are so educated on futureshops policies and SOP why dont you tell me how retarted this all sounds to you.
FCKINP3CBFT
Ok, you guys obviously have no ilves. We don’t give a fuck if you give your money to best buy or visions or A&B, they get all their products from our distributers anyways… And we’re not always rude.. just to lame ass customers who think they know everything but know shit all about nothing. Go ahead, give your money to whomever you want.. at the end of the day it ends up in my pocket. So long
well said…im a very happy PE working part time makin way more money than these dumb fucks on here.. fs is king get used to it. if you dont like it then suck it up and go to walmart or somewhere else that will make your shitty life feel a bit better. futureshop is in business to make money obviously. where does it say that any company has to stand behind the product it sells???i can see you idiots bitching at HP Compaq, cicero, sony, emachines because they are the ones makign the machines and they are the ones who should be giving you proper protction on your product…when futureshop salespeople offer you the PSP you can say no cant you???? they give you a PSP pamphlet (tbar) with all the fine print on it for you to read. By signing your name at the bottom or the reciept you tell futureshop that you have read and agreed to all the terms in the psp contract…. now really, who looks studpid now..i really think you all should grow up and start to look at the real problem , your stupidity. read before you sign and keep your sorry ass problems to yourself assholes
FS itself might not be as bad as it sounds.
But people like you certainly make it the worst place a customer can be at.
You should grow up, and learn how to keep you mouth clean.
WOW the 2 above posts are so ignorant, makes me sick to think these people work for such a great company. Yeah were making 30+ an hour, but not for long if you carry an attitide like that.
I feel ripped off. Bought a sound system in Oct. only to see it has been reduced by 300, How can I get them to take it back? Copey
hello,
this is a post that states how the company, FUTURESHOP, is a terrible place to work and shop….
just like all modern retail sales environments, they are based around the fake facade of customer service and
working with each other, where they really are just a bunch of snakes in a pit slithering to make a sale.
i just recently was laid off the day after boxing day, where initially they stated that when i signed the seasonal contract i would be working till january 15, 2006.
they fired me the day after boxing day.
i noticed in this environment, as well as other retail mega-chains that i have worked at, including home-depot canada, that the people/character traits that make it up to managerial postions are snakes, so that is probably where i do not fit in.
in toronto, most if not all the full-time workers are indian immigrants that stab backs and are dirty-sneaky for their commission self-interests, and the other people that work there full-time for the most part have no post-secondary education and are quite rude to one another…
there is a certain level of ignorance that one finds in this environment, as in the real world, if they spoke and acted in that fashion to myself or anybody else, they would promptly be beaten bloody to the ground.
i have never worked in an environment where there is so much deceit, and do not get me wrong, i sold many a psp and their bullshit claims to suck more free money out of dumb customers for the company.
all managers that make it to that position in futureshop are skilled at being their own kind of snake, as that is the nature of their environment.the ones that make it furthest are the KING COBRAS…… 🙂
i am a full-time university student, so i know in my path lies greener pastures, but with the internet it gives me a chance to explain what i find essentially wrong with futureshop and other retail megachains.
in short, people that work in futureshop are inhuman to begin with, or are bred to be, for if they are not molded into this figure of a ‘good customer service/salesperson’ (really a snake in disguise) they will be disposed of.
they have no REAL respect for one another, and all managers treat employees not too far from a slave n_gger.
i am sure that there will be replys from former managers and people that are making their ‘product expert’ commission sales of 30 dollars an hour, and these people will say of course that i am wrong, but of course they will only to defend their sorry-ass position.
i am also certain that if you sit and talk to most any manager and/or full-time employee of futureshop, you will see that they are probably exceptional at charm and wit, but deep inside you will see a sorry-ass excuse for a compassionate human being. no compassion whatsoever. un-f_cking real.
money and the greed for commission is a gross disease of futureshop, where they have canadian immigrants that snake each other to make sales galore for the company, where the white man owners sit and play golf and n_gger all of the staff down the chain of command.
i am actually glad that i have gotten laid off, because i no longer have to think about working in such a horrible environment.
they take you for granted, and even if you give your best they treat you like a piece of shit n_gger
so i have come to the conclusion after 2 months of working for futureshop, that i will never shop there and spend a
PENNY of my money EVER in this store, and will tell everybody i know how TERRIBLE FUTURESHOP IS and NOT to shop there as well.
in my opinion, society as a whole has allowed places like bestbuy, futureshop, homedepot, walmart, and all the other
slave chains to gain too much precedence, which is a sign that this modern capitalist society is on the decline.
the way people treat each other in the work environment directly correlates to how good a place is to work, and just for the record when i asked some full-time employees if they enjoyed working there, they are stuck in this commission chasing environment, and although they are making more than the average retail workers, they all said NO.
all the floor managers act like they know about the products, when you can see that they really do not know much at all when a customer approaches them. they are actually stationed in points around the store to stare and spy at employees, just darting their f_cking eyes around acting like they are doing something.
ALL OF THE FUTURESHOP MANAGEMENT DART THEIR EYES AROUND LIKE SNAKES, as THEY ALL ESSENTIALLY ALL SNAKES.
in my short but not sweet work period at FUTURESHOP, there have been so many times where i thought to myself,
‘how the f_ck could he say that? or ‘how could he act like that to another person for no apparent reason’
‘is this f-in guy guy human, holy sh-t, in short unbelievable’
dont get me wrong, i try my best and have been an above average seller of both products and warranties for this place, but i cant believe that their environment is so corrupt and the nature of things actually allows this place to exist.
but alas, all things will crumble, and when people get the message that the sooner we STOP SUPPORTING
these STORES LIKE FUTURESHOP, slowly they will crumble and destroy themselves.
i will sure have a big smile when they do, as i hope that it will be in my lifetime that i will get to see these
mega-chains dissolve into themselves.
eventually, the poor masses will see, and realize, as a whole,that shopping at FUTURESHOP for the cheapest BLANK CDS
may seem like a good thing because of the cheap price, but what it is doing is ultimately harming themselves.
the lower class will see that giving in a buying from these inhuman places just gives them another dollar, another
link in their armour of evil.decadence.
the truth will set us free, and eventually we will collectively NEVER allow this structure to ever become again.
i have never in my life EVER been in such a covert HATE-FILLED ENVIRONMENT, and just wanted to share a few ideas about why you SHOULD NOT SUPPORT FUTURESHOP AND ANY OTHER MEGA-CHAIN ENVIRONMENT.
regards,
disgruntledseasonal.
Hi –
I work at Future Shop. I’m actually one of the top salespeople in Canada averaging 45+ an hour. I enjoy the idea of a store that you can make money talking about things you are interested in – but like everything, it has it’s downside.
To everyone who is reading this, Future Shop employee or not – the key to being a great salesperson is NO BULLSHIT. Honestly, people generally have the common sense to purchase what they want. Our job SHOULD be only to answer questions, and be knowledgable enough about the product to direct those who are technology illiterate to make the most APPROPRIATE choice – not the one which has the highest GM.
I apologize to those who have had bad experiences with FS, because there actually are a few of us who generally care about the customer and their needs.
I have had nothing but problems at future shop when it comes to warranty I bought a car stereo from them and purchased the warr and went to the repair place and dropped it off personally they have found the problem and have submitted the claim to fs head office and fs has not authorized the repair yet . so I phoned fs in surrey and talked to cust service and the response i got was well we can’t answer if they are going to repair it or not so i asked for head office’ # and she said that it is top secret and that it could take up to 3 months for me to get my car stereo back I am not happy with this type of service I deal with warr companies all the time at work and if the repair shop has already diagnosed the problem why would it take so long for fs to authorize the repairs and why can’t they give me a number to find out what is going on with my deck? i never had any problems at a&b sound or visions getting my problems dealt with.also last time I had to get warr repairs from fs it was on a subwoofer for my car which was suposed to be replacement warranty it was an mtx thunder 8000 sub they dont carry any other sub that highend anymore so they offered me the best sub they had well then they saw that i bought the sub as a clearance item and paid very little for it so they said that i could not have the more expensive but lower end sub .so i finnally got so frustrated that i mde a huge scene in the store and customers started asking questions and started leaving so they gave me the new sub but whoa what a hassle the salesmen that sold me the extended warr lied to me he said it didn’t matter if it was i clearance item or not that they would still honour the warr.i think that fs should be more honest about the plans that they sell and instead of hiding the clauses in fine print just tell us no we won’t willingly honour the ext warr you are going to purchase unless you make a fuss . A very frustrated consumer
It is Unbelievable to read about all this whinning and crying.
I have more respect for animals than people now. Get a life people.
I never ever seen full grown adults whinne, bitch, and complain in my lifetime about a minuscule thing. Giving good customer service is not about giving the customer free stuff *sigh*
Well, I think I had the first reply over a year ago.. someone asked me a rhetorical question, so I’ll answer.
Me: As an ‘entertainment associate’ at Futureshop, I make no commision so do I really care about your level of customer satisfaction?
Him: Then why are you working in Retail, where customer satisfaction should be the top priority? (A rhetorical question, no answer required).
Do you honestly think most people working at Futureshop are working there as a career choice? Why am I working in Retail? Because I’m paying for school. I really couldn’t give a f*ck about your satisfaction. I’m not commission – I make under 9 dollars an hour. I’ll help you out when I can, but I’m not going to lose sleep if we didn’t have the product you were looking for. All I’ve gotten out of working at Futureshop for the last 3 years is a depreciated view of the average intellect.
And on the PRP PSP debate: Extended warranties make sense to buy on some products and no sense to buy on others. Make informed decisions, don’t listen to sales guys hawking the warranty or to your preachy buddy telling you not to buy the warranty. Absolutism is always a stupid standpoint (har har).
Just so you know, I work at Future Shop and believe you guys take this to far. I am an “associate” and I acutally only make commission on the service plan, I am not one of the ones who is commissioned off of everything, so I don’t just look for a product that pays me the most, i go to the right product. As for pushing the plan, honestly some people do push it way to hard, practically forcing on some customers, but I can tell you that I let the know exactly whats covered under manufacturers, and what we cover, what would happen if they brought it in, etc. Then if they say no, i leave it at that, just letting them know that if they change their mind, they have 30 (14 in some cases) days to add it on no worries. I am not one of the people who force it on you. And just so you know, I have been working there for 2 and a half months, I’ve bought a tv, hard drive, ps2 controller, mp3 player, and a printer and i’ve gotten the service plan on all of those things cause working there all day i see the tons of things that actually break, and get fixed or replaced.
He negleted to note that we get the warranties for 50% less than customers . . .
Also, we do see things coming in all the time to be fixed, but what percentage of what goes out the door with plans does that account for? 🙂
Fuck the haters. FS4Life Bitches.
You Complainers know nothing of what it;s like to work on commish, we will come to your work take your money and see how you eager you are to help someone, you people would’nt last a second in sales FAGS!
I am going to vent for a minute. I ordered a tv from Future Shop last week that was supposed to be delivered 4 days ago. I called Canada Post, their shipping company, inquiring on its status, and they tell me they dont know where it is and that i have to call future shop. [why would they know if the shipping company doesnt?] anywayy… future shop tells me it will take 10 more business days just to locate the package, which doesnt really make sense. I tell them i just want my money back, and they say no can do. I ask for a manager and they put me on hold indefinately. Ive realized that calling a hotline is a big waste of time. You just talk to a bunch of fucking retards who cant give you any answers or make any decisions. Nothing new here, its typical big business bullshit. You might be thinking well shit happens, but with future shop shit always happens. Ive just been pushed past my easy going consumer limits. My 2000 dollar toshiba laptop, also bought from future shop, started fucking up a few months ago. I need it for school, yet future shop tells me it will take 3 weeks to diagnos the problem. So its still barely functioning. My ipod, also bought at future shop, malfunctioned, and they refused to put a new one on hold for me as a replacement, so everytime i went to the store they were sold out. Future shop is bullshit big box at its worst. Im by know means anti capitalism, but there seems to be no fucking standard these days. I wish i hadnt kept going back to future shop, but theres nowhere else to go. They push out smaller, family-run businesses that cant compete with their bulk purchasing and manufacturing. But ive reached the point where id rather pay double than shop at a store like futureshop. Obviously its not just future shop, after all they dont make their products. Theres dozens of companies like this, including some of the companies that sell FS their products. And they just keep getting bigger. Soon there wont be any alternatives, and there certainly wont be any for future generations. Consumerism is turning into gift-wrapped shit, all because the public majority would rather pay 20% less for crap they dont need, at the expense of others. Im just as guilty as everyone else, except that ive come to my senses. I wish everyone would wake up and realize that the greater good does not involve saving 20$ on a new DVD player, but its probably too late anyway…. your probably a fucking employee
commission what!!1! you heard the man, buy the plan!! juice it up baby! bread and butter!
working at futureshop is awesome.
Reply to Wes (YOUR A FUCKIN JACK ASS, ALL U PPL CAN DO IS COMPLAIN, WHAT THE FUCK DO U WANT)
1)You ordered somthing online that has nothing to do with the store. No one in the store can help you, u cant get wat u want if u dont call the right ppl.
2) Laptops are not repaired in the store they must be sent out to the depot. Thats why it takes long to repair. What the fuck could they possibly do about that. + URS is not the only laptop out for repair there are many others.
3) WHY THE FUCK DO U THINK THEY WOULD HOLD ONE FOR U? ANYWAY ITS MUCH EASER JUST TO CALL APPLE AND GET IT REPLACED WITH IN A WEEK.
I’m one of the comp tech at FS. I know that there is an issue with SA telling stuff that warranty is covered from A to Z which is of course false. Hardware is covered but not Software. If you think about it that makes sense because we cannot control where you go to the net. If you go to a porn site and get a viruses with a whole bunch of spywares. It’s your own fault. We cannot be responsible for how you use your computer but we can guarantee that the hardware is suppose to work. And if it doesn’t we’ll fix it. If it takes 2 to 3 weeks to repair your laptop and it’s for your business. Then make sure you have a backup pc it’s simple common sense when in business have a fail safe plan. And backup your data and don’t give the excuse of “well how was I suppose to back my data if my pc doesn’t turn on”. Don’t wait for your pc to break before you remember to back it up. Do it whenever you have important stuff in your comp. Anyways also try to understand why we offer you the software bundles when buying a pc. Since software issues are not covered under warranty we offer software protection. Get them because you need them whenever you go to ahem… to those sites. And do your job updates the software and scan them every week. Do that and you won’t have software issues. Plus if you decide to take protection that are free on the net. Then why do you think they have the free one and the pro for sale programs. Duh! Because the buy program is complete. Why do you think you still have viruses because you have the free avg antivirus…. Wonder why…As far as the extended warranties, I’m not in sales but it only makes common sense. Computers are bound to break and they usually do after the 1 manufacturer warranty. If you don’t take the psp let’s face it your stuck with the problem. At least with psp, we fix the hardware problem all under warranty. If you paid 160$ for psp it’s worth it just for problems like mobo which can cost to 100$ and above + 80$ for labor. So it was worth it the first time. If this happens four times in 3 years we give you a new comp similar or you get an upgrade. Think long term! Where else will you get that same kind of warranty? Nowhere! So please understand that the salesman sell you stuff because you need them. And if you think you know a lot about comp and if it breaks and you have no warranties don’t go and complain in our service counters fix it yourself cause it’s your own undoing.
Lastly we are constantly trying our best to make the customers happy, just give us a little curtesy it’ll make a big difference and try to think about the person that is behind the counter when you’re yelling at them put yourself in their shoes. So take a deep breath and relax and smile. We’ll make it easier for you.
Thank you
I just bought a $1500 (before taxes) laptop from future shop. After a number of questions, I was informed that I have 14 days to buy the extended service plan (or whatever they happen to call it). I do think that it is a good deal in spite of the numerous rants I have read on google groups and here… it is a good deal if they hold up their end of the bargain. After all, there are good and valid reasons people have car, house, health insurance plans. I dont care that there are SA who are trying to make a living … some are polite and helpful, some of deceptive and greedy (welcome to life), I generally find the info I need by researching on the web and asking the right questions or finding someone who will be helpful.
Having read the posts here, I have several questions. How many techs work at Future Shop in computer repairs? In other words, how much effort will they put into fixing my machine and getting it back to me for $350? Stories where the customer is getting the runaround concerns me bc I cant buy insurance against a bad store manager. Shelling out $350 for a plan is a nontrivial amount of money. But if they hold up their end of the bargain, it will be worth it for the laptop. However I am concerned about the fact that they may hold my computer for 60 days without providing a replacement. In such circumstances, I see myself simply buying another mid-range laptop bc I need to be mobile. I have had no problems with any of the desktops I have ever owned. However I went thru 3 thinkpads in 2.5 years with my previous employer and many of my colleagues have had problems with their laptops at one time or another.
Thanks in advance
There are, on average, 3-5 tech’s per store. The turn around time for units depends 99% of the time on the turn around time for parts that are ordered. Under the first year, assuming your laptop is not Tosihba, it is facilitated directly to the manufacture and takes about 1 to 1.5 weeks. If it is a Toshiba, most Future Shop’s are authorized to repair on-site (3 to 5 bus. days) or we facilitate it to our central repair depot (2-3 weeks). If the repairs takes longer then 60 calendar days, you get an exchange, no quesions asked. Just keep the repair “proof of drop off” receipt and bring in all your adaptors, CD’s, manuals that came with the unit and your good to go. It -rarely- takes 60+ days for a repair. If it does, it’s because there are significant part backorder issues (which is beyond the control of FS techs).
Do not listen to the pissed off people that have rants about FS service. We employ over 400 computer technicians that are non-commisioned and are honest and have nothing to moniteraly gain from the customer. I have been a lead tech at 5 stores now, and each store service department had the customer’s concerns held in a very high regard.
To Tim Moffat,
In response to your post. Who is the crook now? you got a computer for FREE w/o warranty. I bet you go home and laugh about FS. Can you do all FS techs in Calgary a favor? Don’t fuck with that new computer anymore.
I’m one of the techs that looked at your computer and how many times did I have to put your computer together? QUIT GOING INSIDE THE COMPUTER AND PRETENDING YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
What makes me mad is that you have the balls to come in here and lie about your experience with FS and your computer.
Unbelieveable.
My Future Shop Story and ALL TRUE:
Bought laptop with PSP, yes I know my first mistake. Salesman kept trying to sell me the setup, said he would throw in a mouse for 1 cent and antivirus for free so really it would only cost me $20 for setup. I said OK. Got home and decided I don’t want PSP. The website says that you can ‘simply call the 1800’ to cancel the PSP within 30 days. So I do and they say you need to go back to the store.
Here’s where it gets wierd…..Customer service girl in store says hmm, I say is there a problem? She mumbles that sometimes the PSP is a promotion and that she will have the sales person authorize a refund??? He was actually working and came over and looks at the bill and starts to say how he gave me this and that…blah…blah. I stopped him and repeated exactly what he said to me to get me to buy the ‘setup’. Well….he just about lost it, he threw the bill on the counter and stormed away??!! The customer service girl starts yelling after him ‘is it all right to do a refund??’ I said to her ‘ahhh yes it is!’ . I got me refund but I sure had to work for it. I have never been treated so rudely in all my life. I will never buy anything at Future Shop again.
Commission people have to work their asses off for sometimes nothing. Nothing suck more than working really hard to get that extra commission and then having it taken away from you. In that atmosphere sometimes some of the commission sales staff are at a negitive number because of people who buy and return (renters). I myself dont quite live off commission but I do get a piece. How would you feel if you spent 1 hour or 2 speaking to a customer and then after everything was said and done he/she returns the product that they sold. It is very frustrating. Now I don’t agree with the sales person throwing the bill down on the desk and storming away, he should of actually tried to save the sale. I have a personal poliocy with my self, I will only buy a warrenty on something over $500 because that is what I am willing to lose before I get mad. In any case commission jobs are all around us and it is a very stressful way to make a living, especially if you have a wife and children.
ah…I only wanted the PSP refund. I never returned the computer. But after I was treated so badly that is what I should have done. There is NO excuse for the way I was treated. They have return policies and should follow them. end of story
True you should of returned the computer and you should of also told that sales person why you, not only returned were returning the PSP but now he has convinced you to return the computer. In any case man I think you did the right thing and you should of raised a bigger stink about the way you were treated, and let me tell you a short stroy about the PSP. I don’t care what anyone says about it, it really does work. I bought a computer just before I went to college, the sales person asked me if I wanted the PSP. I hummed and Hauwwwd for a bit and said why the hell not I have the money, and you never know what if. What if was right, after owning it for 3 months my mother board fried due to a power outage (covered on the warrenty) I brought it to FS and they got me a new mother board in less than a week. When I was done college the same thing happened, and I got the same results. A few months later my DVD ROM went on it and I brought it in and it was fixed. I got heavy into video editing and dvd autoring and was running my Computer at full steam day in and day out, and look at that it fried again. when I brought it to FS they looked at me and smiled because I was getting a new computer for nothing (well it cost me $209 3 years ago) I was given a credit and picked out an amazing machine 4 times the power of my old one. I am not lying about anything, I went from a first generation P4 to a P4 630 With Hyper Threading, 1 gb ram and 250 HD. I was so pleased when they asked me if I wanted to buy PSP again I said of course. Since the new purchase my omputer crapped out once on me so three more times and I get a new one, it rules. BC futureshops rule.
LETTER OF COMPLAINT sent to FUTURE SHOP Customer Service
Future Shop on Keele and St. Clair Ave West let me down royally. For my wasted gas, 2 battery boosts, time, and effort, I am going to receive a $25.00 “we are sorry” Future Shop gift card from some customer relations chick named “Deloris”.
Here is the story:
On March 23rd 2006, I went in to Future Shop to buy an amp and subwoofer. Out of the blue some Nigerian dude named “Henry” started telling me about a special deal to install the products. The deal was too good to resist. I had just bought a 1 week old 2006 Jetta 2.0T and wanted a little bit of boom, so I said yes.
I returned the next day for Henry to install my subwoofer and my amp. All went well (this was on Mar 23, 2006 remember). I was happily driving around enjoying my sound system, when on Sat Apr 1, 2006 I noticed that my car was electrically dead and I needed a boost. VW offers boosts for no charge, so I got one after waiting an hour…feeling a little perturbed.
Then I got off work this morning (Apr 5th) and again my battery was dead and I had to wait an hour to get a free boost. Now I was 200% certain it was the amp. I took my car back to Future Shop to have the Nigerian look at it. He looked all clueless and surprised when he saw that my amp LED light remained on even when my ignition was turned off, and the key was out of the car. Apparently by battery life was being sapped since the amp and subwoofer were incorrectly installed.
Henry immediately blamed the problem on the “defective” amp”, and asked me to come back later, because he was busy with appointments. I told him I worked all night for 12 hrs, would have to work again tonight, and then the following day. He said he couldn’t help me, and as an after thought said he could disconnect the amp so I wouldn’t have any bass or battery drain. Unbelievable! I paid nearly $600.00 for such shoddy treatment? I did not believe that he knew what he was doing for one second, and realized that he did not do a thorough check to see if the amp turned off after the keys were removed when he first handed the car back to me on Mar 23rd.
I spoke to the Future Shop acting manager – “Lucia”, and convinced her to let me take my car to Kromer Radio to see what was wrong, then bring the car back and have Future Shop pay for the “inspection” by Kromer once they found out what was wrong.
I drove my car 40 city blocks over to Kromer Radio (420 Bathurst Street) and after an initial 20 minute wait, a young fella named Dave, checked the wiring and rewired the amp so that it would turn on and off as it was supposed to. It took him all of 10 minutes to test, find the mistakes, do the corrections, and test again. Total cost $0.00. Dave also mentioned that the wiring job was the quickness, and very amateurish, otherwise Henry would have connected one of the wires directly BEHIND the radio component (except he didn’t know how, or didn’t want to do so). Is what Henry gave me for a $100 installation charge?
Dave was a good guy who knew what he was doing. Henry was a Nigerian scammer who did a $2.00 hap-hazard installation job, and then lied to cover it up.
I called “Lucia” at Future Shop to tell her that Henry was a moron, who may have shortened the battery and alternator life of my car with his wanton ignorance. It is obvious that he does not know how to install sound systems into new model cars. Lucia said she agreed and would inform his supervisor. She also offered the consolation $25.00 gift card, as though that would make up for a crappy $100.00 original installation charge, and my battery and alternator wear.
I am not satisfied with a…yet to be picked up $25.00 gift card. I want my car audio system professionally installed as Dave mentioned with the wire connected to the radio for FREE. As, well I feel that I should get my $100.00 installation charge redeemed for a botched installation job. I still have concerns about my battery and and alternator life, as the battery power was be sucked up for 7 whole days (and then a further 4 days), and required 2 boosts, that’s 3-6 months off the life of a 2006 model car. VW Jetta’s aren’t even supposed to be boosted during normal wear and tear…it’s unheard of.
If I don’t get resolution to my satisfaction, I will be writing a review and posting it online at my own web site and several other well known web sites. I will urge all those I know to go to Kromer Radio to have their sound system put in, and get it right the first time. I will also recommend that they NEVER have any Future Shop install a sound system in their car, especially the Keele & St. Clair location.
…
Former Future Shop shopper
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Live life on purpose…
w4wtoronto.com
http://dontkeepsilent.ning.com
Never will shop at a Future Shop or Best Buy. All they want is your money. All managers and Sales blows, when they want to sell, they get on their knees and suck, when there is a problem they all blow you off. Faster than you can say ” I just got FUCKED”
Also I was so pissed that the I told the manager to go shovel their policies up his fucking ass, This was a the Lansdowne store in Richmond. Enough is Enough, rather pay a little bit more than to be treated like Shit. KISS MY ASS FUTURE SHOP!
After reading most of these posts, I can not believe how many friggin whiners there are out there. I’ve been shopping at Futureshop for 20 years, and, for the most part, my experience has been fine. I wouldn’t say ‘outstanding’, but, certainly not ‘FS sucks’, or, ‘I’ll never shop there again’ like many of the above posts. Why has my experience been positive, when many others’ have not?
1. Respect: First, I’m an adult and not a 16-19 yr old whiner who has nothing better to do than post ‘exaggerated’ negative experience about FS. I treat the FS SA’s and customer service (the few times that they were needed) with respect, and they return it back to me. Of course, if I’m treated poorly, I let them know (but this has never happened to me….not that I recall, anyway).
2. Be informed before you visit: This is probably the most important lesson. Unless it’s an impulse purchase, if you’re interested in buying something (anything), do your homework and learn about the various options. Granted, you may not want to spend 8 hours researching which optical mouse, or keyboard to buy….BUT, if you looking at purchasing a new camera, or TV, or Hi-Fi system, or any other mid to big ticket item…do yourself a favour, and research it first! You have the Internet, consumer reports, etc. etc. There’s no reason why you should be going into FS and asking them for their opinion on which item to buy. Or whether or not x product does z function. You should have all the facts! Don’t rely on them to tell you. That way, when you go into FS (assuming you don’t order online), you just simply go to the respective area and get (or ask for) what you need (of course, you’ve already checked online and determined that they have it in stock).
If the above is not something you agree with, no prob. You can always go to BayBloor Radio, or Kromer, or Henry’s Cameras and probably get the high level of service you need. But, you’ll also pay much more. What get what you pay for.
3. PSP: Used wisely, can be a life-saver: I’ll start by stating that I have never felt pressured to purchase the PSP from any SA or PS at FS. And I’ve bought a ton of stuff from them (~$40K-50K worth of stuff). Whenever I wasn’t interested I’d say, ‘no thanks’, and they’d say ‘no prob’. If I was interested, I’d get them to explain it in more detail, and I’d make my final (informed) decision.
This has been echoed already in several of the above posts. Purchase a PSP in situations where manufacturer warranty is not very appealing or cost to repair/replace is beyond your comfort level. Do you need it on a keyboard, or mouse, or CD/DVD burner drive that cost <$75...probably not. But, if you're buying that new WS Plasma, or LCD, or Mini-DV camera, etc. etc, you might want to seriously consider it. Here is a REAL LIFE example that just happened to me (hence, trigger for me finding this site). Anyhow, I purchase a new Fridge and Stove from Futureshop @ the Toronto Homeshow 5 years ago this week (April 10, 2001). The stove was $625. Manufacturer warranty was 2 year. 5 year Extended Warranty (onsite repair, etc.) was $99. Needless to say, I purchased the PSP (ESP). I don't suspect the older Stoves/ranges broke down that often. But this stove had all the funky new features (all digital...no knobs, etc.). I figured that if anything went, it would be the digital control panel, and it probably wouldn't be cheap. Well, you probably won't believe this, but this past Monday, April 10 2006 (the last day of the extended service plan), the EOC (Electronic Oven Control) died. I called FS, and even though they wouldn't be able to get the service company engaged (it was already after normal business hours) until the following day (1 day after the warranty expires), they have a 7-day grace period, so I was still covered!!! I just got a quote from the company that will be doing the repair. The EOC + additional parts = $315 + onsite service of $100. It would have cost me $415+tx to fix this stove if I had not purchased the PSP. So, I'm actually putting a virtual $316 back in my pocket. Be informed and make your own decision on when you should or shouldn't purchase the PSP based on the level of risk your comfortable in taking. Finally, and most importantly, treat people with respect, and they'll return it many times over.
This is for the person who wrote the above post! You are in the wrong forum, this is “Future Shop SUCKS”, not the “I ALWAYS GET BLOWN BY FUTURESHOP” forum nor the “I LOVE FUTURESHOP” forum.
5 in 5 with 5 bitches!!!
00100 fuck you
Futureshop Sales ppl are AWFUL. I figured the best way to get back at them. Just online shop, bypass all those salesman. I too had many bad experiences at Futureshop. BTW the futureshop I go to is the one in Mississauga – Dundas.
It was boxing day, I was w. my sister helping her get ink for her printer. An idiot sales person went up to us and asked if we needed help. I thought he seemed nice so I told him sure I want black ink for this printer model (Epson C82). He goes and gets up an ink catridge for another printer. After we buy the ink from him (so he has the commision), my sister said you made a mistake. The ink cartidge isnt for my C82. Sales man looks at it and apologizes. He says let me take you to the line to refund you product. At that moment me and my sister are furious bc boxing day lines to refund your product is VERY long.
I purchased a stove from Future Shop on January 2, 2006. The sales man tried desperately to sell me the warranty but I refused. He then wanted me to pay for the entire stove – $666.98 I said I would pay half because he couldn’t give me a date when they would be in. He told me that if I paid the whole cost I would be the first one he would call. I replied that that didn’t make any sense as he would still have to call me because I ordered it and was paying for half. At the beginning of March I called to find out where my stove was and was informed that it had been discontinued. I immediately went to Future Shop (in Ajax) and asked at what point they were going to call me to inform me of this. To shorten this story they found a stove for me in Markham and it would be delivered on March 13. It came – floor model, damaged and wrong stove. I immediately went back to the store and told them what happened and I was mad! The manager pawned me off on one of the lackeys working there and he was young and useless. Told me they didn’t have any stoves at all. There was no attempt made to help me find a stove to replace this one. I asked for a refund and went to Sears. Future Shop came to pick up the stove on March 21st and I was told that the money would be refunded to my accound on that day. I just received my April Mastercard bill and it still has not been refunded. I was also charged $14.78 interest by Mastercard and I took the stove money off my last bill just assuming that Future Shop would do the right thing. Boy was I wrong and now I have a fight on my hands that I don’t want…all I wanted was a new stove. I will never set foot in that store again and will tell everyone I meet not to either – lets put this place out of business – we can do it, one customer at a time!
I just read the article by “Nothing but Whiners” and would like that individual to know that I never purchase anything without researching it first. I am an informed customer and know exactly what I want before I go into the store. I had researched my stove and knew exactly what I wanted – Future Shop was unable to deliver but instead of being honest with me, kept my money and kept silent. What type of company does that? I’ve never had such a horrible experience with a retail store in all my life and I’m not a young person. I had my previous stove for 20 years and never had a problem with it (it was not longer energy efficient). People do do their research but Future Shop, to me, does not seem like a company that cares about their customers. They still have my money and now I have to go after them to get it back. I’m not whining – just stating the facts.
6 months ago paid $280 plus $40 PSP for a Sony DSC S90 camera. 4 months ago the zoom lens jammed while extending, and took it in to FS. Exactly 59 days later they tell me a) I owe them $50 for the inspection because b) the camera is physically damaged (duh) and therefore not covered by the plan but c) they will repair it for $450. I’ve probably spent $10K in FS over the years, occasionally buying the PSP (and getting stuck with the “replacement” upgrade fee when the originals packed it in) and sometimes not, but lately I can’t enter the place without a sense of foreboding. Overall the feeling is of marginal business practices: questionable product sold by uninformed staff. Probably won’t be back.