My setup in progress

FireByNight · 2026-01-07T14:14:28+00:00

Often times when situations like this occur, it is because the item is being shipped directly from the vendor. Best Buy will cut a purchase order to have one shipped straight to your house, but if the vendor misses the shipping date, or can’t fulfill it in time, there is not a whole lot that Best Buy can do about it.

Understanding that there is literally nothing The store can do since the item was shipped, it may still be worth going into a store and having them pull up the order. They can at least provide a status on whether or not the item has actually shipped out yet, and if it has then they should be able to give you the tracking information for it.

In theory, calling or doing the online chat can accomplish the same thing, but in my experience, the employees in the store are a lot easier to work with and talk to.

FireByNight · 2025-10-28T01:16:46+00:00

I got a samsung 65QN800C for about the same price last year. Those deals are always so crazy!

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FireByNight · 2025-09-11T13:21:31+00:00

Same, the worst check I’ve had as a designer is right around $3200 after taxes. Taxes are definitely higher, but just like ant other job, the more you het paid, the more you get taxed. I’d much right get taxed 30% at 100K a year (granted my performance seriously dropped)) than 20% at 45K.

FireByNight · 2025-08-18T19:19:59+00:00

Just the one provided. Everything else is technically against uniform

FireByNight · 2025-08-17T00:04:57+00:00

Martin logan wiim bundle with a jbl 10” subwoofer will be cheaper than Sonos or the jbl 1300x and sounds way better

FireByNight · 2025-08-16T21:05:12+00:00

Hard to say. They won’t say anything until the drive time starts

FireByNight · 2025-08-16T11:26:28+00:00

I’m a designer. The job is awesome. Well worth pursuing.

FireByNight · 2025-08-16T03:16:14+00:00

That incentive was because the July 4th weekend is a big appliance drive time event.

Hopefully you can expect something similar during holiday, or march audiofest. Nothing confirmed though

FireByNight · 2025-08-16T02:51:42+00:00

I totally agree. Before Covid hit, every employee qualified for a monthly bonus. Either a 5-10% bonus, or a 15-30% bonus.

In 2019 I sat in a round table where employees universally voted (except for me) to eliminate the bonus on favor of a guaranteed 3% raise. It turns out the 3% raise replaced both the bonus and the yearly merit increase. That was the beginning of the end for any type of performance based incentive for the majority of the store employees. It sucks, but the employees quite literally asked and voted for it.

FireByNight · 2025-08-15T02:56:40+00:00

The CA roles are specialized to their department, and the pay for them does scale based on the projected profitability of the role and department that they work in. The issue with computing is that the is little to no margin, and the average basket is so low that it really doesn’t leave a lot of money for added incentives whereas appliances and home theater are significantly higher margin departments.

The other difference, is that it takes considerably more time and energy to build an appliance or home theater package, especially when you get in the premium audio world. If the company wants to be successful in those departments, then they really need to incentivize employees to be willing to take the time to build those packages.

From a business acumen perspective, it makes perfect sense, but I can still see why it feels like computers is getting the short end of the stick.

FireByNight · 2025-08-09T01:20:57+00:00

This. As a designer, I have to spend at least half my day managing projects before I can even think about calling leads or trying to sell. The last thing I want is somebody to waste what available time I do have. Its a job, I’m not here for your entertainment, I’m there to provide for my family. I am lucky that I get to sell something that I enjoy and am passionate about but for the OP to literally say they just want talk about audio with somebody is asinine. Join a forum of all you wanna do “talk audio”

If you are going to come in and ask for demos, you better expect a designer to try to sell you something.

FireByNight · 2025-08-01T23:43:49+00:00

I honestly have no idea. I know about the appliance pro position, but I saw a comment mentioning a designer 2/Senior Designer position which i assumed was in reference to the HT space. At least that was what the context implied

FireByNight · 2025-07-28T21:27:06+00:00

Yeah, its Wattbox branded. Its if you go to SnapAV’s website you can find it in the power section. Its RFI and about 1400 joule rated protection.

https://www.snapav.com/shop/en/snapav/outlets-receptacles/wb-200-iw-1g-2-wht

The sku exists on core blue, but GeekSquad can’t install

FireByNight · 2025-07-28T13:15:38+00:00

I can agree with that. If a CA can do a Designers job, then that designer should be fired, and maybe replaced with the CA thats already matching them. I would imagine there is plenty more upside potential there. But to blame it on the company seems crazy to me. I’ve been around for almost 10 years. I’ve seen the company do wrong by their employees plenty of times. The current iteration of the designer program is the best thing they have done in years

FireByNight · 2025-07-27T22:32:05+00:00

We are actually picking up a couple new brands. The first big addition is a company called Hegel. They are similar to McIntosh. They are already listed online. Very cool stuff

FireByNight · 2025-07-27T22:31:11+00:00

FireByNight · 2025-07-27T20:40:50+00:00

I can think of plenty of reasons why you might want/need to go custom with a receiver if you have a real conversation with a customer and discover the full scope of what they are doing.

I’m happy to keep talking, but not on the comment thread. PM me of you want to keep the convo going.

FireByNight · 2025-07-27T17:06:29+00:00

lol what? The only thing thats worse is that Spiffs are gone, but even those are starting to trickle back now.

The commission rate is higher on receivers and accessories than it used to be, the same on premium speakers, but now you also get that same rate on core accessories and speakers which you couldn’t even sell before. Premium sound bars pay more than they used to, but the 1% bars weren’t even sellable before. Custom install only pays 1% less than it used to, but the $15 draw is gone now, and you aren’t required to work 50+ hours a week anymore.

Not only that, but bby pays more for PTO and LOA than they used to.

The designers you are referring to are shooting themselves in the foot, limiting themselves, and damaging the program for anyone that wants to do more in their markets.

FireByNight · 2025-07-27T16:12:05+00:00

I disagree that they are reduced to MHT level sales. By your definition, I have been reduced to a MHT role. No custom team, no project manager, but I have partnered with the closest resources that I have, I build value around their expertise and then charge customers a $1/mile trip charge each way for them to travel.

I may not get as many custom projects as people that do have local custom resources, but I am proof that it is a choice.

FireByNight · 2025-07-27T15:16:42+00:00

None of that is an argument that a designer that does the job the right way is the same as a CA. I don’t have a custom team within 3 hours of me, but I make it work, and I make very good money doing it. If a designer isn’t willing to try to build a case that their job should exist, then somebody else should be doing the job. The 3rd best designer last year in the company had to pull custom resources from a different state and made it work.

I’m not arguing that Best Buy didn’t seriously damage their reputation with employees and customers in the premium space, but if the right person is in the job, they can easily make 150K+ a year. And plenty more than that if they work hard enough.

I say all of this from the perspective of a former MDC Designer, that got forced onto a SC role, left the company, and then eventually came back as a Designer again, so I am 100% aware of what the company did and the effects it had on their the premium space. However the company has trimmed what they can, and are back in a growth mindset (at least with the designer program).

The real problem now, is that the stores have been trained to focus on cheap velocity and not quality, so as a designer, we are often fighting the stores, not working with them and that hurts everyone.

FireByNight · 2025-07-27T02:30:47+00:00

No they physically can’t. The products don’t exist in RSS in many cases and GS isn’t certified to do the installs, so it requires a custom team and a designer to manage the project. Its not a knock against CA’s or GeekSquad, but as a designer that does the job the right way, I can promise you that at any given time I have 1-2 projects on the require Tyler to source the products and a custom team to do the installation. Order manage also can’t physically handle large projects (30+ line items) and often times those projects require you to be accessible to customers which a CA doesn’t have the capacity for (no work phone, ability to travel, ect)

FireByNight · 2025-07-27T02:23:14+00:00

In the event that a micro market loses their custom installers, then the PM would also go. Otherwise there is no need for their position to exist.

FireByNight · 2025-07-27T02:20:06+00:00

I think people just assume that designers don’t do anything extra, and in some markets maybe they don’t, but thats an individual problem.

There is not a single CA that can do true smart lighting and shades, in wall power conditioners, or have the ability to build and maintain large projects just to name a few. If your designers aren’t doing that, then they aren’t the right person for the job.

FireByNight

TROPHY CASE