Bored, ask me anything. I'll answer to the best of my ability.
[AMA] I am a JB Hi-Fi Salesperson
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Asking for a better deal is fine. We are currently living in a cost of living crisis so every dollar counts. People are happy even when i tell them that i can only knock off a coffee's worth on what they're buying. Maybe its the thrill of it that they enjoy? I do think that it's unfair to some degree to customers who don't know you can ask for a discount though.
In regards to hi-fi, i think at the minimum to live up to the name of the company it would make sense. However i just don't imagine it being popular anymore. Online only options are basically the only way for it to make sense.
About records, be nice to staff and ask for a better deal. You can probably save $30-40 per record priced over $80 lol. For some reason, compared to any other item, our lil devices tell us we can discount vinyls that much. So take advantage of that.
They used to sell highish-fi when I worked there 15 years ago. Hardly anyone bought it even back then.
How did JB make profit from selling telstra plan if people end up cancelling?
Especially when you gave big $1200 or $1700 off for the phone?Great question. The answer is no one knows. We always wonder it too.
Typically the store would get paid by Telstra at/near time of sale, so they make their money regardless of what the user does with their plan after they leave the store. I used to sell interest bearing finance at better than "cash price", and then tell people to pay it out in full the next month. The store and I would get a big commission for this and customer would get a cheaper price, the only ones missing out was the bank.
It's called kick backs and spiffs. Just like how people working at JB can't see true cost price of items. The price you see factors in Rent, Electricity, Wages, Commissions paid, Delivery costs, markups etc. example: a JBL speaker or headphones run on about 40% markup. Microsoft and apple products truly run on 12%.
do you ever make the signs?
Nope, thats mainly done by the team that puts stock out, and not salespeople. My handwriting sucks anyway
When is best time to buy at TV? Looking at the C4 83 OLED. Missed a bargain at $4200 4/7/24. It was a bundled with a take a further 15% off deal. Any tricks?
Can I use any number of gift cards to purchase any item, namely 38-40 x $100 gift cards to buy a TV?
Technically, yes. Please dont go in when its busy. And be kind. Have the cards scratched already and out of the packaging.
Why do JB staff don't have uniforms??
if I order online and do a click and collect or delivery, who gets the commission?
No one gets the commission. Live chat is an exception.
Why do JB Hi-Fi people smell funny?
I'm in the market for a new DJI drone. Would it be worth me waiting till the Black Friday sales for the lowest price?
If you're not in a rush, sure, but i doubt there will be any groundbreaking prices and discounts. If it isn't on sale already, then hold out.
How much discount could I ask for on a $4,000 TV? And a $600 sound bar?
I always dread having to return something or claim warranty, but for the past 10 years have always had a great experience at JB, better than anywhere else.
It depends on a lot. Are they on sale already? If so, it'll be hard to move. If you buy it with the soundbar it'll be good for their stats, maybe using that you can negotiate.
I would say: if you can't do a better price than this i'll buy the soundbar later.
Trust me, they reaaally want you to buy the soundbar with the TV for the sake of their stats.
Heheh yeah and $200 surge protected power boards (tho maybe that's more of a HN thing).
So specifically, a 98" TCL or HiSense TV, at full price $4,000 to $6,000, with 2km delivery, no soundbar. What kind of discount should I aim for?
Whats with the soundbars stats?
I know audiophiles hate em, but do they actually sell well on their own merit?
Could be something else now, but when I worked at JB a decade ago one of the key stats was IPS - items per sale, i.e. ability to package/upsell accessories/additional items. Sound equipment generally had huge mark-ups too, a $600 sound bar could have almost as much margin as the TV itself, so you could up your IPS by giving a bit of a package deal whilst maintaining a decent margin.
How come I get big discount on live chat and two days later I ordered the same thing and the person wouldn't let me
The first person gave it to me at cost price
hi OP,…
how much average do JB HIFI staff earn / per hour? any extra bonus when they managed to sell something?
You can find information on their wages in the first page of this discussion and yes they earn a commission
Why do you need extended warranty when there is Australian Consumer Law
i guess it's the simplicity.
in my case it was an airpod but bought in Officeworks.
$200 airpods + $30 extended warranty for additional 2 years
to make the claim with just a phone call and i can already pick up my $200 gift card instore.
i cannot imagine using ACL to claim extended warranty for a small item, the time and efforts..Why should you get car insurance if you can just spend loads of time and effort suing the person in court? Think of it that way
A few months ago, I visited JB looking for wireless earphones. The store manager assigned a salesperson to assist me, but when I asked for the best price on a $400 Bose earphone, she simply stated that the price was as marked and didn’t even check the system. Frustrated, I turned to live chat, where I was offered a much better price of $325. I placed the order online for pickup at the same store that had turned me down.
When I went to collect my order, I overheard staff discussing the $30 commission the live chat representative earned from my order. This raised a few questions:
Is there a cap on the commission that employees can earn?
Is $30 not enough incentive for in-store staff to negotiate?
Do live chat representatives have more flexibility in granting discounts than in-store salespeople?
Lastly, if I encounter a salesperson who seems disengaged, how can I politely request assistance from someone else without coming across as a difficult customer?
I’d appreciate any insights!
1: There is no cap at all on commissions
2: We have some commissions, that don't decrease but rather disappear if you discount the item beyond a certain number. For example, that staff member may have seen the $30 comission, and if they discounted it even a dollar, it would disappear. This is most likely what happened.
3: I'm not sure, but i don't think so. In your case, i'd guess the live chat representative just sacrificed the commission instead.
4: This one is difficult lol. Ask if they are familiar with the product and see what they say, a nice way to ask is to ask them if they or anyone in the store has personal experience with the item. This makes it seem like you just want to talk to someone who can vouch for the product personally rather than coming off as annoyed with the current team member.
Also, sorry for the experience you had anyway. It's not nice to know you had to resort to online chat because the salesperson didn't want to lose their commission (the most likely scenario). And to overhear them talk about it on pickup isn't really professional, but wat can ya do, we are just some teenagers with yellow lanyards afterall
Do suppliers or manufacturers give perks or provide reward schemes for selling their products.
I used to work for a certain store and some brands gave some very attractive rewards for selling their products, more so than the store commissions.
I can upload a picture of every sale of a HP device for rewards on their platform, but i have honestly never looked into it. Beyond that, most brands no. Google maybe here and there with some competition.
Idk if they still do, but Microsoft definitely did back in the day.
Do you have to be a hipster cool person to work at JB? Do they even employ older people?
Generally speaking, my experience at JB has been good, almost all staff have been friendly. And you don't make me feel like you are checking on me like if I was going to steal something, making me uncomfortable to be in the store. Good work guys.
But are you guys when not at work that nice or its part of the job?
I have a bunch of older, super normal coworkers. You genuinely don't have to be hip or cool. Hip and cool people apply to JB as a preference rather than JB hiring them as a preference (IMO).
If you are coming across nice workers, then sure they're definitely like that outside of work. I think if they aren't nice outside of work, that will be your experience in the store too (as demonstrated by some other shoppers who say they come across staff who seemingly don't want to serve them)
I miss the Baywatch babe era of JB Hifi (early to late 2000's almost every female worker at several JB's I lived near was a blonde (both natural AND bleached variety) with massive chests.
Oh that.. thats just weird buddy
Thanks.
Thinking back a few years at work, they bought 2-3 TVs, say they were LG, they got mounted had them up for a week or two, the boss did not like them because they were not Sony brand. They looked fine to me. Anyway we had to take them down and return them, in the original box packed back in best as possible. JB accepted them back no problem. What does JB do with these returns, I don't think the new customer would accept them as new, what happens here?
Though for smaller electric items I do see them re-packed and sold at the new price.We do sell repacked items all the time as long as theres no hygiene issues (earphones etc). We typically can offer them at a lower price. Very rarely they'll be sent back to the manufacturer though.
Im not a hipster, im a former storeperson at JB in Sydney. Was in my mid 30s.
Is having that Grunge look a prerequisite of the job?
Not necessarily, but you might need to make an original joke
Your website is advertising Xiaomi (Redmi) phones
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/collections/mobile-phones/xiaomi-m…Do you guys stock these physically or are they an online only option (shipped out)
also have they been checked if they will work due to the 3G shutdown and banning phones?
can check by putting an IMEI here https://amta.org.au/3g-closure-old/check-my-device/Xiaomi phones are readily stocked inside stores. I'm not sure about any 3G shutdown stuff.
Only international versions of Xiaomi are effected by the 3G shutdown
Could you share why there are still so many DVDs and Blu-ray discs available in your stores? I’m curious if there’s still strong customer interest for these in today’s world of streaming services.
Oldheads
Since you can see the cost price of a tv on your little ipad thing, if say a tv retails for $3k, whats the approx cost purchase price for jb?
We actually can't see the cost price from the little phones. It just says the lowest we can discount that item.
So, as an example, if youve seen a $3k tv in your system, whats the most discount youve seen available?
Maybe a couple hundred. Depends. What brand? Is it on sale already? If the customer is buying more than the TV we can discount it beyond what the device tells us usually.
What's the most difficult experience/customer you've had to deal with?
Are the staff ever in control of the in-store playlists?
We have premade playlists and at most only get to choose which one to play.
Difficult customer? Well, I had a lady swearing at me for not having bose headphones on display on the day of their launch. Visibly shaking in anger infront of her child and swearing. it's a crazy world we live in
A salesperson offered me a mobile plan with gift card and some discount. Over 2 days I visited him and made sure to understand the offer. Finally decided to sign up but he wasn't available that day. Another guy put the details through and I got Telstra plan.
Then at checkout he made sure I don't get the gift card because the two offer (discount and gift card won't apply simultaneously he said). However, I was misled into believing that I was getting a gift card value as well. Any recourse?
Was this for a google pixel phone? I actually heard that they changed their mind very recently when the offer dropped and they revoked the giftcard being available if you signed up to the plan.
If you were genuinely signing up because you thought you would get that, and the offer changed by the time you got to the other person, it is up to whether you were told before submitting the contract or not. If it was explained to you before signing the contract then nothing can be done, otherwise you might have a case to make if you speak to a manager
Exactly, I travelled there on Sunday, a staff made me believe I get $350 on top of plan. Then he signed me up but Telstra confirm didn't come. If it had come through I'm 100% positive I would get $350 because he just had it all set in his mind.
Next day, I went he was still there but Telstra confirmation hadn't arrived by Monday either.Went back a 3rd time and he wasn't there anymore but another staff was there (I already had received confirmation from Telstra). That particular staff said, you are ineligible.
I said I had thought this the whole way. Then he came to cashier and waited there.The cashier proceeded to hand me the phone and started to write a $350 gift card as well. Then this particular staff prevented her from doing what appeared to have been done on regular basis.
I requested talk to manager and he was a pathetic helpless guy just not understanding what I was talking and without paying attention to who said what first. He just reiterated that these 2 offers won't overlap.
Well, even if you cancel the sim card now, the maximum you'll pay is much, much less than you paid for the Pixel. So theres that at least
Can you use your staff discount online and if so whats the process?
t. new hire
You can’t really. You can email a specific email in store and they send you a special JB direct. That way you can pay online but of course direct links expire midnight. Ask your managers for more info!
Would you please give me a staff discount?! :D
I've tried price match a couple of times, and was denied both times because it was below "cost price". They did not deny that it was a valid store (it was something like office works) and the discount was not outrageous. They offered it for me at their "cost" price which was only slightly higher.
Why is it like this? Do you have a solid price match policy, or do you just call it that when in reality you can deny the price match for any reason you feel like? Should I stand my ground and try to talk to a manager? It just seems like too much effort, plus I'm usually to annoyed to bother.
PS: I hate the cost price nonsense which is a completely lie, but I won't start ranting about that.
We need to stop equating the term "Cost price" with literal cost price. It just means that it is in most scenarios the lowest they can do for you.
My store has never denied price matches for "Cost price" reasons as long as it's valid. I think if you spoke to a manager in that case, or just walked around and asked someone else, you'd have succeeded, especially if it was a store like Officeworks, unless the product was out of stock.
I'm not sure why it's up to me. If they lie and say they can't go lower because it's their cost price, I have every right to be annoyed. It's an issue that jb jhifi have to fix - it's not up to me to be less sensitive to their lies.
Anyway, maybe it's just my local store then. I've stopped trying to price match since there always just pull out a random price to offer (based on their "cost price") instead of actually price matching.
When do Black Friday Deals begin? looking for LG OLED TVs, heard anything?
BF is formally on the last week of November. We dunno anything about deals until like a few days before
Why are some mobile deals in-store only? Would have thought online = more sales.
online = more fraud
OP, i bought a phone + trade in. If i want to return the phone. Will i get the full amount? Or amount without trade in?
did you get a trade in giftcard or coupon? any coupon will be surrendered. the giftcard value will be returned
Its a JB Hi-Fi coupon to use towards the purchase of a new phone.
Another word JB won't refund the coupon amount along with the refund even it has been deducted as part of the invoice?Coupons are not refundable. Under basically any and ever circumstance
Do you know when the PS5 disc drive will come back in stock?
For high end products, is it possible to get a larger discount than usual based on their volume being low?
ie if I wanted to buy an Apple studio display, which I assume has very low volume, would there be more wiggle room than with other products?
No. If anything, probably the opposite.
You can have more wiggle room on older products tho. So if you ask about any last year macbooks, laptops, home appliances etc. But not really for phones and tablets.
Would you prefer to have a higher base hourly wage with no commission, or stick with what you have now?
Since i'm in sales i prefer what i have now. If i worked in a position where i do less sales (register/counter) then maybe higher hourly wage would be nicer
Whats the most Comms you've made in a month
We get paid comms by the week so not sure by month. Close to a $1000 i'd say? I think it was around 700-800.
For Extra Care, can you let the customer keep the faulty item? I don't see where it says we have to surrender the product.
And for price match, if we have bought the product from JB Hifi (via price match) but then the price drops due to Black Friday sales can we return the item to JB Hifi and repurchase at the lower price?
How strict is JB on allowing customers for swaps/store credit for items like in-ear earbuds? We can't listen to them in store and test them out for fit.
- We don’t decide, square trade decides.
- You can if the item was purchased less than 2 weeks ago.
- We do not accept any returns for change of minds for earphones and headphones for hygiene reasons. If it isn’t faulty we can’t do anything.
Whats square trade?
Square trade is a third party company that does all our trade ins and extra warranty stuff. If you trade in a phone we don’t assess it at JB, you post it to them and they assess it ETC.
Am I able to access JB Business prices instore? Or do I have to order online and pick it up instore?
JB Business pricing is exclusively online.
- Do you give staff from neighbouring stores / coffee shops discount?
- Do you have certain sales target per month? If yes, does that mean there is a higher chance to get a better deal towards the end of each month?
Sometimes. When you work in a mall, a lot of restaurants/cafes will give you a tiny discount for working in the mall (i guess to incentivise repeat business as we are in the mall often), so when someone from a humble quiet store gave me a discount i told him to hit me up if he needed anything. He came by later that day and he got an SD card with my discount code. He hasn't asked for anything since! We also give our security guards access to staff sales at our store (worth mentioning because they are contractors and not JB Hi-Fi employees).
We have certain targets every month yes, but it typically has no correlation in getting a better deal. Sometimes if we're desparate we'll do a dodgy pricematch, like Costco, which we normally wouldn't do because of the memberdship fee.
What is the best time of year to purchase a laptop?
Whenever you are looking to buy. There is really no day in the year with an insane sale, and it's usually not even worth waiting until Black Friday if the laptop you want is already on sale.
Most stuff only go on sale to a certain price then bump back up to ticket, and repeat. If the laptop is on discount, use 10% off giftcards and you're set.
Surprised by many people's experiences with price-match being rejected. When sales people have come and asked me I've always approved them. If they're a valid price match of course.
Right? We lowkey don’t care that much at our store. I price match if it looks all good to go, people are making it sound like the staff at their stores check staff price before confirming the price match, wtf lol?
How can i get staff discount? do you wanna be friends? thanks m8
What specific product training are you offered? You mentioned earlier you've overheard staff who don't know what RAM is selling laptops, but it you work in a dept is there a process to train staff on the features of a new product? Or is it entirely up to you to do your own research?
If bose releases new earphones, there will be training modules that take 5-10 mins that summarise all the information (as an example). But these don't explain what lossless audio is and stuff.
Same deal with laptops etc. Explains what the new product is and some features, but not the real nature of the product. It will tell you how much RAM it has but not much more than that. Yes some salespeople won't know what RAM is, but at the least they know the more is (in most cases) better.
I don’t have a question but I would just like to say this has been an excellent AMA. Your responses answer the questions and the vibe is great.
Thanks!
P.s some one should actually make a wiki out of it.
They should also do planned AMAs at the yearly meet up
Thank you legend! Trying to keep everyone informed heh
What is the best way of getting discount, specifically for the Microsoft Surface Pro 11.
Nothing specific. Maybe wait for it to be on sale. If you can't wait just ask for a better deal and see what can be done.
What's your opinion on the whole "asking for a discount" thing? Shouldn't the store just charge the best price it can instead of rewarding people who whinge about discounts?
Do you wish JB sold actual hi-fi gear instead of mass produced mid/low-fi stuff?
Why are records so eye-wateringly expensive at JB now, they are seriously like $70 for a record I can buy on eBay for $35?