Best Buy Employees See Nothing Wrong With Price Tag Off By $9,880
We're a little concerned about Best Buy's employees. Particularly, the employee at reader Eric's local store who posted this shelf tag, thinking that nothing was wrong.
Sure, everyone was afraid of what might happen to satellite radio subscription prices after Sirius and XM merged, but nobody imagined paying $10,000 for an iPod converter. We'd rather go out and buy a car with that money instead.
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Ah, Best Buy. You can't blame them really - I mean, they pull all their best, most intelligent employees into their stellar Geek Squad tech service, which is staffed entirely with Einsteins of the computer world, so the dregs get left for the rest of the store.
Oh...wait...
*goes back to fixing yet another computer the Geek Squad screwed up*
Standard disclaimer: While I work for Best Buy, I'm not a PR shill, so what I say is my own opinion, blah blah blah.
Yep, this is pretty typical for items that aren't supposed to be on the shelves yet. They get marked up a crazy amount, so they aren't sold early. For example, in the news I got yesterday, they warned us about Windows 7. While we may get Windows 7 in stock before it's released, it's been marked up $1,000. That way it's pretty painfully obvious that we shouldn't sell it.
Most likely these things came in on a truck, and were put out by some flunkie who wasn't paying attention. Scan the barcode, computer prints out a sticker, match the item to the sticker. Wash, rinse, repeat ad nauseum. As for why the sticker was put up, I haven't the first clue. Probably someone got a kick out of the high price and left it for the heck of it.
Hey - They have to pay their rent somehow; and anyone foolish enough to buy from their store may let that go by!
meh.
@asart: I don't think you're getting the point of the piece here. It's not so say that BB is charging that much - it's just a poke at the fact that either a) the BB employee(s) is an idiot, b) the BB employee doesn't care enough to pay attention and/or check something that looks strange, or c) a store employee was making fun of the insane prices they charge for some items (cables come to mind...). A bit of humor based on the fact that it's obviously a stupid mistake...and that somewhere, most of us wouldn't put that price beyond BB's limits of gouging.
Consumerist, and, for that matter, any blog that's actually enjoyable to read, isn't always about Big Serious News. Sometimes it's just about poking fun at people who deserve it, even when it's clearly a simple mistake that reflects a larger, and much worse, truth.
Oh, honestly. I would have got a big laugh out of it, and I'm sure the clerks did too, and 99 percent of the customers.
@hntr3742: hv nd nvr wll wrk fr Bst By thnk thy hv hrrbl bsnss prctcs. 'm jst sck f rdng strs n Cnsmrst bt thngs tht rlly dn't mttr. Smn jst frgt t pt t th nw stckr whn stckng th shlvs. 'd rthr s lss fllr strs nd mr strs wth sbstnc.
But all they have to do is sell one and they make their profit for the day. And think of the points you'll get on your rewards credit card.
This is one time I would not argue that the barcode rang up different than the shelf tag....
Gee Whiz. It is internal coding BS to prevent mistakes.
Should have never have hit the shelves but it did. Fortunately most consumers are smart enought to figure it out.
Shucks darn, it aint like The Consumerist, Apple, Target, SouthWest Airlines or any other company hasn't make the same stupid mistakes.
Professionally, I do the same crap when I set up a new product webpage. I use space holders. Obvious mistakes and fillers that will be corrected when the factual informaton is received and ready for release. Once in a blue-moon the page gets published before the updated information is ready. Boo-Hoo, nobody is stupid enough to pay 25X the actual product price.
It is $9999 because of the geek squad optimization of the dock.
Also workers are so used to bestbuys outrageously high prices compared to online stores that $9999 is no shocker to them.
That kind of reminds me of something that happened to me on a DarkRP server. (DarkRP is a role-playing gamemode for Garry's Mod.)
This guy wanted to buy a grenade, so he tried to give me $1,100, as I charged for that. But he made a typo and gave me $11,000 instead. I refused to give it back. LOL!
@asart: Somehow the commenter culture has shifted lately from the usual "Blame the OP" more toward "Blame the Consumerist". Interesting.
And hunter3742 is correct, the point of this story is that if this was one of those "don't sell or shelve this item yet" prices, how and why was it both on the shelves and stickered? Someone wasn't paying attention at all.
Hey, if anyone is stupid enough to buy it for that price, they get what they deserve!
@runswithscissors: I'm betting it was stocked by one person and stickered by another. The person who stickered it would have gotten yelled at for leaving a product untagged and the person who stocked it didn't know it wasn't supposed to be out yet.
wonder if windows 7 caused this.
currently windows 7 computers are priced like that so they don't get sold before oct 22nd.
Its most likely that price because it might not be ready to hit the shelves. Most retailers price items that amount so it doesn't go out before its release date. Right now if I tried to sign on of my new windows 7 laptops the tag would read $9999.99.
So many articles wondering how stupid or rude employees can be. But I think they're missing the point: they aren't stupid or simply rude, they hate you. They're bitter and resentful that they have a job they consider beneath them (or that they have to work at all). Or they have simply surrendered that the best part of their life is behind them (but they still probably hate you).
Wow. Amazing that the clerk did not notice this. I would imagine that this is a prank. Now if the POS system rang it up as that price that would be hilarious.
They do this for freebies (stuff like free movie ticket sleeves with purchase of X dvd) as well...it's so you DON'T buy it so they have stuff on the shelf for people that actually buy the product attached.
At least...the sku for the freebie used to come up .01 (1 cent), probably why they made the adjustment...in theory.
High price = high quality. 'nough said.
Just do a price match with some other store and get it for free (you know, because of the 10% of the difference policy)
@Doug Nelson: Maybe that's because they have to deal with disrespectful assholes all day. I used to work in retail, and I did hate you. Not because I was bitter and resentful or felt my job was beneath me, but because I had to deal with assholes all day long.
@Doug Nelson: It's true, and unfortunately, it's the kind of thing that leads to their unemployment as people shop online rather than deal with these unhappy people. Not like that's going to make the poor schmucks like us any more, but it's kind of like landlords hating tenants--they're how you're getting money, so if they really did go away the way you wanted, you'd realize the flaw in that wish.
@flarn2006: Wow, that's exactly the same. I can't even believe the similarities. LOL indeed, my friend. LOL.
It's a tag that was created for the display item and someone in merch or mobile put it out on the product for some reason.
@asart: Look, I know everyone thinks this guy is being a troll, but I am a long time reader, and this is a silly story, and I understand that, but it seems like there are a lot of mistakes and things that are looked over on this blog now that wouldn't have been before, and also, I think it's total bullshit that asart got dis-emvolwed for that first comment. We aren't allowed to criticize the editorial position of the blog? That is bullshit. Come on.
@BB_User:
This is what BBY does when an item hasnt been released or is a freebie from some deal in an ad;
The windoze 7 machines in the stores now range anywhere from 1500-10000 just so they wont sell
@olivia2.0: I agree with you that it seems pretty (okay, REALLY) cheesy that a lot of posts that question Consumerist get disemvoweled. But, there's that old addage about not being forced to read the site. I think that's a cop-out, but it's true.
you mean thats not the real price? hopefully i can get the difference back.