Best Buy Not So Best?

Chu Gai · 03-13-2007, 03:11 PM

Best Buy has a secret intranet site that it can reference when you come in looking for your 'best' price. Their site doesn't necessarily reflect the same prices as you'll get in your web search. You can read more about it here: http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/03/b...-site-exposed/

FWIW, something similar happened to me last year, but at Staples. I had some discount cards from them and happened to be in the market of a larger hard drive. Doing some searching, I found a 200 gb Maxtor that met my needs of price and size and printed out the page to bring with me. While I found the same hard drive there, the price on the shelf was substantially higher. I brought it over to the cashier, and had her scan the price. Sure enough, the price was the shelf price and not what I'd printed out. I had the manager called over who pulled up a Staples web price but it wasn't the same as mine. However, after a brief verbal haggle, just barely loud enough to make people stop and listen for a bit, he said he'd honor the web price but offered no explanation for the discrepancy. He also honored the discount coupon I had. I didn't think much of it until the Best Buy thing came along and I'm curious whether this is more widespread among retailers who also maintain a store presence on the web.

Carlo Medina · 03-13-2007, 11:08 PM

Yep, they suckered me with this ploy.

When Norah Jones' new album came out, it had a combo edition with a DVD. The website said 9.99 but when I got to the store, it was marked at 14.99. I asked the guy to match the website and when he "looked it up" on their store computer which was mocked up to look like the website, it said 14.99.

I figured they caught some pricing error, but when I went home and logged on to the web, it was still 9.99. That was a dirty trick and I hope the class action lawsuit wins.

Malcolm R · 03-13-2007, 11:43 PM

Hasn't Best Buy, and some other retailers, always maintained that their physical stores and their web store are separate businesses with separate pricing structures, and that the physical stores don't have to honor the web prices?

SQMonte · 03-14-2007, 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malcolm R

Hasn't Best Buy, and some other retailers, always maintained that their physical stores and their web store are separate businesses with separate pricing structures, and that the physical stores don't have to honor the web prices?

That doesn't seem to be the case at Circuit City.

This weekend I was able to pick up a Onkyo HT-S790 for $330, the advertised price in the store was $499......it was advertised on the website for $389.......Because it was open box(mint condition, no cosmetic flaws at all) they dropped another $60 off the price.

When I agreed to take the open box model, he went and spoke to his supervisor, I assume to find out if there would be any further discount. I thought they were gonna try to sell it to me for $389, take it or leave it, so while he was talking to his supervisor I was telling my gf that I was gonna see if I could get them down to $330 since it was open box..........he suprised me when he came back and said "and since it's open box, I can let you have it for $330"

Carlo Medina · 03-14-2007, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malcolm R

Hasn't Best Buy, and some other retailers, always maintained that their physical stores and their web store are separate businesses with separate pricing structures, and that the physical stores don't have to honor the web prices?

This is a separate question than what they did to me.

I asked about the lower web price, and the employee said "Oh, let's check the web price right now and if it's lower I'll match it" and then they hoodwinked me by showing me the internal price that was mocked up to look like the online price.

That is a blatantly deceitful practice.

If they had said "we don't match the web prices" it would have been straightforward and honest and I wouldn't have had a problem with it. I would have just gone home and ordered it via the web.

**HTF Ads**

Scott Merryfield · 03-14-2007, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Hasn't Best Buy, and some other retailers, always maintained that their physical stores and their web store are separate businesses with separate pricing structures, and that the physical stores don't have to honor the web prices?

I encoutered this issue a couple of years ago. I was attempting to buy the Frankenstein collection from Universal, and had received two shipments from Amazon with floater discs, so had to return each. I had a Best Buy gift certificate, so I decided to go to the store, where I could shake the packages to listen for floater discs.

I checked the price online -- it was $20. I printed a copy to take with me. When I got to the store, the price was $25. I asked for a price match with their own website, and was refused, first by the girl at the checkout, and then by the store manager, who was quite rude about it. Using logic with him did no good -- if I had ordered online for "in store pickup", I would probably be holding the exact same package in my hand and getting it at the lesser price. And actually, I would have done that, but for some reason the website was not taking my Best Buy gift card code (although it did work in the store).

Basically, Best Buy lost a customer for life over a refusal to match a $5 price difference with their own website.

Richard Kim · 03-14-2007, 08:20 AM

I've noticed that when you check the prices on the BB instore computer terminals, they are sometimes higher than what you would find on their normal website.

TonyD · 03-14-2007, 09:41 AM

with best buy this isnt new news.

has been that way forever.
simple solution is to buy it online and use in store pick up.

Michael Hein · 03-14-2007, 01:56 PM

I also know of a real low tactic Best Buy tried with the release of Battlefield 2 PC game. When the game was nearing release day I started checking out some big box stores via the web and noticed that the minimum PC specs needed to play the game were wrong - way wrong. They were the specs from a game released 1 1/2 years before, Battlefield Vietnam. According to the website, a Geforce 2 Video Card or better would be needed for BF2 but the game didn't even support Geforce 2, Geforce 3 or Geforce 4 Ti series cards for that matter. It said a min of 256 mb of ram ...lol BF2 wouldn't even be playable with that little ram I'm sure.

So, I call their 1 800 line and they put me through to the right person to talk to. I told them of their error and he thanked me saying they would get on it. I think I also emailed them a few days later reminding them of this error.

A month later the same understated specs were up. It was at that point I realized this had to be intentional deceptive advertizing. Sure, they'll sell more copies of the game by lowballing the specs and thats what their betting on. Anyone who's Video Card won't run it - perhaps they will come back and buy one. All just a ploy.

Now, 2 years later, I'm convinced their nothing but snakes as it still hasn't been changed to the right requirements.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/prodde...60&catid=21136