Best Buy Accused of Overcharging

An anonymous reader writes "Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has accused Best Buy of overcharging its customers. His accusation is that customers see one price on Best Buy's website, in stores salespeople would show them a different internal site from a kiosk. Best Buy denies the charges. 'Previously, the company confirmed that store employees have access to an internal Web site that looks nearly identical to the public BestBuy.com site, but the company's policy is always to offer customers the lowest quoted price unless it's specifically identified as a deal available only to online shoppers. Jerry Farrell Jr., Connecticut's consumer protection commissioner, said the lawsuit should be a warning to companies to be more transparent in their business practices.'"

Comments

Eh

[Cowclops]

If you're worried about getting the lowest possible price, why are you shopping at best buy ANYWAY?

Re:Eh

[Anonymous Coward]

Because you can get this great service plan, for only PENNIES a day! I'll sign you up for that, OK?

CAPTCHA: honest

Re:Eh

[Anonymous Coward]

Title: Product Specialist - Computers

This news about Best Buy using the bait and switch tactic has gone much further back than people realize. I used to work in a Dallas-area Best Buy 5 years ago and we were taught as associates to use the method (although it was never called "bait-n-switch" for obvious reasons) to upsell customers to bring in more revenue and inflate numbers. I was told by my supervisor on one occasion that we would explain to our customer how we didn't have the computer he was looking for, but the next closest store that had it was over an hour away. My supervisor's intent was to upsell the computer package even though we did indeed have in stock the computer he was looking for.

All these types of actions I saw when working there from 2002 - 2003, and I would hate to think how far back it went before that.

About damn time

[linzeal]

I went in to a best buy a few years ago for some laptop memory that was quoted as a 512 mb SODIMM for 90 bucks or so and stated nothing about being an online special. When I got to the store they tried to sell me first a 1 gb SODIMM than the higher quality 512 mb memory, and it took me asking a manager to get them to show me the memory I came in for which was almost 2x the price quoted online. Luckily I brought a printout or I would never have gotten the price quoted online. I thought something was fishy, and I'm glad some AG is doing something about it.

Re:About damn time

[rob1980]

At least you actually found the memory you were looking for. Anytime I went there looking for memory that was being advertised, they were mysteriously sold out, but had several other models costing 10-20 bucks more I could choose from.

Re:About damn time

[Richard McBeef]

Luckily I brought a printout or I would never have gotten the price quoted online.

Did they verify your printout? If not, I just had a great idea...

Re:About damn time

[grub]

Did they verify your printout? If not, I just had a great idea...

I can see a Best Buy Boy running to his manager waving a printout "Sir, a customer wants the $9.99 'Man Stretching His Backside Wide Open' but I can't find them on the shelves!"

Re:About damn time

[terrymr]

The other one I've seen is the shelves being restocked with a "sold out" product only minutes after the day-after-thanksgiving sale ended - when I asked I was told the truck had just delivered them. Note this wasn't a product that was advertised as limited to a particular number.

Re:About damn time

[TrekkieGod]

I went in to a best buy a few years ago for some laptop memory that was quoted as a 512 mb SODIMM for 90 bucks or so and stated nothing about being an online special.

I don't get the "online only" specials. If you pick them up at the same store, what's the point? A few months ago I needed a new keyboard. I saw a wireless mouse / keyboard combo reasonably cheap at Best Buy online, but didn't bother making the purchase online since I was going to pick it up at the store anyway. When I got there it was twice the price. I got the keyboard, told them the price I saw it online for. The clerk checked, and told me it was an online only offer. I asked her if I could still pick it up at the store if I bought it online and she said yes. So I asked her, why don't I just make the purchase at her computer then. She told me that she couldn't let me do that.

At that point, I told her to wait a few minutes. I stepped to the side, got my PDA out, checked to see if they had public wi-fi available and they did. I made the purchase with my PDA in front of her, then showed her the confirmation number and asked, "can I pick it up now?" She thought it was funny as hell :)

Re:About damn time

[gEvil (beta)]

Funny, huge assholes are just about the only thing I can reliably find at Best Buy...

Re:About damn time

[zerocool^]

Not that I give a damn about their business practices, but I used to be a sales associate at Best Buy, in the computer department.

You have to trust me when I say this: The people in the store have NOTHING to do with this. We never hid sales items.

Here's the real story. Every Friday or Saturday, we'd get the weekly ad which went live on Sunday. In my store, we got two trucks a week, Wednesday and Friday, after close of business. Sometimes they were 48', sometimes 53'. If we didn't have the ad by Friday night, we could usually tell which stick of ram would be on sale because we got a box of it, probably 20 units or more. As I recall, there were usually three brands - kingston, ValURam, and one other that I forget. Every week, one of the 256 MB sticks would be on sale, and usually a laptop stick as well (I worked there around 2000-2001). So, when we knew, we'd stock as much of it as possible to have it close on hand.

With no exceptions, on Sunday morning at open of business (11 am), the first people in the store would be headed straight for the computer department counter, to buy all the ram they could. Usually, it said something like "limit 2 per" on the ad, but when it didn't say that, boy was it not a fun day to hand out the ram. Anyway, by 6 pm - close of business - on Sunday, all the ram was gone. We of course still had the two other brands in the same size which were $20 more. But, by Tuesday, the customers were incensed about the lack of advertised items.

I cannot count the times I was accused by outraged, misinformed customers of bait-and-switch when I'd show them what we happened to have in stock, be it ram or computers. No, sir, I'm sorry that we don't have any more of the $350 E-Machine computer in stock. Perhaps when you see a computer deal that's insanely cheap, you shouldn't presume that you are the only person within 50 miles that will want to purchase it. Yes, sir, we did have them in stock. Yes, sir, we got a shipment of 30 of them last Friday, and we anticipate getting another 15 Wednesday, and probably some more this Friday. No sir, I can't hold one for you.

Whatever. Ask me anything you want, I worked there long enough to know how almost everything works. I'll reply truthfully.

~Wx

Hmmm...

[rob1980]

Busch, Best Buy's spokeswoman, said the company intends to vigorously defend itself in court.

"The future of our company depends on our ability to build trusted relationships with our customers," Busch said.

Would that be with or without an extended warranty?

there's a reason it's called WorstBuy

[EllynGeek]

Best Buy is famous for its shady, customer-hostile tactics. I don't know why people even shop there. Maybe it's for the thrill of combat with idiot Stepford Staff who are trained to foil your every wish. The ole bait-n-switch is something they've been doing since their doors opened- just try to find an advertised special actually on the shelf, at the advertised price. When you do get lucky and find one, their highly-trained Twit Squad pressures you to purchase a more expensive model, or to purchase useless junk like protection plans. The only time store staff don't bother you is when you need them.

Biggest laugh of the day: "The future of our company depends on our ability to build trusted relationships with our customers," Busch said.

I guess it's a form of trust when you trust Best Buy to always try to stick it to you.

Re:there's a reason it's called WorstBuy

[fo0bar]

I think there's a good reason my electronics store has a banner that reads "Your best buys are always at Fry's". "Your best buys are always re-shrinkwrapped at Fry's!"

But seriously, you chose Fry's as an example as the opposite of Best Buy? Half their shelf stock is re-shrinkwrapped. And half of that isn't even labeled as such (I once bought a brand new WAP11 whose ESSID was factory-programed "KensLaptop".) If you want RAM or a CPU, you must go through an inept salesperson to print you out a cage reservation ticket, assuming you can get to him of course; there are usually 10 other people who want the same thing huddled around him. And I've never done so, but I heard their returns process is Cthulhu-level pain.

Re:there's a reason it's called WorstBuy

[CthulhuDreamer]

Their collection of external hard drives is often re-shrinkwrapped customer returns. Most of them have not been erased, so there's usually a collection of mp3s and assorted files to rummage through. One may have to buy and return a few before finding a genuinely new drive, but collecting a few hundred gigabytes of music along the way makes up for some of the hassle.

Re:there's a reason it's called WorstBuy

[AKAImBatman]

When you do get lucky and find one, their highly-trained Twit Squad pressures you to purchase a more expensive model, or to purchase useless junk like protection plans.

My favorite was when I was looking for a new switch for my home network. The guy at the store (who I didn't ask for his help in the first place) tells me, "That one you're looking at is a switch. You won't get the full speed out of it because it splits the bandwidth. You want a router."

It's lucky for him that I was feeling a bit under the weather that day, or I would have given him a proper education in networking basics. (Hopefully keeping him away from the other poor customers in the process.) :-P

Repost?

[phalse phace]

Sort of a repost, no?

This is why I've stopped going to Best Buy

[yeremein]

A few years ago, I went to Best Buy intending to buy a digital camera, only to find it cost 20% more than the price advertised on the web site. So I bought it elsewhere. I'm fine with web-only specials, but this was not identified as one.

I don't think anybody buys stuff online from big brick and mortar chains anyway. If I go to Best Buy or CompUSA's website, it's because I want something fast and I want to make sure they have what I want at a reasonable price before driving across town. Once I learned Best Buy's website does not reflect Best Buy's in-store prices, any reason I had for going there evaporated.

Totaly true!

[SlayerofGods]

I went to by a monitor not that long ago for the 350 their website listed it as. So when I showed up the employees pulled up the internal website that listed it as 400. I had to go back home print out their own website that listed it as 350 in order to get the correct price, but I don't think the emplyees even knew what was going on.
To be fair to best buy though once I had the print out it took them about 15 seconds to give me the monitor for the 350, but it would have been nice if I hadn't had to have diven back home to get it for the right price.

Circuit City too

[danbert8]

Circuit City tried to pull that shit with me. Luckily, I was smart enough to go to their laptop/mobile wireless display and use their real website, order what I wanted for in store pickup and then watch the same sales guy who wouldn't give me the lower price walk over, pick the product up, and take it to the front desk, where I promply showed them my credit card I used for the purchase. Took a bit longer, and was absurd, but that's what you get for giving me free internet in your store.

Re:subject

[llefler]

Charging a different price isn't the problem, they just have to tell their customers that the stores do not honor the web site prices. That is not what they did. They built a complete internal web site that looked identical to their other one. When a customer said "It was advertised at $xx on the web site", Best Buy employees would look it up on the internal web site, that might or might not match.

The accusation is that the internal website had higher prices, and when a customer quoted the external website, Best Buy employees would show them the internal site and say "no, this is the advertised price on the site". They're saying that the internal site was designed to intentionally mislead and overcharge customers.

I don't know about you yanks...

[KillerCow]

...but in Canada this is covered by the competition act and enforced by the competition bureau.

Sale above advertised price - The Competition Act prohibits the sale or rent of a product at a price higher than its advertised price. The provision does not apply if the advertised price was a mistake and the error was immediately corrected.

Double ticketing - The Competition Act prohibits the supply of a product at a price that exceeds the lowest of two or more prices. In other words, where two or more prices are clearly shown on a product, it must be supplied at the lower price.

If you find a discrepancy, file a complaint.

Something about Blumenthal

[superbus1929]

Richard Blumenthal doesn't screw around. He's not doing this for political grandstanding or anything of that sort. He takes his job seriously, he refuses to step up to a more "prestigious" position, and he sees EVERYTHING through. I would HATE to get on his bad side, but as a Connecticut resident, I LOVE having him as our Attorney General.

Dupe

[Turn-X Alphonse]

This is the dupe from the 02nd of March.

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/03/03/0423239.shtml

Best buy already fessed up on this.

Shocked? Why?

[tweak4]

Am I shocked? Yes. I'm absolutely stunned. Why? This has been standard practice in electronics stores for years. (Not that I condone it- I just figured the entire world knew about it by now). When I worked at CompUSA in the late 90s, we carried printer cables that sold for about $32 US. I know for a fact that the company cost on them was in the neighborhood of $2.25. Almost all electronics stores sell the big items at very, very thin margins and then try to make up for it by overpricing the living crap out of the accessories. So if you ever want to make a Best Buy employee (or manager more likely) cry, buy all of your major components when they're on sale, and make sure they know you're picking up your cables and accessories for pennies on eBay ;)

the value of best buy's service plan

[commodoresloat]

The service plan is actually worth it for certain expensive and frequently updated devices. I bought a third generation iPod there years ago for like $400. I spend $40 on the service plan. It died once and I took it in; they had stopped selling that model (maybe 20 gig? I don't recall) but had one at about that price point with a bigger hard drive. They couldn't fix it, so they gave me the newer model; I got an upgrade essentially for $40. Another year passed and I was having problems with this one - nothing major, but the software was messed up enough to be annoying. I took it in and explained the problem. They didn't even try to fix it; they just pulled a brand new top model 4th gen off the shelf and gave it to me. That was about a year or so ago; the ipod is still working fine but I am seriously thinking of plugging the firewire cord in the wrong way by accident and then taking it in for an upgrade again; at this point I ought to be able to get an 80 gig 5th gen ipod...

Re:the value of best buy's service plan

[AuMatar]

Most people actually don't upgrade their ipods that fast. But ignoring that (and the fact that purposely breaking an item to cash in on an insurance plan is fraud)- you're still losing money. Most poducts don't break. Service plans are priced so that chance_of_breaking*price_of_replacementprice_of_pl an. Given this, you will not save money buying service plans, unless you are either extremely unlucky or they miscalculate the chance of breaking.

The only time it makes sense to take on of the plans is if the cost of the item is so high that you can't afford to replace it if it does break, and you can't go without it. Anything else ends up being a bad financial gamble.

Re:the value of best buy's service plan

[CodeBuster]

Anything else ends up being a bad financial gamble.

In fact, it almost *always* is a bad financial gamble...take cell phone insurance plans for example (most people are probably familiar with those). The last time I purchased a cell phone w/plan I calculated, given the monthly insurance payment and the value of the phone, using the formulas for Expected Value and Present Value (using short term bank CD rates for interest), that the insurance companies figure that there is better than 90% chance that every person who purchases the insurance on their cell phone will end up using it before the insurance company receives payments in the amount of the original purchase price of the phone. In other words, if you believe that your chance of having a total loss on your phone is less than 90% certain (assuming that you don't plan to break it on purpose to collect, which would be fraudulent and is probably why the insurance companies chose this high rate, to cover the costs of the people that do this so that their insurance money wasn't 'wasted') before you have paid an amount equivalent to the phone then you should *not* purchase the insurance. It would be cheaper to simply buy a new phone at full (or probably reduced price, but I didn't even factor that into my calculation so how much *worse* of a deal would the insurance be if we accounted for depreciation of the phone? Probably push that probability over 100% which means that the insurance company wins no matter what happens) price on the off chance that you lose it or it breaks. I would imagine that most consumer product insurance, with the possible exception of really big ticket durable goods like cars, is scaled like this to account for all of the cheaters since most people who buy this type of insurance plan to collect at some point in the future.

Re:subject

[Jherek Carnelian]

They built a complete internal web site that looked identical to their other one. Not only does it look identical, but their internal DNS has www.bestbuy.com mapped to this alternate server. From the outside, the alternate server is just a few numbers off from the 'normal' address, but it won't service any requests from outside the BBY intranet. I have not had the chance to go into a store and type in the numeric IP address of the real outside server to see if that works.

Re:$31.99 for a USB cable...

[legojenn]

I bought a printer from Bestbuy and the sales dude told me I needed to buy a USB cable. When I told him, that I had a few spare cables, he told me that I needed a special printer USB cable. I then asked him what the U in USB meant.