Best Buy's Shady Pricing Scam Unravels

Fri Mar 2, 2007 6:49PM EST

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Reading stuff like this makes me lose what faith I had left in corporate America. You probably won't believe it, but here goes.

Many big box retailers let you use "price matching" when you come into their store, a policy which lets you get the same price that a competitor charges or, in the case of Best Buy, pay the same price in the store that Best Buy charges on its website. Sounds great, but customers were finding themselves puzzled when they checked the price of something they were about to pay for at a Best Buy store. When using the store's in-house computers, the prices on bestbuy.com didn't look quite as low as they remembered at home. In other words: Web prices were somehow higher when you were shopping inside Best Buy.

The answer to this riddle has finally turned out to be something quite noxious: Best Buy has been using a secret intranet site inside its stores. It's a private version of its public website that looks identical to bestbuy.com, with one key distinction: The prices are considerably higher. George Gombossy of the Hartford Courant sussed this out with some old-fashioned in-store sleuthing and reports on it in detail here.

Best Buy has finally admitted that the secret site exists, and it's facing formal investigation by the state of Connecticut. However, Best Buy says it never intended to mislead anyone... perhaps claiming that the prices on the intranet were just mistakes, not intentionally inflated. Hmmm, sounds fishy to me. What do you think?

Comments on Best Buy's Shady Pricing Scam Unravels

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  • 66 Posted by zorrostj on Thu Sep 3, 2009 11:01PM EDT Report Abuse

    They had no idea, a mistake, yeah, right.

  • 67 Posted by maxcastignetti on Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:51PM EDT Report Abuse

    Should we be surprised? This is a company that got into bed with the notorious rip-off artists at Household Finance (aka HSBC) to offer zero interest credit deals that I suspect will soon provide employment to an army of attorneys general. The finance deals are a scam. Try to find someone whose payments have been processed in a timely manner. The goal of the scheme appears to be to intentionally delay sending out statements, updating address recordds and processing payments so that HSBC can assess exhorbinant late fees and interest, which I suspect are then shared with Best Buy. The slime buckets at Household evidently weren't able to generate heft enough bonuses for themselves by making improper mortgages and refis (for which the company paid hundreds of millions to settle charges). They went on to rip off (mainly low income) customers of H&R Block with unethical refund advances. So they signed up Best Buy as willing co-conspirators in a lousy consumer finance scheme.

  • 69 Posted by clifton_durbin_14 on Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:22PM EDT Report Abuse

    i can not belive those haloigans tricked everyone i am never shopping there again.

  • 71 Posted by allentak on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:51PM EDT Report Abuse

    I simply go to nextag.com to compare venders prices on the web I never shop at big box stores anymore

  • 72 Posted by spitvs1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:36PM EDT Report Abuse

    This is nothing but another stratagem to cheat the costumer. With the Internet, it is very easy to shop smart; but we can see that America's retailers are trying a more secretive scheme to outwit the system.

  • 73 Posted by j_hoffer@ameritech.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    The prices at Best Buy are a joke. A person can find better prices for the same item at Target for less. Also, try to get a Best Buy employee to answer a question about stereo or electronic equipment. Their most common answer is that the information is on the small description tag beneath the item. Well thanks alot.

  • 74 Posted by skypilottb on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:26PM EDT Report Abuse

    In 1997 I bought a directv system which went bad under their warranty. They wanted to take 6 months to replace it meaning I could not see TV. The reason they cut the corners off their gift cards is that it makes it easier for them to fall out of wallets and become lost. I received one as a result of a credit account worth $300 and it fell out and got lost. Slick, aren't they!!!

  • 75 Posted by tangochaser23 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    While yes I have experienced the whole bait and switch scam, it was thet issue as well as another in combination that really bothered me. Around Christmas when the PS3's were the "in thing" the BB store in Murray Utah had just received a shipment of about 10 units. I saw a few people walking arond with them in their hands so when I saw one of the associates come out of the back room I immediately asked him if I could have one. He immediately gave it to me. A minute later while I was working with another associate to sign up for my combo deal for satelite, phone and high speed internet (which by the way took about and hour and a half cause no one seemed to know what they were doing) a female associate possibly a manager told the other associate that I should not have a PS3. He stated that they were not allowing people to walk around the store with them and that they would have to hold it at the register for me. Normally I would not bring race into an issue like this but I am a black male. All of the other people approximately 7 to 8 people who were walking around in the store were white. I felt it best not to raise a stink so I very calmly walked to the desk where I watched as the associate put my name on the PS3 box. About 30 mis later I went to claim my PS3 after I had signed up for service and imagine my surprise when I got there and they informed me that my PS3 had been sold. They were not supposed to have been holding any for any customers. Imagine my frustration when they told me that. Needless to say that female supervisor avoided me like the plague when I asked to talk to her. I can see BB doing something like this, it is bull and the whole internet pricing thing does not surprise me either. They never want to match prices fairly, and always have some excuse not to. I hope that this helps to close them down or at leas force them to look at these kinds of practices.

  • 78 Posted by hogfarm12000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    My wife and I have not shopped BestBuy for years. We had made a rather large purchase and one of the items had to be returned for exchange. It was a nightmare as we were bounced from one employee to another for "approval". We were repeatedly told that the only person who had approval authority for the exchange was the store manager who was "not in store". My wife promptly sat down right on the floor in the middle of Customer Service area and refused to move until the issue was addressed. The non present Manager magically appeared and asked what he could do to resolve the issue. He had been standing in the area for the entire time. Shady dealing does not begin to describe BestBuy. I would not recommend this operation to anyone. There are too many choices in this day and age to allow a shady retailer to rip you off. That a high technology retailer would not know that their staff is going to an intranet versus internet site is ludicrous. Bait and switch at its worst. If I want something now I research on the internet and then use the various comparison shopping sites to find who has it at the lowest price to include tax and shipping. I take advantage of the tax advantages of shopping internet versus bricks and mortar. I have found internet stores that will even throw in free shipping. BestBuy will end up being road kill as more and more shoppers realize they are getting hosed.

  • 79 Posted by nkdbmbr.rm on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:39PM EDT Report Abuse

    Don't blame Best Buy, if you want to buy online than buy online, the prices are cheaper there because there is smaller overhead. So be an adult and if you want assistance from those who know at the store, you are going to have to pay more for it. I never understood people that don'tunderstand commissions, I work for a company that I make commission on what they buy from me but people come to me after they bought online and complain to me about it or want me to help them now, NO WAY, go back online.

  • 80 Posted by bigapark on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:06PM EDT Report Abuse

    I beleive this is dishonest and I may avoid shopping there after reading this article.

  • 81 Posted by troyer_andrew on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    Yea i'm surprised that this hasn't come up sooner. I used to work at best buy and all the managers, and senior employees that worked there for sometime figured it out that we had to go to the internet site to get accurate pricing for those consumers that wanted something they saw online that had a different price in the store. personally i don't even shop there anymore i used to sell about $4.5 million in products each year got paid $10.50 with the most horrible hours and oh yea don't forget how the managers would yell at you if you didn't get the warranty on something. IT'S ABOUT DOING WHAT'S RIGHT FOR THE CUSTOMER NOT WHAT'S RIGHT FOR THE COMPANY!!!!

  • 82 Posted by troyer_andrew on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    Yea i'm surprised that this hasn't come up sooner. I used to work at best buy and all the managers, and senior employees that worked there for sometime figured it out that we had to go to the internet site to get accurate pricing for those consumers that wanted something they saw online that had a different price in the store. personally i don't even shop there anymore i used to sell about $4.5 million in products each year got paid $10.50 with the most horrible hours and oh yea don't forget how the managers would yell at you if you didn't get the warranty on something. IT'S ABOUT DOING WHAT'S RIGHT FOR THE CUSTOMER NOT WHAT'S RIGHT FOR THE COMPANY!!!!

  • 83 Posted by gimoredb on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:09PM EDT Report Abuse

    I am not surprized one bit... I fell victom to the rewards scam spent over 2k on computor and peripherals and never got anything as a reward... Complained and never got a response. What a rip off company!

  • 84 Posted by mmmcconnell on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:24PM EDT Report Abuse

    HA. . no surprise to me! My husband used to work for Best Buy as a second income. He figured out all the little 'tricks' they would play on customers and voiced his dislike for all of it numerous times. Hence, he quit! Just today we saw an Ad for a television we've been keeping our eye on. I looked it up online and it was $300.00 more expensive. I wanted to purchase it online in order to use my Upromise account (if anyone knows what that is; you get $ back for savings for college) but wanted the price that was advertised in the flyer as we also had a coupon for an extra 12% off plus a $10.00 coupon you get back after the purchase. Sooo, my husband went into the store and got the run-around with them stating they couldn't sell it to him at that price along with the coupon until March 23rd. (didn't state this on the flyer). Now, if he really wanted to create a scene and; had I been there I would have; he could have pressed the issue and gotten the TV. As it stood, they said they would hold one for him until the 23rd. Time will tell. Just another example of their fraudulant advertising. If they can't get you one way, they'll get you another. There are alot of ways they 'stick' not only customers but their employee's as well.

  • 85 Posted by kcirbez on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:48PM EDT Report Abuse

    I brought a copy of an ad printed at home to the store and they asked where I had gotten it. I said from their website. They said not only would they not honor their competition's ad not in the local area, but the printout was not valid. Their customer service is really lack of service from the many times I have shopped there. If you can go to another place that really cares about YOU..the consumer.

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