Posted on 03/03/2007 12:26:54 PM PST by quidnunc
Like most smart shoppers, Eric Hammer had done his homework and was convinced he'd found the best deal he could get on the laptop computer he was buying for his father's 82nd birthday present.
That was before the East Hartford teacher made a couple trips to Best Buy stores in West Hartford and Newington, and found that a price on the company's Internet site is not always what it seems. At least not to Best Buy sales staff.
Hammer, 47, who lives in Torrington, and his wife had found a great deal on a Toshiba on the bestbuy.com website. The mega-national electronic store was giving $150 off the computer, which on bestbuy.com said was normally selling for $879.99.
But when Hammer went to the Best Buy store in West Hartford on January 11th 2007 the salesman told him that the Best Buy sale was over. The Best Buy salesman even showed him on his Best Buy store computer that the price was now $879.99.
"I said `God, you are right,'" Hammer recalled. Hammer then drove to Newington hoping to find a deal on the computer at Circuit City. No deals, but while playing on the computers he decided to check bestbuy.com and discovered that the sale at Best Buy was still on.
Now he was thoroughly confused. Hammer went to the nearby Best Buy and asked a salesman to give him a price on the computer — $879.99, he was told.
Hammer said he started to argue with the Best Buy salesman, who attempted to prove his point by logging on to an internal Best Buy computer that had a giant monitor to show that there was no longer a sale.
"I am not saying that you are wrong," Hammer said the salesman told him. "I just don't see that price here at Best Buy."
By then Hammer had had enough and asked that he be permitted to navigate the Best Buy computer. Hammer went directly to bestbuy.com and lo and behold, it showed that a sale was still on. The manager, Hammer said, shrugged and told the salesman to give Hammer the sale Best Buy price.
The salesman had no explanation and unfortunately he didn't have that computer in stock at Best Buy. West Hartford, he said, had five.
Hammer got a printout of the sale and drove back to West Hartford where he showed the salesman the printout and got the computer at the discount. Hammer immediately sent me an e-mail about his experience, and theorized that there must be some kind of dual website at Best Buy stores because he said he had seen both salesmen log on. One Best Buy website that everyone could access and one Best Buy that only the salesmen could access.
-snip-
Sure, but when you are trying to turn poor inventory practice into a scandal, the word "secret" really helps.
I've never had trouble like that at Frys. Yes, they've been out of stuff I went for, but they also been in stock with it. Other stuff that they advertised (but I didn't need or want) was also in stock, and I've also found unadvertised deals there as well. So, I don't think they run a bait and switch operation.
Nobody's perfect and with the number of people they hire you WILL get misinformation, but I don't have a problem with Frys.
LOL.
I guess the hospital I worked at with our super secret intranet site was trying to hide our diabolical billing practices from the public.
"Barber insists that the company never intended to mislead customers."
They wanted to mislead the tax man.
Maybe the intranet site is updated more frequently than the internet site?
to some extent this is natural selection at work
with the ready availability of the internet, it's not difficult to be an informed consumer
OTOH this kind of bad pub can really hurt a company and greatly overwhelm the extra money they might make on dubious deals
a bright young man I know went to work as a salesman at a large auto dealer (the saintly Toyota no less) and told me that even though he was making a lot of money, he felt so bad about how they were scalping the customer he had to quit
"Our intention is to provide the best price to our customers which is why we have a price-match policy in place," the company said in a written statement to me.
Whenever a business says that it intends "to provide the best price to our customers", it always means that it intends "to provide the best price FOR US to our customers". There are no exceptions.
Never had a problem getting rebates from them.
Also, have never had a problem getting something at the Internet price; just ordered via Internet, then either had it shipped, or took the printed receipt to the (not so) local store to pick it up.
OTOH, I HATE dealing with their store staff.
Caveat: A lot of stuff I have searched prices on BestBuy.com for is ONLY available online, and small print so-states. Also states that it is NOT available for in-store pick-up in many cases.
I learned long ago that many retailers have a SEPERATE Web business that is in addition to, not part of, their physical business.
Check out Amazon.
They sell computer stuff at good prices and they have always been reliable in my dealings with them.
I'm hard pressed to see how using a deceptive look-alike web site could be considered a 'poor inventory practice'.
We have a wonderful store right by us called ABT. It's owned and run locally and almost always beats Best Buy etc price wise. They get all our electronic business. If I walked through my house right now you could call it an ABT house. Entire kitchen, all computers, all tvs, all dvd players etc.
I only go to Beast Buy when I'm in the mall the one by me for other reasons is in and I want to check out their music selection. I usually go there because there's a Michaels, a Bed Bath and Beyond, a Petsmart, Chilis, Barnes and Noble. nice theter, a great Jewel (grocery chain) and a Dicks Sporting Goods.
I occasionally shop at Best Buy, but what I find annoying is that they want to look in your bag and check your receipt prior to leaving the store......
My kids never will go with me because I ALWAYS do this....
As I approach the Security Guard, he attempt to stop me and ask to see my receipt and ask look in my bag. I tell him no....He'll insist that it's a store requirement...I'll respond that once I purchased the merchandise at the register the bag and it's contents are my personal possessions and not subject to a search. However, if he would like to see the receipt and the contents I'll let him peek for $5 bucks.....Cash only....
They've never paid me to date and not delayed me any further....
There was also a recent problem with Best Buy where they were keeping tabs (tracking) of customers who only purchased the loss-leader items. The customer names were placed on a "deadbeat" list.
You do know what an "intranet" is, right?
Best Buy doesn't know what the selling price is, or even what they have in inventory. Their "geek squad" has no technical knowledge either. It's just poor business....and a healthy dose of attitude.
Any way, I fired off an email asking for a correction and confirmation of the charge correction.
Methinks their enterprise-wide system has a hole in it.
If not, I'll go through the hassle of sending the stuff back when it arrives, my handling and shipping be damned.
Hmm, I've noticed that one of my favourite stores lately will have certain items on the website on sale wile the store will still have it at full price or selling at a higher sale price. They don't go by prices on the website, though, they go by what the store price is.
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