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Best Buy Bait and Switch on cables

#1
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10/28/09 at 11:43am
  • Joined: September 2009
  • Post Count: 11
Just noticed on my last BB trip, that many of the EXACT same cables are stocked in multiple locations in the store. Specifically Toslink (optical digital audio) and HDMI cables... The exact same packaging, manufacturer, length, are found in the home theater section and the Playstation3 sections:

Toslink: $39 HT section, $17.50 Playstation section
HDMI:   $39 HT section, $19 Playstation section

So, this is both a complaint that they are screwing customers who don't know any better and a helpful hint to folks to look around before you just grab the first cable you see.

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#2
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10/30/09 at 1:41am
  • Joined: June 2001
  • Post Count: 765
Here's the definition:  a bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the party putting forth the fraud lures in customers by advertising a product or service at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute is. This use of this term has extended to similar situations outside of the marketing sense."

Where's the bait, and where's the switch? 

I read this and looked over the local Best Buy trying to determine which are the "exact same" cables available in both locations, and I couldn't find any that matched your description.  Not only that, but I couldn't find ANY HDMI cables in the Playstation section for $19.  Cheapest I could find anywhere in the store was $30, it was a Dynex brand and was in the HT section.  Optical cables?  $20 and was in the HT section as well.

Could this be an instance of old packaging or clearance versions of a product marked to move?  If so, I am having a hard time calling that "deceptive" as your post implies.  

Thanks for your time.

If it wasn't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college.

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#3
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10/30/09 at 4:40am
  • Joined: January 2003
  • Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma
  • Post Count: 4,158
 Its not bait and switch. What it is, if anything its a mis-price. Buy the cheap ones and call it good.
I have never seen HDMI cables for UNDER $20...but then again i dont know the length of the cable.
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#4
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10/30/09 at 10:08am
  • Joined: May 2002
  • Post Count: 116
Or better yet, get some $3-5 cables from an internet retailer like Monoprice.com which are as good or better than the $30 cables at BestBuy. And pass an identical signal to the $200 Best Buy cables, what with HDMI being digital and all.
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#5
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11/1/09 at 10:11am
  • Joined: September 2009
  • Post Count: 11
Very valid points this is not true "bait and switch" -
But frequently when doing setups, one does not have time to wait on things to come in the mail and therefore must resort to purchasing 3X priced items at local retail.
I visited BB again yesterday and the Toslink cables are still there, with the same price discrepancy, but the HDMI cables in Playstation section were replaced with the Dynex version.
I most certainly still label it as deceptive on the part of a retailer to have the exact same item in two places for two different prices hoping to prey on the uneducated. So, at least consider it a warning  (as in the original post) to look around at all sections before making a cable purchase.

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