Best Buy's In-Store Website Might Not Be BestBuy.com
from the let's-see-that-url dept
Does electronics retailer Best Buy have two different websites for the purpose of deceiving in-store customers about ongoing promotions? That’s the allegation of some customers (via Consumerist) who claim that after seeing a sale being offered on BestBuy.com, store employees told them that the sale was over. As proof, they showed the customers what appeared to be BestBuy.com confirming that there was no longer such a sale. One customer got suspicious, and asked the store employee if he could use a computer to go directly to BestBuy.com himself, which still showed the sale as ongoing, suggesting that the site he was shown in the store was not the real thing. Instead, it seems, BestBuy has pages on its intranet that the company uses to show in-store customers what deals are being offered (or, not being offered, apparently). When confronted with this, a spokesperson for the company denied anything devious, but didn’t really have a plausible explanation. This seems like a pretty stupid move on the part of the company. If the company really is trying to avoid offering certain sales, it’s shooting itself in the foot by making its customers feel like fools. And if it’s just a matter of its public site and its intranet not being in sync, then the company needs a little work on its IT system, to avoid future hassles.
Comments on “Best Buy's In-Store Website Might Not Be BestBuy.com”
yeah...
Pissing off customers isn’t the best way to close deals..
But what do I know? I work for an ISP!
Re: yeah...
You know, this is probably the best comment I’ve read on any of these forums….ever!!!!
nah
“And if it’s just a matter of its public site and its intranet not being in sync, then the company needs a little work on its IT system, to avoid future hassles”
A much more likely explanation. I doubt this is a devious intention on the part of Best Buy to increase the bottom line. Much more likely they have the in-store computers set up on some sort of internal network that didn’t get updated at the same time as bestbuy.com
Re: nah
umm an intranet is an internal network and thats exactly what its saying is that it was out of sync
Re: nah
I had this same thing happen to me. There was a sale on the website for a Samsung TV I wanted and I went to the store to get the TV and was told the TV not on sale. I asked the guy to go to the website and see so he pulled up on his computer and it showed it wasn’t on sale. I told the guy he was not on the internet and looking at an internal site not the internet that nows the sale. He told me I was wrong and he was looking at the internet and tried to sell me the TV at the higher price. I left the store and went home and pulled up the website and “Oh my gosh what is this? The TV was on sale!!” That salesman pissed me off big time telling me I didn’t know what I was talking about and that the TV wasn’t on sale.
Re: nah
But then it’s still odd that a customer can just go to http://www.bestbuy.com from the store’s computer and get to the right price. Why would employees show prices on the intranet versus the store site? Odd..
Re: nah
After speaking with several people who have been scammed as badly as I have by this company, I would tend to believe that thier fake website is intentional.
I seriously doubt that there was any foul play involved having worked for a retail computer store at one point. Most times there’s so much going on in Retail that it PROBABLY got missed. And hence was out of date or whatever then a customer trying to make the MOST of it and get something for free complained go figure.
Re: Re:
It’s happened to me several times at Best Buy were I find something online “On Sale” and get to the store and I’m told it’s not on sale. The rep will then tell me the promotion is over.
To the poster who stated that the customer complained just to “Get over”… Be for REAL!! If it’s being advertised as on sale and I go to the store and it’s not on sale I WANT TO KNOW WHY! Plain and simple.
Re: TREATMENT
TERRIBLE
Leading the way
A few years ago, Best Buy stood out for its annoying ads on the New York Times with its full-page flash ads, featuring loud sound effects of banging down on a piano keyboard. That made me boycott the store for a year.
Re: Leading the way
I didn’t know you could have full page flash ads in a newspaper. That’s pretty cool.
😉
Chris.
Re: Re: Leading the way
Chris!
What a hoot! I literally “laughed out loud” reading your comment regarding the NY Time’s flash ad! I didn’t know that, either, but then figured I was just one more day behind!
Thanks for starting my morning off with a smile!
Hey annon posting @ #3
So wanting to get something @ the sale price in the newspaper or on the PUBLIC website is trying to get over on someone and take advantage???
You must be one of those bitter abused people that make me NOT shop at worst buy.
I’d recommend a new career as an accountant, it’s much quieter there is much more limited interaction with actual people and the numbers never lie.
Good luck!
How hard would it have been to have the store use the same site as the rest of the world?
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
An idea known as ‘Hanlon’s Razor’ by Robert J. Hanlon
“Never attribute to stupidity that which is malice.”
An idea known as Howard’s Scissors from my brother Howie
Both are indispensable insights.
Re: Re:
Agreed. Even if there’s some glitch between the intranet site and bestbuy.com, employees should be looking at bestbuy.com when checking prices for customers.
dorpus is my favourite internet poster of all time
I can confirm that the Best Buy computers internally access BestBuy.com exactly the same as a normal broadband connection.
The issue probably amounts to an internet explorer cached page or something similar. It is quite possible that the sale ended and the particular browser cache was not updated to reflect the current web site page content.
Re: Geeky Guy
I bought a camera with my wife there and wanted the sale price on BestBuy.com. The in store ASSociate pulled up the intranet site and the sale price didn’t exist.
I pointed out that the URL that was resolving in the status bar was not the actual website and some internal site instead and he told me to go home, print out the web page with the sale price and then I would get that price. He didn’t believe me, and probably didn’t know what a URL was. So I drove home, printed it out, and returned to the store.
He told me he didn’t have to match the BestBuy.com website, and doesn’t do it for everyone.
Now, I just print out the sale price before I leave the house if it’s a .com exclusive.
Re: Browser cache
Not likely….Using a database as a backend to a website usually indicates that the website is dynamic, and should not be cached at all… Most modern browsers can follow a properly formated site which uses the “no cache” directive. The best, and most probable explanation is that they use seperate databases (confirmed by the fact that they would never use an external website and waist internet access on going out and back in to their external facing website) for the in store site, as well as the fact that they are required to login to the intranet in store. Get over it, and make them give you the price advertised on the site you visited.
Re: Re:
So sorry to dis your “confirmation.” It is, indeed, a separate intranet that Best Buy uses to scam its customers. Just happened to me tonight.
better have those goofy geeks in the white shirts fix it
Re: Re:
I take it you get off ripping on others. prolly happend to you when you were a kid you moron. you probably sit on ur fat lazy ass all day replying to these things
Geeky Guy is wrong
The in store computer terminals have a modified version of bestbuy.com on them. When a customer clicks on “bestbuy.com” they are actually running a script which retrieves thats particular store’s version of bestbuy.com. So it will look different in different stores. This is because they try to make the bestbuy.com in store match the items that the store has in stock and the prices in that particular store. It is not devious at at, it is just that some markets have particular sales while others do not so they are just trying to mimic the look and feel in their store in the web page that you view, in their store. Yes sometimes there are bby.com sales that are not reflected in the stores version of bestbuy.com and they will honor those sales without any problem. The associates saying that the “sale is over” are just stupid and don’t know the difference between the bestbuy.com you access from outside best buy and teh bestbuy.com that you can access from inside the store. I know all this because I am an employee of a best buy and it doesn’t ever seem to be an issue. I think the people alleging this claim are the stupid people on earth. These are the people that will go thru the hassle of waiting in a customer service line for 10 minutes because they got overcharged by 10 cents for a pack of gum. I mean seriously…get a life people.
Re: Geeky Guy is wrong
They will honor those sales without any problem? Not true. Check the testimonials here.
Re: Geeky Guy is wrong
Shouldn’t have overcharged for 10 cents.
http://dontbuygateway.blogspot.com/
I am sure the customer had a cached page on his pc he was looking at…
I went to Macy’s the other day after seeing an ad on line for $100.00 cheaper then the in store price on a product… The manager went on line to see the sale price I had seen and it was indeed $100.00 cheaper and they gave me the difference in store, I asked why and they said it was because some sales are “online only” to encourage online sales but you can come in and get the sales price.
Sometimes this crowd....
Seriously kids, take off your tinfoil hats for a minute.
And to the guy above who says to stop treating customers like fools – customers (people) ARE fools. A great example of that is right here. People ready to shoot their load early at the first sign of anything devious about a place they claim to despise yet can’t stop shopping at (sounds like Wal*mart).
Not all sales on the website are available from the store – hell, it’s even ran by a different company.
Just because someone remembered what they saw on their magic computer screen before going into a Best Buy (yet wasn’t clever enough to read “not available in-store”) doesn’t make them a genius and great internet detective that broke the story of the year.
Re: Sometimes this crowd....
This has happened to me as well and I too felt wow was the sale over with that quickly. I usually bring a printout with me to avoid any confusion.
However in those time I don’t BestBuy not withstanding, the store pulls up the ad and its the same.
At the time I did indeed feel rather foolish. Needless to say I felt vindicated afterwards, but only after having to go home and return to the store with my printout.
I couldn’t help feeling suspicious about the whole activity.
Re: Sometimes this crowd....
Having worked for Bestbuy twice, and on their website, I know that the site is run by Best Buy, not some other company.
Of course that fact that most of the developers do not speak English and have no idea what American business is about may be a contributing factor.
Re: Re: Sometimes this crowd....
That is right people could hardly speak english !!
Best buy rip me up so LET US BOYCOTT BEST BUY.
RE: Geeky Guy
I can confirm that the “BestBuy.com” in store is NOT the same at the normally broadband connected one, having been an employee. This has nothing to do with cached pages. I knew all of the tricks to pulling up the BestBuy.com site directly from the in-store computers and they indeed had different sales than the “BestBuy.com” in the scripted Best Buy customer interface.
Many have said that there is no devious intentions here, but I’d think that if the “BestBuy.com” customers go to in store says “BestBuy.com” but functions differently and displays different content, then that is deceiving, no matter what the actual intent.
Before I found out (on my own) that the sites were different I had already told several customers that they were wrong and must have remembered a display from a previous day or had a cached page, even though I wasn’t completely convinced myself.
It is ALSO true, however, that managers or employees that actually know that there is a difference between the sites will ALWAYS allow a price match on the real BestBuy.com price. It’s just a matter of Best Buy informing it’s employees so that they don’t make customers feel like idiots and so they don’t refuse to give valid sale prices.
I’ve found that if I take a printed copy of the page with me they’ll honor just about damn near anything.
Re: Re:
This has worked for me innumerable times, most recently at Best Buy. I print the page off my computer or take the print ad from the newspaper. They have never disputed the sales price, but I have experienced ‘out of stock’. That is a rant for another time, however. 😉
Re: Re:
This is very true. The sales reps shiver and shake when they see it and have to drop their little sales tricks. It works also in PC Richards & Son. They’re probably the most shady company when it comes to electronics. Make sure you print it out boys and girls.
Yep
That’s the trick. We can’t really dispute a printed/dates Web page.
blame the webmaster
Blame the webmasters. I have seen this time and time again happen at bestbuy.com. Even to the point when clicking to buy something at sale price in the checkout the price is different. Called up the local store and they said that sale was over!!
Maybe I should yell at my ISP for only updating their DNS cache servers and hackers for making me click on those paypal emails???
this has been going on for quite some time… users on slickdeals.net forums used to complain about it regularly…
slightly off subject, but not completely off topic was one of the best “Best Buy” related laughs I ever had..
http://www.improveverywhere.com/mission_view.php?mission_id=57
My little bro used to work there and it sent him out of his chair…
Re: Re:
finally, another IE agent
Don't get customers
In generally I think best buy fails to get it’s own customer base. I went in to try and buy a fairly upscale laptop and every singe one had a blaring H&R block numerical playing looped on every laptop. It was so totally overwhelmingly annoying that I left after a two minutes to find somewhere not trying to make a quick buck off of my time and mind share and game my 2k to somebody else (in this case micro center). What does this lead to? In the future all restaurants are taco bell.
The Truth
I’m a Best Buy employee. Its an intranet version of the site to reflect in-store promotions only. It is INDEED a second site. That’s why my coworkers and I use a few tricks to bypass the intranet site and get to the regular site in order to check the “real” website. Its not designed to be malicious as far as I can tell, but there are some crap employees out there.
RETARDED
This is the shittiest, most unsupported post by Joe EVER. Go do some actual research yourself, moron, instead of making baseless accusations. You ever think, gee, maybe I could actually act like a journalist for once and figure this out myself instead of being a rumor mill? Thought not.
Re: RETARDED
This is the shittiest, most unsupported post by Joe EVER. Go do some actual research yourself, moron, instead of making baseless accusations. You ever think, gee, maybe I could actually act like a journalist for once and figure this out myself instead of being a rumor mill? Thought not.
Yeah but Joe’s probably getting a big pat on the back for this crappy, unsupported post because of all the attention Techdirt’s getting and all the subsequent ad revenues. Look, over 100 replies already!
I do hate Best Buy
I have a lifetime boycott of Best Buy going, 6 years running. It’s amazing how well the company is doing though, for the number of customers they piss off and for the number of shady deals they throw at people…If someone put together all of them, they could probably start a site about that.
Re: I do hate Best Buy
They are bunch of dishonest people running the company
donot believe about no interest for 3 years buy. I was victimized by this scam because they inserted charges not approved by me. when I question their reply is dont worry we will rermove it but it did not happen I am still receiving statement with that insewrt.
Customer should open up and let us all boycott best buy
Let’s do it.
The terminals instore are not the same as bestbuy.com. Yes. they use a script to run but its to access the stores inventory and they’re set for the specific store. the prices and sales information is suppose to be the same. Another runs the Bestbuy.com website.
Most-likely it was just a case of cache on the store server was not updated, and the sales rep looked for an easy explaination.
When I worked for Best Buy, i found that the company has good intentions and a true customer friendly business plan, however, the store management and district management do not follow any of the guildline that the corporate office sends out and lie through there teeth to make sure there store looks good.
In a company with 850 stores and over 100,000 employees youll always have some shitty employees around. There is no way to avoid it. There will always be some customers that get pissed off. A lot of them because of something that is their faulat like not reading return policies on their receipt or just being stupid and not knowing how to use the product they bought like the people who buy a computer and get spyware on their system and then try to return it because it is “broken” when it isnt. Then want to exchange it and get pissed because there is a restocking fee due to the fact the computer isnt defective. They were just stupid and didnt buy the protective software they were offered because they though the salesman was trying to nickel and dime them.
Then you have the people who buy something and it breaks 6 months later and want a refund. Sorry, that is why the manufacturer gives you warranty information in your package you bought. If Best Buy/Circuit City/Staples etc.. returned every item no matter how long it was since you bought it They would be out of business within months. If its outside the return policy they absorb the entire cost of the item or have to pay to have it fixed and resell it at 10% off because its “open box”. On things like laptops they already lose money when they sell one on sale so just because you spend 2,000 on a laptop it doesnt mean the company made any money which is why they try to add things like service plans to them. You do hear a lot of complaints but you never hear the people that are happy because happy people dont put up blogs or tell all their friends they are happy with a business. Any retail business has thousands of unhappy people and there is no way to avoid it. Other people you just cant ever make happy like those who wait in line for 30 minutes to bitch that they got ripped off for 10 cents on an item. Also let me fill you in on a something. Companies are in business to MAKE money not to break even.
Re: Re:
So, What about those IDIOT employees who throw merchandise around (unseen to the general public) because so & so did not buy extended warranty. The customer gets it home and it doesn’t work or fails a couple of months later. OOPS I guess you dropped it when you took it home. NO warranty, or if you had bought extended warranty then it would be replaced instead of having to wait for 2 or 3 months to be fixed by the manufacturers warranty only again to be told it was abuse that caused the failure. A person I know who worked there was told by the store manager if he ever saw this to look the other way. He quit that day!!!
Why go to the store...
to shop bestbuy.com ??? Isn’t that the point of an online store, so you DON’T have to leave home to shop!?!?!?!?
Simliar but differnet case.
for me. i had Bestbuy do this crap to me already. if i would have known it was an issue, i would have steped up the line a bit.
but 2 years ago i purchased a hardrive from bestbuy. had the reciept and all. with the evidence of what i purchased with the harddrive. ..
the harddrive craped out within my “instore” warrently period. i went there. and they claimed they havn’t sold that hardrive for longer than my receipt was old.
i just told myself i wasn’t dealing with there BS and went with the manufatures warrently instead (somewhat glade i did, they gave me a bigger drive).
but at the time, if i would have known best buy was already pulling this crap with other issues, i would have went up the corporate chain a bit
Best Buy – at least in NYC – has a history of misleading advertising, that can’t always be explain by simple errors. I happened to me many times that they would not honor their web prices in the retail store, even going as far as telling me that bestbuy.com is run by a different company than the retail stores, so they have different prices. I wanted to simply go the store to get the items to avoid paying inflated shipping charges and/or get something in a hurry. I basically stopped buying at BestBuy after trying to fight them. I think CompUSA actually offers better service than BestBuy, and THAT is something… A.
No News To Me
This Is certainly no news to me. I found this out over 2 years ago when i went to buy some blank DVD+R’s online they were on sale for 4.99 but when I went to the store they were 9.99. So I decided to go check on on of their computers to order it online and pick it up but when I did their online store showed 9.99 too. So I had to go back home, order it online and then pick it up. When I asked a Salesman about this they said “We don’t price match what the website shows, you have to order it there and have it delivered.” Needless to say I do all my shopping at Circuit City.com
As an employee at best buy, I can tell you that there are three versions of the bestbuy.com. At home, bestbuy.com shows web only deals. With a printout, they can be honored at the store. In the store, bestbuy.com only shows what the store prices are. If the employee logs into the terminal, he can access a different bestbuy.com which shows employee discounts. The biggest problem is that most employees don’t know of the difference and subsequently don’t know how to handle clients who might have seen the lower price.
Pricematching
At BB we are not on commission. PERIOD. If someone is polite I will do EVERYTHING in my power to get them the lowest price…I have even let someone know they had the item on sale at a competitor and price matched it just because they were nice. People need to realise that if your an asshat I will not bend in pricing at all. I always check both websites to make sure it is a correct price and will match the lower of the 2 if there is a discrepancy…even if it says “web only” I try to explain to people that we only have 1% – 5% markup on any given computer. This said, when we have them on sale we are acctually losing money on the “core” product to get you in the store. I know personally I honestly do care about my customers (I know I am not the average salesperson) but I make sure and treat them the way I want to be treated.
old news
Best buy has been pulling that scam for sometime now. They told me that online and in-store aren’t the same.
Bait and Switch
This is what is classically called “Bait and Switch” and it is very illegal. Best Buy has gotten away with it for a while but if a detective posing as a shopper comes in the store they are in deep Bantha Poodoo.
Re: Bait and Switch
Not quite, if it isn’t listed as an advertised store price, it is not bait and switch. They could have gotten it at the price if they would have ordered from where they saw it. Instead they left where they saw it at that price, and wanted it from another location, there is a difference.
This is no different than different stores for the same company having different pricing, which happens. Stores in California don’t necessarily have the same price for something in Ohio.
never assume what may be stupidity is melfeasance
I don’t work for the company, but after seeing first hand the stupidity of the management – there could be a very real explanation of the problem.
In my case my father bought an item through the web for “fast” in store pickup. First, we were waiting behind a couple trying to get credit approved. They had credit applications and “fast” in store pickup share a line. Then, they gave us an obviously wrong part (from the same manufacturer at least).
So ti could be stupidity as easily as bad intention.
Why wouldn't you . . .
expect a different price online versus in-store from the same retailer?
The same exact product costs the supplier less to ship direct to you than it does to house the product in-store due to overhead in the retail market. Thus, they can offer better pricing online than they can in the store. Aside from “getting you in the store” to upsell you (which IS their job), they have no financial incentive in matching prices.
And, uh, if you haven’t stop complaining long enough to figure it out – companies are driven by financial incentive (which by the way pays you salary if you happen to be employed).
Bestbuy.com
I have used Bestbuy for shopping online, online ordering/instore pickup, and instore shopping. They have always honored their adds instore as long as it wasn’t an ‘online only’ promotion.
I have had this instance happen to me as well, but was easily solved by making them use bestbuy.com. It has never been my experience that they are out to screw me.
Unfortunately for them, they no longer offer Custom Ordered Laptops so I will be taking business elsewhere. The rest of their merchandise I can usually find elsewhere at a better deal. I will miss their warranties however and great instore help.
Bestbuy.com
Yes this is true!
Bestbuy.com from home is an INTERNATIONAL website. When you go into the store you do see the REGIONAL INTRANET. There are marketing regions for product selection that varies from Region to Region, and sometimes state to state. This was a problem that was discussed in 2004 when .com was getting big. I worked there in upper management for 6 years. No fixes as of yet I see.
I work for Best Buy and a lot of promotions on the website are only online. If you order it from home and have it shipped you’d get the sale, but the in store sales are different.
Geek Squad
And people let these Retards work on their home systems? They can not even get their own systems up to snuff…..
Geek Squad = Wannabe Computer Professionals
Bestbuy sucks and everyone is stupid
First off the instore site is different from the at home version, it shows the in store prices, not for any devious reason that i knew of while i worked there, and if the sale is “online only” how hard is that to understand? like when the ads say minimum however many per store and people expect there to be a million of the item and are shocked when they’re out of the $300 laptop that has been on sale for the last 5 days. Customers are stupid BestBuy is in business to make money, the only people trying to scam anybody are some dumbasses that get hired and just try to act like they know everything by spitting out wrong answers to customers, or don’t care and just want their “numbers” to look good. So before you start off to the return line in the future just stop and think, “Am I a dumbass?” you might just save yourself some time and won’t waste 20min of some poor customer service reps life with your bullshit, and learn to read the damn return policy, no matter what a lot of you think your not special, so why is it that ppl think the return policy doesn’t apply to them? It’s there clearly written so how hard is it to follow it?
Re: Bestbuy sucks and everyone is stupid
FUD
Two Words:
WORST BUY
Re: Two Words:
I go for it worst buy
Two Words:
WORST BUY
Worked for Best Buy all through college. Thing have changed and the stores are full of idiots. They will tell you anything to sell a product.
Deception..probably not. Clueless…you bet. The whole corporation from the CEO down to the guy cleaning the toilets are a bunch of morons.
WATCH OUT…HERE COMES A HARD SELL ON AN EXTENDED WARRANTY FOR AN INK CARTRIDGE..AHHHHHH!!!
they do have a interal website for stores
They do have a inside store for bestbuy stores. when i worked for bestbuy back in 02 they were using it. I worked in the corporate office in edina MN. Bestbuy also has a rating system for each of its customers bronze silver gold. if your rated gold and call to complain to customer service 888bestbuy you can usually get yourself a gift card. dont beleave it if you shop there alot and hold a bestbuy credit card call and complain about the service you recieved and how it makes you not want to shop that store again. Dont ever ask for a gift card but if you sound conveincing enough you may just get offered it if your gold, if you are broze customer meaning you dont spend alot in there stores your really not a concern.
Enjoy
Re: they do have a interal website for stores
Oh, my.
I hope your job duties didn’t fall under the “writing and grammer” umbrella.
BB Transparency
I used a computer at the local Best Buy to show some other shoppers that the BB was charging 20% more than bestbuy.com, and 30% more than the OfficeMax across the street for the exact same products (specifically Flash Drives and USB Cables…home theater cables are a joke there too). The next time I poked my head in the store I noticed they didn’t have any internet enabled computers available for customers. lol. What insecure little scam artists.
When shopping for a new big screen TV, I was able to get one hand-delivered (“white glove service”) from New York (I’m in the mid west) for less than the BB price… not only was it the same brand, but it was the 62″ instead of the 52″ model AND came bundled with extra cables and a great service plan.
I have done my best to keep people around here informed of the local BB rip off artists. Hopefully they get enough complaints to at least get their prices in line with BB.com, if not the local market.
Same thing happened to me.
It was a year and a half ago and I came in the store to buy what was online, on sale. They said it wasn’t on sale and showed me on the website. I said it was there when I left, he said “I dunno maybe the ad was from a different area or something”.
I said whatever and left.
IMHO, Bestbuy is crap, and dealing with their rebate BS, which I was screwed out of $40 due to their computer malfunction and the self destructing receipts they give you.
web deals
I once went into the mall at the Northtown Minnesota store and purchased a PC game on the web site with the in-store pickup option from a computer at Radio Shack because they wouldn’t match the price on the web site in-store.
Get me an Orange Julius too. Mmmm.
Best Buy's In-Store Website Is Not BestBuy.com
This happened to me more than a year ago.
They said the site must have up dated between the time I saw the ad at home and the time I went to the store.
Lets hope they get hit hard.
the same thing happened to me three years ago. sunday ad showed sony dvd recorder at $229. guy at BB showed me their web site shoing $299. I asked to go to bestbuy.com and found it for the sunday price at $229. they had to give it to me.
You guys will still buy from Best Buy
It doesn’t matter how much you guys whine and rant about Best Buy because you will just go back and spend more money there, just like the people that whine and rant about WalMart still shop at WalMart. And companies know this.
why not call in your own IT department
Call Geek squad they are in every store and have them fix your issues and bill you double or trouble the prices of other companies charge.
I am in the Computer Technology service and not offering sales will turn people away and go somewhere else like seckora.com or Dell.com, staples.com etc.
Will have to see what the finally answer will be.
Re: why not call in your own IT department
Funny, Staples has a contract with Geek Squad too. Agents can transfer between companies. and their pricing isn’t that bad. At least your not stuck for 4 hours on the phone with Dell only to end up formatting your pc!
Ha...no.
Wrong. BestBuy.com is the same anywhere in the store. There is no script. When you click the bestbuy.com button, it opens up a browser to bestbuy.com. You can even go right back up the the address bar and type BestBuy.com and hit enter, and the same freaking page loads again. I even went to it on my PDA and compared the two when I was in the store today. This story is completely false.
bestbuy and geek squad
I’m just wondering if they called the geek squad to setup their intranet…
Getting People In The Store
Ever wonder why coupons are sent out in the Sunday paper, and not just put next to the cash register? I mean, it would be a lot easier for the store to just put them there, right? And they wouldn’t have to pay the New York Times advertising fees, either.
But that’s not the freakin idea of coupons. The idea is to get people who are NOT in the store to come to the store. The store doesn’t want to give discounts to people that are shopping there anyways.
So it makes sense for a retailer to promote some things on the public website, but NOT on the in-store version. It’s not unfair, it’s not deceitful. Just so long as the store honors the deal/price/coupon that is still valid and displayed on the website.
If you want to learn more about this fairly standard marketing practice, look up the economic term “price discrimiation”. I’m not saying it’s good, but it’s perfectly legal, and not too far from fair. It’s the same reason one guy in an airplane paid $1,000 and the guy next to him paid $400.
DNS
Ok.. so if you goto bestbuy.com from inside the store it is different.. nothing new there
the local server for the network has the internal (intranet) settings which uses the hosts file to point bestbuy.com to the LOCAL webserver on the intranet.
Nothing new there either. You can take any machine, put an ip address in it and make it goto any ip you want… change the hosts file to say 216.239.37.99 is yahoo.com .. thats all best buy might have done.
if you wanna find out where bestbuy.com goes to from inside the store, ALT TAB to escape their demo program, goto start . click run . type CMD
at the command promt, ping bestbuy.com
that will tell you where the ip address is that the internal bestbuy.com goes to. then, you can tell if it is the same ip address (range) from your computer at home. if the internal one does to 10.x.x.x 192.168.x.x etc… then you know that the name resolves to the internal intranet for that store.
Once gain, nothing new there… nothing illegal about it. Did anyone check ahead of time to see if that price was avaiable in stores or only a web offered deal?
Personally, when I see prices on sites, I call the store to make sure it is in stock and ask the price of it on the phone with the local store. Done that for years.
Anybody home?
Web cache much?
Try clearing it!
Tim
I have shopped at Best Buy exactly once in my entire life and will never, ever do it again. It was the worst shopping experience of my life.
That can't believe the stupidity.
First off….
“Bait and Switch by Michael “TheZorch” Haney on Feb 10th, 2007 @ 7:35am
This is what is classically called “Bait and Switch” and it is very illegal. Best Buy has gotten away with it for a while but if a detective posing as a shopper comes in the store they are in deep Bantha Poodoo.”
TheZorch needs to get his head out of his Star Wars Cereal Box and into a dictionary. Definition of Bait & Switch: “An illegal sales tactic in which a consumer is lured by a low price only to be told that the “special offer” is no longer available and steered to a higher priced product”.
In the case given, Best Buy is not advertising a super price on something then having you come in to find out product X doesn’t exist anymore and telling you that they have product Y which is $z more. Best Buy is just stating that the .com price may not be the same instore. If you want that .com price, why don’t you just order it through .com and then choose to use “in store Pickup”. You get the .com price AND you don’t pay shipping.
Many places also have different prices ONLINE vs. what they show in a Brick and Mortar store. Heck many places offer different prices in different parts of the country. Have you ever looked up prices on a car online? That’s why they ask you for your zip code when you try to get a price quote via a manufacturer’s website. It’s called supply and demand. Get over it.
Its ridiculous to see all these Best Buy haters going off. Unfortunately, people that have great experiences don’t post their compliments. If everyone who did have great experiences posted comments, it would be like trying to find a needle in a hay stack if you searched for negative comments.
Lastly, and I’m totaly going to call these people out and put it exactly how it is, ex employees (of any company) always have “something” to say. What most people don’t realize is that all these same people do is complain. They are often disengaged at their job and cannot even accomplish the simplest things or show a modest amount of work ethic (ie. Showing up on time for work, showing up to work in dress code, etc). These same people often think that the company (or world) owes them for what they contribute (or think that they contribute) to the over all embetterment of the company (or world)…When these people get held accountable/performance managed/get their employement terminated, all they have left to do is complain about a company that probably had every right to let them go. Of course, it’s not their fault, it’s the company’s.
Is any company perfect? Not a chance. It’s only as good as the people who work there. Unfortunately the people that were described above happen to get hired at places like Best Buy (or Circuit, Frye’s, Walmart, HH Gregg, Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc etc) and it’s impossible for a company to avoid hiring them. These people slip through the cracks. People will always have bad experiences somewhere.
One comment that I always see on flaming posts like these are “I’m suprised to see that they (in this case, Best Buy) are still in business. . . “. Well, they’re in business because more people than you’d like to believe or acknowledge actually have great experiences there. There will always be legitimate complaints on how a company takes care of a customer but many of them are compaints founded on expectations that are unrealistic (ie, customer wanting an item replaced when they are 4 months outside of a Return/Exchange policy window and the manufacturer’s Warrenty says it needs to be fixed, not replaced). Best Buy does well because more often than the haters would admit, the customer is treated right and taken care of.
For the record, I do work retail. I’ve been doing it for almost 20 years in different companies and capacities. I’ve seen the good, the bad, the ugly. In most cases, including Best Buy, the complaints (when they are true) are the exception, not the norm.
Worst Buy
I bought a Sony Vaio computer from Worst Buy. Everything was fine, they gave me a discount for the floor model without a battery. Also received a $400 gift card.
They were looking up to see if .Com had one. They said they had one for $300 dollars. Also it was a “third party website” and I wouldn’t be able to use the gift card on it.
I went home, checked their website. THEIR website had one for $200. Evidentially they must not make much overhead on the laptop batteries or something.
Just More Best Buy BS
This is the same company that had customers arrested in several different stores for writing down the model/price of consumer electronic items. So that they could make informed desisions. The Reston, VA store is one that was nationally newsworthy.
Yes sometime i am forced to shop there. As when i recieve a gift card…another retail scam…..but for the most part i will not give them a dime. This compay is poison. Run away as fast as you can.
Cheers!
Best Buy Deceit
I have been deceived by Best Buy in the past by being brought into their store for an advertised sale item that didn’t really exist. I was left hanging in the computer section of the store for more than 30 minutes without sufficient help . Finally someone at my request talked to me and had me fill out a slip to be called as soon as the item arrived. I’m still waiting 4 years later.
Yeah, they’ll see me again, ha ha ha!
Give A Little Love
Maybe they should follow DHL’s footsteps and…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0pxmi52C0U&mode=related&search=
Some stores don't participate.
This does have a reasonable explanation. Stores sometimes choose not to participate in a particular promotion. The store uses these pages to show customers that they are not a participant.
The whole question a lawyer would ask
Does Best Buy and/or their employees represent the instore site as the “bestbuy.com” website you visit when outside of the store?
Best Buy
It’s called “Bait and Switch” and has been going on for as long as there has been advertising–
best buy deception
This does not surprise me in the least. They should be prosecuted and held to account for their actions as anyone of us would have to be.
Best Buy in Store Intranet site vs. Internet site
It’s like many people have posted. bestbuy.com on the internal Intranet is linked directly to the store’s inventory and prices, where bestbuy.com on the internet is it’s own entity. The interface is the same, but they are actually different sites. Also, we are trained to explain that to get the prices listed on-line @ internet bestbuy.com you must order the product online. If you want, you can have it sent to the store for pckup, but each store’s inventory is not matched to the online sale prices. If a stack of 100 DVD-Rs is on sale online for $20, that price might not necessairly be the same in the store, so don’t just fly down to the nearest brick ‘n mortar to get it. Whip out a credit card and shop @ home.
Lot's of horror stories
Lots and LOTS of horror stories…
They are scammers.
Best Buy does do stuff like that trust me. I worked for them for 2 years and seen alot of funny stuff in the “Chalk Talk Meetings”. Such as “If the customer is declined they are a waste of time”. They have a certain Best Buy attitude and brain wash system. they will fool most loyal customers, but go work for them for a year or two and see for your selfs. Do you really think they want you to buy that service plan for ‘your own good’? They have a deal with the manufacturers, The won’t sell the products if the manufacturer won’t take back a certain amount of the item on returns. Best Buy is really smart to non everyday americans who don’t know any better about buying. Best Buy will change prices on big sale items on a saturday morning (last day of sale) and you will never notice. They also change the prices on the last week before Christmas, because they know you will have to buy something. It’s a good way for them to dup the last minute shoppers.
I know there will be a lot of loyal customers that will argue with me, but I worked on the Merch team for 2 years and I know what kind of stuff they pull. Take the last 3 $400 laptops in the back and the managers will buy them after the store closes (Black friday).
hate best buy
I was looking fo purchase an item and I went to circuit city’s webpage, walmart, target, bestbuy, etc and found that bestbuy had the best price. I then went to the store to buy the item (I wanted it that day) and the price was about 25% higher. I asked about it and they said “we dont match website prices, including our own”. I think that is a bunch of crap. This was only one of many many bad experiences with this place. I wish I had more choices where I live because I would not go back.
I used to work at Best Buy
I worked at Best Buy briefly a few years ago and even for a huge corporation I’d never seen such nickel and dime greed in my life.
If it makes anyone feel any better they don’t treat their employees any better than their customers.
Me too!
I researched a video camera last year on Bestbuy.com which was advertised at $279. I went to the local store to pick one up. I got to the store and the camera was $349. An employee pulled up “bestbuy.com” to show me I was mistaken about the sale price and that the camera was also $349 online. The website did not even look the same as the one I looked at 10 minutes earlier at home. Different graphics etc. I went home, ordered the camera for $279, chose “In Store Pickup” and went back to the store to pick it up.
#7 - CompUSA better ????
CompUSA ????
DON’T GET ME STARTED!!
I have several stories of my own; but at one time they had to be stopped from shady dealing by the feds.
(and I’m not comparing them with Best Buy or anyone else)
TO do this properly
If this is fraud, they are going about it incompetently. They need to set up thier proxy server to resolve bestbuy.com to the local address on all thier computers, and to set up the filter to block all (or even just most) of thier competitors websites. The command prompt can also be locked out using a tiny registry edit (I think it is something like “enable cmd.exe 00000000”)
best buy
this sounds EXACTLY like something Brad Anderson would do. I worked for Best Buy HQ for 7 years. 5 years when Dick Shulze was CEO and 2 years when Brad Anderson was CEO. Dick was all about the employees and customers, Brad is all about the money… It’s a shame, i loved that company so much till Brad Anderson took over and if you look, you’ll see that Best Buy is no longer one of the top 100 companies to work for anymore since brad took over and that employee satisfaction is waaaaaay down from when Dick was in charge. That and Best Buy firing off thousands of employees with no reason, to save money, cutting the benefits in half, etc… Everyone i knew at BBHQ is no longer there cause of what Brad has done to the company. I mean, what Brad has done is GREAT from a shareholders standpoint, but it’s horrible from an employee and a customers stand point.
best buy dishonesty
It does not surprise me that best buy would pull something as cheesy as that… I bought a video from them once, and when I opened it, it had a blockbuster sticker on the cassette. I couldn’t quite figure that out either, but I don’t shop there anymore.
We Are Getting What We Paid For
The global economy is great isn’t it? The problem as I see it basically comes down to some underpaid poorly trained employees who work for one of those multinational companies.
I can confirm that they are two different websites,
I’ve gone in to pick something up after seeing it online for a certain price, I would then double-check the in-store computers and there is a definite price difference. Not just on one or two things, but it seems it’s going on to just about everything.
Want to save a couple of bucks? Order it online, and choose to pick it up at the store. You’ll save yourself $5 or more on just about anything!
Altho I haven’t shopped at BestBuy at all in a few months to a year, so not sure if this bull is still going on.
HAX!!
I’m not sure which intranet Best Buy.com is available in stores but the only way I have to reach BestBuy.com on my register is to open the employee toolkit and click on the “BBY” stock symbol near the top of the page. this opens a graph of best buy stock on another intranet page. then I have to click on the graph to open yahoo finance… then I can type a search into Yahoo. Obviously that’s going to be the standard public bestbuy.com
I know it’s kind of a roundabout way of saying it but… Best Buy sucks.
Probably due to bad IT
A few months ago, I was in the process of purchasing a video camera from Best Buy’s web site. I added it to my cart and was prompted to continue shopping so I could add a memory card to my order. As I added the card and came back to my cart, the price of the video camera increased substantially. When I confronted Best Buy on this, they said that their prices change at midnight on Sundays and they couldn’t do anything about it. I understand that prices change, but they shouldn’t change after I already added an item to my cart (bad IT)… the customer shouldn’t be penalized for going back into the store to purchase additional items. I was quite upset about this debacle, and suffice it to say, I didn’t purchase the camera or anything else from Best Buy since.
Ummm
I am a Best Buy employee. It’s sad hearing about so many boycotts. I can reaffirm the fact that we are not commission. I, too, care very much about my customers and do everything I can to make them happy. We apologize for human error because we aren’t perfect. Retail is hard to manage. We indeed do price match everything including our own web site if there is a discrepancy.
Everyone who claims that Best Buy scams customer is just bitter about something silly. If Best Buy were really an evil corporation then lawsuits would’ve destroyed it ages ago. For every person here who hates Best Buy for there horrid shopping experience, I’ve met a different person who utterly hates Circuit City or other places for whatever reason. Bad things happen to everyone. We can only work harder to reduce those problems, but we’ll never completely overcome it. Such is life…
This happened to my in-laws
They were shopping for a television at BestBuy and my wife found them a sale price on bestbuy.com. When they went to the store mentioning the sale the salesperson said there was no sale and they looked it up on one of the store’s computers. The store computer showed no sale…though my wife was looking at the sale price on one of our computers at home.
same issues and more
I have had the same issue and brought it up on my phones browser to the store employee and said that was weird and wasn’t sure why the price on the web was not the same price as what was in the store or the in store web page, this has happened to me twice now. Why would they have a different price if you can order it on the web and pick it up in a matter of minutes???
An Open Letter to Brad Anderson
Wether or not it’s a technical issue, let’s face the core issue- Customers are being misled, saying pricing is not as it is, and to correct the problem, you make me go through a series of steps that ultimately make me feel like a chump. Brad Anderson, I’m not a chump, I’m your customer.
It’s misleading, both to the customers, and to see the neglegence of such a large company not take the time to to properly coach the employees on how to handle the situation is just bad business.
Brad,
WalMart estimates that for every customer they loose, it costs the company nearly $240,000 in lost revenue. Maybe your company needs to look at this from this perspective. To not honor a competitor’s price, within reason, makes sense, but when *ahem* it’s your price, no amount of advertizing can replace a customer that decides to never walk back into your stores. Be careful, and tread lightly! I imagine a Class Action Lawsuit may be coming your way if things don’t get fixed soon.
Different Strategy of Fry's Electronics
It seems clear now that there are two different sites, one internal and one on the www. Sometimes the listed prices are different. OK, big deal. There’s nothing illegal about that. You pay for the convenience of having something stocked at a local store and waiting for you. That’s fair.
People who say it’s bait and switch don’t understand bait and switch. bestbuy.com is not an advertisement for Best Buy retail, it’s a store.
It seems clear that there are staff who don’t know the above. I would chalk that up to under-trained staff, not deceit.
If you went to one Best Buy brick and mortar location and saw an unadvertised DVD player for $75, then went to another and saw it for $90, is that deceit? No. There is no obligation for both locations to sell for the same price, just as there is no obligation for the retail to sell at the same price as the .com.
The problem seems to be that many of you out there assume that the bestbuy.com website is “brochureware” for the store, which it clearly is not. It is a fully functional e-commerce web site with its own catalogue and pricing. It is there not so much to tell you what’s in the brick and mortar store, but more to compete with Buy.com and Amazon.
Would any of you disagree that Best Buy needs to have a competitive response to the web retailers that are grabbing increasing market share? The response is bestbuy.com. But Best Buy cannot run brick and mortar for the same cost structure as .com, so the prices are occasionally different. That’s totally reasonable.
I looked at their site, and it seems like they make it clear which items are available for in-store pickup, which are .com only. And that in-store pickup seems like a great feature over the .com only websites.
The problem is the brand confusion they get as a result.
Have you noticed that Fry’s Electronics (a big chain in the West) bought Outpost.com a log time ago, but still keep the online and brick and mortar stores quite separate. That makes the division more clear for customers. Perhaps Best Buy should just rename the online store “Best Buy Web”.
What drives me nuts is that, as consumers, we are basically being gang-raped by credit card companies, spammers, high drug costs, patent trolls, DRM bullies, excessive CEO compensation, lazy boards of directors, excessive bank fees, excessive real estate fees, bad municipal government, out of control health care costs, and lots more…and some people choose THIS as the issue they want to bitch about? Get some perspective!
Best Buy VS BestBuy.com
What Ive known and seen in the prints and rules of BestBuy.com is its a warehouse that controls the webpage and sales and is not controlled and/or owned by Best Buy Corp. Thus Sales cannot be honored instore. Price matches are sometimes possible with different packages/products. Not all items will be price matchable because only available online products.
Non of the Best Buy employees are aware of the sales online and are only informed of the local sales ads as the differ from state to state and even district areas.
BestBuy.com Rules/Conditions
This is directly from the webpage. And clearly states that Sales are not monitored with any Best Buy Retail Outlet. Prices are not guarantied with Instore prices.
http://www.bestbuy.com click Terms/Conditions of Use located at the very bottom.
Kind of breaks the purpose of this article, Ive known for a long time that BestBuy.com is just a web host service company that also controls a lot of Best Buy’s warehouse and stock.
I have had this same exact thing happen to me, but it even went as far as the lower end item not even showing up on there in-store website. They were trying to tell me that they didn’t even carry it, luckily I had remembered the exact stock number 😛 and it pulled it up, $20 higher than I had viewed it at home. Low and behold I had to drive home print up the website and bring it in for that price to be honored.
In store website
The best buy website you see at your house is a corporate website run and owned by some upper heads at some office building, all they do is punch numbers and talk to each other and sip on coffee and get paid a hell of a lot of money for sitting on thier ass. (Orders placed on the online website are sent to your local best buy if you want to pick it up then they find it at thier location and hold it for you, or if its a delivery, that occurs at a disclosed location no dealing with the individual stores)
So anyways, to answer your questions:
The website you see in store may or may not be linked to the online website. Sometimes they are linked to the web and thus update themselves with new prices and deals. However sometimes they also are not linked to the web so what is loaded is a script which is preset every week once a week for the next week.
Sales you see online at your home, if they don’t match the in store prices, print out the ad and bring it in to any best buy and show the cashier the ad, he or she will usually match it. (some “customer specialist” may know how to get you the deal some may not, the ones that don’t, instead of saying they don’t know how, they just lie and say no we don’t do so and so)
If you have any issues at any best buy just go speak to a manager, just as someone to find you a manager and explain your situation to them, usually that solves any problem. And may give you some satisfaction to shut up that lil “customer specialist”
Regarding Geeksquad…(being a computer geek myself…geeksquad is a joke, its for people that dont have time to trouble shoot thier own pc or download some software online for a fraction of the price you pay instore.) However they do “fix” your computer so dont hate them too much. Installing ram and upgrading anything they do pretty much in a day. Though usually local IT specialist charge a lil less. (P.S. Geek squad people are not geeks…they just have “some” computer experience and may have a degree, though the term geek all of them are not worth of)
As for bestbuy being a bad company, no, remember most bestbuy employees are kids going to school who just want to get some hours in, get paid and leave that damn place. Some may give you attitude or may not have certain knowledge of every thing you ask but give them a break you cant expect everyone with a blue shirt to answer all 100000 questions you have to spit at them, usually there are specialists in certain areas, find someone in the specific area you need help in and have them help you.
Well I hope this clears some stuff up, and yes I do work at bestbuy.
It's intentional
Best Buy and Circuit City have to compete online against deep discounters like Amazon.com that don’t have the expense of brick and mortar stores. However, BB doesn’t want to offer the online prices in their stores. Trying to slip a in-store website past unwary consumers is total crap.
Circuit City will ALWAYS match any discount shown on their website — as long as the item is in-stock at the store, you can get the same cost as shown on the web. You have to be savvy enough to know the web pricing, but you can get it.
Okay, 103 comments on this topic alone? You people really have no life, don’t you?
I tried making a payment for my TV I purchased online. The envelope that I got my statement in said it was easy, just got to BestBuy.com/creditcards
So I sign up for an account and guess what….nowhere can I make a payment.
I call their tech support, wait on hold, finally speak with someone who says, “oh, you need to speak with tech support, not customer service, let me transfer you”…..then I talk with someone at tech support who told me I went to the wrong site and should have went to BestBuy.com. I told her that I just went to the site that the envelope that enclosed my statement told me to go to. Then she tried telling me that I was wrong and the envelope didn’t say what I said it was saying.
Re: Re:
Don’t know what your problem was. It’s right there. You just follow the link. You must just be blind. Or maybe you have one of those PCs that have so much junk loaded on it that it screws up the browser.
You should take your PC to geeksquad. OR buy a new one. Or go to you optometrist.
Re: billing question
i have not received my billing for the month of “may”.it is already may 6th and i have not received it has it been mailed.
Re: Re:
This is stupid. People that have complaints about Best Buy or any retail company probably just go in banging the fists on the counter and shaking them furiously in the air demanding that they get their way. These are the same people that will drive 5 different places spending $30 in gas to save $10. Most of these rants are not even about the original topic, their about people not getting everything that they want. Guess what, most places won’t give you all that you want if you act like an a$$.
What most people don’t realize is that BestBuy gives you a really great value for your purchase if you are like most Americans and don’t have $2500 cash to drop on a new television. Show me another store that leading up to the superbowl was giving $300 off the purchase if I purchased professional installation and upgraded my signal with them (sorry, like most Americans, I have no interest in hanging my flat panel tv on a wall just to see it fall on the floor and shatter), a sale price that was only $50 more than the next competitor AND let me pay it off over 3 years.
Hmmm…I could have spent $2200 at Circuit and had payments of $92 a month or I could spend $2250 at Best Buy and have payments of $62….Let me think about that one. . . Oh yeah, I didn’t have to have an inexperienced FIREDOG tech come into my home and trash my walls (My friend got his tv installed by Circuit and the installer ended up doing almost $1000 dollars in damage to his wall). I got a Magnolia installer who knew what he was doing. That’s one of the other reasons why I liked BestBuy for my TV purchase. When Best Buy bought Magnolia Home Theater, they actually took the things that made that company a great business and actually continued the business practices as they rolled it throughout Best Buy. FireDog? FireDog was a company that Circuit purchased for the NAME BRAND ONLY.
Oh yeah, let me top it off with this for all you price shoppers: I’ve got until the beginning of APRIL to find a better price on that TV (that’s 60 days). Couldn’t get that at Circuit either.
Most people just go in and see the sticker price and assume that’s the end all be all of a great deal. Sadly, it’s just not true. Oh, no, their computer at the store doesn’t show the .com pricing! What am I supposed to do!? How about bring the print out in to begin with. As stated earlier, BestBuy.com is not a brochure about what the instore pricing is.
Quit acting like a$$e$.
Shop at Circuit City
I really don’t care which I shop at. Best Buy and Circuit City are nearly identical and will price match. I’ve felt that Best Buy has been deceiving customers for years though. In Best Buy you can only view their in house site. At Circuit City you can get on the Internet and check out the prices from Circuit City and all their competitors.
It may just be an isolated incident. I don’t know of any special intranet within our store. We just use good old Bestbuy dot com or look up sales in the Sunday ad.
Oh, and Firedog sucks.
Your first mistake: shopping at BestBuy
BestBuy, for lack of a more accurate explanation, is the devil. I’ve never seen an organization more uncaring of customer need or ethical concerns.
Management of one store once left me sitting outside the store in the cold for 2 hours while they tried to find the answer to a simple question I had asked. I’ve also never gotten a single mail-in rebate from the retialer returned to me. EVER.
With a laundry list of negative experiences, and not a single positive, I must say that the choice is clear, STAY AWAY FROM BEST BUY.
This is just another example. Honestly, there in no excuse what what took place- the cause (technology errors) is irrelevant, this is a clear case of bait and switch, whether intentional or not.
Personally, I would love to see BestBuy go out of business forever, preferably through a class-action lawsuit that bankrupts it.
Ah, my personal heaven.
-Max
WTF?
I’m a bit baffled at these responses. Even before I started working at Best Buy, I have always felt they were far superior in handling customer needs than Circuit City, Wal Mart, and Target combined. Wal Mart and Target employees have two major problems: there aren’t enough of them, and they know nothing about their products. Those stores are just too dang big. I never ask anything more than where something is. Circuit City has been the biggest competitor for Best Buy, but even they learned a thing or two from the big blue. Circuit City used to be commissioned until they realized that pissed all their customers off.
Best Buy is the #1 electronics retailer in the world. Some of you obviously do not understand how HARD it is to be helping one customer only to be intercepted by another on one’s way to further serve the first. I’ll admit that I’ve had customers walk out on me because I wasn’t fast enough in meeting everyone’s needs!
As for this two-versions-of-the-same-site issue, just buy it off the web site if you really want the ‘better’ price. Last I checked, Best Buy has no shipping costs on many items. If there happens to be a cost then go for in-store pickup.
blame the salesperson
the damn salesperson should have told the individual that they can look at bestbuy.com on an outside terminal and we match our bestbuy.com price…..problem solved and if the salesperson didnt offer the individual that option then they should have talked to a manager who could go over the salesperson and get the customer that price..problem solved further…
First off, if it’s an INTERNET ONLY price, don’t expect to see it instore.
Second, If they have their own internal version of BESTBUY.COM that doesn’t show specials then it’s based off their store pricing, not BESTBUY.COM. When they rolled the .com site out they did it as a separate entity, not as a flyer for what was happening in the store.
Lastly, to the person that said BBY is the devil. I would say that Walmart or Circuit or even any number of other stores offer worse customer service vs Best Buy. Your unfounded comment on NO POSITIVE COMMENTS FOR BEST BUY IS BLATENTLY FALSE AND UNFOUNDED. Hell, look at this thread you ass clown.
Quit stating opinions as facts. I’m not saying that Best Buy is perfect but no store should be held accountable for a customer’s lack of ability in filling out a Mail-In Rebate or lack of desire to make the purchase online.
Grow up.
A Good Example
A good way to see this deception is to search for Flat TV wall mounts. Searching BestBuy.com you will see wall mounts advertised with some sort of sale or savings. I recently went into the store to expect this same savings and what I found was the product advertised at regular price. After checking the in-store website, it was also advertised at regular price.
I realize now that these wall mounts never go on sale individually in-store.
You just don't get it.
Bestbuy.com does not = Bestbuy.
If you see a deal on the .com sight, buy it there and quit your bitching.
Something that hasn’t been pointed out is that you can GO TO THE STORE AND SEE DEALS THERE THAT YOU CANNOT GET ON BESTBUY.COM!
Stick that in your a$$ and let it stir. They run them as 2 individual entities. If they pulled up .com in the store to view the offers and the guy didn’t go to bestbuy.com and went to an internal version that shows store prices, get over it.
You still get better service there than any other retailer around. Circuit City tries to imitate but fails.
Don’t believe me? BBY went non commision over a decade ago. Circuit did it 3-4 years ago. Best Buy introduced Geek Squad Company wide (building on what the original owner of the company had created). Circuit introduces FIREDOG, a brand name that they purchased. I haven’t seen a whole lot of “original” firedog practices in the CC Version. They bought the brand and used the name. Oh yeah, they took this idea from BBY too.
THeir sales people started wearing polo shirts 4-5 years ago too….why? Because BBY customer’s like the relaxed attire of the customer specialist….Why not copy the design.
One thing that CC hasn’t been able to do successfully (and we can measure that buy success of the company or the struggles they’ve had and have not overcomed) is give a great customer experience. Money talks. CC continues to struggle daily. Best Buy is Best of Breed.
Again, there will always be Haters, but BBY crushes the competition when it comes to a positive customer experience.
THIS IS NOT THE ONLY SCAM BEST BUY RUNS. THIS WEEK I WAS SENT A “SPECIAL INVITATION ONLY” SALE ADD. STATING IT WOULD BE HELD AT ONLY 2 STORES IN THE HOUSTON TEXAS AREA,AND MOST IMPORTANTLY IT WAS CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC FOR THESE TWO HOURS SO ONLY THE REWARDS MEMBERS COULD SHOP…WRONG!!! AFTER STANDING IN LINE FOR 20 MIN WHILE THEY CLEARED THE STORE OF NON-REWARD CUSTOMERS THEY OPENED TO US SUPPOSEDLY “SPECIAL PEOPLE” AND ALSO SIGNED ANYPONE WHO CAME IN UP FOR THE CARD SO THEY COULD SHP TOO. I WAS SO IRATE…SO MUCH FOR BEST BUY AND THEIR SHOPPING SPECIALS
aggreed
I went into best buy to buy a boxed season of the shield. The internet said 19.99 when it was not they said it was 48.99. i went over to theri terminal and the price online said 48.99. I went to work later looked on the website to double check sure enough it said 19.99
The awful truth about best buy
VISIT: http://dontbuygateway.blogspot.com/
FIREDOG
BETTER HAVE FIREDOG GO IN AND INVESTIGATE!!!!
Best Buy receipts
I purchased a laptop at Best Buy 3 weeks ago. Somehow I lost the receipt. When I called to get a copy of the receipt I gave my name, phone numbers, credit card numbers, Reward Zone numbers, item number and description and date of purchase. I was told they had no record of the purchase. The reason? I used a Visa Check card. I used it like a credit card and signed for the purchase. They said they only had records for actual credit cards or checks. They did, however, show the laptop purchased last year for CASH. I told them I was concerned about the warranty. They said there was nothing they could do. There goes my warranty. Anybody else have this problem?
case closed
HERES THE TRUTH! no need to leave any more comments on this, this is the explanation.
Best Buy has a Internet site AND a Intranet site. Previously Best Buy utilized this intranet in order to track orders placed in store, offer a more secure ordering process, and offer customers the deals in stores. Now, with new networking improvements, Best Buy has no purpose for intranet bestbuy.com. Most terminals and kiosks in best buy are switching over to the internet website but there are still some intranet terminals and kiosks.
Best Buy is not trying to screw people over they are just utilizing two different technologies that are not able to work together in a stable and consistant manor. Most employees, however, do not know this and that is why the cutomer was probably thinking that they being tricked.
Best Buy does alot of shady things but this ain’t one of em. Keep looking.
Everyone Should Hate Best Buy Inc, for there lies
I would love to tell you of our experience my wife and I add with the Big Blue Box (Best Buy) in Green Bay Wisconsin. Trust me if I would have know of your Web site I would have heeded the warnings and advice of others that have had just horrible experience with Best Buy.
Well here goes:
My wife and I decided to take some of our Tax Return to buy us a new Washer, and Dryer. Well as usual we went to BB as we have done for in the last (9) years to buy all of our Big Price appliance items, as we have bought our (3) Desktop Computers, (2) Refrigerator, (1) Dishwasher, (2) TV’s (3) DVD Player’s, (2) VCR’s, (3) Surround Sound Systems…. etc…well you get the picture, close to $10,000.00 over those (9) years.
Things seem to go smoothly with the purchase of both of them till the arraigning of the FREE delivery that was with the package deal. But the sales person worked out the glitches an made the delivery on Wed’s the 14th of February in the late afternoon. I informed the sales person that we had some serious plans made, and could they arraign it before or after the 14th. “No” was the reply that it was the only day they could make the delivery. Well ok I said, “but let’s make sure it happens”. No problem was the reply; a they would call us the night before to confirm the time in the afternoon. “Great”, I said, let’s do it.
The night of the 13th we waited till around 9pm for their call. Nothing, no call. So I called the store a talked to the sale person that sold us the Washer/Dryer, and asked when they would be delivered. I waited on hold for over 20 minutes. Finally I called back and asked for the Manager on Duty. Waited other 10 minutes till he came on the line. I explained the situation to him; he stated he would check into this. After other 10 minutes he game back on the line. He stated that the Order for delivery was CANCELLED and that there was not going to be a delivery. Well my jaw dropped to the floor. “What the Hell was going on”, I asked, I know we didn’t cancel the order for delivery. I informed him of this and said this was not acceptable and that they would need to make the delivery as promised and that we would not be available for any other day. And why the Hell had this had happen. After waiting for other 15 minutes on the phone he finally came back on with “ it will be delivered tomorrow between 4pm an 6pm” OK I said great. As I was about to thank him he hung up, without an apology of any kind, or any explanation of what was going on? Well this should have clued me into Best Buy’s customer service policy of SCREW’EM AN LOSES’EM. Well as promise they did deliver the machines on time, but not with out some hassles there too.
Where comes the good part:
The following week my wife an I decided to buy a new laptop computer, and of course BB was having a Package Deal on a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista installed and also with Mini mouse, and carrying case. This sounded great, and in our price arrange too. So we went into the Store and as usual we had to hunt down someone in the computer department to help us with the purchase. After finding a fresh Snot Nose Narcissistic Kid barely out of high school to help us, we decided to ask a few questions about the New Windows Vista system. We wanted to know if this laptop would be able to communicate with the other (3) computers we have in our home running Windows XP? And would it work with our Linksys Network Router System? And will we be able to share files, and to use our Lexmark Printer with this new Windows Vista, and our Network? “ Well of course it would…was his reply, with no problems. “ Well with that, and the blind trust I put in people we bought the laptop, and the extended service plan. And back home with our new toy.
Well we got it home and started to set it up, and everything was going as smooth as silk till we tried to set up the Network to share files/folders with the other computers, and the printer. Now I am not illiterate when it comes to computers, nor am I an expert, but I knew something was a miss, and something was not right. Well it was late and we decided to wait till the morning to finish the setup.
The following day was the Worst Frkin Nightmare I have had in 35 years (showing my age of 55) of dealing with any big business, and of course the worst day I ever had with Best Buy.
I kept trying to make the Laptop communicate with the Network, and my other (3) computers. I would keep getting a Microsoft Windows Error of “not finding a Network”. After spending an hour on their web site I could find nothing, so I called them. I spent over 45 minutes waiting; finally I spoke to someone about the problem (because I thought since it was a Windows Error the would be able to help) no such luck. They said I would need to contact Toshiba about this since this was an OEM (original equipment manufacture) problem, and not theirs. “Great” Called Toshiba, nothing, this were their service person informs me that the new Windows Vista program will not work with the network, router, a printer if my other (3) computers are running Windows XP. “HOLY COW POOP”. This was Frkin Peachy. Toshiba suggested to call Best Buy to see what they can do for me, buy asking someone there if they could help set up the network to communicate with the other computers. Sounded like sense. So I did.
So I called the Big Blue Box (BB) and spoke to same manager I had dealt with on the delivery problem. Wow that was the most stupid mistake I ever made. This manager was the biggest “DICK” I ever spoke to. I calmly explained the problem to him, an how I was led to believe that there would be no problem with this Laptop running Windows Vista to work with my computers, network, and printer. He told me point blank told me that his sales person would have “never would have told me such a thing”. God I was outraged, not only was He calling me a Lair but also it was quite clear that this worthless manager was not going to help me at all. I asked to speak to his Boss, (the store manager) SHE was not there. Then I asked how to get in contact with his District manager…. guess what…that’s right, he refused to give me that info also stating he did not know how, an even if he did he would not give me that info, because all customer concerns, and problems are handled at the store level, and that this problem did not warrant any further attention. What a worthless piece of human waste. I asked what was the name of his store manager, at first he was very hesent, and then he gave me her name.
Well for the next (4) days I spent calling the Best Buy customer service line, (what a gdamn joke this is), calling their Corp Office, calling their District office, trying to get someone to listen and care about my problem. Again No-one gave a Royal flying Rats Ass about what was going on. Only to inform me that all the customer relation problems needs are handle at the Store Level. “My God, don’t they understand that here in lies the problem the Store Management and the rotten little peckerhead that sold me the Laptop. “NO>>>HELL NO”. So after nearly going to the Hospital because on my Blood Pressure I decided to give it up. Knowing that Best Buy had SCREWED ME IN THE ASS AN NEVER USED ANY TYPE OF LUB TO EASE THE PAIN. Then out of the Blue the lousy Store Manager called an gave me the lamest apology I ever heard but still would not help me with my problem only offering to send out the GEEK Squad to make my Laptop work with my other computers, an network. But of course this would cost me other $200.00 for their service. God what kind of sick joke these folks live under, what kind of CON-Game they are playing on the costumer, what kind of people believe they would have me come back an waste my money in their store after this kind of Bull Sh___t.
God I pray, and beg anyone reading this not to buy your need’s at Best Buy, they will Lie, Cheat, an screw you up the behind so hard, that you will see stars. If any one reading this and still believes they will get good service from BB, all you will get is a Stroke.
BEST BUY GO TO HELL YOU ROTTEN MOTHERF___KERS.
Re: Everyone Should Hate Best Buy Inc, for there l
Uhh im not sure exactly what poblem you were unning into but i have a xp and vista computer on the network together fine. printer sharing files and all.
but if you are wanting someon to come provide you a service, i mean its gonna cost money because it should work and you couldnt set it up right. Im sorry you went though that but all the times you spent money befoe you never felt so upset which proved we aent all how did you say “ROTTEN MOTHERF___KERS”
compusa or circuit city wouldve done the same thing in terms of asking you to pay for the sevice to set up what you couldnt
We dont lie
Ok so yes there is an intore bestbuy.com and national bestbuy.com. As far as what people have said, instore prices will be reflected on the instore site where as the national website might have some of its own deals to compete with other websites. At bestbuy we do pricematch (See store for details). anyone who felt they were lied to by a employee, heres what i have honestly seen, New employees havent alwatys figured this out yet, and yes bad part on ebstbuy, but since allogations have been made, updates to out computers allow the employee to choose which bestbuy.com he or she wishes to view.
no one ment to mislead you, if anything a new employee (Seasonal Hire) most likely wasnt aware just like our customers. But yes we have made a change so that its simpler for our employees.
WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!
PRESENTLY, I HAVE A ONGOING PROBLEM WITH THEIR POLICES WITH REPLACING A FAULTY PRODUCT, THAT IS UNDERWARRANTY. WHILE TRYING TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM WITH BESTBUY STORE GENERAL MANGAGER , I WAS PLACE ON HOLD FOR 3 HOURS AND THEN HUNG UP ON. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING. THE MATTER HAS NOT BEEN RESOLVED AND ACCORDING TO CONSUMER RELATIONS THIS IS BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR BESTBUY TO TREAT THEIR CUSTOMER LIKE SUCKERS.
WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!
Your comments are exactly why I buy whatever I can at Costco.
Jim Sinegal knows how to take care of the customer. Higher revenue per square foot than “#1” WalMart. I had a run in with a Target Store Mgr recently who said he wouldn’t take my 7-day-old iPod back because it was opened. But no worries, when I buy anything on my AMEX, and they won’t return it, AMEX sends me a FedEx box to send it in and refund the purchase to my card… They then will dispute it at a higher level.
Kudos to (NYSE:AXP) (Kenneth I. Chenault) and (NASDAQ:COST) (Jim Sinegal). They run companies that are true champions of the American Consumer.
At the same time, my next point- You get the service that you pay for…
if you keep driving the prices down, why would you expect the slaves to be cheerful and competent? if you work for minimum wage, do you really think you should know about networks and computers? it’s not a free lunch.
about bestbuy. i rarely buy there. have not for years. as i vaguely recall the checkout was not good and returns were a problem. just not pleasant in my location.
Best Buy Tricks
I called Best Buy @ 10:02 am and asked if they had any wii’s. I had to go to extension 47, and the guy that answered said there were plenty of them in the back and even asked what color I was looking for. I got there at the store by 10:28 and they told me that they did not have any in stock. I gave them the phone number that I called and the employee told me I should have called their department. I told him I dialed ext.47 and he stated that was his department. They pull you in so on your way out you remember you need some blank cd’s or something. As for the different webpages, I too had a similar experience.
It was a special for a camcorder and you would get a case and accessories free, a $30 value free on the internet. I went to the store and they pressed a Best Buy link button and the site looked a little different and it did not have the free case. I asked if I could look, the emplioyees were a little hesitant, I entered bestbuy.com and the ad I was referring too came up. The manager told the employee that they should not have let me get on their computer. Makes you wonder? Maybe if the Attorney General was notified?
i agree. a printer i wanted to purchase was on sale $20 off. go to the store and its not there. tell them hey on the site its on sale and the guy goes and looks it up and it wasnt on sale. said thats cool and went and purchased it from another store. told them the run around i had and they gave me the discount.
Fact
I have purchased mash martini and something the full set all 11 seasons and the movie and the final show for 199.99 in store. when i got home i looked it up on the web for the heck of it i thought it had just come out 179.99??
I returned to the store just now and they showed me their website and it said 199.99 if you go home and print it out we can give it to you they say.
I return home 179.99 my printer’s black ink cartridge is kaput I cant print it 8^( So now i will return the dang thing get my cash since i didnt open it and go to amazon and buy it for 149.99
Best buy store price different than net
I recently bought a dirt devil vaccum and when checking out at Best Buy in Wyomissing PA I told the cashier that it was more expensive than on the Internet. She told me that it is like that and others have told her that. What I did not know was that I could have complained to somebody and got it for the price on the net?
I was not going to risk being late for work for 5 or 6 bucks. Next time I will take more time and insist on the net price. Or will I be told “too bad the store is different than on the net.
The only reason I did not buy on the net was that you cannot use reward coupons on the net.
I don’t put ANYTHING past Best Buy anymore. Our big screen TV broke twice within 3 years and the last time we tried to get it fixed under warranty, we got the run-around for 7 WEEKS before we finally got BB (through threats of suing) to either get our set repaired or get us a replacement. I logged 27 phone calls between BB corporate and the warranty service repair shop who had our set. Basically no one would follow up and let us know what was going on, and BB itself made about 7 mistakes along the way all costing us more time without our set. We will only HAVE to buy another set from BB because we are being given replacement value but we will never ever again CHOOSE to buy from BB again. Their products suck and especially their warranty service.
FOR A BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY, THEY OPERATE LIKE THE 3 STOOGES. Apparently BestBuy doesn’t care if they piss off a few customers since they have so many other suckers who will still buy from them. We stopped buying from them a while ago because they screwed us big time and we ended up filing suit against them and won (big surprise). IF YOU BUY FROM BESTBUY BEWARE OF THE CONSEQUENCES!!!
Bought A Computer from Them
They specialise in training their employees and staff to lie and cheat the customers. I wonder how and why they are still in business.They should have been sued to extinction by now. A class action is urgently needed against them.
BEST BUY SCAMS!!
Be alerted that Best Buy is presently involved as defendants in multimillion dollar law suits for criminal offenses involving product fraud. Just type on your search engine Best Buy Fraud! This type of felony is being ignored by Law Enforcement Officials since Best Buy is a major influential conglomerate.
I’m a Private Detective and presently retained an Attorney in order to establish a Nationwide Class Action Law Suit against the predators, Best Buy. If you are a victim of the below listed offenses then read on…
Fraud
False pretenses
False promises
Misrepresentation
Misleading statements
Selling Defective Products as new
Not Honoring Warranty
They are intentionally selling all type of damaged electronic devices, computers, televisions, etc that are manufactured in Communist China and negligently put together. The result is that you get a mechanism that will not operate accordingly. Also, their deceptive Insurance Plan is never honored and they refuse to be responsible for such!
Thus, this is a criminal enterprise that is misrepresenting the interest of the Public and many victims don’t know where to go. In addition, when you as a consumer contact Best Buy Headquarter in Minnesota, they also refuse to replace or exchange or refund your item. This is plain and simple “Fraud”. More interestingly is how the General State Attorneys Office ignores the pleas of many victimized consumers!!!
Therefore, my class action law suit will integrate and generate Millions of dollars in damages for all those who sign up with prove of purchases! Let’s get the ball rolling and put these criminals out of business. Please also Network this email among all your friends and feel free to publish it freely on the Internet and printed materials for other victims to see!
Do not buy products at the Kendall Drive store, Miami, Florida, under their criminal Manager named Oscar Valera. This Neanderthal is a real Gangster!
Best of Luck
Charles Del Campo
Miami, Florida
Tel: (305) 529-4949
Email: Sircharlesdc@aol.com
Best buy operation
I was enticred to buy a 54 ” tv with no interest in 3 years.What happened they inserted charges that was not authorized by me. The told me that they will present an evidence of my approval but never happen. It has been 3 months nothing happen but I am still billed for it.
Nobody cannot help me so watch when you deal at best buy..
best buy is devious
i had the same thing happen like 3 different times. well i outfoxed them by printing the item page with the sale price. needless to say no explanation was given, but i did receive internet ad price.
Cancellation of internet order
We ordered a desktop “Labor Day deal” late on Labor Day, but with shipping, etc. the charge was over what we had budgeted for this. Most other large chains were offering free shipping on their “deals”, so we assumed this would be the same. THE PROBLEM WAS EARLY THIS MORNING, (THE NEXT DAY)WHEN, CUSTOMER “NO” SERVICE OPENED, WE CALLED TO CANCEL THE ORDER, BUT WERE TOLD BY EVERY SUPERVISOR AND EVEN THE CUSTOMER RELATIONS DEPT. THAT THIS IS “IMPOSSIBLE”. ONE OF THEM SAID IT WAS ALREADY SHIPPED, BUT ANOTHER SAID IT WOULD GO OUT BETWEEN 9/7 AND 9/12. THE PRINTOUT WE GOT WHEN THE ORDER WAS DONE LAST PM CLEARLY STATES THAT CUSTOMER CARE MAY BE ABLE TO ASSIST YOU IN A LIST OF SERVICES ONE OF THEM BEING CANCELING ORDER ITEMS. i WILL TELL EVERYONE I KNOW ABOUT THE REAL BEST BUY WHICH ISN’T THIS STORE CHAIN!!!!!!! OUR PHONE NUMBER IS LISTED SINCE OUR COMPUTER CRASHED.
INSTORE ADS vs INTERNET ADS
SOUNDS LIKE BATE AND SWITCH TO ME
INSTORE ADS vs INTERNET ADS
SOUNDS LIKE BATE AND SWITCH TO ME
The Same Thing,
So I see a sale price on the Best Buy Internet site, go to the store, and of course their intranet says its more money. Luckily the Macs on display were connected to the Internet. I showed them the sale price advertised on the mac and they had to “price match” it.
Price match your own price?
oh man.
Website Pricing
I am an employee of Best Buy. I would like to clarify the whole website pricing accusation. When employees log on to their computers to access best buys website, their are two links available from the applications menu. There is a BBY local site and a BBY national site. The best buy local website reflects regular local in-store pricing, and does not show sale prices. The national website is the one that reflects sale pricing and is the one that customer view from the home computer. The next time you have a sale price from the website and the employee goes to check it from their computer, please ask them if they are viewing the national website and not the local one. If the employee does not understand what you are talking about give them these directions.
After logging on click on applications. At the very top, about 2 or 3 links down there will be two links. One will say BBY Local and the other BBY National. Have them click on national.
Sorry about the misconception. I agree that it is the employee’s fault for not understanding and for trying to prove you wrong. Hope this helps.
Have a great shopping experience!
Russian TV from Best Buy with Non-existent parts
Mr. Bradbury Anderson
Vice Chairman, CEO
Best Buy Corporation
7601 Penn Avenue
Richfield, Mn 55423 September 24, 2007
Dear Mr. Anderson:
I am writing because I was told by the manager of your Tallahassee store that the problem I describe below could only be resolved by Best Buy’s (BB) corporate executives.
On August 20 I purchased an Insignia 30” television set at a discount price (see enclosed receipt). At the time of purchase I was told that the reduced price was because the set had been previously sold and returned by the buyer. I was also told that the television was, nonetheless, in perfect working order, but would be sold without a box. I later discovered that the manual was for a different model television and that the remote control unit was defective (a new remote has been received as of this writing).
After many attempts, I was unable to get any image to appear other than a set-up menu. While installing the non-functioning television in an entertainment center in my home, the set dropped to the floor. The fall damaged the case slightly, but I was now able to get a picture on one channel but no cable connection.
I made an appointment with your home service department. He analyzed the television and advised that the problem was a malfunctioning circuit board which he would replace under the terms of the warranty.
The next day he called and informed me that INSIGNIA does not provide replacement parts for their television sets. The repairman stated that his instructions are to “REPLACE SET,” which he would not be able to do because of the cracked case.
At my request, he provided me his manager’s name, phone number in Jacksonville who confirmed the same. I requested that he try and locate the circuit board and case and I would pay for these parts. The Jacksonville Manager assured me that it would not be possible to locate parts for any Insignia television set.
I returned to the BB store, asked for a full store credit equal to the price of the television, and a refund of the charge for the four-year service contract fee.
I am doing a report regarding best buy financial improving for year 06, but I unable to get the information, how can you help me please write me.
I know that the ratio on 04 and 05 was no good but the teacher tall me to know to the internet but I am not unable to get it. Thanks.
I have had a problem, with all these chain stores?
I went to best buy and circuit city.Trying to find PC building
parts.Circuit city, I went the day before a sale they had on
a digital camera. I ask about the camera and they gave me a estimated time next day 2:00. I came back after the deadline.
This time I asked for a rain check. They said we don’t give rain checks.The object being they didn’t have the mdse and they didn’t get the mdse! I went from circuit city to best buy.This time I ran into the we only have it on line.Who do you sell to, if its only on line?Old timers like myself do not like a pig in a poke buying experience.Otherwise just get me a sears catalog.I’ll buy from this?Thanks, thats my two cents worth!
Best Buy
I just bought a Plantronics M214C headset from Best Buy, my husband told me the price online was $29.99, in store it was $30.99. I checked their pc in the store and the price was also $30.99. I bought the headset and checked the online price at home – $29.99. It’s not the whole dollar that bothers me, it’s being taken for a fool. I called to complain and was fobbed off with some strange excuse about shipping prices. I then put in a formal complaint and will go back to the store this afternoon for my dollar.
how i was lied to
on sept 27 07 i had brought my lap tp to get repaired at the geek squad they were to fix the key board because it was sticking and windows didnt load got it back and repair was one or moremechanicalalignments were made to correct function then on oct 17 07 brought it in again for the same problem service preformed unit was disassembled and inspected i then brought it in again for the same problem plus windows wasnt working . the lap top was past ts warrenty in november but being that it was repaired on oct 17 you get 90 warrenty on unit when i went to best buy i had asked the geek squad how come i was never given a recovery disk they told me that gateway doesnt have that only tosheba and dell come with it So i said okay being that i know nothing about computers i accepted that when i got home a friend said to me he never heard of that so i called gateway they told me that all there computers come with the disk and always did So i called best buy again asked them where is the disk they turn around and tell me that gate way just started giving disks this year i told them thats not what gateway told me and i then asked to speek to his supervisor He turns around and says the same thing and tells me oh well call gateway they didnt put the disk in box. i call gateway and they ask me if bestbuy installed the sofrtware .Isaid yes i dont know how . gateway tells me that this isnt the first time that this has happened when best buy insalls the software they sometimes semm to forget to put it back in the box So i ended up having to buy the disk that should have been ther already bestbuy took my laptop for the repair and then calls me to tell me that i have to pay 432.00 for the repair I then called bestbuys consumer relations dept and had to explain to them of the problem and got nowhere so i asked for the ceo of bestbuy they tod me brian dunn i wanted his phone # they dont have one nobody speeks to him i asked for his e mail told he doent have one so consumer relations asks if i want to speek to a supervisor I said yes Matt gets on and appologizes and says to me he will have it fied at no charge because of all the problems ive had and since its been an on going problem it would be fixed On dec 26 07 Bestbuy calls me and tells me ny lap top is fixed to come pick it up I go there and it was never fiexd I asked why There answer was because i didnt want to pay the $432.00 and that there was water damage to it since sept 26 07 i told them that its impossable and that not one repair form states that so they tell me then pay I again call consumer relations and give them the case # that was given to me i left numerious messages to matt the supervisor and never got a call back When i finally do consumer relations tells me that matt isnt handling the case anymore that another supervisor is named John he gets on and tells me that they dont care that the warrenty is void because of water damage I told him that they never said that to me in sept ,oct until know all of a sudden so i asked to speek to brian dunn once again john the supervisor tells me nobody speeks to him so i asked for his e mail i was told he doesnt have one Now that im totaly aggravated i said to him what are you telling me he is like the wizzord of oz nobody can speek to him he turns around and says yes sorry im the highest there is good bye I WILL NEVER GO TO BESTBUY AGAIN THEY ROBBED ME OF MY RECOVERY DISK AND NOW ALL OF A SUDDEN THERE IS WATER DAMAGE TO THE LAP TOP ITS NOT LIKE THIS JUST HAPPENED ITS BEEN THE SAME PROBLEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN I TELL EVERY BODY THAT IS EVEN THINKING OF GOING THER NOT TO ITS NOT BESTBUY ITS WORSTBUY THERE SALES ARENT BECAUSE YOU END UP PAYING FOR IT IN THE LONG RUN
Bestbuy.com Scam
Yes, it’s true! I bought an item tonight at Best Buy after scouting prices on the internet. When I was charged $15 more than the online price, I questioned it. The guy checking me out said he’d check on it. So he took down the item SKU#, left me standing there for several minutes, then came back and had the cajones to tell me, “Nope, the price I charged is the price that’s listed on the computer.” I asked what site he visited. “Bestbuy.com.” Alas, NOT the same website I had accessed from home and he knew it! I went home, printed out the page and went BACK to the store to prove it. They refunded the difference but I think should have given me a discount for my inconvenience on top of it! My advice is continue to shop at Best Buy if you choose but be a savvy consumer and ALWAYS take a printout of the item you wish to purchase with the sale price clearly noted!!
Mistake or Rip Off
Bought a new VISTA computer yesterday at Best Buy. Checked Circuit City prices today to price compare. Used the HP model number off the box. This is how I discovered that I paid $959 for a computer with a quad processor (model 8330f) but actually received model 8300 with a dual processor that sells for $759. Called the store, they are out of the one I bought. Honest mistake or rip off???
Foul Intentions???
First things first, my OPINION on Best Buy.
Its terribly overpriced and I don’t shop there. Period.
Is best buy trying to deceive customers?
Heres a thought:
-It’s obvious that, YES, they use a local version of the site inside of the store.
-Why not just use the same site? It’s faster for faster in store access.
-Most likely, there is some kind of “auto-update” for the local site that is just a copy from the normal site. It obviously isn’t going to be copied every hour, so if something changes…the local site might not change for another few hours or even a day or so.
At first I was skeptical as well, BUT I just don’t think they would risk doing something that freaking stupid.
Just a though.
Best Buy
Yes, You are compleately correct. Best Buy does have two different sites. The Sites we have in the store are only to help people look what they are looking for and to show what we have available IN the store. If you would like to match an online advertisement from bestbuy.com we would be more then happy to match that price for you.
Getting it Straight
I see all the people complain about the Bestbuy.com in the store compared to bestbuy.com at home. If you look at the Screen in the store, it says prices reflect in-store prices only. This allows customers to look for something at a internet kiosk and find info on the product. They can even print out the info if they like. But, the website clearly states the site reflects the prices IN THE STORE ONLY. Please get the facts straight before slamming a company.
Foul Intentions???
BestBuy.com sells NATIONALLY, therefore, it offers deals that the local stores do not. Try looking at the online version of the sales ad. It asked for your ZIP CODE. Why? So it can show you the ad for your market. People in NYC will pay a higher price than folks in a St. Louis suburb because of the overhead of operating. If you want the price on BB.com, print out the page and have it price matched like any other ad. Don’t think that just because it’s $X on the site that it will be in store also.
No way!
I work at Best buy and that is not what that is used for at all. For one we price match the website in store 95% of the time. Secondly we use that Internal website to show what is available in store in a certain area. There is no reason for us to be Shady we are non-comission. Most of us are just college students that like people and electronics with no plans on moving up in the company.
Re:
Re:
I found this product at Baby Beau & Belle and thought ou might fI found this product at Baby Beau & Belle and thought ou might find it of interest.ind it of interest.
I dont like best buy
BestBuy.com/creditcards
Does this site even exist? As others have said, I follwoed the instructions on my bill to go to the credit card site and there isn’t one. I was going to pay my bill online. What is going on?
BestBuy.com/creditcards
Does this site even exist? As others have said, I followed the instructions on my bill to go to the credit card site and there isn’t one. I was going to pay my bill online. What is going on?
Best Buy vs. Fry's Electronics
I’d like to add to this forum by pasting an email I sent to a buddy of mine who lives out of state. Let this serve as my opinion:
I know you may not really care the way I do but I have to say….
Ya’ know I’ve mentioned in the past that Best Buy acts like a major Fry’s wannabe. They fashion their lines the way Fry’s does. They have everyone line up single file and (actually pay) a guy directs you to the next available register (I love Fry’s but that’s just fuckin’ stupid to the point that it drives me insane). And along the way they line either side of the lines with merchandise. Goodies for you to collect along the way. It’s really fuckin’ sad. It’s like the loser who does a popular comedian’s material BADLY. It’s such a cheesy-ass, WEAK attempt. Don’t know if you’ve ever been to Fry’s but the next time you’re out here we need to go. It’s where all good men go when we die.
I’ve said that the problem with Fry’s is location. I either have to drive deep into Anaheim, or Fountain Valley. Both seemingly equal distances in opposite directions. You may also recall that there are no freeways in or around Cypress. You have to drive to another city. That being said, it’s much more convenient to pick up certain items from the local Best Buy, which is located right next to one of the freeways I’d otherwise have to get on and navigate for another 20 minutes or so. To say nothing of the parking situation when you arrive at Fry’s as there are few of them but they are MAMMOTH.
Anyway, bringing the point home. I need a range booster or otherwise extendable antenna for my wireless adapter just to get that extra sip of signal strength for my personal machine in my room. The cable modem and router stops in Jordan’s room (my old room) which, forced me to go wireless. Do you think Best Buy was able to accomidate my need for said antenna. NO. They couldn’t. And as long as they continue to serve the otherwise non savvy public (ala the Geek Squad) they will never be what Fry’s is. A great store where you can go to find WHAT YOU NEED. Oh Best Buy sells wireless routers and adapters. But do they carry things like…. oh I don’t know….. antennas? NO. We’d rather let you have “The Geek Squad” come out to your house and setup your wireless network for $300.00 or whatever ungodly amount we’re charging to NOT FIX ANYTHING.
Yes, we’re Best Buy. We’re out to have as many stores sucking in as much of your money as humanly possible. Best Buy. Because big money isn’t made by serving smart people.
Burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn. In the end, I’ll have to make the trip to Fry’s who, according to their website not only has what I need but a WIDE selection of them at an affortable, fair price.
P.S. No offense whatsoever. This is based on the perspective of an I.T. guy.
Best Buy vs. Fry's Electronics
I’d like to add to this forum by pasting an email I sent to a buddy of mine who lives out of state. Let this serve as my opinion:
I know you may not really care the way I do but I have to say….
Ya’ know I’ve mentioned in the past that Best Buy acts like a major Fry’s wannabe. They fashion their lines the way Fry’s does. They have everyone line up single file and (actually pay) a guy directs you to the next available register (I love Fry’s but that’s just fuckin’ stupid to the point that it drives me insane). And along the way they line either side of the lines with merchandise. Goodies for you to collect along the way. It’s really fuckin’ sad. It’s like the loser who does a popular comedian’s material BADLY. It’s such a cheesy-ass, WEAK attempt. Don’t know if you’ve ever been to Fry’s but the next time you’re out here we need to go. It’s where all good men go when we die.
I’ve said that the problem with Fry’s is location. I either have to drive deep into Anaheim, or Fountain Valley. Both seemingly equal distances in opposite directions. You may also recall that there are no freeways in or around Cypress. You have to drive to another city. That being said, it’s much more convenient to pick up certain items from the local Best Buy, which is located right next to one of the freeways I’d otherwise have to get on and navigate for another 20 minutes or so. To say nothing of the parking situation when you arrive at Fry’s as there are few of them but they are MAMMOTH.
Anyway, bringing the point home. I need a range booster or otherwise extendable antenna for my wireless adapter just to get that extra sip of signal strength for my personal machine in my room. The cable modem and router stops in Jordan’s room (my old room) which, forced me to go wireless. Do you think Best Buy was able to accomidate my need for said antenna. NO. They couldn’t. And as long as they continue to serve the otherwise non savvy public (ala the Geek Squad) they will never be what Fry’s is. A great store where you can go to find WHAT YOU NEED. Oh Best Buy sells wireless routers and adapters. But do they carry things like…. oh I don’t know….. antennas? NO. We’d rather let you have “The Geek Squad” come out to your house and setup your wireless network for $300.00 or whatever ungodly amount we’re charging to NOT FIX ANYTHING.
Yes, we’re Best Buy. We’re out to have as many stores sucking in as much of your money as humanly possible. Best Buy. Because big money isn’t made by serving smart people.
Burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn. In the end, I’ll have to make the trip to Fry’s who, according to their website not only has what I need but a WIDE selection of them at an affortable, fair price.
P.S. No offense whatsoever. This is based on the perspective of an I.T. guy.
Best Buy Extended Warranty Scam
Best Buy has been repairing my laptop since the end of October 2007. I have this expensive warranty that states “Best Buy will replace your item if it is serviced more than 3 times. My laptop has been sent in 9 times and remains to be un-repaired. They will not replace it. I have constantly been told it will be repaired. Since the onset of this feassco, they have broken the USB port, the power switch, and it is really dirty now. I have called explained this many times to there wonderful staff at 1888bestbuy and to any manager when they will talk to me at the store and I get the same reply: “We can’t replace it without approval” Who’s approval God himself… Anyway, I won’t go away, I am persistant. I will not purchase another item from them….
I have the same problem
Hello all,
I have the same problem but also with Circuit City here in Puerto Rico. They had just open 2 of each Best Buy & Circuit City. I was looking for a Home Theather Reciever and found one at Circuit City, they had the same one at Best Buy but for $30.00 more on their website. Anyway I go to purchase the HTR and pay with my CC. When I get to the part to imput state, (Now mind you they have PR in the states box)I select PR. All of a sudden a box pops up stating that this online offer not valid in Puerto Rico and goes on to inform me of some BS policy. So I print out a copy of the sale’s ad and take it to the store. I show it to a sales person and he tells me that it’s no longer on sale. I ask him since when and he tells me almost 2 weeks back. I tell him that I would like to talk to the instore manager on duty. Manager comes over and I explain to him what’s going on and (Now check this out) he tells me that the offers that are on the store’s website do not apply to Puerto Rico because it cost alot to ship the store products oversea. So he more or less say to me to make ends meet, that the online products are not valid to Puerto Rico because of the oversea cost and more BS. Anyway I think it SUCKS
Joey
i work at best buy
wow yeah we really have too websites web pages dont always get updated on time soo a duh maybe the sale was really over and the person who worked their you asked maybe was new or dumb
I can’t believe I came across this.I am having a situation with Best Buy regarding my Best Buy credit card.I feel like they have decieved me on many levels.I like best buy because they have good prices and a big selection,but I think they are shady when it comes to customer care and satisfaction.
I’m having some issues with my best Buy credit card and when I went on line,like all of you,I can’t find the website that shows me my account info…
I’M not an anonymous coward!!! Who’s the genius who put this website up!?
what ever you purchase. DO NOT BUY THE WARRANTY BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT LOYAL TO IT. We have been fighting since november to get our Tv. fixed and have had no results.
Their sevice department has even stood us up without even calling. I will never purshase anything from them again.
free softwares and themes for everyone
you can download free softwaeres from newyork city, which downloaded 550000 times
http://www.surattajmahal.co.nr/
free softwares and themes for everyone
you can download free softwaeres from newyork city, which downloaded 550000 times
http://www.surattajmahal.co.nr/
BestBuy is devious
imagination.vg video how to design sites ~www.imagination.vg
Best Buy.com
Why is there soooo many sites and no easy way to click and pay you credit card bill???
defective and return policy
I really have a hard time believing that Best buy really cares about the customer. when you buy a laptop you would think it is brand new and it will work for months to come. I had a laptop computer that I need to take back 2 weeks after the refund policy but stupid me left it in the car for 2 weeks because I had a busy fricken schedule so come to the time I need to return it the fricken refund policy is over due . thank god I had the super duper warranty plan that covered me. its kinda frustrating when they say they fixed it and you bring it home and it’s worst than I got it. do I need you to remind you that it is 1 month old now. brought in again and they said they would have it the next day by 3:00 and I come in and they didn’t even touch it and the super geek was going to charge me 130. dollars for a wipe out of the software. are you kindong me.what gives the right that Best Buy says here I want your business and fuck you for being a customer of ours . they don’t care I am a laptop that is just pushed through again. what happen to the custormer service? what happen to the value of a computer that isn’t made from CHINA what happens to a computer that you don’t want anymore because of the defects it has on it. I guess go and buy another computer that is out of your league thinking its the best and it really is the last years model and have a Manager tell you we at Best Buy is the best company out there
Leading the way
its a flipbook?
bestbuy has screwed me over with the fake website IF they sell apple computers go over there and pull it up. apple has their own private internet line run there that has the real internet
all the pc’s at best buy have a prozy server
I went to buy a laptop backpack. normally 80 bucks in sell for 30… i looked it up online before i left. went to bestbuy. and from the time i letf to the time i got there sell had supposedly ended and the bag was 59.99… i had to settle for a cheaper one but i argued with them saying it was just posted as avaible at this location 10 minutes ago online…. they pulled up on their internet… and i noticed it went to bby.com.. i said thats a fake website aint it? it should be bestbuy.com and pointed out the intranet. they lied saying it for serucity purposes they dont want people pulling up x rated porn and leaving it up there….. i said yeah what ever FUCK OFF and bought the cheaper bag and left…
a few months later i was there to get a new desktop. i just happened to have my laptop with mobile broadband it the car with me.. they tryed to charge me 90 dolars more again going through the fake website shit i said.. ill be back i have to get something from my car.. i bring my laptop in whip out the mobile broadband card and pull up the same exact website. and show them. and loudly announce how they suck for trying to over charge prople like this and this it just wrong….
they didnt really seem to care. just a meh. they tryed to sell me an extended warranty with that laptop. and i said NO ….. if yall are trying to over harge the average customer that doesnt realize this.. I will not shop with you anymore an di will shop with(in a rather loud voice) CIRCUIT CITY … where they have the correct prices on line and instore without the fake websites….. i had a few people who looked clueless about computer give a disgusted lok to the manager and leave as i did
Leading the way
its a flipbook?
bestbuy has screwed me over with the fake website IF they sell apple computers go over there and pull it up. apple has their own private internet line run there that has the real internet
all the pc’s at best buy have a prozy server
I went to buy a laptop backpack. normally 80 bucks in sell for 30… i looked it up online before i left. went to bestbuy. and from the time i letf to the time i got there sell had supposedly ended and the bag was 59.99… i had to settle for a cheaper one but i argued with them saying it was just posted as avaible at this location 10 minutes ago online…. they pulled up on their internet… and i noticed it went to bby.com.. i said thats a fake website aint it? it should be bestbuy.com and pointed out the intranet. they lied saying it for serucity purposes they dont want people pulling up x rated porn and leaving it up there….. i said yeah what ever FUCK OFF and bought the cheaper bag and left…
a few months later i was there to get a new desktop. i just happened to have my laptop with mobile broadband it the car with me.. they tryed to charge me 90 dolars more again going through the fake website shit i said.. ill be back i have to get something from my car.. i bring my laptop in whip out the mobile broadband card and pull up the same exact website. and show them. and loudly announce how they suck for trying to over charge prople like this and this it just wrong….
they didnt really seem to care. just a meh. they tryed to sell me an extended warranty with that laptop. and i said NO ….. if yall are trying to over harge the average customer that doesnt realize this.. I will not shop with you anymore an di will shop with(in a rather loud voice) CIRCUIT CITY … where they have the correct prices on line and instore without the fake websites….. i had a few people who looked clueless about computer give a disgusted lok to the manager and leave as i did
bull ads
agree with you