Consumerist readers know that liquidation sales at big-box stores usually offer nothing but large, rude crowds and crappy deals. An anonymous Ultimate Electronics employee who is also a longtime reader wrote in to offer some tips for shoppers who want to check out the sale. Those tips are really more of a rant about what it’s like to work in a store that’s being liquidated.

As an employee of the soon-to-be defunct company Ultimate Electronics and longtime Consumerist reader, I felt it necessary to share some insider tips for consumers wishing to get the most out of their liquidation experience.

1. Big ticket items are NOT cheaper than they used to be, they have been marked up. (those that remember Circuit City should know this by now.) Things like TV’s, computers, appliances, and car audio have all gone up in price even though the liquidation company advertises steep discounts. Shop elsewhere for these things, don’t even waste your time coming in to look.

2. We do not care. By we, I mean the employees. We are all losing our jobs in a tough job market so the days of going out of our way to be nice to assholes are long gone. If you have any interest in getting help from anybody then be nice, don’t be a dick or you will be getting the bottled up wrath of a retail employee that has been putting up with your shit for a long time and has never had the opportunity to say what they really feel. We are people, too.

3. Yes your previously purchased product is still covered under warranty and no you will never get your halfback voucher. That’s the way it is and we are tired of answering this question. Expect an especially negative reaction to bitching about this.

4. Prices are not negotiable. At all. Period. Not our fault and we don’t care anyway.

5. No more installs, no more PC services, no more in-home anything. We can’t change this, stop asking.

6. Do not buy anything that was used as a display. I have heard countless lies of “It’s only been on display a few days” or “Displays do not get used roughly” only to see the customer buy something that breaks 2 days later. Have you seen what a small child thinks a laptop keyboard is made for? Exactly.

7. We appreciate the sympathetic remarks about us losing our jobs but we would appreciate it more if you kept it to yourself. We hear this all day and it doesn’t help.

Thanks, Anonymous Reader. What we can take away from this reader and his colleagues at closing Borders stores: don’t be a jerk, and don’t scatter stuff all over the store. Wait, those are both civilized and decent things to do even when a store isn’t closing.

PREVIOUSLY:
Ultimate Electronics To Liquidate, Close All Stores
Don’t Rush Into Buying Stuff At Liquidation Sales
Scenes From A Borders Liquidation Sale

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