courant.com — Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.
Mar 2, 2007 View in Crawl 4
doublebitaxeMar 3, 2007
You people are ridiculous. There is no conspiracy.Fact: Best Buy is trying to make money. Not only are they trying to make money, they are trying to make as much money as possible.Fact: So are all other corporations, that is why they exist.Fact: Best Buy employees do not earn commission. It's pretty ridiculous to think that thousands of Best Buy employees are intentionally trying to rip off every customer who comes into the store when they don't even benefit from the store's success. It is also pretty silly to think that with the thousands of employees nationwide, nearly all of them underpaid and under appreciated, not a single one would speak out against intentionally fraudulent business practices.Fact: Bestbuy.com prices differ from Best Buy in store prices. Why should this be such a problem? Best Buy prices are also different from Circuit City's prices, there is no law that I know of that says every store owned by a corporation must have the same prices at every location. Also, often prices on Bestbuy.com are lower than in store because customers would have to pay for shipping when purchasing online and will still save money by coming into the store. (For those who didn't notice, I said "often," not "always.") Additionally, in my experience the bestbuy.com price explicitly states that it is the "web-only price."The intranet site (or kiosk site as it is officially called) is intended for in store use by customers to locate extended selection items at in store prices so that if those items are subsequently ordered the customer will not be surprised by the difference in price.I know that the general public is full of suckers for conspiracy theories, but doubting the clear conclusion in lieu of a very silly alternate explanation does not make you a reasonable, skeptical, logical person. Doubting the most likely explanation makes you most likely wrong.
doublebitaxeMar 3, 2007
Have you ever heard of self-selecting sample bias?
gabulldawgMar 3, 2007
Dirty Motherf**kers!
dazealexMar 6, 2007
In Canada, FutureShop is even more deceptive because their staff works on comission. It's always been a pain in the royal backside to get Best Buy or even Future Shop to price match.
soccerboyMar 6, 2007
Just another reason why I HATE Best-Buy, and will NEVER shop there.
soccerboyMar 6, 2007
I used to work at Future Shop and there are some assh**es that wouldn't price match with out a fight. However, some of us actually helped customer pick the right solution and get the best deal they could... Looking back all the assh**es where the lifers (people that will work there for the rest of their lifes), so I can see how that might be a problem.
imrankarimMar 7, 2007
that explains everything!!imran karim
jojodilioMar 16, 2007
In theory, the prices displayed at the kiosks should be the same as the prices in the store, whereas bestbuy.com has "online only" specials, so there shouldn't be any REAL problem, unless you go to the store just to shop online... in which case you should utilize a library... or buy a computer.If you want to shop online and THEN go into a store to buy something, you should try to buy it online and pick it up in the store (which is a feature that bestbuy.com offers). That way, you guarantee yourself whatever you were looking for at the price you were looking for.
destructopopJan 3, 2009
Actually, given that the terminals intended to use this are designed to be used by customers, I'm guessing it's not so much 'to trick' as to be attractive and conform to the "Best Buy look". They even have screen savers that match the website.And anyway... My store has always matched .com pricing. I'm not sure if we're supposed to, as .Com, Canada, US, and Europe are all different companies... But we do.