Best Buy Confirms 'Secret' Version of its Website

[BJ_M]

"The Courant site confirms an oft-rumoured possibility: Best Buy does indeed maintain a second website for what one could assume is for the purpose of defrauding its customers. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy's practices on Feb. 9 after columnist George Gombossy 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. Says Gombossy, '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. [State Attorney General Richard 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.'"

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-watchdog0302,0,5198012.column?coll=hc-utility-local

[SquirrelDip]

Wow.

I've never had any real problems getting Best Buy to match competitor's prices but definitely have had with Future Shop (owned by Best Buy, no??). Easiest price matching was/is Staples.

Used to be great when Staples offered 150% protection - they'd come down 50% of the difference. I've bought many $50 (+/-)things there for just a few bucks.

[ZAPPER]

Unbelievable the things companies will do to make a buck! I do kind of find it hard to believe that they could train their employees in all of these tactics and not have it leak out sooner. I, and I would think that other people, would rather deal with an honest company, that puts its one and only price out there for all to see. Or if there are different pricing scheduals they should be posted. I could understand that ordering off of the net could save a small percentage because the product is handled differently or that you could save by buying in bulk. I have no issues with those kinds of incentives. If you want to buy on the net to save a dime and wait a couple of days, fine. If you need a case of something and there is a discount at that volume, fine. If you want to walk in and walk out of a brick and mortar with a product in hand then you should be expecting to pay a small preimium. (Not crazy about it, but I accecpt that) But to go through the trouble to put on a whole big scam? WTF? They are already everybodies favorite store to hate (Well maybe in a close running with Wally World) I should unleash my mother in law on them. Nah, maybe not that, maybe just the sister in law, after all I just want BB to suffer, not die a terrible death.

[SquirrelDip]

I agree with you Zapper - but this scam can be pulled off without employee's knowledge. The clerk goes to a terminal, punches up the competitors site unknown to him sees the Best Buy version.

However, as you pointed out - is it worth the few bucks considering what is at stake???

[rallynavvie]

Interesting. I think I almost got stung by that same thing when I got my LCD TV last weekend. They were getting rid of my model in stores and carrying it solely online but there was a returned one that had a discount in the form of a $300 instant gift card (which I used on the PS3 I was intending to buy anyway) but the price was higher than what a new one cost online. It made no sense for a return model to cost more than a new one so I brought it to the attention of the sales associate who looked on his internal pricing list and saw that it was indeed priced correctly, albeit not discounted for being open-box. He said the gift card was the "discount" but knocked of 10% anyway (which was still a lot of money). After getting it home I checked the website again and it indeed had been priced cheaper online at their site than what he had said its MSRP was in-store. I called up their customer service line and they credited back the difference without hardly hassling me. I thought it was just good service but maybe they are under a little bit of pressure already?

They aren't as competitively priced as online retailers but then when it came to the LCD TV I just didn't want to deal with shipping from NewEgg and/or the possibility of returns/repairs that would, even with a stellar company like NewEgg, inevitable be a hassle. BB's service policy, which I've used in the past and again with this TV, is pretty good about getting you a replacement fast as long as you live near a store. And they're still one of the cheapest places to get CD, DVDs, and software without venturing online which is mostly what I use them for.

FutureShop is one of their divisions like Magnolia and the now-defunct EQ Life

[Noahtuck]

No $h!t!!!

I've thought this before, that they had more than one site!! or something was screwy!!

And they actually got caught officially for it!!

Last year me and a friend looked on their website and they had something on sale, she went to the store and they showed her on the site it was not on sale... she called me, then she went home printed it off, took it back to the store and their in store pc showed something diff. but she got it for the price she had printed off!!

I've had the same thing happen before also, but made them give it to me for what it showed on my home pc for their site!!

Dirty scamming bastards!!!!!
That's why i usually only buy what i have to there, small stuff like blanks, maybe a movie/cd or two.
If anything more i make sure i bring a printout from home!!

And i've went from one store to another, within 15 minutes of each other, and one say's one thing and another say's something totally diff.

Even the manager at one store did not know there was a recall on a large screen tv, bulb overheating and causing fire's, and he was still selling them, i was the one that told him about it as a customer and he went to his office and found the week old warning to stop selling them came back with it and said he totally missed it

[lordsmurf]

Always print and carry the ad with you when price-matching.

[Noahtuck]

Always print and carry the ad with you when price-matching.

Well of course... But you should not have to with their own advertised prices

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

Always print and carry the ad with you when price-matching.

Amen to that!

[AlecWest]

That kind of scamming has been going on "offline" as well. Lerner stores was caught sending out two catalogues ... one to people who lived in ZIPcodes considered "affluent," one to people who lived in "less than affluent" ZIPcodes. The prices in the "affluent" catalog were more than the prices in the other one ... for the same item!!!

Stores locally do that all the time. If you go to a Macy's store downtown, you'll see high prices for items that cost less in some of the mall stores. Anything to shake an extra buck out of some people. Of course (grin), rich people don't care if they get ripped off.

[Conquest10]

That kind of scamming has been going on "offline" as well. Lerner stores was caught sending out two catalogues ... one to people who lived in ZIPcodes considered "affluent," one to people who lived in "less than affluent" ZIPcodes. The prices in the "affluent" catalog were more than the prices in the other one ... for the same item!!!

Best Buy does that. I used to work on their online stuff and saw their print ads and they had many different versions (pricing) based on region.

[Wile_E]

Fry's Electronics have different prices based on region too. Some time ago I was looking at an online ad at a TV they had on sale. Got to the store, they said sorry, that is Dallas/Forth Worth area stores only. Regular price at my store in Austin. This is almost like robbing the rich, giving to the poor. But I am by all means not rich just because I live in a big city.

[Ron B]

Fry's in store prices can be as much as 30% higher than the prices on their website. That's lame.
I bought an LCD monitor at Circuit City last week. They rang me up a price that was $20 more than their "buy online, pick up at the store" price. I had the web price written down on a piece of paper, showed it to them and they gave the monitor to me at that price. It pays to be a smart, and persistent shopper.
Also, the monitor I bought had to be returned twice because the first had major backlight bleed through and the second had a half dozen dead/stuck pixels. For the third one, I made them take it out of the box and plug it in so I could check it out. It's not perfect, but acceptable. Point being, it's your hard earned cash, make the seller give you what you came in for.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

Of course (grin), rich people don't care if they get ripped off.

I don't think so... Paris Hilton is always looking for a good bargain!