Best Buy Scam

Shadowofnight2001r · 03-03-2007, 08:38 AM

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc...-utility-local

Actually had them try this on me during Christmas...as well as a few of my friends. I got the manager, told him to wait right there...went and got my laptop with its EVDO wireless internet card and showed him the deal on Best Buy's website ( It didn't mention web based price only ) ...needless to say I got the item for the price I went in to get it at. But I bet a lot of Non-confrontational customers would just pay the higher price...or just not get the item. I just thought since this actually happened to me, I would mention it here in case they pull this on one of our menbers.....

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...be_caught.html

Shadowofnight2001r · 03-03-2007, 08:40 AM

Just in case the article gets pulled for some reason......

George Gombossy: Consumer Watchdog

Best Buy Confirms It Has Secret Website
March 2, 2007

Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.

Company spokesman Justin Barber, who in early February denied the existence of the internal website that could be accessed only by employees, says his company is "cooperating fully" with the state attorney general's investigation.

Barber insists that the company never intended to mislead customers.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy's practices on Feb. 9 after my column disclosed the website and showed how employees at two Connecticut stores used it to deny customers a $150 discount on a computer advertised on BestBuy.com.

Blumenthal said Wednesday that Best Buy has also confirmed to his office the existence of the intranet site, but has so far failed to give clear answers about its purpose and use.

"Their responses seem to raise as many questions as they answer," Blumenthal said in an interview. "Their answers are less than crystal clear."

Based on what his office has learned, Blumenthal said, it appears the consumer has the burden of informing Best Buy sales people of the cheaper price listed on its Internet site, which he said "is troubling."

What is more troubling to me, and to some Best Buy customers, is that even when one informs a salesperson of the Internet price, customers have been shown the intranet site, which looks identical to the Internet site, but does not always show the lowest price.

Blumenthal said that because of the fuzzy responses from Best Buy, he has yet to figure out the real motivation behind the intranet site and whether sales people are encouraged to use it to cheat customers.

Although Best Buy also refused to talk with me on specifics of the intranet site or its use, it insisted that its policy is to give customers the best price.

"Our intention is to provide the best price to our customers which is why we have a price-match policy in place," the company said in a written statement to me. "As prices and offers may vary between retail and online, our stores will certainly match BestBuy.com pricing as long as it qualifies under the terms and conditions of the price match policy."

"As a company, everything we do revolves around our customers' needs and desires. It is never our intent to mislead them as their loyalty is incredibly important to us," the statement said.

Then they threw in this interesting line: "Although we have an intra-store web site in place to support store operations (including products and pricing), we are reminding our employees how to access the external BestBuy.com web site to ensure customers are receiving the best possible product price."

That last sentence seems to indicate that Best Buy, which is supposed to be staffed by tech-savvy employees, is putting the blame on memory lapses: that employees have somehow forgotten how to access BestBuy.com from the store.

Having been to many Best Buy stores where some helpful employees showed me how they access the intranet and Internet, I can assure Best Buy officials that the re-education process will probably not be lengthy.

After making sure the computer is turned on, employees should click twice on the Yahoo Internet icon and then type in BestBuy.com.

This is not the first time the giant electronic retailer has gotten into trouble misleading customers. The firm, based in Minneapolis, operates more than 1,100 electronic retail stores in the U.S., Canada and China. It has more than 125,000 full-time employees.

Attorneys general in New Jersey and Ohio have accused Best Buy of deceptive sales practices, repackaging used merchandise and selling it as new, and failing to pay rebates and refunds. It paid $135,000 in New Jersey three years ago to settle that state's suit, which was based on hundreds of consumer complaints. The Ohio case is ongoing.

baggettp · 03-03-2007, 10:02 AM

Thanks for the info. That's good to know.

TitanThunder · 03-03-2007, 12:33 PM

Best Buy is based out of Minnesota so this story comes as no surprise to me. I only shop at Best Buy when there is NO other alternative.

BuckyBadger · 03-03-2007, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TitanThunder

Best Buy is based out of Minnesota so this story comes as no surprise to me. I only shop at Best Buy when there is NO other alternative.

Me too. I buy a lot of computer and electronic gadgets. I usually go locally, find what I want and buy it online at newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com.

bababear33 · 03-03-2007, 02:07 PM

I wonder if this internal website is only recent. I worked there for a year and a half in the Photo department and the Loss Prevention department and i never heard of this. I mean best buy did screw over a lot of people while I worked there but i never was taught about this and wonder if it was just that area or what. but yeah just wanted to add my two cents

2tall · 03-03-2007, 02:56 PM

So are you saying the same best buy website that you see at home, and the one you log onto thru their computers is/was different? Weird, I didn't notice this and I was actually in a CT store. Maybe It was just my lucky day.

bestatchess · 03-04-2007, 10:45 AM

I stopped shopping at Worst Buy several years ago because of the necessity to haggle to get advertised deals, inordinate delays on rebates, idiotic sales people, extensive waits for assistance and service, newspaper advertisements of out of stock merchandise, oh, yeah, and better deals from other stores on the net.

midnightmadman · 03-04-2007, 01:45 PM

Circuit City does the same thing. I was online and found something for $142. and when I went there it was $149.
I told her to check the computer and it came up as $149.
SO then I knew Best Buy had it for $142 also.. so I told her to price match it. She checked on Best Buys site and that one came up as $149 also!
I think they have a way of overiding the cookies or something for the sales prices.

XCITE · 03-04-2007, 02:05 PM

I don't know about best buy but for circuit city the website business is different than instore. When you make a purchase on line the online part of the business gets the credit not the store even though you may pick it up there. Almost every lower price ad online says web store only purchase. Also new ads break on a sunday so if you saw it on sat, yes the price will be different. Same goes for a Holiday weekend.

kellyj00 · 03-05-2007, 05:52 AM

just shop online, it's cheaper and easier.
I used to work at bestbuy. It's a really tough job, because managers are telling you to use shady practices and to force the warranty on things to increase their margin. We were forced to tell every customer about MSN's dial up internet service and tell them If they signed a contract for 4 years with MSN's dial up (at $25 a month) they would receive a $400 best buy giftcard. That was back in 2002, and we all knew it was a ripoff but we had to sell it or lose our part time jobs. when you're young and trying to feed yourself in college, you don't have a lot of room to negotiate.

Also had to sell those darn warrantees. they're worthless, just so y'all know. you have to wait for at least two months or so for your product to come back, and it's usually shipped and handled so poorly that it'll break again soon if it's not all beat up and dirty.

I had a similar rant at club titan dot org before I migrated over to titan talk. There's also some great detail about how to get the most out of your warranty if you've already got one through best buy.

TitanThunder · 03-05-2007, 08:06 AM

Funny thread. The wife and I are closing on a new house this month and need a new fridge and washer & dryer. Best Buy has a "special" 10% sale last week, but when I look closer at a price that I printed out earlier in the month... all that Least Buy did was mark up the fridge $100 dollars and give me the original price that I would have paid beforehand.

What a joke! I'll probably use Lowe's or Home Depot for our appliance after that little stunt. Plus, helping a Minnesota based business is the last thing that I ever want to do!

AgTitan06 · 03-05-2007, 08:13 AM

I hate Best Buy. They are very shady, and have always given me and my family problems. Circuit City is even worse.

**walleeme** · 03-05-2007, 08:18 AM

Best Buy
Worst customer service.
Pray that you never have to return anything.

[SC]Titan · 03-05-2007, 09:32 AM

there are two different websites. internet and intranet. the prices are different on both sites. however, even if the customer was shown the higher priced intranet site..when the item is scanned at the register the price that comes up is supposed to be the current price (correct price) for the item not the price listed on the intranet site. employees are never supposed to use pricing from the intranet site and should know this...any instances where this has happened is the fault of the employee or their supervisor for not telling them of this. if the customer was charged the higher price then the employee would have had to manually override the price to match the intranet price and if this was done then yes, that is shady and those involved should be dealt with.