So Best Buy was apparently caught red-handed screwing over its customers.
George Gombossy of the Hartford Courant gets the major-league kudos for exposing this. (And Gnomic gets a hat tip from me for pointing it out!)
See, Best Buy had a secret intranet it used to trick customers. Note that the word is intranet — that is, an internal Web site.
According to Gombossy, if a customer went to a sales person and commented that he thought such-and-such an item was cheaper online, the sales guy would pull up a Web site that looked like the real Best Buy Web site, but was in fact an internal site where the prices were higher.
…even when one informs a salesperson of the Internet price, customers have been shown the intranet site, which looks identical to the Internet site, but does not always show the lowest price.
Thus the sales guy could say something like, “Actually, sir, it’s more expensive on the Web.” You had to be the kind of person who would either A) print out the Web page and bring it in to the store, or B) check the price online when you got home.
Based on what his office has learned, [Connecticut State Attorney General Richard] Blumenthal said, it appears the consumer has the burden of informing Best Buy sales people of the cheaper price listed on its Internet site, which he said “is troubling.”
Further, Best Buy had denied that such a site existed.
What I want to know is, has Best Buy also created spoofs of its competitors’ sites? That way, a sales guy could say, “Let’s see what Circuit City has it for” and pull up a higher — but fake — price.
That would make the customer think Best Buy had better prices, and the store could avoid matching a competitor’s price.
Hmm.
The Fray
gnomic says:
I’ve forwarded links to this story to my friends, suggesting that they no longer shop at Best Buy as I have decided not to do. Of course, I’ve also cc’d the media relation and investement contacts posted on the best buy site (those being the only ones that are posted.
Nothing like a lot of bad press to wake them up. Except of course the lawsuits.
jazepentz says:
The Circut City by me was smart enough to put their store right across from the Best Buy. I thought it was just for competition, now I know that they just don’t want to get screwed. I would very much like to be e-mailed the links to this information if possible so that I can print copies and post them around the Best Buy to make unsuspecting customers in my area aware of this situation. I personally shop at Fry’s electronics, but I know a lot of people who shop at Best Buy and would like to be able to give them a hard copy of this info. Let’s send these guys up the river.
Andrew says:
jazepentz –
The best link (the one to the story that started it all) is in the blog entry: http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-watchdog0302,0,5198012.column?coll=hc-utility-local
If that doesn’t work for ya, lemme know. And kudos to you for spreading the word.
JazePentz says:
Thanks Andrew. I checked out the link and it contained the info I was looking for. I also did a search for ” Best Buy intranet scam,” which turned up quite a bit of info. I have called many of my friends who have all agreed that these people do not deserve their money, and will shop elsewhere. These companies need to wake up and realize that this kind of stuff will not go unnoticed and the consumer will lash out with more vengance than an ex-wife that just found out you had a secret bank account overseas.
Leland says:
Heheheheh…
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070304
I think BestBuy is in for a long a hard ride over the next few months.
Laken SteelJaw says:
Oiy! Well, I can say I won’t be shopping at the ‘Yellow Tag’ place anymore. Thanks for the heads up on this disturbing issue.
gnomic says:
A reply from Best buy (I fell down from the spin – parse carefully!)
From: Nezworski, Jill [mailto:Jill.Nezworski@bestbuy.com]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 11:27 AM
To: gnomic
Subject: RE: Not buying from Best Buy anymore….
Dear Mr. gnomic:
Thank you for contacting our Investor Relations department at Best Buy’s corporate office. Their office has received your email and has forwarded it to my desk for review and response. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concern.
First, the information presented in that article is wrong. Best Buy never confirmed the existence of a “secret” web site, because there isn’t one. (Furthermore, we never admitted to a scheme because the claims are absolutely untrue.)
Our stores do have an intra-store web site which supports local store operations, products and pricing. This site is openly available to customers in the stores so they can get further product information and so employees can check product prices in the stores. It is not for price-matching. Separately, our stores do have access to BestBuy.com (our external-facing web site) often used for price matching in our stores. In the past few weeks, we have reminded our employees of our policy to use BestBuy.com for price matching, and reminded them how to access it from the stores.
We want our customers to get the best prices and product values — after all, the name over our door is Best Buy. As a company, everything we do revolves around customer needs and desires; it is never and has never been our intent to mislead them. Period. We are cooperating fully with the inquiries from the Connecticut Attorney General.
Thank you again for contacting Best Buy. We appreciate your business and hope to serve you in the near future.
Respectfully,
Jill Nezworski
Sr. Executive Resolution Specialist
Best Buy, Inc.
Best Buy and Sears in USA Today says:
[...] know about Best Buy’s troubles already, I suspect. The other part of the column details my experience with Sears, and how I [...]
JG says:
Hey, this is JG, I work and I work the the Best Buy in Richfield MN. I have worked there for a year, and one of the first things explaned to me was the fact that the ‘inta’ site was really just a way for us too look up availablity and informoation on products. If there are other Best Buy associates out there using this as the ‘price-matching’ site, it is really the sole fault of the employee. If they don’t have the sense or the integrity to look on the ‘real’ site (easily reached by logging onto our internet acess) the employee should pay, not the company who is simply trying to give thier employees a quicker easier way to find information.
Thank you.
Scott says:
I work at BB as just another workin’ slug, not management. We honor the occasional but rare better price from a competitor. However, I will not make other customers wait for service while I check an on line price or phone a store for anyone because 9 times out of 10 they are wrong. It is either a similar but different item or an older model. BB isn’t paying me to do your leg work. They pay me to give you the best service I can and to find you the very best product for your needs. If we do not have exactly what you NEED to do the job I will send you somewhere else rathere than just sell you what WE have.
Also, if I am in the process of explaining a product to you and get a phone call I will not abandon you just because some one else has enough brain cells to dial a phone. However, if you decide to take a phone call in the middle of my explaination as others are waiting for me then we are done for now. You’ve told me our discussion is not as importan as your call and I should come back later. Its a new world, deal with it but understand your part in it.
Emily says:
Scott, why would you take the time out of your valuable day to tell that?
Connecticut sues Best Buy says:
[...] As I wrote about before, Best Buy got caught creating a scam site to trick consumers into thinking that the prices they saw online were higher than what was in the store. [...]
Ballyman says:
I have nothing good to say about Best Buy but I will be civil. I purchased a HDTV from them a couple of years ago. Ext. warranty and a few other odds and ends. The program they enrolled me in led me to believe that interest was deferred for two years. They sold me on this never explaining that in actuality the interest is accruing. Silly me thought well after 2 years I will have to start paying the interest no biggy. Well 2 years past, I get the bill and it was $1000 more than what I paid for the TV to begin with. So I call the customer service to give them a piece of my mind. They knew it was trickery, she promised to take half off the interest accrued. I agreed to this. Did it reflect on my bill? Absolutely not. So I get to call them again and chew some you know what!! Also speaking of internet not intranet. I showed them a price for the TV way cheap. They refused to match it and gave me a different deal. Thirdly they do not honor the warranty even though they say they will. I called on my TV and they said it would be covered. The repair company came out looked at it and said it would take a couple weeks for the part. I wait and wait and wait. I call the repair company and they tell me Best Buy declined my claim. So I call Best Buy and chew some you know what. I refuse to step foot in Best Buy and suggest no one else does to save their sanity. I also ran into a sales person that used to work there who quit because of all the BS that took place. His integrity caused him to find another job. He said there are so many scams you would not believe what they tell us to do!!
Clint says:
Ballyman,
They did the same thing to me with my iPod. They refused to honor the extended warranty. I haven’t shopped there in over a year now! I do all my shopping on Amazon or some other site. It’s usually a better price anyways and I don’t have to be annoyed by their ignorant sales team. They are simply a scam store. If you must shop at Best (Worst) Buy, do not buy an extended warranty. They will not honor it. I will never shop there again!
Jeremy G says:
You want to hear of a scam you did not think of? Think “Home Theater Installations”! I am a manager for a group of installers for the Saint Louis area. I was told to instruct the installers in the following manner. “Get the installers to do what ever is needed to get that up sell”! This means telling the customer that the installation was sold wrong by the sales person or cables that were sold at the store are not right, so we then sell them more exsensive cables from our trucks. Or the popular, “This is not ther right equipment that you need” trick. This way we can get the customer to buy more exspensive equipment. We find anyway to charge the customer more money any way we can to make our productivity numbers. The managers above me do not know how to do installations, but this is the tactic I am to teach the installers. Then I have to deal with the customer’s complaints!
BBYDUDE says:
The main reason why there is a “Local” and “National” site and different prices, is due to the fact that prices for the same items can fluxuate across the country, due to changes in suppy and demand, as well as price matching LOCAL compition. This is obvious to ANY BBY employee when they log onto our “toolkit”. There could, and have been, be situations where due to an excess of supply in one area, or price matching a LOCAL “mom and pop” competiter, the prices in the store or on the LOCAL site will be cheaper than the price on the NATIONAL site. If you people are really getting this bent out of shape over a lousy LOCAL site, you are probably more of a PAIN IN THE BUTT than anything else. You are more than likely a NON PROFITABLE customer and are raising my stock price by shopping elsewhere and draining their Net Operating Profit.
Leland says:
BBYDUDE:
The practice is fraudulent and illegal. You cannot advertise one price, then charge another once the customer gets in the store. The attorney general in my state is in the process of spanking Best Buy over the dual web page practice.
Even if it was not illegal, it is wrong to promise a customer one price and then jack that price up once the customer is in the store. That destroys customer confidence and repeat business.
Of course if you honestly believe that part about losing customers being good for the bottom line, you probably can’t see any problem with false advertising either.
Ballyman77 says:
In response to BBYDUDE. You should have left your comment to the first several sentences. The moment you go off on the customer tells me exactly what type of business BEST BUY is! Even if Best Buy does not propelgate the attitude you express you are in a sense Best Buy and I won’t deal with Best Buy because of employees like you and many other reasons. The “local” website is the tip of the iceberg as far as I am concerned compared to the full on BS that Best Buy pulls on a regular daily basis. Many that I talk to when the subject of Best Buy comes up rarely have anything good to say. I do what I can to steer my peeps clear of danger. Sure there may be some pains in the arse and this is true everywhere you go, but Best Buy does not discriminate when it comes to the tactics and the lies. I still have not been in a Best Buy since my last purchase almost 3 years ago. I can’t wait until they are forced to close their doors after they are hit with the huge lawsuit that is inevitably coming!!
Ballyman77 says:
In response to Jeremy G. This would explain why the installer insisted on selling my friend component color cable (CVC) -vs- HDMI. Some component video cables are $100+ (at least they were when I bought them 3 years ago, like the ones that are supposedly hand made(woven). A typical HDMI cable will run around half that price. Plus if the shelves are full of CVCs and they are not selling as good as HDMI, force it on the unsuspecting customer, sell it even if they don’t need it or even if it is subpar, sell it. Also with CVC you need separate audio cables so again another sell. When I asked my friend why he was not sold an HDMI cable he didn’t know why other than the installer insisted he have them and that they were the best. Not true.
A Year in Richmond says:
[...] list. How about photography shops? I have no desire to shop at Best Buy — stores that try to pull fast ones on their customers don’t appeal to me — and I always prefer to support the local [...]
Lady Blognanimous says:
Best Buy won’t honor my warranty on a vacuum I purchased from them either. I have brought it in 5 times and they keep returning it saying they fixed something -until now- now they are supposed to replace it and they say there was nothing to fix and that they cleaned it (which they did not) and that it works, but it STILL does not work! They won’t do anything! Any advice?
Andrew says:
Buy the same vacuum again, but pay cash. Then return the bad one in the packaging from the new one.
Lady Blognanimous says:
I thought about that, but from what I hear the vacuum in it’s entire make is a bad buy. That and they’ve got their shop stickers all over my vacuum and they won’t come off! My warranty is supposed to grant a refund or another product of comparable value. I would settle for a different vacuum or store credit. I don’t trust the vacuum make at all at this point. Even the GeekSquad guys says they “get those in constantly” for repair.
Lady Blognanimous says:
Sure, it’s the Hoover Elite Rewind bagless upright. I thought it sounded like a great idea because the cord winds itself! But the vacuum is a joke and when it worked in the beginning I received numerous ankle lashes from the whipping cord! I’m usually a fan of Hoover, so I am still surprised that they made such a shoddy product.
Suzanne Mullison says:
I also was scammed by Best Buy this past holiday season. I bought an LCD television and was told about a bunch of rebates that, after the purchase, they recinded. I luckily was able to cancel the order before product delivery, but was still charged $100.00 “consultant fee” for a used car salesman type coming to the house to tell me I needed very expensive cables, a $500.00 remote, etc. Shame on me, I should have known better from past experience with Best Buy. I ended up buying the TV from Ultimate Electronics, and it was $450.00 less with no bull—-.
cosmos says:
After reading these posts, I am dissappointed to hear about the allegations about BB. I work there and I sell both computers,home theater equipment, and music/dvds.
My coworkers and I only use the national site when quoting prices. In fact, I had one customer tell me that a television he saw online was $500 cheaper. I checked the store site…it was not cheaper. When I got home that evening, I checked bestbuy.com…the tv WAS NOT $500 cheaper.
I have had customers walk in with ads from Circuit City and other places claiming a TV was several hundred dollars cheaper. So I log on to the competitor site…they don’t carry the model at all, or is a different model from what we carries!
Part of the blame goes to the consumer. If you don’t want the service plan…don’t buy it. If you don’t want to spend extra cash on Monster cables…say no. If you don’t want to spend extra..don’t. Think about it…take some responsibility. Do your research and stop whining.
Scary thing…people ask me about the service plans and want to purchase them. I don’t see them complaining here?
My team and I always mention service plans and show customers the more expensive/greater quality first. If a customer does not want it..WE ALL will move them down the ladder.
I am not saying that all Best Buys are innocent. Before I became an employee I was a Best Buy shopper and I agree…some of the stores are pointless, managed poorly, with terrible service and stupid employees. But I will say that the employees in Lakeville, MN really care about their customers, are professional, sell their passion, and don’t push anything.
DER_METZGERMEISTER says:
Yeah I work at best buy and guess what, this is a load of crap. Yeah we had an intranet site. Did you ever stop to think that we can’t have all of the computers online at the same time as that would lag our network while trying to rss items for customers. I could see how this could happen but really, we have a 30 day price match even if this did occure. We do not have doulbe sku numbers for items so even if it did look higher when you rang it up it would go to the national price. I could also see if you bought something else like a laptop that had a 15% restocking fee because you thought the one you wanted was to much, but I mean print off the origional then do it at the store and I am sure they would not raise hell to just let you return it. I am not saying that some of the stores didn’t do this, but you have to think since it is an intranet it is on their servers and not every stores servers so don’t just think because you read the story all best buys are bad.
Leland says:
Those miserable, low life, scum sucking, bottom feeding, slime of the earth pulled that one on me just before Christmas in Tallahassee, FL. I fell for it hook line and sinker. I wrote the difference in price on the DVD Recorder (VHS deck replacement, not computer drive) off to a memory failure on my part.
It never crossed my mind to look at the web page again once I got home. I paid the extra $40 bucks and forgot about it… Until now.
Of course you know, this means war…