I worked at both Best Buy and Circuit City.

1) True. If you have a veteran employee, 1 is true and that's the expected behavior.
2) Depends. You generally will not be able to talk them down in price on the Insurance as they claim that impacts the warranty. It doesn't, and if that's the case, then you probably can talk them down on something else.
3) True. Circuit City does rank their employees by what is rung through their register. Best Buy measures the department as a whole.
4) True. Employees are ranked by the number of protection plans they sell. I am sure that some people do just throw on insurance, but most would not last long in the wake of heavy complaints.
5) True. Best Buy's waranty is superior to Circuits. If within the manufacturers warranty, they will swap it out at their customer service generally speaking. CC will ask that you ship it in to the manufacturer with the exception of Compaq and HP computers.
6) That's true.
7) This can be true. Although at my stores if a deal was made, we took the money off the protection plan as that's what people wanted the money off of. It prevented the return, still covered the customer and no one keeps the plan but returns the computer.
8) That's true. Although frowned upon, at Best buy, you are sometimes encouraged to pass on a sale to a veteran employee to land service or tech installs. At Circuit City, you want to ring out everything as you get judged on your personal numbers, so not true in CC's case.
9) Mixed. He is right on the numbers, but this is a case of a dishonest salesperson. This didn't happen in my stores, but could happen elsewhere. The $110 includes Norton AV, Spysweeper, a number of registry tweeks, all the updates and ensures the computer is protected. It's not for everyone, but it fits people who are not tech savvy or lack the time. The rebate does not require a previous version unless the salesperson grabs the wrong copy of Norton.
10) True. There are too many people who fail to make these disks and for whatever reason can't figure it out. Toshiba's historically do come with restore disks but may lack Application disks for the programs that come with the operating system (it's hit or miss). Ones that do have both, my stores always returned money to the customer upon their pickup. It's not worth upsetting a customer over $30.
11) Mixed. I am sure it happens, and he's right, it's laziness if it happens. A smarter employee would tell them to buy it on-line for in store pickup.
12) True. Circuit City's tags quickly can become a horrible mess. Best Buy, IMO, was far better with tags as they had a separate team that handled them from the sales people.
13) True. Tags can move from employees comparing two units or customers comparing two units. Either way, they don't all make it back to the right spot everytime.
14) Partially True. This is an area where Best Buy is stronger then Circuit. BBY will try to fix units first. If it's within the Manufacturers warranty, many times the Warranty is still there. If it's outside they will fix it, but if there is a need to replace it then the warranty has been exhausted.
15) False. This is a Best Buy thing where the computer indicates it's covered for 25 or 49 months at the register, but it's how the computer differentiates between the Accidental and Non-Accidental plans. It truly is 2 or 4 years.
16) Mixed. I suggest it for laptops as some battery prices skyrocket after they stop making them for certain units. Cameras, I would not get a warranty just because it provides a battery. I recommend them for expensive cameras, but not for the inexpensive ones. I saw an awful lot of camera and computer failures over the years.
17) False. If it's the right product for the customer, give it to them. A good salesperson will make sure it's not someone who is just enamored with the price only to find out later it won't do what they want.
18) True. Planograms were made around making money. Cheap UCB cables, car audio cables, speaker and tv cables are placed in lower traffic areas.
19) False. I knew of one employee who did something similar over 6 years and he was fired.
20) False. I am sure there are cases of idiot employees doing this, but it's rare.
21) True. Most retailers competitive match policy is like this. It can be a point of confusion.
22) False. Case of an idiot employee.
23) Mixed. This is a case of poor employee education. It can happen, but doesn't happen for long.
24) False. I have never seen it happen, but that doesn't mean it can't happen somewhere.
25) Mixed. CC went through a layoff and let go highly paid employees that were veterans. Many of these wages were leftovers from the commision days and the current high paid employees were previously middle of the road who made the cut. Now, as they make twice as much as new hires and often had the same performance, it was their way of shifting back to where the market was for that type of job. They were well above the line for their performance, and now they are in line with their competitors for pay. The downside is that those employees were the veterans, for better or worse, and were the ones who knew the operations the best.
26) Mixed. I am sure this happens at some stores, but it's not consistent enough to say true.
27) False. I never saw this, or heard of this.

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