Worst Buy

Cutriss writes "Steve Lynch of Hypothermia has been running a consumer awareness page following of an Internet pricing disagreement between Best Buy and over 2000 angry customers, where Best Buy refused to honor a web-only sale price of a GeForce4 Ti 4600 for $129.99, at a "Special pre-order price". The situation has escalated further - Rod Hill, Store Manager for Best Buy #513 in Tucker/Dekalb County, GA, had a customer arrested on Friday of last week, citing Fraud and Criminal Trespassing. Hill informed police that Abraham Cherian, an Indian American, was trying to rip off the store, the same store that had conceded to give another customer his video card as requested 10 days earlier. Best Buy is now apparently red-flagging inquiring troublemak^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcustomers who attempt to obtain their purchased cards from Best Buy locations." FWIW, if the description of what happened is accurate, Best Buy has entered into a binding contract to sell the cards at the advertised price, and if they don't want to honor it, the people affected should take them to court (or contact their local Attorney General's office, which is what they appear to be doing). It's Best Buy's obligation to make sure their prices are accurate.

Comments

Kodak and others

[56ker]

You'd think after the Kodak fiasco & another online vendor got the price of an X-Box wrong - and in both cases the customer got it (eventually) at the advertised price they'd just cave in and avoid the bad publicity!

Sigh.

[juuri]

Hill informed police that Abraham Cherian, an Indian American

... and what exactly does that last part matter for?

Re:Sigh.

[m3000]

The guy who this happened to went into a little more detail on Kuro5hin about what happened. According to him he was never rude at all. He asked for the manager, and then was lead to a backroom to wait. He thought it was so that the other managers could confer with one another to see if they would honor the price match or not, but instead it was jsut to keep him from leaving the store until the cops came. I know I won't be stepping in a Best Buy in Tucker, Georgia anytime soon.

The police sided with the customer.

[Hamshrew]

It's not that bad... the police sided with the guy, saying the manager shouldn't have done that. Seems like they're doing just what they should, in this case. Best Buy are being assholes about it, and they're getting slapped for it. No news here.

Bad Buy

[umm qasr]

Best Buy advertising then refusing to sell the GF4 at the low price is actually quite old news. The arrest of the Indian American is actually new. We know Best Buy should honour the low price, but as any company would, they tried to get out of it. Steve @ Hypothermia (and HardOCP) has done alot of work, and indirectly (&directly) got many people their GF4's at the low price, Good Job!

If what has been reported is true about the Indian American being arrested for trying to get his GF4 at the low price. That is a whole new story. Reading up at Hypothermia and the HardOCP Forums it seems so. After some of my experiences at Best Buy, and all this nonsense over the GF4 they are definately on My List. This story about arresting a guy over what happened is just the icing on the cake.

What exactly happened still seems a bit unclear, and we should probably what for Best Buy's response, but it really doesn't surprise me that Best Buy acted this way. Their company cultrue seems to foster turning employees into assholes. IMHO, of course.

Re:Disclaimer?

[macrom]

Sure they have a disclaimer, but is the disclaimer legal? They're basically telling you that they can change the price of a product at any time, regardless of when the purchase was made. That sounds rather fishy to me. One would think that Best Buy has a decent legal team, but if it's anything like the team of people in their stores...well, most people here know what I mean.

So the question now (probably) becomes : Does Best Buy really have the right to arbitrarily change the price on any item you purchase, just because the disclaimer says so?

Re:Cowboys and Indians

[dattaway]

I would expect the incident report would refer to the "suspect" by his name, after all they have identified him, right? Instead, they make repeated comments to his skin color as if that has any bearing to the case.

"He's not white, so he must be guilty your honor!"

I'm "white," but I do like it when officers that are required to uphold the law know what are important facts from the details. Sometimes police scare me. That guy shouldn't have made it past the interviews for a "security guard," not to mention a police officer. Sounds racist to me if I have seen it.

Re:Out of the woodwork :)

[ryants]

Things I would do if I were you:

• Have the manager arrested for filing a false police report. See how he likes the cuffs.
• Sue Best Buy for "damage to your reputation".

Few things you should do now

[Sycraft-fu]

As always, this does not consitiute formal legal advice, get a lawyer in your jurisdiction for advice.

First off, get a lawyer. Once of the nice ambulence chasing kind. If they like the case, and they probably will, they should do it for a split of the settlement. Of course nothing is ever sure in the court system, but juries are generally sympathetic to cases of consumers suing big corperations for being assholes.

Next, I would talk to your DA about possable criminal charges against the manager. It sounds like he knowling lied to the police to have you arrested, and that's illegal.

Finally continue to do what you are doing now, which is to spread the word. Bad press hurts the company immensly.

More Best Buy Shennanigans

[MAXOMENOS]

Here's another data point to consider, a story about how Best Buy gave a customer a hard time, apparently, for buying something besides their top-of-the-line sattelite system.

I know it's going to be years before I make a purchase from Best Buy again...they're going to have go to a very long way to recover my confidence as a customer. Issuing a formal apology to their customers would be a start.

Once money changes hands, the contract is final

[Quixote]

Many of the people here seem to be missing one crucial point: once the money changes hands, BestBuy has to honor the price! They advertised a special "pre-order" deal. People who paid for this (and whose payment BestBuy accepted) have a right to get the card at that price. Once the money changes hands, the "contract" is in place.

People who never paid for this "special" pre-order don't have the same rights; they can't force BestBuy to honor the mistake (legally speaking).

Thank God for the police...

[gdyas]

Maybe a little O/T, but everyone please notice that the police in this instance behaved completely properly throughout the situation, to the point of empathizing with this gentleman.

With the cops, when they fsck up, everyone's on their back. Nobody notices when the system works, and it appears to be working well here.

As for Best Buy, get a good lawyer who'll work for a split of the rewards for such harrassing behavior, and drain them dry.

Make sure you get your GeForce4 out of it, too. Make that manager hand it to you himself.

Re:Out of the woodwork :)

[erroneus]

If you don't sue I'm going to get SO PISSED OFF at you it isn't funny.

You need to sue on behalf of every wronged customer on the planet. You need to sue for triple damages based on the humiliation you suffered. You need to sue for wrongful arrest based on the false charges. You need to sue for illegal detainment. You need to sue for them being arrogant assholes.

If people want to run a public business that's great. But there are laws the govern the operation of public businesses. Therefore those laws must be followed in order to continue running a public business.

"Disclaimers" and "EULAs" do NOT supercede the law. Just for emphasis, I will repeat it several times. "Disclaimers" and "EULAs" do NOT supercede the law. "Disclaimers" and "EULAs" do NOT supercede the law. "Disclaimers" and "EULAs" do NOT supercede the law. "Disclaimers" and "EULAs" do NOT supercede the law. "Disclaimers" and "EULAs" do NOT supercede the law. "Disclaimers" and "EULAs" do NOT supercede the law. Only a signed waiver can remove someone from their lawful responsibilities and even that may not be enough.

So how much should you sue for? $1M minimum. Maybe you won't get it... who knows... maybe it'll be $1M in store credit ;) hahaha... but SUE. The story doesn't end here. This will happen to more people than just you. This has happened to more people than just you. This country is shifting into a company-run nation. Business interests come before those of citizens. Hell, we're not even citizens any more... we're "consumers." If that's not an insult to your dignity as a human, I don't know what is!?

SUE THOSE BASTARDS. You have to. DO NOT SETTLE out of court. DO NOT SIGN any agreements to "keep quiet" in exchange for money. It doesn't matter if the amount you sue for is more than you could have hoped to earn in two lifetimes. The point is to damage THEM, not to reward yourself. A company the size of Best Buy will not feel $90,000. It wouldn't even make their lawyers blink...let alone any of their accountants. Make it hurt to a level that will send a message to Best Buy and all other abusive retailers out there that each time they pull some crap like this, they run a serious risk not only of bad P.R. but of losing a whole lot of money.

I'll be happy for you and very jealous when you collect your rewards, but the reward is not what you're suing for -- it's the damages. If they are not damaged by this, then you've lost... we've all lost.

Okay?

(Am I being too passionate about this? Nah.)