Don't Let Your iPad 2 Purchase Get Spoiled By Greedy Best Buy Associates

Best Buy and the iPad 2 apparently don’t mix. Less than a week after being accused of holding back iPad 2 inventories when quotas are met, Best Buy is the center of another disturbing story.  According to news first reported by CrunchGear, at least one store manager blackmailed customers into paying for service plans before being allowed to purchase the popular second-generation iDevice. Is this an isolated incident or something bigger? According to the report, this story unfolded at the Colma, California Best Buy store on April 9. According to a reader, who provided a sales receipt as proof:

“I was at Best But yesterday while my girlfriend was buying a new pc and asked if they had any iPad 2 in stock and I was told no. As I strolled around I looked up and noticed at least 40
In an overhead lock up area so I inquired about them. I was told by an associate that they were all sold. Two minutes later a manager walks over and says the only way I could have one is if I puchased a 109 dollar Best Buy protection plan. I said that doesn’t seem right. He then told to try and find one somewhere else they can do what they want. To make a long story short I purchased it just to find out if that was policy. I just went to another store spoke to a manager and was told that is not policy and should have not be forced to but the coverage just to purchase an iPad. After reading the story on CNN I just wanted to follow up with you guys. After my experience I think you were correct about they way they are distributing iPads. Thanks for the time. If you need anything else just let me know.” [sic]

Is this standard Best Buy policy? This seems to depend on who is asked. According to one former Best Buy employee commenting at MacStories, this is common practice. Sorter13 stated:

This is common practice at Best Buy. While I worked there we were instructed by the department head to turn away customers who were not interested in service plans or accessories. This is because they make their bonuses based on attachment percentages. The term we used was "brooming". If someone declined the service plan for a large sale we'd say "Oops, we actually don't have that in stock, our computer must be off today" and broom them off to the nearest store showing stock. Some stores are worse than others, but generally the managers and department heads have figured out that high attachment rates (not total sales) = more bonuses/raises.

Another former employee, Joshua Arnao agreed, stating:

I also worked at Best Buy and can fully support the previous comment. The store I worked at pushed us daily to sell the service plans that were generally useless. I was literally asked to lie and make the plans look better.

However, another poster, Jsmolina2006, stated it isn’t customer policy and “every organization has certain people that should not be working there because of their lack of morals.” Two Best Buy managers recently told me this wasn’t company policy, and I found no employees attempting to do so at the two Best Buy stores I visited. However, that doesn't mean it doesn't happen as isolated incidents. An email sent to Best Buy corporate requesting a response went unanswered. What do you think? Have you experienced anything like this? Let us know by using the comments below.

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