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-
You said the magic word, gridlock. They do not stock it. You would be surprised the number of stores that no longer stock items.
We have a Fry's here in Houston. Thanks for the tip.
Do they actually block the site, are they spoofing their own site, or is it just a lookalike?
I'm inclined to think the former but maybe not...if the store clerk just types in web.bestbuy.com instead of www.bestbuy.com, and the former is the intranet site, the latter is the internet site, and hopes the customer doesn't notice the difference, it's one thing, but if they're spoofing (in the cryptographic sense) their own site (www.bestbuy.com takes you to the intranet site in the store), I think think that is fraud.
If they're blocking their own site (www.bestbuy.com is merely unreachable in the store)....dang, I don't know how I feel about that....it is underhanded, yes, but fraud?
I have shopped at BB -- this story does lower my opinion of them -- it is near a Staples and a Circuit City -- sometimes I check all 3 places in one trip.
If you went to the first Best Buy there ever was you would not have had that experience. It was a double wide sitting along highway 12 and Plymouth Road. The place was stacked wall to wall with electronics. Back then you could have shook the had of a billionaire.
Merry Christmas, Best Buy.
I have seen that BB has many sales that are in-store only, which allows them to provide a limited quantity of loss-leaders to draw people in. They normally indicate that the store would have at least X number for sale and no rainchecks.
It might be worthwhile to try a online purchase with in-store pickup, just to see what they have in stock. There might be a way to make it work in your favor.
I'm glad he got the laptop at his price. That's a heck of a laptop for $729.99.
Thanks TX. Husband showed this to me the other day on Slashdot. That's pretty darn rotten. When we first moved into our home, we were looking for a fridge. We had to find just the right size because of limited space in the kitchen. It couldn't be super huge. We finally found one a few weeks prior to our move-in date at Montgomery Wards. Just the right size--not too big or small for the space. We knew the exact price--wrote it down and we're good to go. You know how I love discounts, so I was pretty darned excited to see they were having an appliance sale right at the time we were going to purchase it. Got to MW and the "original" price was raised so that when you got the discount it was the first "original" price. We brought it to their attention and after a few calls, we ended up getting it at the first price minus the discount .
One of the two Fry's stores in the Phoenix area has 96 cashier's and they use all of them the day after Thanksgiving.I only buy the local Liberal rag because it has Fry's adds 5 days a week. Sign up for one of their credit cards to use when they hve their supersales.No!!!...I don't work there!!!!.........
Circuit City & Offix Max come to mind. Often if you take the online ad into the store, they'll honor it
But this raz-a-matazz by Best Buy is way over the top.
Or wallet emptier.
I just went 3 hard rounds with Fry's last week. In the end, they were willing to say goodbye to me as a customer for a lousy $9.99.
It's getting harder and harder to find companies willing to go just an extra 1/4 mile for the customer these days.
When I find 'em, I hug 'em.
RE: Amazon
There are a number of issues with ordering electronics and other items with some of these sites or who they link to. You had the formatting issue, and I have also heard of warranty issues. Some items are not covered by the manufacturers, even if unopened, unless they are sold through "proper" retailers. I'm sure that the manufacturers have a number of reasons for it, but essentially it's up to the buyer to ensure that the online dealer is legit.
After reading a thread like this, I am always amazed at the variations in quality customer service, at the same stores, across the country.
Like many on FR I have had the pleasure of working retail during my life, including management. There should be no difference in Best Buy in MN and Best Buy in TX and Best Buy in FL. The reality is that there is a huge difference in cust service even at the same store on different days.
I have never had a problem with BB when I visit them in MN. In Dallas it is hit or miss. At CompUSA I never have a problem, since I practically grew up in the original store.
I find it incredible that someone at HQ for any major chain doesn't hire interns just to track down sources of discontent on the Internet. Sure most are b*tching about nothing, or are actively working to scam a store. Thats what lawyers are for.
I was looking for someone to post something a little positive about Best Buy. I bought my HD TV there last year. It was a little hard to get someone to help me first thing in the morning, but after I looked a bit, I told the salesman I was going to shop around. So he offered to let me look at all other store sites and that they would match other companies prices on the spot.
So, I told him I had done that, and that Best Buy had a web only offer (I knew it was web only and was honest with him) to provide a free chair with any HD TV purchase, a $300 value. So they immediately offered to knock that off of any TV I bought.
Then I told them Walmart had a nice Sony home theater system for a certain price. They didn't have that model, but sold me a better system for less than Walmart.
I have also had some really good experience with returns on other products.
Mind you this is at one local store. In the past I had had such bad experiences that I had sworn not to ever shop there again. Until I went bargain hunting that morning.
Based on personal experience, I would suggest the HP C4180 all-in-oner over the Kodak brand.
The HP software is superb whereas the Kodak is...not so much.
The hardware is better too.
This was the first Best Buy store. It was a rickety old trailer selling electronics out of it in the early 80's or late 70's. I was just a kid then and would drive my bike past it on the way to the mall.
In my experience that would have solved this customer's problems without making such a big deal out of this.
Haven't shopped much at Best Buy, but once I called their toll-free line and asked them if they offered over the phone troubleshooting, at a price. I was baffled on how to get rid of a partition on my old computer. They transferred me to a technician who walked me through the fix, for free, even though I told them I had not bought the computer at Best Buy.
I was pretty impressed with that.
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