OT: Best Buy keeps secret website with higher prices!

[gunug]

In this Hartford, Conn. article the reporter discovers that there is a secret website that Best Buy maintains with higher prices to show customers after they've been lured into the store with lower prices:


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

QUOTE

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.

[Gregg]

Is that bait and switch or switch and bait?

[gunug]

It smells fishy to me!

[Gregg]

That could be the sushi.

[gunug]

Hmmmmm. . .meant to wash my hands after lunch!  

[()]

It could be NEMO Sushi!

What else is new.  I think all companies do this.  I actually came across the website by accident when I found the link on Ebay from Bestbuy selling products.

I was thinking  then and now.... what the !!!!!

Bestbuy hocking merchandise on Ebay.  Not a good sign about a company when they begin selling their items on Ebay.  

But since they carry only Gatewaye, Emachine, HP and Compaq crap, I really have no intrest in them anylonger.

It seems most electronic stores are now selling "JUNK" these days.

Thank goodness for RCA, Apple, and Toshiba products.  Withouth them we would all be at a great loss.

[krissel]

I'm not surprised at the dual site info. It is a known business practice that companies send out catalogs with different prices to areas depending on zip code. It isn't a stretch to have sites that show different prices to customers depending on from where they linked.

In fact I have seen this many times when I'm sent an email with sale prices. If I click on the link I get one price. If I go to the site on my own and look for the product I get a different price. In fact OWC does this.

[Epaminondas]

I was at a brick-and-mortar Best Buy looking at laptops today.

Their salesmen are all over you but they are completely clueless about their equipment.  

You shoo one off and another quickly appears - similarly clueless.

It is kinda like shooing away flies . . .


They have a sign that if you want to look at the manufactuers' waranties, just ask and they will be provided.  I asked. They were not provided.

If you do buy something there and you do not like it and you want to take it back - 15% restocking fee.


No thank you.


Went to the people I know at Office Max.

They have one competent salesgirl there.

Knows her stuff. Top to bottom. Left to right.

Office Max will price-match Best Buy.  Happy to do it.  At your service.

And will provide a 14-day money-back satisfaction guarantee.

No restocking fee.

She noted that Best Buy is a much higher pressure place to work than Office Max.  And that if a customer declines the extended warranties and other add-ons at Best Buy, the salesmen have a tendency to disappear.

That would make sense with what I saw.


I feel a little guilty at the thought of shopping Best Buy - with its artificailly low prices boosted by high pressure sales of extended warranties and 15% restocking fees - and then price matching at Office Max with its more legitimate sales and excellent return policies.  It's not really fair.  I asked the girl at Office Max if they really wanted to do that?

Yes, she said.  Our manager does not want you buying from Best Buy.

She said this with an inflection suggesting that he is doing this for my own good.


Okey-dokey.


Costco: Costco's return policy is the best around - I think it is now 90 days on electronic equipment (or will be soon).  But we have no Costco locally.


Best Buy.

High pressure.

Strange place.

Just say no.


Best regards,

Epaminondas

[()]

Making me think of the FEDERATED GROUP (FREDERATED) that was caught riping off the consumers by misleading them, advertising one price, then selling it for another, (ooops, we're out of stock, sold out) excuses.

Look where that got the FREDERATED Group Electronic Store.

I'm not all to fond of Bestbuy.  The sales people only want to push those lousy service plans. Don't buy them!  You are better off dealing and buying the company extended warranty on what ever you buy these days.

All Bestbuy does is ship it to the manufacturer and you have to wait about a month before getting your item back.  A friend of mine was outraged when he took in his computer under the Bestbuy service plan/warranty, only to learn that they sent it to the manufacturer for repairs.

The Compaq Computer at the time before HP took over Compaq, told him that they had overnight pick-up and he would've had his computer back within 3 days.

I've notice that tooooooooooooo many Bestbuys are popping up all over Los Angeles area and a lot in Long Beach, CA.  

I think they are getting too big, because everytime I drive by them daily and on the weekends, the parking-lots aren't all that full.

Nothing like Fry's in MANHATTAN BEACH, that lot is packed all freakin' week long and the weekends are a nightmare when it comes to parking.

 

[Gregg]

Maybe Best Buy needs a name change?

[gunug]

I used to work for Office Max back when they were BizMart and then after they changed names.  They were pretty intense back then and I used to get in trouble when I told people what I actually thought of things when it wasn't the party line.  I know people who work at Office Max now and things do seem better now!  I will shop Best Buy for bargins when I need them but I don't usually go there otherwise.

[Gregg]

Best Buy's pricing is being investigated.