Best Buy still uses a secret internal website to deceive customers, according to the L.A. Times. The website appearing on in-store kiosks resembles Best Buy’s official site in every way, except for the prices. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was surprised to hear that his investigation failed to end Best Buy’s bait-and-switch, telling the L.A. Times: “We thought Best Buy had addressed this. That’s what they said to us. Apparently that’s not the case.” A tipster in Virginia also reports the continued existence of the secret website.
According to our tipster:
Not that anyone should be surprised, but Best Buy is still at it.My wife spent several hours at home researching digital picture frames online, and Best Buy actually had the best price on one, as well as being the only way to get it in time for Christmas. Last night we went to our local Fairfax, Virginia, Best Buy. They didn’t have the frame at first, and I actually have to commend the staff, they searched for about 30 minutes because one of them thought he had seen it somewhere. They finally came up with one, the Kodak EasyShare EX1011. I took it to a different station and asked them to price check it, and it came up at $255.99, well over the $234.49 that was listed online.
We went to one of their public computer terminals and searched it and it came up at the $255.99, no surprise.
iPhone to the rescue. At first it was showing the $255 price on my iPhones browser, then I realized it was connected through WiFi, so they have it blocking the external Best Buy site and feeding the fake one. I disabled WiFi and searched again and bam, there it was, $234.99.
The electronics department said I had to go to customer service for such a thing, and they promptly took care of the price change.
Keep up the great work, Consumerist.
The L.A. Times called Best Buy’s pen of Pinocchios to provide an explanation:
[Sue Busch, a Best Buy spokeswoman] said the kiosks were never intended “for price-match purposes,” but admitted that “a small percentage of customers did not receive a price match when they should have due to errors in policy execution.”
What is a “small percentage of customers?” Maybe a Best Buy salesman in California can clarify:
“Every day we get at least one person asking why he can’t find a price he saw online,” the salesman replied.I said I was looking for a DVD player I’d seen online that was selling for $71.99. I said it wasn’t on the kiosk site.
“Here,” the salesman said, “let me show you a secret.”
He switched to a different screen, typed in his employee I.D. number, and the real Bestbuy.com came up. “Try now,” the salesman said.
I asked why the real website wasn’t available to everyone.
He shrugged. “I wish I knew.”
Maybe that’s something California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown should also be wondering.
Best Buy kiosks not connected to Internet [L.A. Times]
(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
PREVIOUSLY:
Best Buy’s Secret “Employee Only” In-Store Website Shows Different Prices Than Public Website
Best Buy Confirms The Existence Of Its Secret Website
UPDATE: Best Buy Still Using Its Secret Website
@Goller
I do know about the uniform standards that they use for security. I also know that it isn’t controlled by anyone in the store; corporate does all the work on it and make it the same. I’m still calling BS on the WiFi story.
As for Gagus and I getting a room, I assume you mean that for our solidarity from people treating retail employees crummy because of their station in life. I don’t tell you to get a room with someone that agrees with you.
I’ll admit I don’t know what happened at EVERY Best Buy the Saturday after Thanksgiving. There is no way that it would be statistically improbable for the store to be empty with it being the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Just because the store I was at, the one my parents went to, the mall my sisters were at, the shops my friends work at, any retail place the media visited, and the stores everyone bitched about on this site were all jammed all weekend (and mostly since then), I cannot tell a precise location’s census. However, I would love for you to tell me how you know specifically what this BB store in America looked like on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. What were you saying about assumptions? Especially after his story about stumbling onto a WiFi that most employees can’t access turns out to be about as solid as the hunt for WMD.
And, yes, he did say, “an hour”. Given his predilection for hyperbole, I shouldn’t have assumed he meant precisely 3600.0000000000 seconds. So, I’m going to assume that he meant “within an hour” and that he was whiney because he had to wait 32.3 seconds. I’m not a semantics expert, but that is within an hour.
But, you have proven what I was trying to point out earlier: feeling superior to a retail employee and then taking it out on them makes you look petty and insecure. My manager never called anyone a “devil”. However, he knows my experience and to back me up on my decisions. When I have to call him for a situation, he will follow what I recommend. It happens frequently, especially if you are an arrogant prat. I think we may have found the reason for the denials of your price matches…
We can be just as petty in return.
@clyde55:
I have to say that this site has been an eye opener.
It’s easy to find the corporate shills as they continue to use the same method time after time to defend our new United Corporate States of America. I thought the original Rollerball movie was just a bad movie, as it turns out it may have been a prophecy. The only thing that will be missing in the real world is metallic ball, an oval track, and some rollerskates.
But it’s easy to spot the corporate shrills like yourself and Gagustafoson, and all your clones. Its because each and everyone of you continually make the same post and offer the same silly defense time after time after time. Just repeat and rinse continually.
The basic rules of your game of corporate defense is this:
1. The consumer is lying. He is making the whole thing up because in the greatness of corporate America, there is no way that such a thing could happen.
2. Pick out only the details you can twist and turn and ignore all other pertinent information in the post.
3. Be sure to tell everyone that the new and benevolent Corporate America is out there only looking out for our best interest. We should be grateful to give our hard earned money to the corporate machine and to kneel at the alter of their board of directors as they bestow their holy greatness on us.
4. Enter details and arguments into your defense that have absolutely nothing to do with the original comment or the situation at hand. Compare apples to oranges as often as possible.
5. Be sure to accuse the poster of bad behavior that he does not mention, that you were not there to witness, and have no idea as to whether or not it took place. You know, once the accusation is made it is sure to stick.
I hate playing these tit for tat games but the fact that you say my “flunky in a blue shirt” comment shows my bias goes back to the above rules. You completely ignore the fact that he called me a liar. So yes, I am bias. I am biased towards the fact that somebody who automatically assumes someone is lying as their only defense is a jerk, aka a flunky in a blue shirt representative of the corporate world of today.
But let’s talk about the other lies you and your buddy completely ignored. The lie of the sales clerk that a simple phone call would cancel the on-line order? The lie of the guy on the phone that the order had already been shipped when it hadn’t? Was one the liar, or the other or both? Or were both just lazy friends of you and Gagustafoson who didn’t want to bother?
Second, I’m glad you had a happy time at your store. At the store I was in the situation occurred just as I said, two hours before closing, only it was even worse than I made it appeared as I was trying for some amount of brevity. And for your information, I at no time beat up on some poor teenager or took it out on the clerk, or the guy on the phone. Nor did I accuse them of bad behavior either. In fact, I felt sorry for the one girl they had working the pick up line while two other employees behind the kiosk seemed to be busy with “important things.” (see rule 5) Your imagination does run wild when you have no real defense doesn’t it?
Maybe I should have mentioned the two guys who got in line behind me and left in disgust when the line barely moved? Maybe I should have mentioned my imaginary girlfriend who was through the imaginary check out lane in an imaginary two minutes and was left sitting and waiting for me for my imaginary hour. Maybe I should have mentioned my very cordial correspondence to the company that was never answered.
So no, the clerks weren’t rude (I never said they were), the guy on the phone wasn’t rude (he just lied about the items already being shipped) and the corporation itself was as it usually is, unresponsive. And I didn’t mention how they changed the SRP on the item in their ad and on the web a few weeks later, making it thirty dollars more and offering the camera at a savings of $30 dollars bringing it down to what was the actual SRP price on the manufacturer’s web site. And now? The SRP price is back down to $249 which is what it was in the first place. To be frank, I found all of that price manipulation quite humerous because I had taken Circuit City to task for putting a SRP of $279 when it should have been $249, and had defended BB on that score. It didn’t take long to prove they were birds of a feather.
So next time, make sure you know what you are talking about, and as it turns out the only rude ones in this whole thing were mrsultana and Gagustafoson.
I had this crap happen to me. Best buy is a good 30 miles from my house. I saw a great deal at bestbuy.com on a wireless router and needed to pickup one for my aunt. I drove into town and went to best buy I found the router in the store and it was 10$ more expensive. I told the sales guy I saw it online cheaper. He proceeds to pull bestbuy.com up and show me that I was wrong. I knew I was right as the whole reason I drove 30 miles to best buy was to pickup this router. As my wife and I were walking out the store I told her I bet they were pulling something like this. When I got home I double checked and I was right. I sure as hell wasn’t driving back to best buy agian.
A suggestion for Mr. Gagustafson and other Best Buy employees that are defiantly expressing themselves (I cannot help but wonder – first if you’re actually an employee – second, what Best Buy management thinks of such posts. I’m guessing they’re not saying “atta boy!!: You might want to read the original LA Times article this post refers to.
The customer clearly felt misled, had real reason to feel that way, and that’s the point. Perception is reality, and if a sizeable percentage of consumers perceive something as suspicious, then it’s folly to slap ducktape on a PR disaster, or ridicule people for ‘not getting it’.
This is the age of transparency and openness. If companies do anything that even hints of deception, they’ll be found out. The fact that the customer in the article, when using the in-store kiosk, clicked on ‘Bestbuy.com’ to access what he thoughth was Bestbuy.com, but was a replica, exact save for price differences, is misleading. It doesn’t matter if you have a sign that says “reflects in store pricing”. If another part of the process tells you something different, then it’s confusing. The entire process, from beggning to end, has to be consistent, and be perceived as fair and consistent.
A state attorney general apparently aggrees with we consumer ‘morons’.
Companies need to carefully think through their Brick and Click strategies, as they encourage consumers to shop and order online, and pick up items at local store locations.
Although I’ve had the same experience, Best Buy is, in my opinion, still the best major consumer electronic store out there. Infinitely better than Circuit City, which has some of the oddest store policies, and CompUSA, which has straight-out ripped me off before… i mean actually stealing my money by selling me a $30 Reward Membership only to cancel the program 30 days later without refund.
I just buy the item online from home at the lower price, and choose the pick up at store option. No hassles and the price is correct. Plus…when you go straight to the pickup counter you are less tempted to walk out with 10 movies and dvd’s.
@clyde55:
Just wanted to point out that the whiny “coporate america” BS can be spread on both ways.
The basic rules of your game of coddling whiny consumers who feel that corporate america is out to get them is this:
1. The company is lying. He is making the whole thing up because in the greatness of corporate America, there is no way that he would NOT be trying to screw every customer who walks through the door.
2. Pick out only the details you can twist and turn and ignore all other pertinent information in the post.
3. Be sure to tell everyone that the new and proactive consumer is out there only looking out for our best interest. We should be grateful to give our hard earned money to the consumers who feel they are deserving of special treatment and to kneel at the alter of their masses of complaints as they bestow their holy greatness on us.
4. Enter details and arguments into your defense that have absolutely nothing to do with the original comment or the situation at hand. Compare apples to oranges as often as possible.
5. Be sure to accuse the poster of bad behavior that he does not mention, that you were not there to witness, and have no idea as to whether or not it took place. You know, once the accusation is made it is sure to stick.
See? fancy that. I changed maybe a dozen words that immediately referenced “corporate” rather than “consumer” and it EXACTLY fits what everyone on this site does. Bitch and moan about how we’re all out to screw you.
I’m not even saying that no Best buy employee has ever tried to screw a customer. That would be ridiculous. There are a LOT of fucked up people out there, and a few of em are bound to work for Best buy. Hell, a few of em are bound to be managers at Best Buy. But 90% of the stuff I see on this site is ludicrous.
Like the Wifi thing with this story. As someone else mentioned, our wireless has a proxy on it. Managed by IS. EVERY time a new box is opened, its set up that way. The “tipster” should seek employment as a fiction author.
Or what about the rest of it. First, Geek squad is evil because we’re stealing customers porn. I wouldn’t go so far as evil but, it was taken care of. THEN we’re evil, because we agressively took care of the issue. NOW we’re evil, because in the course of work (that the customer requested), we found child porn and got the sick bastard arrested.
You people just want to find a reason to believe that every business is out to steal your money. Can someone please found a communist island somewhere that we can ferry these people to?
If you haven’t skipped this by now, just put your foil hats back on, and go back to believing that sears, or best buy or circuit city is trying to steal your intarwebz and haxx your porn. cause obviously we’re not smart enough to DL our own.
~~Double Agent with the Geek Squad
@Clyde
It is interesting on your rant about assumptions the number that you make.
I often have to do research because of various situations (customer forgot receipt or brought me one from the wrong store, status of a .com pickup, PSP changes, making calls for credit cards, etc). Frequently, I have to discuss something with another person to plan what is the best way to handle some situation. However, since you don’t work there, and you aren’t me, you have no idea what I’m doing. If you think someone is slacking, ask yourself, “Do I have all the information? And how am I using a network that very few people in America who aren’t a BB employee using?” I once again call shenanegans on that. As retailers are very aware, but sometimes ignore, it takes a long time to build trust, but only one lie to shatter your credibility.
The snarky tone of my “buddy” relationship with someone in a different time zone that I’ve never spoken directly to shows the kind of disrespect you give someone you consider beneath you.
However, I think you confuse a “lie” with “not enough information”. A “simple phone call” can cancel an order, unless it has already shipped. You can only call him a liar if he either has access to that database (nobody in the brick and mortar) or has somehow memorized everything that has shipped to that point (only happens in your ridiculously fantasy world of retail employees giving you everything for free, followed by a “happy ending”).
Why are you so offended at being called a liar when you level that same charge when you have such little information? But, you think I have no information on the WiFi. Except for the fact that I do and you don’t on the latter.
I don’t assume a consumer is lying. But the second they do about the smallest thing (ie. “I got it as a gift and they swear they bought it here.”), they no longer get the benefit of any doubt.
The fact that two people left shows me MORE not LESS how busy it must have been.
I also don’t think corporate anything is benevolent. I do think many of the employees are. But, your demonizing doesn’t fly either. It makes so little sense that someone not on commission and doesn’t really give a damn about $30 of the company’s money would want to screw you. Level the finger at major company’s CEO’s, the GM’s, and consumers that were caught scamming before you. The rest of us don’t really care. Maybe your rule #1 should read, “Assume the employee is lying instead of misinformed due to constantly changing conditions and a large volume of products and different demands. It is more likely that, even though he has nothing to gain, he wants the fillings from your teeth. But at least you get to complain so you can feel superior.”
Many of us enjoy helping and are smart enough that a few dollars lost here and there improve a customer’s opinion of the company and the chances of them returning. But the greatest gift is when someone is an unreasonable, stuffy blowhard and they say they will never shop there again. Because that improves the store for everyone, lowers the employees’ stress levels, and lowers prices (because we aren’t giving stuff away for free to shut someone up).
(BTW, love the story of the camera… or was it a showcase of what you meant by rule #4? Ha!)
Actually this ‘deceptive’ in store kiosk has a bright yellow bar that clearly states that the prices may be different from the national website. Most stores will generally “Price Match” their website, in fact there is a option to do so at the registers. If the employee doesn’t do it its because they are a complete Newb.
Best Buy has a proxy set up on the wifi in store. How did this person connect and suft the web on the iPhone?
There is a giant banner that states the prices reflect in store prices. Put two and two together. If the page reflects in store prices and you are trying to price match something in store, they are obviously going to show the same price.
Price matching is a privledge. bestbuy.com is an online store. The store down the road is a seperate store. The Best Buy down the road from there is a 3rd store. All three stores can technically have different sales going on. If you relaly want that online price… order online.
Best Buy does not decieve it’s employees. It is impossible to go over every situation. I work there. Have for a good while now(before the whole CT situation). When I got hired on my very first day they showed us employees both websites and explained the differences in them. They told us that if someone comes in to price match online, always use the national site because the local site would show in store prices.
In the holiday seasons… expect a long line. That is the same any where.
Goller321… seriously. All the stores have the wifi proxy. As for the lines… wait in them. If you are shopping in the holidays, expect long lines. Don’t blame the store for your late shopping. If you don’t want the lines, shop before thanksgiving.
To whoever it was that said that even though there is a bright yellow banner, we should have continuity througout the site(can’t find the post now)… we do. Having a giant yellow banner that says “IN STORE PRICES. MAY NOT MATCH NATIONAL PRICING” and then displaying the national prices would be misleading. You said having the banner on one part of the site yet showing something different elsewhere confuses the customer. We do the opposibe. We have the banner saying that the prices are local, not national. And we display the local, not national prices. Where is that deceptive?
@iamme99: excellent point. i agree completely.
i think it’s because people want it now and don’t consider gas as a real expense when making a quick trip out.
I don’t have the time now to get into a rant as I’m already gonna be late to work but I’d just like to add/ask one thing. Does this suprise you? Just about every retail store that has a website is going to have some discrepancies between in-store prices and ones found online. It’s retail. They want your money for their product. However, you don’t have to give it to them. There will be customer service horror stories at any retail store. Just read between the lines and keep yourselves from being bent over. I’m not even sure if I’m following the thread right but.. my two cents.
These bait-and-switch schemes with one of things I always make sure to avoid. It’s why I usually buy stuff online and in the instance that I really need it right now and BestBuy is the only place carrying it, I usually just go check it out and then order it online from my phone and then pick it up straight away. It’s pretty simple, but of course requires a decent phone and some patience.
Oh for crying out loud: here’s the secret, for ALL THE WORLD to know… There isn’t a secret site. When you log in to any computer as an employee, you log in to a portal called Toolkit. From here, you can access e-mail, HR support, our customer contacts, punch-in clock, and other application. Alphabetically, there are two options: the first is Best Buy.com – Local, the second is Best Buy.com – National. Every single employee can access both of these sites, it’s not a secret. Further, some online prices are higher than in-store prices, while some are lower.
Best Buy and bestbuy.com are completely different entities. A Web site doesn’t have to pay a lease, pay for banking services, employees… it’s got very little overhead. It only makes sense that .com sells for less. That said, when you order online, you have to pay for shipping and have no access to promotional financing.
I am so exhausted by this site’s “Best Buy can do nothing right” stance. As a company, we employ PLENTY of idiots who are not well trained and have no idea what they’re doing. Show me a single billion-dollar company that doesn’t face these issues. What bothers me is this blanketing of an entire corporation due to bad apples. America, per capita, has more homicides that any other industrialized nation. Can we then conclude that all Americans are killers?
ARRRGH
@wellfleet: I have to say a big thank you to you! I wanted to let everone know that at my Best Buy, if I print off the web price even from other stores (just not amazon or ebay) they will price match that store. And as so wonderfuly put up above, YES EVEN THE WEBSITE!!! Because the website might have a much better price! I save $10 on my printer ink and $2 on my paper that way. And I don’t have to drive so far to get it! I also get my movies cheaper!