Comments on: Best Buy Deceiving Customers, Faces Lawsuit

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 26 May 2007 14:48:19 +0000

Thanks for chiming in Brandon, its nice to hear the perspective from a Best Buy employee. I don’t think the lawsuit really has any bearing either, but people are always out for some easy money.

I just think that Best Buy’s internal site should be the same as whats online.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 05:58:02 +0000

well it happened with me recently…. i was looking at an online offer for a Western Digital 160 GB passport HDD which was listed at 109 dollars. So, i decided instead of buying it online… save on the shipping and all by picking it up at the store. So, I went to the store next morning, picked up the drive. It was listed at $149 at the shop. So, they asked me to do a price match at the customer services counter. After standing in the line for 20 minutes, when I asked them to match this with the price on their website… they showed me the same 149 dollar price. With nothing else to say, I simply left the store. Came back to check and the price was changed to 149 USD in the site as well. It could be possible that the offer died at midnight, but it was really frustrating.

I dont know how much of the whole bait-and-switch thing is true… but i hope everything is sorted out.

By: Brandon Tilley

Brandon Tilley — Sat, 26 May 2007 05:27:08 +0000

I also had no problem once getting an online-only deal in-store, just had to clear it with the manager but he was fine with it.

I’m such an idiot. I forgot about this when I posted my first comment–for about a year now, Best Buy has been able to “price match” its own website. It’s very standard, don’t have to clear it with anyone now.

I honestly don’t think this lawsuit will go anywhere. Best Buy is a multi-billion dollar company; I doubt very seriously they’d jeopardize business by purposely baiting-and-switching on customers. I think that the entire issue stems from undertrained or misinformed employees and confused customers.

By: Brandon Tilley

Brandon Tilley — Fri, 25 May 2007 22:24:44 +0000

This actually came up a while back. I work at Best Buy, but I will say I have never used and was never instructed to use the “bait-and-switch” tactic on a customer. I was aware that the website offers some deals online only, but I was not aware of the fact that other products were priced differently on the Intranet.

A month or so ago, I noticed that the in-store kiosks have a big banner that says “this kiosk reflects in-store pricing” or some such.

I hope it all gets sorted out.

By: Seth Brundle

Seth Brundle — Fri, 25 May 2007 22:21:30 +0000

Interesting…I live in Conn and it has always been made clear to me by store employees that the in-store website was different and that the online and in-store had separate deals…

I also had no problem once getting an online-only deal in-store, just had to clear it with the manager but he was fine with it.

I think this is less a case of Best Buy deception and more of it just being confusing for shoppers and perhaps some salespeople or stores…