I found this short article over on Consumerist.com, originally posted in 2007. It brings the popular electronics store, Best Buy, under a bit of scrutiny over some of their business practices. Of course, this particular franchise has gotten a lot of heat over the years, going all the way from customer service complaints to horror stories of employee treatment.
This time it’s the pricing that looks suspicious. A bit of a bait and switch scenario, if you will.
It starts with a customer surfing the company website and finding a sought after item ON SALE. Alright! They scoot on down to the nearest Best Buy location and lo! the sale is over! They missed it by mere minutes! The oh-so-helpful employees even pull up the website to prove that the sale is over (and no doubt suggest buying the in-store model at a higher price). Dejected, the customer returns home to pine over the lost sale.
But what is this? A second glance a the site shows the sale still in progress! How could this be?
Suspicion has it that Best Buy makes use of an employee only, store wide intranet – a Best Buy website that has no correlation to the public access site available at home on your favorite browser. Thus you are drawn into the store by promises of cheap electronics, but denied the sale by “proof” that the sale is over. I suppose the hope is that you will buy the item anyway – at a higher price.
In the employees defense, many aren’t even aware of the discrepancy. They will pull up the kiosk website in a genuine attempt to help the customer. But corporate instead fools them into duping the customer. Thanks Best Buy. I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.