My god this is the worst place to buy an appliance, TV, lawn mower, bed, etc. EVER! I dont know what there concept is or how they stay in business, but they should re-name the place EX-Conn's. Every slimy salesman in there was a thug, and they had to look up pricing on 12" black screen, green text beige - computers from 1981. I went in to look at a matress and wanted to know the price of a Simmons pillow luxury super soft back saver whatever matress. Dude takes FOR-EVER to come back and try and get me a price, saying its already marked at the lowest possible price and there was nothing he could do. When I told him I would think about it he sighed and said "I thought we had a deal?" WHAT?!?! What deal? I wanted to know the freaking price for chrissake. He never gave it to me and I walked out. So when did purchasing such items at an "award winning service" store become such a pain in the ass, like buying a used car?? This place oficially BLOWS!! I guess its for people with really crappy ass credit or something, because that place was dead.
I've been in there exactly once... and I'm never going back... it seemed like a really seedy place. The lighting was poor, the merchandising sucked, and the place just smelled bad. All the salesmen were more pre-occupied with checking out my girlfriend than they were about helping us with TVs. We got out of there in a hurry.
I actually just bought my tv there about a month ago, but only because I got a hell of a deal. They had the same model TV I wanted on sale at Frye's for $1,399, but it was a refurbished unit. Every other store around town was selling them for $1,699 new. Well, I went into Conn's and showed them the ad from Frye's. They said they would honor it so I ended up getting a brand new model for the refurbished price. I guess they didn't bother to read the fine print! I agree with you though, it does feel like a car buying experience. Right when we walked in salesmen swarmed to us. I hate stores like that.
We bought our TV and a dryer from Conns and got a heck of a deal on the TV. I had a small leg up as I worked with one of the managers of the Almeda location.
I've also been to Conn's once. Never going back. I will never understand how a place like that can stay in business. It's like they want to drive customers away with their vulture-like attitudes. It's like a used car lot for appliances. Ugh.
My parents bought a TV from there for my Christmas present. Now, I live in a different city, so they asked if I could pick it up. I was going to be out of town, but they said, "Please pick it up before the end of the year. We need this for paperwork."... and so I did. Now, I go out of town and come back at the start of the year, and I open the box, and there's a HUGE scratch on the screen. I try to return it and was immediately told, "We'll refund 30 dollars." I said, "No, I want to return the TV and get a new one." I got the hassle for three days before they finally let me come in to the same store I picked up the TV from (instead of travelling to my parent's city!?). And they didn't believe me until I opened the box in the store and showed it to them.
I bought my stove from them after a whole lot of research. Happy with that purchase, but I otherwise hate their store.
I bought my little Sony 50-cd changer shelf system from them 5 years ago. I thought I got a good deal. I have had no problems with it. I don't know If would go back though. They do seem kind of shady.
Conn's sucks, and the worst one of all is their "clearance outlet" at Stella Link at 610. I think they send their worst salespeople there. Pure used car lot dropouts.
I've always thought that Circuit City was the best place to buy electronics. Their salespeople are readily available, and somewhat knowledgeable about the product they're selling. The problem with Best Buy is that they have a bunch of teenagers working there who don't know sh*t, and they're too busy trying to peddle that stupid product service plan. Not to mention the checkout lines always suck (in NW Austin at least.)
A couple of guys from my church recently went to work for Conn's because they were out of work and really needed the job. One of them luckily found another job and quit immediately without notice because he hated it so bad. The other guy was struggling with it because of their commission-based pay structure. Sounds like it's really competitive among the salesmen. You gotta have that aggressive personality to succeed there, but I'm sure that personality really turns off a lot of customers.
