JB Hi-Fi (Australia) feedback

Couldn't find a thread for this store so thought I'd make one. :)


Was impressed yesterday when going to order 'Transformers Animated Season 3'. The site said they had to get stock from their warehouse in and they did so within an afternoon. By late afternoon I got the shipping notice - very efficient. Shipping to Swan Hill was only 99c too which I thought was very good.

I'm finding their online store very useful for someone who lives 200km away from their nearest physical store. They often seem to have good pre-order bonuses for the various TF games that come out as well, though often I still go through EB Games as their DLC etc is usually more to my liking.

Bought an Iphone 5c telstra pre-paid. Sales person insisted it's locked but not and automatically activated the $30 sim/credit which I didn't needed at the time but was forced on me.

I was at JB Hi-Fi yesterday buying some DVDs and the people at the counter were friendly and nice. 5/5 would shop again

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Originally Posted by jazzcomp

Bought an Iphone 5c telstra pre-paid. Sales person insisted it's locked but not and automatically activated the $30 sim/credit which I didn't needed at the time but was forced on me.

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The phones are only through Telstra. In theory, they should be locked, but in reality I don't believe that stock was network locked.

My theory? Apple sold Telstra a tonne of (discontinued) 32GB 5Cs, and as per Telstra policy, they have to be activated at POS. JB are a Telstra dealer, so it's the same rules as it's not Apple stock - it's Telstra stock.

Take the SIM out and snap it, problem solved.

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Originally Posted by millhouse

The phones are only through Telstra. In theory, they should be locked, but in reality I don't believe that stock was network locked.

My theory? Apple sold Telstra a tonne of (discontinued) 32GB 5Cs, and as per Telstra policy, they have to be activated at POS. JB are a Telstra dealer, so it's the same rules as it's not Apple stock - it's Telstra stock.

Take the SIM out and snap it, problem solved.

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I wanted to delay using the credit if & when I needed it. It's prepaid. I bought the prepaid locked phones from Coles and it's up to you to activate the service.

I've found their inventory on the website to be unreliable. Case in point: I was searching for a particular TV series that was advertised on special - buy one, second half price, which was perfect for a series with 4 seasons. Unfortunately, their website was telling me the only store in the country that had one of the seasons was in Rockhampton. Others were in Melbourne but not close to me.

I went into the local store just in case and found all the seasons sitting on the shelf, plus a few other things the website said were unavailable.

Their Blurays, especially 3D ones, tend to be overpriced, but there are bargains to be had from time to time. I usually like a good browse in-store at JB if I have time, but don't like the website much.

A good news story from a few years ago: I was after a CD that I had on cassette tape as a youngster, but the record was never released in Australia on CD. I enquired in-store and JB told be they could import it from the U.S. I agreed, and it came in within a week or so, for an unexpectedly low total of $25. I never thought it would be that easy, quick, or cheap.

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Originally Posted by jazzcomp

I wanted to delay using the credit if & when I needed it. It's prepaid. I bought the prepaid locked phones from Coles and it's up to you to activate the service.

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Just Telstra's call with the phone mate. Hence the reason you got a 32GB iPhone 5C for $399 while the 8GB costs you $529 from Apple.

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Originally Posted by millhouse

Just Telstra's call with the phone mate. Hence the reason you got a 32GB iPhone 5C for $399 while the 8GB costs you $529 from Apple.

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I bought the phone for the price & coz it's unlocked :)

My experience with JB Hi-Fi is usually ok - nothing spectacular but nothing bad.

A couple of times DVDs I bought from them had the wrong disc inside (e.g. bought an animated Superman feature only to find the original live-action film disc inside).

As long as there are no problems with the products then it's all good - but if there's an issue it sometimes feels like I am speaking a foreign language to them.

Last couple of orders I've had with them online have shown up commendably fast. Hoping the latest one does the same as ordered a box-set of a show the missus likes for Valentines Day (yes I give romantic gifts too ;))

Also, not so much feedback but just letting people know, they have the Box Sets of all 5 TF movies on their 'buy a 2nd box set for 50% off' list on both DVD and Blu Ray.

So my Elita-1 got lost in the mail and was said by Australia Post to be officially 'lost in transit'.

I emailed/messaged JB HiFi about this 3 seperate times asking could they facilitate a replacement or refund and never got a response.

Finally put in a PayPal dispute and got my money back within hours.

Goes to show you, these places will happily ignore a query/complaint from a longtime customer, but will respond almost instantly if its from another company :rolleyes:

Here's hoping that my Megatron/GIJoe figure from them actually shows up.

Thursday last week I was at the Garden City (Brisbane) store, and they hadn't unpacked the various Transformers that were scheduled for release on that day (July 28th), so I put in an order for 11 items... price-matching most of them with Kmart prices. Since I expected that some of the items wouldn't have been sent to this fairly small store, I told them that as soon as they process their delivery and set aside items for my order, to contact me, so that I could go in and buy those items first and not have to wait another week or so for the entire order just because they needed to transfer one or two items to that store.

Naturally I didn't get any messages or calls before today, so I went in and they did indeed have an incomplete order that was being held for 3 outstanding items, but didn't try to contact me yet.
On the plus side, they allowed me to cancel one item that I had ordered by accident (I have it on order at Amazon for less... but I just have to wait a couple more weeks for it).

So... it was really easy to get something price-matched (probably up to a point) just by showing them the website of a competitor, even though it didn't have wave 2 shown (the packaging was similar enough I guess) - and, they didn't require any payment when ordering... but they were not very reliable on contacting me when I was told they would contact me.

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Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

So my Elita-1 got lost in the mail and was said by Australia Post to be officially 'lost in transit'.

I emailed/messaged JB HiFi about this 3 seperate times asking could they facilitate a replacement or refund and never got a response.

Finally put in a PayPal dispute and got my money back within hours.

Goes to show you, these places will happily ignore a query/complaint from a longtime customer, but will respond almost instantly if its from another company :rolleyes:

Here's hoping that my Megatron/GIJoe figure from them actually shows up.

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And after 3 1/2 months Elita unexpectedly shows up in the post! Since I sourced another one elsewhere I'm going to put her aside for my daughter for Xmas :)

When I picked up my preorder of SG Soundwave and the Hero 2pack last week, the two boxes were taped up together with the order print up taped over the top. I was not happy, putting sticky tape all over collector boxes and I told them that several times as I slowly peeled off all the tape at the checkout counter, blocking that register for about 5 minutes. (I stayed so that I could return them if the tape tore up the packaging)
I got most of it off okay, but it did lift a little bit of the surface of the Hero 2pack.

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Originally Posted by griffin

When I picked up my preorder of SG Soundwave and the Hero 2pack last week, the two boxes were taped up together with the order print up taped over the top. I was not happy, putting sticky tape all over collector boxes and I told them that several times as I slowly peeled off all the tape at the checkout counter, blocking that register for about 5 minutes. (I stayed so that I could return them if the tape tore up the packaging)
I got most of it off okay, but it did lift a little bit of the surface of the Hero 2pack.

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This made me chuckle ;).

Did they appear to care at all?

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Originally Posted by griffin

When I picked up my preorder of SG Soundwave and the Hero 2pack last week, the two boxes were taped up together with the order print up taped over the top. I was not happy, putting sticky tape all over collector boxes and I told them that several times as I slowly peeled off all the tape at the checkout counter, blocking that register for about 5 minutes. (I stayed so that I could return them if the tape tore up the packaging)
I got most of it off okay, but it did lift a little bit of the surface of the Hero 2pack.

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They taped to the top of my MPM Blackout, took it off without asking and peeled the black off, leaving a white spot on the top. I flat out refused to take and made them get another from out the back.

The damaged is still sitting in the shelf

No packing material in the box whatsoever. Now that's fine for me, I'm an opener, and surprisingly the boxes arrived in pretty good nick overall, with just one major tear. But it's definitely something to watch for if you are concerned about such things.

Postage was very cheap, and it arrived right on time, a mere 3 days after order was placed.

I got sick of waiting for Breakdown from Amazon so I ordered from JB and also got a Lio Convoy while I was at it. I really don't care about this because I throw the cardboard and paper in the recycling, but I know a lot of you will. The Transformers were put in a bit of bubble wrap and then into a courier bag. The boxes were all damaged as you would expect for flimsy Legacy packaging without an outer box to protect them. Again, I don't care, but I know many of you will.