Best Buy Accused of Overcharging 301
An anonymous reader writes "Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has accused Best Buy of overcharging its customers. His accusation is that customers see one price on Best Buy's website, in stores salespeople would show them a different internal site from a kiosk. Best Buy denies the charges. 'Previously, the company confirmed that store employees have access to an internal Web site that looks nearly identical to the public BestBuy.com site, but the company's policy is always to offer customers the lowest quoted price unless it's specifically identified as a deal available only to online shoppers. Jerry Farrell Jr., Connecticut's consumer protection commissioner, said the lawsuit should be a warning to companies to be more transparent in their business practices.'"
Eh (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Eh (Score:5, Funny)
Because you can get this great service plan, for only PENNIES a day! I'll sign you up for that, OK?
CAPTCHA: honest
the value of best buy's service plan (Score:5, Informative)
Re:the value of best buy's service plan (Score:5, Informative)
The only time it makes sense to take on of the plans is if the cost of the item is so high that you can't afford to replace it if it does break, and you can't go without it. Anything else ends up being a bad financial gamble.
Re:the value of best buy's service plan (Score:5, Informative)
In fact, it almost *always* is a bad financial gamble...take cell phone insurance plans for example (most people are probably familiar with those). The last time I purchased a cell phone w/plan I calculated, given the monthly insurance payment and the value of the phone, using the formulas for Expected Value [wikipedia.org] and Present Value [wikipedia.org] (using short term bank CD rates for interest), that the insurance companies figure that there is better than 90% chance that every person who purchases the insurance on their cell phone will end up using it before the insurance company receives payments in the amount of the original purchase price of the phone. In other words, if you believe that your chance of having a total loss on your phone is less than 90% certain (assuming that you don't plan to break it on purpose to collect, which would be fraudulent and is probably why the insurance companies chose this high rate, to cover the costs of the people that do this so that their insurance money wasn't 'wasted') before you have paid an amount equivalent to the phone then you should *not* purchase the insurance. It would be cheaper to simply buy a new phone at full (or probably reduced price, but I didn't even factor that into my calculation so how much *worse* of a deal would the insurance be if we accounted for depreciation of the phone? Probably push that probability over 100% which means that the insurance company wins no matter what happens) price on the off chance that you lose it or it breaks. I would imagine that most consumer product insurance, with the possible exception of really big ticket durable goods like cars, is scaled like this to account for all of the cheaters since most people who buy this type of insurance plan to collect at some point in the future.
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This news about Best Buy using the bait and switch tactic has gone much further back than people realize. I used to work in a Dallas-area Best Buy 5 years ago and we were taught as associates to use the method (although it was never called "bait-n-switch" for obvious reasons) to upsell customers to bring in more revenue and inflate numbers. I was told by my supervisor on one occasion that we would explain to our customer how we didn't have the computer he was looking for
About damn time (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:About damn time (Score:5, Informative)
Re:About damn time (Score:5, Interesting)
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Customer: "Where are the 256MB sticks of PC 2700 for $19?"
Employee: "We sold them much faster than we expected to. It must be that great special. Can I show you these 512MB sticks for $39.99?"
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Re:About damn time (Score:5, Informative)
Not that I give a damn about their business practices, but I used to be a sales associate at Best Buy, in the computer department.
You have to trust me when I say this: The people in the store have NOTHING to do with this. We never hid sales items.
Here's the real story. Every Friday or Saturday, we'd get the weekly ad which went live on Sunday. In my store, we got two trucks a week, Wednesday and Friday, after close of business. Sometimes they were 48', sometimes 53'. If we didn't have the ad by Friday night, we could usually tell which stick of ram would be on sale because we got a box of it, probably 20 units or more. As I recall, there were usually three brands - kingston, ValURam, and one other that I forget. Every week, one of the 256 MB sticks would be on sale, and usually a laptop stick as well (I worked there around 2000-2001). So, when we knew, we'd stock as much of it as possible to have it close on hand.
With no exceptions, on Sunday morning at open of business (11 am), the first people in the store would be headed straight for the computer department counter, to buy all the ram they could. Usually, it said something like "limit 2 per" on the ad, but when it didn't say that, boy was it not a fun day to hand out the ram. Anyway, by 6 pm - close of business - on Sunday, all the ram was gone. We of course still had the two other brands in the same size which were $20 more. But, by Tuesday, the customers were incensed about the lack of advertised items.
I cannot count the times I was accused by outraged, misinformed customers of bait-and-switch when I'd show them what we happened to have in stock, be it ram or computers. No, sir, I'm sorry that we don't have any more of the $350 E-Machine computer in stock. Perhaps when you see a computer deal that's insanely cheap, you shouldn't presume that you are the only person within 50 miles that will want to purchase it. Yes, sir, we did have them in stock. Yes, sir, we got a shipment of 30 of them last Friday, and we anticipate getting another 15 Wednesday, and probably some more this Friday. No sir, I can't hold one for you.
Whatever. Ask me anything you want, I worked there long enough to know how almost everything works. I'll reply truthfully.
~Wx
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Making me feel cheated is a great way to keep my wallet closed.
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Did they verify your printout? If not, I just had a great idea...
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Re:About damn time (Score:4, Funny)
Did they verify your printout? If not, I just had a great idea...
I can see a Best Buy Boy running to his manager waving a printout "Sir, a customer wants the $9.99 'Man Stretching His Backside Wide Open' but I can't find them on the shelves!"
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Re:About damn time (Score:5, Funny)
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I once heard another story about a duo of hackers who ha
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For example, I bought a $2200 laptop at best buy in the late 90's. "Sure I'll take the warranty", I said after the salesman promised it would cover any problems with the laptop.
Less than a year later the power input broken. I took it back to Best Buy, confident in the warrant that I had so wisely purchased.
"Sorry, we can't fix it, that's normal wear and tear. Not covered by the warran
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Long story short (too late), I never got the laptop fixed.
Too late now, but drag their ass into small claims court. They'll probably settle and fix the laptop just so they don't have send a manager to court.
Re:About damn time (Score:5, Funny)
I don't get the "online only" specials. If you pick them up at the same store, what's the point? A few months ago I needed a new keyboard. I saw a wireless mouse / keyboard combo reasonably cheap at Best Buy online, but didn't bother making the purchase online since I was going to pick it up at the store anyway. When I got there it was twice the price. I got the keyboard, told them the price I saw it online for. The clerk checked, and told me it was an online only offer. I asked her if I could still pick it up at the store if I bought it online and she said yes. So I asked her, why don't I just make the purchase at her computer then. She told me that she couldn't let me do that.
At that point, I told her to wait a few minutes. I stepped to the side, got my PDA out, checked to see if they had public wi-fi available and they did. I made the purchase with my PDA in front of her, then showed her the confirmation number and asked, "can I pick it up now?" She thought it was funny as hell :)
Did it work? (Score:2)
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Hmmm... (Score:5, Funny)
"The future of our company depends on our ability to build trusted relationships with our customers," Busch said.
Would that be with or without an extended warranty?
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Did you mean Future Shop ?
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(see last paragraph)
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Although, three years ago 17" LCDs were generally priced higher across the board then they are today. OTOH, 3 years ago you could buy a 17" LCD for $300-350 or so almost anywhere online, with shipping coming in at $10-20 for ground, but man
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old (Score:2, Interesting)
I was in BB at least 2 months ago and the in-store kiosks said in big bright yellow words "REFLECTS INSTORE PRICING ONLY"
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Connecticut's attorney general announced a lawsuit Thursday against Best Buy Co. Inc., accusing the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer of deceiving customers with in-store computer kiosks and overcharging them.
Article date? Yesterday. This isn't just people complaining anymore.
there's a reason it's called WorstBuy (Score:5, Funny)
Biggest laugh of the day: "The future of our company depends on our ability to build trusted relationships with our customers," Busch said.
I guess it's a form of trust when you trust Best Buy to always try to stick it to you.
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Re:there's a reason it's called WorstBuy (Score:4, Interesting)
But seriously, you chose Fry's as an example as the opposite of Best Buy? Half their shelf stock is re-shrinkwrapped. And half of that isn't even labeled as such (I once bought a brand new WAP11 whose ESSID was factory-programed "KensLaptop".) If you want RAM or a CPU, you must go through an inept salesperson to print you out a cage reservation ticket, assuming you can get to him of course; there are usually 10 other people who want the same thing huddled around him. And I've never done so, but I heard their returns process is Cthulhu-level pain.
Re:there's a reason it's called WorstBuy (Score:5, Interesting)
Is it just Americans? (Score:2)
Likewise, when I shop for computer gear I always use a place like Fry's because they have such a reasonable return policy. I've never really blanched at something having been opened that I bought (so long as it's undamaged and works as expected).
That said, the mentioned hard drives mig
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that are obsessed with new being untouched? I used to buy my CD's from a shop that opened them and let you listen, a lot of people I knew wouldn't shop at places like that because they wanted the disk to be absolutely new.
My problem is two-fold: First, if you're taking used (not just opened) goods and packaging/selling it as new, that's definitely shady. And yeah, I wouldn't care if I bought a CD that had been opened once before, as long as I could inspect it first (which re-shrinkwrapping prevents).
Electronics are a completely different matter. Now, I imagine a lot of returns are buyer's remorse under the guise of "oh, it's 'broken'". But I fear the guy who comes in with, say, a monitor and says something like "it start
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No, on the contrary Fry's has the best return policy of anyone. The other day I returned a Part I bought 3 weeks before, no receipt. They keep a record of every sale and can look it up. They will take anything back for up to 30 days for any reason. How many other places do a refund on demand with no receipt? The problem is the returns desk is slow and there is always a line but the store's policy is very good. I've k
Re:there's a reason it's called WorstBuy (Score:5, Funny)
My favorite was when I was looking for a new switch for my home network. The guy at the store (who I didn't ask for his help in the first place) tells me, "That one you're looking at is a switch. You won't get the full speed out of it because it splits the bandwidth. You want a router."
It's lucky for him that I was feeling a bit under the weather that day, or I would have given him a proper education in networking basics. (Hopefully keeping him away from the other poor customers in the process.)
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Repost? (Score:5, Informative)
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This is why I've stopped going to Best Buy (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think anybody buys stuff online from big brick and mortar chains anyway. If I go to Best Buy or CompUSA's website, it's because I want something fast and I want to make sure they have what I want at a reasonable price before driving across town. Once I learned Best Buy's website does not reflect Best Buy's in-store prices, any reason I had for going there evaporated.
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No guarantee the in store price is the same, even if it usually is.
And how do you check stock quickly, hehe, kinda painful to check more than one item
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I buy stuff online from REI for store pickup frequently. Usually it is because they didn't have it in stock at the store. The outdoor gear biz is one example of a business where you really don't see much variation between online and store prices. Maybe it is because it is a limited market?
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Totaly true! (Score:4, Informative)
To be fair to best buy though once I had the print out it took them about 15 seconds to give me the monitor for the 350, but it would have been nice if I hadn't had to have diven back home to get it for the right price.
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Wouldn't surprise me. I'm amazed some of them even know which way their shirt goes on, let alone intricacies like this (or indeed about most of their product line).
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So I could have bought the monitor for 50 cents?! (Score:2)
Circuit City too (Score:4, Funny)
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What's odd for me is that my experiences here are the reverse - frequently there are items that I want that are on sale for significantly cheaper than the website!
I bought my Canon digital camera at Circuit City for almost $100 cheaper than was available on the website - simply because it was "already opened". It's worked great, despite the abuse that me and my 6 kids put it thru, for almost three years.
Sorry you're having bad experiences, but I've so consistentl
You've confused CC with Best Buy (Score:2, Insightful)
Now, what we did have on our site were prices with a line through them saying
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Me: So if I drive 10 miles back to my house, get online, go through the hassle of setting up an account (I don't buy things online, I used to load trucks for UPS, I know what goes on there...), buy the item online on a credit card that I d
I don't know about you yanks... (Score:4, Informative)
If you find a discrepancy, file a complaint [competitionbureau.gc.ca].
Something about Blumenthal (Score:5, Interesting)
best buy price matched www.tigerdirect.com (Score:2)
Dupe (Score:4, Informative)
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/03/03/0423239.shtm
Best buy already fessed up on this.
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Bait and switch --- wire fraud?? (Score:2, Interesting)
they have had a disclaimer for a long time (Score:3, Insightful)
© 2003-2007 Best Buy. All rights reserved. Best Buy, BestBuy.com and the tag design are trademarks of Best Buy. For personal, noncommercial use only.
a similer disclaimer is also on their print ads... and they arent the only ones...
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Online Pricing and Inventory
Pricing and availability information is up-to-date as of 5/25/2007 3:03:37 AM. Listed prices are national prices, and actual retail prices may vary by market. Products are sold on a first come, first serve basis. Listed prices are national prices, and actual retail prices may vary by market. Savings percentage reflects the lowest price shown.
(Duplicate line is theirs not mine! I think that is a hint)
Ev
Best Buy Jumped the Shark's balls (Score:2)
I try to avoid shopping at Best Buy whenever possible.
Corporate and Store Level, very different @BestBuy (Score:2, Interesting)
Dupe! (Score:2)
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/03/0
Futureshop the same (Score:3, Informative)
The other day, I went to FS to buy Satellite radio receiver and a home kit. FS didn't have the cheaper but good SkyFi 2 receiver I wanted. It had it on sale in the flyer but there was probably only one in the store. They say the Skyfi 3 is on sale and much better. They offer to me to use their computer to look up the product. Great! Go on newegg.com
I would recount that BB staff spent 35 minutes looking for a radio saying it was in stock, couldn't find it, offered a raincheck and never called me back. But that's another story....
Oh, yeah...a HUGE warning. (Score:3, Interesting)
It really blows ass that a company like Best Buy pulls shit like this, but what, exactly are they going to learn from this?
The lawyers trying the case on both sides will get filthy, filthy richer and according to the likely outcome of the likely class-action suit, anyone who shopped at a Best Buy in some geographic area between date x and date y is entitled to a free $10 gift card for store credit only.
The same monkeys that got overcharged the first time around will be those going straight to Best Buy with their $10 gift cards to use towards the purchase of something else they probably don't need, can't afford, and will be financing through Best Buy.
Yeah, I'm sure this will hurt Best Buy real bad.
In cases such as this, what the state of Fed needs to do is step in, find out who ordered and/or carried out this bait-and-switch/scam and CHARGE THEM WITH A CRIME. Like, maybe, theft, fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, etc.
Otherwise, big companies will continue to get little slaps on the wrist, and the lawyers are the only ones who will benefit.
Jail and money are the only things these guys understand, but it's often looked at in reverse from the perspective of the judicial system:
Let's say I work for Enron. I'm 30 years old, and decide to steal millions. I'll likely be out of jail in 5-15 years, in which time, assuming I hid the money properly (which is probably a safe assumption for anyone 'smart' enough to embezzle millions from a public company), the smaller pile of money will have grown into a bigger pile of money. I'll also have the time to catch up on my sleep and write my memoirs in a comfy, Fed min-security prison in Connecticut.
In cases where tons of money are actually stolen by single individuals at the corporation, punish them by TAKING THE MONEY AWAY. It's worth it for them to steal millions mid-career, because they'll still be able to enjoy it after prison.
Now look at situations where it's corporations stealing the money via false ads and fraud:
They charge everyone a few bucks extra and it quickly turns into millions. In this case, it's a team of bad apples, but likely they're not keeping the extra money. It's people acting illegally on BEHALF of the corporation. Find the ones that orchestrated it and throw them in JAIL, since there's no money to take, and they weren't even smart enough to steal for personal gain.
Re:subject (Score:5, Informative)
The accusation is that the internal website had higher prices, and when a customer quoted the external website, Best Buy employees would show them the internal site and say "no, this is the advertised price on the site". They're saying that the internal site was designed to intentionally mislead and overcharge customers.
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They have a "Big Sale!" every other week during which a random assortment of things is marked way down to the price it would cost elsewhere.
If you buy anything there that isn't marked "20% Off!!!", or anything high-end at all, you're paying too much.
As a retailer, I hate Performance mightily; I always leave with the assumption I've been ripped off. Unfortunately, they're excellent as a manufacturer if you're shopping for bike s
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I thought this was common knowledge but besides that I don't see a problem. There is cost associated with getting a production from distribution center to store and of course store overhead -- why not pay more.
Well, for one thing, BBY allows you order via the web and choose "in-store pickup" for the same price minus all shipping costs. So what's the difference between ordering it online and picking it up (where you must present your credit card for identification and payment) versus just picking it up and presenting your credit card for payment?
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Are yo actually suggesting... (Score:2)
Shocked? Why? (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:$31.99 for a USB cable... (Score:5, Funny)
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It's a misuse of government oversight to pursue cases like this.
Separately, it is a failure of government to do its most basic job when these same bureacracies will not actively deter illegal immigration through the powers they have been granted for just such purposes.
What an awful world you advocate! (Score:2)
Or do you think stores should be encouraged to commit fraud? For real? I have lots of good ideas that would be difficult to notice or prove. I don't want to live in that kind of world.