When I lived in Rochester, this Best Buy was less than a five-minute drive from my home. Back then,…read moreI had opened a Best Buy credit card, which helped finance a desktop computer. Before the pandemic, I had been using Roam Mobility, which provided convenient talk, text, and data services aimed at Canadians who travel to the States. When the border between the two countries was shut down to travellers, Roam Mobility folded. During this trip, I needed to get a SIM to get talk, text, and data services. While in Rochester, I decided to check out my old local Best Buy and see if I could find something that fit my needs. Luckily, there are a number of cell phone providers that don't lock you into plans. I found a SIM with a provider that I liked and decided to purchase it. I did some browsing around while I was here. The store's exterior looks the same. As expected, I didn't recognize a thing inside. I loved that there were accessories from my Google Pixel 4a 5G phone at this store. It also had a rower that looked so fancy with a screen and tons of workout routine options. The checkout is off to the left when you first walk into the store. I had a nice man help me pay for my SIM. It was straightforward tapping with my credit card to complete my purchase. Later on that evening, I activated my SIM online. It was easy with the provider that I went with. Some US portals are difficult for Canadians to enter credit card information with a Canadian address. I do have a workaround. You can register your credit card, but need to enter the numbers in your postal code as the first three digits in the ZIP code field, followed by two zeroes. It has worked for me on a few US-based apps, such as BPme for gas. However, if the portal is a stickler for selecting a state from the dropdown options, this workaround may not work well. I am pleased that I can stay connected with my new SIM and prepaid plan that's flexible and suits my needs. It was definitely easier to compare and contrast what SIMs were available at this Best Buy. (447)

apple made a appointment to repair our iPhone we arrived and was told to reschedule so 2nd…read moreappointment they said wrong techs were in and rescheduled for the next day we showed up they said the guy to repia was not in till the next day we showed up and was told they couldn't service us do to the guy wasn't in I spoke to a manager he assured me to drop phone off next day when they opened and when showed up was told the manager was misinformed i would rate them a negative ten

Just like Dollar General... they don't charge what it says on the shelf... watch out when you check…read moreout!

I remember when this Super Target first opened. I lived in Rochester and it was exciting that the…read morecity was going to get its first Target store, let alone a Super one (say Target in French to make it sound fancy). It has been well over a decade since I last visited it. I broke that streak recently when I returned to my old neighbourhood. I did a pitstop here from Eden Prairie. I then did a quick browse around the store. This store still has a Starbucks, which is likely where my love for the cafe started. A number of us back in the day (we were coincidentally all Canadians living here, employed by the same company) would often come here to get a drink and browse around Target afterwards. The women's washroom was clean. I don't recall ever using it before, so that was cool. The clothing section still makes me happy. It's bright and organized well. I did a brief tour of the produce section. It still looks the same as I had remembered it. Veggies look fresh. Fruits look yummy. No complaints on my end! The checkout area seems to have grown. I could be wrong. I don't remember so many cashiers! It was nice to reminisce. Rochester now has two Target stores. This one is in the north part of the city, which is five minutes away from where I used to live. (13)

Rochester Pro Music is your typical local music store…read more They have a good number of electric, acoustic and bass guitars from common brands like Fender, Ibanez, Les Paul, etc... As well as a good selection of pedals and amps. As would be expected, they also sell PA equipment, drums and mixers, as well as a pretty hefty selection of used gear. The store also has six (I believe) teaching rooms, and a number of guitar and bass teachers. My former guitar teacher is now working there. As expected, they do repairs on musical equipment. There are a couple of reasons I am giving them four stars instead of five: 1)Their pricing isn't too competitive. 2)The owner does not like "random jamming" on the guitars, because they wear on them a bit. While this is a perfectly valid point, every other music shop I've been to will let anybody borrow a cable and pick and play with their guitars whenever they want. Why? Because they'll buy sooner or later. 3)The brother of one of my neighbors bought a Les Paul guitar there, and brought it in for service on something that was under warranty, and they would not honor the warranty. While I certainly don't know the whole situation, it's still something to consider.

My 91 yr old mother went back to the store on 6/14/23 to ask a service representative to download…read moreher contacts again. She had purchased a new phone 2 weeks prior and paid $29 to have her contacts transferred to her new phone, but unfortunately some of them were missing. When she was finally helped, the service rep replied to her, "Sure, and that will be another $29 to download your contacts again. You should have made sure you had all of your contacts before you left the store." Unbelievable and so angering to hear someone make a comment like that. How many of us would ever know that we had a contact missing, let alone a 91 yr old. They are clearly trying to rip off the elderly!

Just for the heck of it I decided to pretend my phone went belly up and went to the website for…read morelocal Rochester Store where I bought the phone. Today is 8 dec and I may be able to get an appointment for dec 17 or 18. If my phone was being used for business I would kind of be screwed. Ya I get covid, I also get Verizon cant go into hiding and close all the stores. You are selling a major communications device people rely on and cant just cater to your hours or lack of. i suggest getting big boy pants and open those stores and take care of needs of the customers not yours. Time to change companys.

G & S Antenna is a top rate Antenna and Satellite firm. They've been in business since 1980, so…read morethey are pretty well established (not another fly by night, startup satellite firm). They sell Winegard antennas and pre-amps, Channel Master rotators and Rohn towers. The owner, Gordy Stiller runs the business out of his house in Byron. I had a good experience with them back in the fall of 2001, when we went to fix an antenna at a previous house. The owner, an older guy in his 50's or 60's seems to be very experienced with satellite and antenna systems. He was more than willing to spend 45 minutes explaining in full detail all the tips and tricks doing our installation up right, etc... He was very friendly, and glad to sell to DIYers. I was impressed at his honesty (not slick). The equipment prices were quite reasonable, even though some stuff is certainly cheaper on the internet. I would definitely recommend them as an installer, even though I did not deal with that end of things. Why? Two reasons: 1)Because I've seen many of their installations, and they are very well designed, and good looking. 2)I was very impressed with the owner, and would definitely trust him and his men on my roof (or tower) if I were un-able to install it my self. Please visit the AVS Forum's Rochester, MN-HDTV thread to converse with other people who have dealt with G & S Antenna and what their experiences were like. There is also a wealth of information about the broadcast TV situation here in Rochester and surrounding areas The thread is located at: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9297332 Prices: This list is not comprehensive and might not be accurate, but these are the prices I remember from our purchase. Winegard Pre-Amps: $70 New, $40 Used. Used CM Rotators (Standard): $40 Used CM Rotators (Heavy Duty/Stacking): $60 Winegard 300ohm to 75ohm antenna combiner: $15

Horrible experience. Found them in the Yellow Pages without asking for referrals. We added a 2nd…read morestory to our home in the country and wanted to move our antenna to a rear peak of the house and get TV to the new TV location in the upstairs. Called their number and dealt with Travis Stiller, the original owner's son, through the whole nightmare. I described my job and he quoted $600 if he could use our existing antenna or $1000 worst case scenario. It sounded high but I was assured that I would be the $600 since my antenna works fine. We set up a morning when I would wait to show him the job and he said that they give free estimates but don't make a special trip since what he quoted will be what the job costs so assuming I am okay with that range he would expect to do the job on same trip. When he arrived he looked up at my antenna from the ground and said it can't be used. He did not even climb up and look at it or go in and see that we had over 20 channels including channel 47. He was insistent that a new antenna was necessary and would have more power. He then quoted $1150 if he leaves two existing lines to back bedrooms or over $1250 if he runs new cable. I was shocked and said what about $1000 worst case scenario. He said, well this is more complicated! We finally agreed to $1100 out of frustration as he paced around during the 45 minute free estimate. He had arrived at our rural home at 10:00. I left for work at 10:45 and he said jobs normally take 3 1/2 hours. He called my cell phone at 1:15 asking where I was and wanting to be paid. I explained that I was at my office in Rochester so leave me a bill and I would send check. He said no, payment had to be made same day. I questioned him on the job asking if we now had TV in our new 2nd level. He said no, that he did not go in our upstairs at all. So I asked what exactly he had done to which his answer was he put new antenna up. I responded that I was now to pay $1100 to him for TV to the same main floor TV's that I had before he arrived and a new antenna I did not need and still no TV where I wanted it upstairs. His response was that we had "way more power now" assuming that to mean we had more channels. He blamed our electrician for not labeling cables but that he could not waste any more time on my job. That means he worked from 10:45 til 1:15 or 2 1/2 hours. He arrived at my office in Rochester 1/2 hour later and I gave him a check for the agreed $1100. When my husband arrived home a couple hours later to find we now only had 10 channels on the main TV and only 1 channel on the bedroom TV's he was livid. When I told him I had paid him it was over the top as you can imagine. When I got home we both looked over the TV's and tried moving the antenna rotor to see if Travis in his rush had missed something. By the way I had also told Travis I wanted to keep my old antenna but he had thrown it from the roof damaging it beyond use. The next morning I called at 8:15 and requested an immediate call back and to not cash my check as there were huge problems with the installation. He waited over 24 hours to call back and left me a message that he was returning my call but did not address any of the concerns I left on his voicemail. I waited til mid morning after my call was not returned and called my bank and learned how to place a "stop payment" on my check. I have never had to do that but I have also never had such an experience as this. About a week later, Travis called and said my check was dishonored, still not an apology or explanation for the job he attempted. When I asked why we don't have the channels we used to have, he had no answer! He threatened me with a mechanics lien and I threatened this would be in small claims court, which I easily would have won. Bottom line is we couldn't go back to our old antenna because he had destroyed it so I agreed to pay for the materials and had done Internet research for what I could buy them for. It was under $400 but he fought for $533.04 and I finally gave up. Bottom line is we did some tinkering and got some reception to our new upstairs TV ourselves after buying coax cable supplies. We still have far less channels which makes my children and husband extremely unhappy and we are currently looking for someone competent to fix our ongoing problems. At least we have KTTC and a couple other channels. Another red flag that "stop payments" are nothing new to Travis is that he does not accept credit cards (which are easy to reverse payment for faulty work) and that he has a letter he hands out discussing civil penalties for a check that is reversed. I suspect there are many similar stories to my nightmare.