What is Digg?252 Comments
- Slicebox, on 10/10/2007, -11/+192Best Buy is a joke anyway.
(1) You're already paying much higher prices than if you price shopped on the internet.
(2) You have to wait in a slow line with 10-20 people because they only have 1 register open.
It's a painful experience to go there, why bother. - fluiddruid, on 10/10/2007, -23/+146Sounds like it's time for a class-action lawsuit. Bait and switch, anyone?
- PatrickDonohue, on 10/10/2007, -7/+81This is, far and away, the most corrupt business practice I've seen in a long time and on top of that it doesn't even make sense. If I am in the store and an item is marked up and I know I can get it cheaper on-line, I am walking out and when I'm in Best Buy, I end up buying more than what I originally went in there for. This is just retarded.
- TroubleInMind, on 10/10/2007, -14/+53If you want the website price, here's a bold idea. Buy it on the website.
Oh. You don't want to wait for it to be shipped? Buy it on the website, and choose "pick up at local store".
Why do people keep bringing this up like it's some sort of bait and switch? - Arthemys, on 10/10/2007, -5/+43Oddly enough working at Best Buy right now, I need to add my two cents. The "secret" website is used to find prices on items that are physically available in that particular store, so that you don't need to find an associate to do a price check or locate more specs on an item. IF there is a cheaper price on the public bestbuy.com and it does NOT say "online only" then we will price match it. In my honest opinion from seeing how my PARTICULAR store works, we are very honest when it comes to price matching and letting customers know what the story is. Any employee can log into any BBY computer (POS or kiosk) and access the in-store version of bby.com or the public version. The public site link is right under the store version in the menu list of employee tools. It's not designed to "hide" better online prices and there is a giant yellow banner on every page that alerts you of the pricing schema matching the store you are currently standing in.
As far as "hiding" the public version of bby.com previously, I can't really speak for that since I don't work in the corporate end of the game.
Not to mention, I can't speak for the entire network of BBY stores, but store 360 is -not that bad- IMHO when it comes to actually treating the customer properly. Stuff like customer experience is different from store to store, it's not Best Buy corporate telling employees to be jerkoffs, the sales floor is fueled by local people. Blame the individuals that are crap employees, not the company.
Again, just my .02 - amnesiac096, on 10/10/2007, -1/+36don't buy from Best Buy, go somewhere online where you can get it a lot cheaper...newegg.com, buy.com, ecost.com....all have everything that Best Buy carries, and much more...at a lot lower prices, even with shipping
- SnuKs, on 10/10/2007, -5/+35Print screen. Print out. Shove it in their face. DONE.
- matthafling, on 10/10/2007, -0/+27and buy cables from monoprice.com
anybody walking out of bestbuy or anywhere for that matter with a $100 monster cable is an idiot. nothing pisses me off more that watching geek squad douches pushing "required" $100 cables - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+23That's a DISCLOSURE, not a DISCLAIMER. A disclaimer exempts one from _claims_ made against it, a disclosure reveals (or _discloses_) information not meant to be public.
- Haivk, on 10/10/2007, -5/+25OK so I know I'm getting dugg down for this but I work for best buy, the stores are broken down into areas or "districts" each with their own pricing and weekly advertisements based on the market and other retail stores in the area. it would be impossible for the online store to have all of the same sales as every store in the country because every item would be on sale. Therefore the online store is treated as its own store, and prices are adjusted to compete with other Internet stores, just like the retail prices are adjusted to compete with other local retail stores. if you want something in the store for the price that it is online, do in-store pickup or let someone know that it was on sale online and we can change the price.
- dafragsta, on 10/10/2007, -1/+21I still buy games and movies at Best Buy. It's still better than listening to the oft-condescending ***** at GameStop or EB.
- subliminalurge, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19I was at Best Buy picking up a DVD player with a friend a while back. Sales dude starts trying to push a $120 HDMI cable on him, so I told my friend not to bother, that was way too much. Sales dude backs off and offers him a $90 HDMI cable, but warns him that his picture will be "fuzzy" with that one. I laughed, told him that was nonsense, and that I knew where he could get a perfectly good HDMI cable for less than $20, and offered to loan him one of mine while he waited for shipping. Sales dude flat out called me an idiot and a liar.
We went and got him a DVD recorder at Costco instead. - Vanadium, on 10/10/2007, -1/+18I recently purchased a HD plasma TV at best buy. I did my homework online before I went to the store. The online price was listed at $2,699. I went into the store to discover that the price was listed at $2,999. I pointed out to the sales rep that their website price was $2,699, and that I wanted to purchase one if that was the price they were charging. He pulled up "bestbuy.com" which of course showed the $2,999 price. I said, but don't you have another version of bestbuy.com? He said, "Oh ya". He then proceeded to do some trick of getting onto yahoo finance and then doing a yahoo search for bestbuy.com, which provided him a link to the "national" version. I assume the kiosks can't pull up just an old web address so employees have figured out this work around so they can surf the web. In any case, once he pulled up the real bestbuy.com and confirmed the $2,699 price, all was good.
- actorboy, on 10/10/2007, -3/+20You're digging him down, but he is correct. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission definition:
"Bait advertising is an alluring but insincere offer to sell a product or service which the advertiser in truth does not intend or want to sell. Its purpose is to switch consumers from buying the advertised merchandise, in order to sell something else, usually at a higher price or on a basis more advantageous to the advertiser. The primary aim of a bait advertisement is to obtain leads as to persons interested in buying merchandise of the type so advertised."
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/baitads-gd.htm - Myonosken, on 10/10/2007, -1/+17Did you read the article? That disclaimer is NEW. Before it never stated prices may be different instore.
- doctorcaligari, on 10/10/2007, -9/+23"...Best Buy treated its customers like suckers, not patrons to be prized." - Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Attorney General
I think the only patrons that Best Buy prizes are their self-described "angels" - people who only buy expensive items. The rest of us are "devils" - the ones who only go in when Best Buy cuts it's overly inflated prices. - carnage, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16i worked at best buy back in the day and i remember when ppl came in and looked up stuff on the computers. they would find the different prices and we would blatantly tell them that it wasnt the same bestbuy.com. we would have to to a work around to get on the real internet, then go to bestbuy.com to verify prices. Most of the managers were pretty cool about it and they'd price match to the website with no arguing.
- melonhedd, on 10/10/2007, -2/+15You're so cool.
- bpapa, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Ummm... many McDonalds do have different prices.
- xerigen, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13Listen, I am an ex-employee of Best Buy and I hate that place with everything that I have, but the employees are not secretly trying to trick you. This was an intranet site that we had no control over. We had to use a loophole to get to the real internet. Maybe the managers or corporate knew, but the employees didn't realize the prices were different because the sites were identical. Lay off the salespeople. For the most part, they are teenagers who have found a ***** job and don't know any better.
- zeitgueist, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13They will, unless the price says "internet only". Not a current employee, but worked there for 5 years. Also they'll honor internet prices from other competitors, as long as they have physical locations locally.
- zeitgueist, on 10/10/2007, -6/+17You have no idea what Bait and Switch means.
- centran, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11The problem is your last sentence. People where letting someone know and tried to get the price changed but Best Buy has a fake website that looks identical to the real one. This is no doubt purposely done to try to fool customers into either thinking: a) I must have been wrong about the price I saw or b) there was a special sale that has ended.
- Myonosken, on 10/10/2007, -4/+14They won't.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -4/+14I'm on the fence about this one. Everyone knows internet pricing is less expensive than in store pricing because the overhead for a retail store is much more expensive. Sounds like a lack of training more than anything. People should be prepared to spend a little more at a store for the convenience of getting what you want on the spot, and with any luck getting all of your questions answered about the product. Not to mention, a lawyer is the one who is suing... that always turns me off.
- djAnakin, on 10/10/2007, -3/+12Saved me $400 when I bought my 51" DLP last year. I also got them to knock off the price of the extended warentee [$300]. Then when I got to the front counter, I said I didn't want the warentee after all, but the register guy didn't know to add the $300 back on. I win.
Take that "Best" Buy! - nhprm, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10um.. Best Buy has some of the worst return people, imho, I have ever dealt with.. I once got a game for a b-day present and they wouldn't let me return it for a diff game , despite the fact that I had a gift recipt, solely based on the fact that it WAS on sale, and presently (given the story timeline) it WAS NOT.
- scbysnx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9so you're douche then?
- Korexz, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10Just stay away from TigerDirect. They do the same thing Best Buy does and their return policy SUCKS. I had to fight to return a bad monitor. The return policy states that they use a vendor specific policy, which is documented NO WHERE. I live by the warehouse where you can buy direct in Naperville, IL. I got mine home and it had a dozen dead pixels. I went back and had them check 2 other monitors before I left the store. Same issue. So I asked if I could just do a return. They wanted to give me in store credit ??? After a hour of arguing the manager agreed to call their buying department the next day to authorize the return.
- mikeywow2k, on 10/10/2007, -4/+12I usually print out the details of the item at home and take it with me to the store, but Best Buy isn't the only one to do this. Try going to Petco and buying something at the store thats on sale on it's website...isn't going to happen. They told me that the Online sales have nothing to do with the store...? WTF? I wound up paying $90 for a fish tank that was suppose to be "On Sale" Online for $65.
- vornan19, on 10/10/2007, -3/+11And forget asking someone a question. When I go out to get something I usually have educated myself enough to know what I want in the item (that's what the internet is for). Then it's either go elsewhere than Best Buy or grab it off eBay or another rEtailer.
- squinkys, on 10/10/2007, -5/+12alright, first of all i didn't read every single comment, so digg it down if i'm repeating something already said.
i work in a local pittsburgh best buy. the reason that bestbuy has an internal and a national website is because there are times when the prices will differ. stores are divided into districts, and there are times when prices will fluctuate on the district level based on the market. a recent example of this would be two weeks ago when the logitech dinovo keyboard was listed as clearance. in some markets, the price was down to $39.99, in others, $79.99, and still in some, it was still it's original price of $199.99. because the price is different in different stores, there has to be an internal website that tells you the price of every product specifically in the store that you are standing in. it's not bait and switch. if you want to see the price of a product as it's listed on the national website, ask an employee. they all have access to it, and if the price is different online they will honor it. if they don't, ask to speak to a manager.
one last thing about online sales that are not honored in-store...while working in the computer department, very often people would come in with printouts from our website that have a specific package cobbled together, and try and get that package in the store. unfortunately, the warehouses that hold the stock from our website have a much larger selection of products than we could ever carry in the store, so we don't always have every single piece of software or hardware that may come with that package, and if we do not have it, we cannot honor it. there are ways we can go about ordering that product in, but usually by that time the customer is upset and doesn't want to hear anything about ordering a product in. please understand, it's not bait and switch. i obviously can't speak for every employee, but the guys (and girl) in my department will do everything within their power to get you that deal, or to order in that computer that's on sale that we had sold out of.
well there's my two cents. - melonhedd, on 10/10/2007, -22/+29This is not bait and switch.
- DocHoliday22, on 10/10/2007, -5/+12Why do large corporations do this sort of thing? This isn't the 90's where people are less informed, information travels fast and hard. It's about time these guys learn their lesson.
- Tossadin, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8Sounds like someone didn't finish reading the article. The rest goes on to actually describe these people who are "angels" and "devils". Angels are more loyal customers who continually shop at a store, states that article you're quoting. Devils are extreme price shoppers who only purchase things that are so under cost as to lose the retailer vast quantities of money. Its not that the retailer is trying to get rid of the devils, only is stopping the catering to them that they were doing before. There is no profit in that. And lets face it, any corporation is in it for the profit. Pure and simple. its how they get investors, its what they exist for.
So basically if you're going to quote something, at least quote it correctly. - llamaguy132, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8PLEASE! read the article BEFORE posting a comment, they show a picture, and its a big yellow banner at the top of the page, if you miss it you can just feel stupid when you see the real prices at home.
- nstern2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Did you NOT read what he said?
"The "secret" website is used to find prices on items that are physically available in that particular store, so that you don't need to find an associate to do a price check or locate more specs on an item." - Dou6, on 10/16/2007, -1/+7This is why if I buy anything at best buy I just purchase it on the website and choose pick up in store. Then I just go to the customer service desk and they hand it to me.
y'all complain that Best Buy is a bunch of "n00bs" living in the 90's, when it's actually the people complaining that are total n00bs and don't know to just buy it through the damn website. - plamoni, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7@vornan: I sometimes go to Best Buy to check out products before buying them online, it's part of the "educating" process on the item :-)
@dafregsta: Generally games and movies are the same price everywhere you go... just don't buy accessories there :-)
@fatdog: Try Circuit City... they have the same advantages, plus their employees tend to be more educated on the products (rather than just knowing how to sell replacement plans) and their prices are a bit more reasonable to boot! (My dad got his LCD TV from Circuit City... It was only 100 bucks over pricegrabber's best price, plus he was able to take it home the same day (so I could hook it up before I left) and we knew he'd be able to return it easily if it didn't work... I just had to make sure he didn't spend 110 bucks on the HDMI cable) - petebot, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8Congratulations, you're a sociopath!
- amnesiac096, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5amen to that
- VSKBadCRC, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Just to clarify a few things. This is how our store operated...
When it came to online anything, we did not price match our store prices to ANY online prices. Not from another retailer's website, not from an online warehouse, not even from Bestbuy.com. Online promotions or rebates were not mirrored in the brick and mortar stores. The reason for this kind of behavior stems from the fact that the online Best Buy district is it's own entity in the company. When they sell items, they make money, if a customer comes into the store and buys an item from Bestbuy.com, the store gets nothing from this, if anything, they're actually losing money,
Each store has a set budget for the day, they're asked to sell a certain percentage of profit, they're asked to sell so many Reward Zone and Reward Zone Mastercards, they're asked to meet a certain close rate. The list goes on and on, and these numbers are reviewed throughout the day, and at the end of the day a store meeting is used to sum up the information. At the end of the day though employees are encouraged to sell sell sell by promising them better hours - a lot of these employees are underpaid, are working part time with full time hours but are never considered for benefits, and pressured to sell more stuff on the promise of more hours and/or a kickback bonus at a certain time of year.
So what you end up is this Best Buy vs. Best Buy shootout with their customers caught in the crossfire wondering just what the ***** is going on. On paper it might look good to run things this way, but it's really hurting their image and customer loyalty. Hopefully they'll realize this and make the necessary changes. - Monk22, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6why not trust RCA? its just a wire.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I saw an item on sale on the Circuit City website. I went to the store and noticed it was not on sale. The sales drone told me to go to customer service and they will mark it to the web price. Customer service drone said the website showed no sale. He pointed me to a public terminal to check the web price, sure enough...not on sale.
So i went home and looked again and yes, it was on sale. I bought it, chose in-store delivery and went back to the store. I got the same guy and asked him why there was a difference. He just looked at me blankly like a mental patient on Thorazine. It was freaky. I should know better than to go to the physical location. - GorfTron, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6I like best buy ... the checkout girls hit on me by asking my phone number.
- TroubleInMind, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6I guess some people would. Would you presume that a sofa at Macy's in LA would be priced as the same sofa at Macy's in Philadelphia? Maybe you would.
It's moot, though, because there are no conditions that prevent the ranters from curing this perceived "problem" by themselves. Buy it on the web if you want the web price.
And I don't understand this persistent fascination some people seem to have regarding trashing Best Buy on Digg. Seriously, did I miss something? - amnesiac096, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6That's probably worse than Best Buy in my opinion, at least you can return items a bit easier at Best Buy...or maybe not :-/
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5The PROBLEM is pointing someone to a terminal as "proof" that the sale does not exist on the web despite the fact that you are insisting that you saw it on sale on the web 20 minutes ago. If all they said was, "sorry, we don't honor web prices in-store", NO PROBLEM. It is the deceptiveness that irritates people.
- cquinnd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Out of business, since when? I just bought a stack of blank DVDs from my local store a couple of days ago.
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