best buy = assclowns

Deliberate deception like this really gets under my skin. As a direct result of all Consumerist's reporting on this practise (I am new to the site - wish I'd found it months/years ago)I cancelled the orders I had previously placed with Best Buy, refusing to give them my money any more. There's far more worthy retailers out there that deserve it.

For the first time ever, an Employee at Best Buy told me that I had to have the print out in order to prove the price was different last week! I looked it up on Amazon on my phone, and it was way lower than their other print ad. He told me, "Nice, now print it out." what a jerk.

OK already. This story was a just up here on the 23rd. If anybody actually cared here, they would have gathered up proof and contact Best Buy corporate offices. If that goes nowhere, call you local news channels. They love this kind of stuff. Still not action, then contact your local District Attorneys office. Complaining just to the store manager does absolutely squat to get the problem fixed.

So will anybody here actually do any of the above? Highly doubtful.

I hate hate hate Best Buy. But my husband remains unconvinced. God I hope nothing gies wrong with the new TV we bought from them. Sadly, the price we purchased it at is still hundreds HUNDREDS less than every other place known to the internet or to a physical retail facility. Darn those evil people!!

Anyone who spends $140+ for a ONE CUP coffee maker and bitches about $7.20 is the real ass clown.

@jwissick: Yeah, but it was a SPECIAL EDITION 1 cup coffee maker. It's gonna be worth money in the future. he just made an investment, that's all. I mean, why buy a 1 cup coffee maker that was 100 bucks less if it wouldn't raise in value over time, right?

Wait, so let me get this straight... When you wanted to price match your item, the cashier asked for proof? How dare he! And then to further the situation, once you showed him the print out he... he... discounted the product! Stupid Best Buy and their deceptive policies!

woah, $150 for a COFFEE MAKER!?!1

@gsmumbo:

Are you serious? Why is it the consumer's responsibility to prove the price that is advertised on the internet? They should match - period. I won't go back to Ulta because they wouldn't price match their internet prices, and I will never buy anything at Best Buy.

@GothamGal:

Are you serious? The customer came in to the store. He did not order it online. The store is one place. Online is another. Most retailers have online only sales. In all reality price matching is a privledge. The sale was offered online. It should be ordered online. Best Buy here is saying "you know what, to make it easier on you, we will change the price in store that way you don't have to wait for the shipping and such". The store actually takes a hit for it. So of course it is the consumers responsibility to prove the price.

Otherwise I could go in a store and say that this computer is $100 cheaper online. With your logic I would get away with it. Next time say it is $200 cheaper. Then later say $300. Why the hell would the cashiers have every single online sale memorized?

How many times do we have to go throught this until people finally realize that Best Buy and Bestbuy.com ARE TWO SEPERATE COMPANIES which is why there are 2 different prices. Like its been said in the other 10,000 threads about this same thing just buy the damn thing online for in store pickup or dont buy it!!!

Best Buy knows that 95 out of 100 customers would end up paying the $150 price. Plus, if you're buying a lot in a single transaction (i.e. Christmas shopping) you're even more unlikely to notice.

I know BB PR probably reads this website. I used to be a BB regular and made several purchases a month until I got fed up with their business practices such as this and I discovered the joy of online shopping. No upselling and I can compare the prices of several merchants instantaneously. Also, I've easily saved several thousand dollars by shopping around over the last couple of years.

@scampy:

Oh please. They're the same store. They may be two separate entities legally (I'll take your word), but they live under the same roof. It's like a marriage.

I just find it interesting that as rip-offed as people feel because of Best Buy's deceptive ways, they still buy the product from them! In the end Best Buy still wins even if they knocked off $7.5 from the price.

@scampy: Because they're not two separate companies. They're separate sales portals for the same company. The products all come from the same warehouse and distribution centers.

What I don't get is why these people don't just order online, and do the in-store pickup. If they decide they don't like it, they can return it unopened on the spot.

Plus, you have an opportunity to save $10 if they don't give you your order within a minute.

I have been a consumer activist for years and have successfully brought suit against many companies engaging in unfair practices. I mention this because I do not understand the complaint here.

Stores sell goods competitively. When you are on the web, just a click away from the competition, of course they offer a better price. You have not invested the time and effort to go to their store and have many options open to you. If you order on-line and pick up at the store, there would be no problem. However, if you just check the price on your computer and do not order the item, they are not obligated to give you the price if you show up at the store. That price was designed for a different venue where they were head-to-head with the competition and not having to maintain a brick and mortar storefront to complete the sale.

They state quite clearly at bestbuy.com that they will match lower in store prices on-line, but I don't see where they say that they will lower in store prices to match their website.

It's the 21st century, folks, you can't equate an on-line store with a newspaper ad anymore. The web changes how we do business.

I think the solution is not a warning on kiosks in the stores, but a clear statement on the website that the stores do not have to honor the on-line price if the item was not ordered on-line.

@gsmumbo

I don't care if they have different prices online.

Barnes and Noble doesn't have the same prices in-store as online sometimes but they don't the have internet kiosks that only serve to confuse consumers and make it seem like the internet and store pricing is one and the same. If Best Buy just got rid of the kiosks it would be easier for people to accept the fact that the prices are different

@jwissick: So it's the victim's fault.

Best Buy is getting lazy. They won't do a competitor price match unless you bring on a copy of the ad. They won't even call the store to confirm the price, even if it's down the street.

Whatever. I'm not a real customer anyways. I only go there to buy discounted DVD's. I buy most of my electronics from Amazon or Fry's.

Yeah, but this baby makes a nice single cup of coffee time after time after time! You should have bought it at Bead Bath & Beyond with one of those 20% off coupons they send everyone and their brother.

As for the $150, you save tons on wasted partial pots with this maker. I can make a cup of Kona, a decaf for my wife and hot tea for my son one after the other in no time. And, the selection of available coffees is fantastic. I got one for Christmas last year and it's the best damn present I ever got!

Best Buy is just setting themselves up for bigger legal issues with this type stuff. With the mass movement of customers away from Circuit City, they don't need to do this type stuff anyway.

Staples's web site might be just as shady. They ask for your zip code before showing you any results. Although I have no proof that they do this, they might adjust the prices based on where you live, and possibly what your local Staples charges.

It is a lot cheaper to pay for computer servers than to pay the rent for physical buildings, electricity, employee wages and all those other bills to run a business.

All you have to do is ask to get the BestBuy.com price, its not that hard.

@strum40:

Wait, so the kiosks that have a giant banner stating that "THIS KIOSK DISPLAYS IN STORE PRICING - WHICH MAY DIFFER FROM NATIONAL INTERNET PRICES" are meant to mislead?

Here is how companies get away with this. They say their .com website is a separate company. By doing this they can have different prices. I can't count how many companies/websites do this, but there are tons.

I just had this happen at Target. The internet posted end of year clearance prices and it said the item I wanted was available in store, so I hopped in my car and went to my local Target, which had no markdown, and said that they didn't know why the internet stated the price and said it was available in store at that marked-down price. I can be slow sometimes, does anyone have any suggestions?

It's funny - if Best Buy put as much money into actually keeping customers happy as they apparently put into having employees shill for them whenever a negative news story pops up on the net, they might actually be less hated.

Of course, I doubt they give a flying fuck about how well liked they are by the educated consumers, as long as the Barrys, Jills, and Buzzes keep the bottom line growing.

What kind of moron does not just purchase it online for in store pickup and then go get it? See, it obviously made more sense for you to get in your car, drive to the store, hunt for the item, and play a game with the employee. You could have just clicked in store pickup, walked in the store, grabbed your coffee maker and go home.

I truly don't understand what people are complaining about. Online sales in store sales. They are separate, plain and simple. For all those assclowns clamoring for the lower price in store, it won't work that way, you'll get the higher price online.

Rather than complain, just purchase it from the place that says it costs $X. How hard is that?

@LTS!: I see, using the less than and greater than for "does not equal" doesn't work.. so it should say "online sales do NOT equal in store sales".

I've gotten to where, if I'm browsing the isles of a store, I'll find what I want and go home to order it on-line. I've yet to see something in a store for cheaper than I can get it on-line, and if it's not much different or I need it that day. I then order it site-to-store. There's a Best Buy or whatever on almost every corner so it's no big deal to go back.

Though it's rare that I'm browsing isles anymore. I really just research and find the best price at home, and either order it or buy it for in-store pickup. No fighting for the best price that way. When I get to the store, if it's cheaper on the shelf I have them price match it.

@EnderVR46: Meant to add up there, I was caught out once a few years ago at Fry's. Used their site to look up a price, and went to the store to get it. They would not honor that price and gave me the line about being a different company from their on-line persona.

I've never tried that again, and only do what I said above now.

Fool me once... and all that.

Hey, Scampy: learn to spell and someone might listen to you. Then again, your information is wrong, so maybe it wouldn't matter.

The issue isn't that the prices are different. The issue is that Best Buy is being deceptive about the price differences. "hey this is cheaper online, but if YOU try to check it here you'll see it costs more."

It's bullshit any way you cut it, and an absolute sham that they keep this piece of shit running.

Lesson of the day: Don't shop at Best Buy.

Secondary lesson of the day: Consumerist is full of broke-ass uppity losers who are incapable of recognizing that the Best Buy fake website is a ludicrous scam.

How many people are really "unhappy" with Best Buy? So many complaints. And with Comcast too. In a complaint forum you might even think the whole world thought these companies were just the worst. I'll bet its like 5 percent that are really unhappy, though. Probably less.

Should Best Buy pay for more knowledgeable sales people and change their sales tactics to accommodate the less than 5 percent of people that can't function in our capitalist society or negotiate the brick and mortar world of retail? Probably not. Will those malcontents threaten to boycott and "go to Egghead?" Probably. But really it would cost Best Buy more to cater to your special needs than it does in the sales lost when you go somewhere else. So they are actually saving money if you don't go there again. Adios.

It's unfortunate that people believe this is somehow devious. Oh well, I guess there's no accounting for the amount of ignorance roaming the internet these days.

Wow, a "secret" website which shows a local price. Scary. Here's a shocker, prices vary by region!

Capitalism is not a very difficult concept to understand. The seller attempts to sell a product or service for as much as they can, the buyer attempts to buy it at the cheapest price they can.

Imagine the confusion and doubt proliferation Best Buy would be accused of if they had one character difference on their website. Never mind the huge yellow banner "warning".

Wow, a 45 second exchange, "Your website said...". "Oh, ok." These are the same people posting "deals" stacking 3-4 coupons and "YMMV" lies and somehow that's not devious.

It really puts a smile on my face when someone thinks they are getting "ripped off" by a merchant charging a higher price for an item. Either buy your $150 coffee maker or don't.

With that logic, Best Buy rips me off every time I don't use one of their 10% off coupons they send out all the time.

@LTS!: What kind of moron does not just purchase it online for in store pickup and then go get it?

Well, me. I had some x-mas cash that was going to be part of the purchase, and last time I checked, most online stores don't take cash over the internet.

The problem is not that Best Buy (brick and mortar) sells things for a higher price than bestbuy.com. It is that they've designed an in-store system for telling customers "No, our prices aren't cheaper online."

There is no reason that their in-store kiosk has to look (exactly) like bestbuy.com. See, for example, Border's Books and Music, which has very different kiosks and website. It's purposefully misleading.

I will say, though, that no employee lied to me while I was there. I didn't give them the chance. I thought about asking them to look it up online, and then using my printout to prove them a liar, but that would have been a cruel joke to play on a (probably) innocent employee. It was enough for me that there system is still designed for deceiving customers.

K

I think there are plenty of people who are like me. I go to Best Buy, find what I want, and then go elsewhere to buy it cheaper or with less hassle. Best Buy is just no fun. And it's infuriating to see them be such idiots about customer service and pricing issues, because it employs half my home town (it seems).

that picture is less than acceptable. for all i know, that could be his monitor. that sliver of "in store menu" could be anything.

i am not down with the scamming, but this just screams fake.

@gsmumbo: If they were actually price-matching (like, matching CC's or some other store's price) I'd buy your argument. I don't agree with saying that a Best Buy store selling you a product that they advertise at bestbuy.com at the online price a "price match". The opposite, however (advertising one price and then only offering a higher price in-store) does have a name: Bait and Switch, and most states outlaw it.

@Leiterfluid: Why do you think that? They have their own warehouses. I work there, and know this for a fact.

I don't have a problem with Best Buy doing this - they've got to protect in-store margins somehow while remaining competitive online. If you've come to their store, then you're making use of their expensive land, displays, and labor, so they are justified in trying to protect the higher margins that BY NECESSITY come along with those expenses. Running an electronics website is much cheaper than running an electronics store. If you want the online price, order it online.

Is it deceptive? Mildly. They make it 5% harder to find out that you can buy it for a few bucks cheaper after you've come and used their expensive store space that they need to pay for somehow. I don't blame them.

Some stores have higher overhead than others and BestBuy needs to charge more for the products in those stores to be profitable. The kiosk should show the in store pricing as you are in the store. What's the big deal?

I am annoyed by this as well, but isn't the easiest solution to buy it over the web and pick it up at the store.

This should also cut down the browsing and impulse buying, which in turn should cut down their desire to alter the pricing.

Everytime I buy something from best buy, I search their website for the pricing thing, because you and I BOTH know it'll be higher on the in-store website. Then I right click on that page, select edit in whatever HTML editor I need, and lower the price myself. I've knocked $100 off of computers, and my personal favorite. Sirius had a buy a $50 gift card, get a free radio. I made the gift card 1/2 off, and changed the radio model to a much better one. AND The kicker is I ordered the origional amount on the web for in-store pickup. When they handed me the radio, I informed them it was the wrong one :-)

I have no problem with Best Buy having different prices on their website than at the store. If the website doesn't say they'll price match at the store, then you shouldn't expect it to happen. The only thing I expect to be the same is their weekly printed mailer and the store prices. Which, when I've gone there, have been the same.

My issue is with the kiosks. It's clear from reading past articles that they've used the kiosks to convince people that the item they want to purchase is not on sale. For that, they should be financially punished.

To all the people that say Best Buy and BestBuy.com are the same company and should charge the same price: All companies that large vary their prices from location to location. A McDonalds in Ashland, VA is not going to charge nearly as much for a Big Mac as one in New York City because the economies are completely different. Likewise, not every Best Buy location is going to charge the same price for the same merchandise. If the website was going to charge the same price as the stores, then every Best Buy location would have to have the same prices, even ones that are not in the same country as one another.

Have you morons not gotten the concept of "cost of living". A 2 bedroom apartment in New York City is going to be a hell of a lot more expensive than one in Texas. That's because of property values and such.

Here's my issue. Best Buy, like every other corporation, is divided into territories, districts, regions, etc. ALL of which are different. Best Buy (the store) and BestBuy.com are different entities, therefore are competitors. So, if you find it cheaper online, the store is NOT trying to rip you off, it's trying to tell you that the normal cost is what you see in the store, but the sale price online is a company price so they match it.

Stores have sales goals and revenues to meet every day, so they have markup. Simple economics. Now if the smart shopper does research, they can get a better deal. But instead, they write this site to whine about $7.

Hope that coffee is worth the bitching you've spent here.

@macgyver314: Bad example there. McDonalds is a franchise company. Each location or multiple locations are owned by different people, and therefore subject to mostly different whims when it comes to pricing. Best buy stores (and online) are owned by corporate. The reason that this is a problem is because best buy has the whole "buy online, pick up in store" philosophy, and they practically advertise that there's no difference to them if you buy it online or in store, it's all the same, save for the online only sales or in store only sales that occasionally run.