DON'T BUY FROM BEST BUY! Do you listen?
Gee. I'm sorry. I thought for sure it said that model was $800, not $950.
Gee. I'm sorry. I thought for sure it said that model was $800, not $950.
Tol ya! Best Buy caught again!
- Thread starter mikea
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K
KennyFlys
Guest
I've seen sites brought up at a retailer and the part that makes me suspicious that it's not identical to what I'd find from home is... it looks like there's no browser at all. Sort of cleaner but certainly misleading.
ScottM
Taxi to Parking
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iBazinga!
I was at aguitar center the other day looking for a combo tuner/metronome. The one I wanted was not there but they had others. I wanted what I wanted not just what they had in stock and there are other music stores in the area so I was just going to go and look elsewhere. The sales-dude looked at his website and saw the one I wanted. But he then told me if he ordered for me it was going to be more than if I went to their outside website and placed the order myself. Pretty nice that he did that. But the local indepenadt music store had the item in stock so I bought from them, which I try to do anyways so that I can help keep the local guys up and running.
Richard O
Pre-takeoff checklist
That exact thing happened to me when I bought a big screen from them this past Fall. I thought maybe I had been mistaken so I went with it. When I got home (after purchasing the TV) I looked again and saw the lower price. I had to print the page and take the ad back to the store. When the girl at customer service looked on her computer the price was even lower than the ad price so she refunded the difference from what I paid to the lower price she had on her computer. At the time I thought that was weird.
AdamZ
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Adam Zucker
Son of a Female Dog Mike! I hope they fry them. IMHO thats no different than stealing. Wonder why the national media outlets have not picked it up.
Also IIRC Bruce had a less than wonderful experience with them and a big screen TV about a year or two ago.
Also IIRC Bruce had a less than wonderful experience with them and a big screen TV about a year or two ago.
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wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
I refused to shop at BB after a couple of events: 1) they prosecuted someone for writing down prices and doing comparison shopping in one of their stores and 2) they made a public & concerted effort to discourage certain types of buyers from purchasing anything at their stores.
Bzzztttt.... sometimes I like to shop and compare prices. BB can rot...
Bzzztttt.... sometimes I like to shop and compare prices. BB can rot...
Yep. They don't want anybody who actually knows what they want or understands the technology. They don't want any customers who only buy things on sale and who actually send in the rebates.
If you're willing to wander in to the home theater showroom and let the freindly guy fill you to your credit card limit, - if you think "You're spending $2700 on the TV. Why would you only spend $50 on cables?" makes sense - THEY WANT YOU. BTW, 80% of those people end up with a HDTV with no HDTV source, so there's watching the same crap only bigger.
I feel very bad when I have to visit. I always want to scream, "Put you hand on walletr and RUN FOR YOU LIFE!"
The good news locally is CompUSA is closing all of it's stores. That's one down. They say they can't compete against Best Buy and Circuit City, which also closed some stores. Two to go.
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TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
On the other side of the coin, I've never had a bad experience at Best Buy. Their price on new release DVDs consistently beats what I'd pay at Amazon.com before adding shipping, much less after.
I have a friend in Seattle who just bought an HP multi-function printer for $349 at Best Buy. When he IM'd me to tell me about it, he told me to please not show him where he could have got it for less. I looked online and found an online retailer that carried it (new) for $89 on a special. He called Best Buy, they said "print and bring in the ad". He did, they credited back to his card the difference + 10% for the trouble. No hassle, he was a very happy man.
(I'm still waiting for him to send me the case of Black Butte Porter he keeps promising to send for all the money I've saved him!)
On another point, the Canon camcorder I bought there (also got my Canon digital camera there) both have the extended warranties on them (the only two products I've added them to), and the camcorder is now having issues. I'm bringing it back to them tomorrow to get it fixed. I'll keep my fingers crossed that my good experiences with BB continue.
I have a friend in Seattle who just bought an HP multi-function printer for $349 at Best Buy. When he IM'd me to tell me about it, he told me to please not show him where he could have got it for less. I looked online and found an online retailer that carried it (new) for $89 on a special. He called Best Buy, they said "print and bring in the ad". He did, they credited back to his card the difference + 10% for the trouble. No hassle, he was a very happy man.
(I'm still waiting for him to send me the case of Black Butte Porter he keeps promising to send for all the money I've saved him!)
On another point, the Canon camcorder I bought there (also got my Canon digital camera there) both have the extended warranties on them (the only two products I've added them to), and the camcorder is now having issues. I'm bringing it back to them tomorrow to get it fixed. I'll keep my fingers crossed that my good experiences with BB continue.
wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
What's unfortunate is that ChompUSA is about the only game in town here (aside from BB/CC). If you need networking or computer parts, it's that, the office store chains or mail order. Need a Microcenter or a Fry's.
JohnR
Final Approach
It happened to me. One evening I found a sale price on line so I printed it out. It showed NO EXPIRATION DATE. The next day I went in to buy the item and showed the guy the printout. He looked on his intranet or whatever and claimed the sale was over, no more sale price. *******s.
Is writing down prices and doing comparison shopping illegal?
Is writing down prices and doing comparison shopping illegal?
No. But any business can eject you for any reason. You're on their property.
Wal-Mart will also toss you for writing down prices. Just don't write where they can see you.
There was a story recently about the "lowest price guaranteed or we'll match plus..." scam. The store knows they don't have the lowest prices. They also know that most consumers don't comparison shop. Those consumers assume the stores with the guarantee must already have the best price. 1 in 10 will do the homework and jump through the hoops to claim the "match plus 10%" deal but the other 9 more than give you the profit to cover the 1.
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JohnR
Final Approach
Bill said BB "prosecuted" someone for writing down prices. That's a bit different from throwing them out.
What you describe isn't a scam at all. No one is being cheated. It's economic risk management.
wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
1997. Arrested for trespassing.
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=902346
He first tried with a small laptop and was arrested for trespassing.
He came back and tried it with pencil and paper. Arrested again.
Judge threw the case out, but the guy still has an arrest on his record and had to spend the time and money to go to court.
Best Buy Spokesperson said:
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JohnR
Final Approach
Oh. My. God.
Best Buy is delusional. At least the judge had the good sense to throw it out.
Best Buy is delusional. At least the judge had the good sense to throw it out.
The competitive reasons being that if the Best Buy prices are compared it will show that our competitors really have the best buys.
wbarnhill
Final Approach
Wonder if they'll arrest me for taking price pictures with my cell phone, or entering them into an excel spreadsheet on it. Hmmm.
Richard O
Pre-takeoff checklist
I just bought a new digital camera. The big chain stores couldn't / wouldn't touch the online prices. About $75 less online. On top of that it was somewhat of a newer model and most of the retailers didn't have it in stock. A couple of them told me that model didn't exist and that I was mistaken.
K
KennyFlys
Guest
One of the problems in these "big box" stores are they are staffed with people who really don't have a clue what they are selling. If I were seeking a product I certainly wouldn't go to BB for advice or their recommended choice. I'd do my research on what manufacturer offers the best options. Then, it's down to price. If BB has that lowest price, I'll buy there. But, that's pretty dang rare. I won't go to their pimply-faced employee for direction.
There are exceptions to this. CompUSA has the young geeks who usually know what they are selling and since they offer most lines available at retail, it's a safer bet. Those geeks usually grew up learning all about what they are selling and more. *
* No offense to the geeks on the board!
There are exceptions to this. CompUSA has the young geeks who usually know what they are selling and since they offer most lines available at retail, it's a safer bet. Those geeks usually grew up learning all about what they are selling and more. *
* No offense to the geeks on the board!
K
KennyFlys
Guest
Very good!
astanley
En-Route
Anti-competitive and protectionsist bull**** like this sends me off the deep end...
Retail is for pikers.
Cheers,
-Andrew
who, as a rule, hates all chain retail
inav8r
Line Up and Wait
Hrmm, I had the exact same thing happen to me when I went to BB to buy my Canon digital camera. Online price from my house was $100 lower than their in store price or the price the guy could bring it up online from... I then went to another computer they had hooked up for an internet demo - went to their external website and showed the guy the lower price. He said his internal site was showing a different price and he couldn't honor the price I pulled up. So I clicked "buy online" and went over to their counter and picked it up (and paid the lower price).
jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
I worked for BestBuy / Geek Squad for about two years. Best Buy Corporate are actually somewhat decent people. Most (not all) of their corporate policy makes a lot of sense. The problem arises because local management has no idea what the actual policy is and they are too stupid to even bother looking it up. I had a number of managers that hated me with a passion because I knew our standard operating procedure almost word for word. I wouldn't give in to their crap and would follow our policy even if the manager said not to. If they said something to me I would walk over to the nearest terminal, print our policy, and highlight the appropriate section. I would then file this section in my "Keep My Job" folder incase they tried to write me up for it later. *IF* you were nice to me as a customer I would be very nice back to you. I could bend rules to the point of pretty much giving you a brand new latest model product at no cost if you ever had a problem after buying it. Sometimes even years later (WITHOUT THE SERVICE PLAN!). The people that were *******s to me received an ******* employee. I had several customers who would come in swearing at me and go as far as to start throwing ****.
As far as the whole BestBuy.com thing. I will agree that it was pretty deceiving. The BestBuy.com website that you would see on any of the corporate computers was not the same as the BestBuy.com you would see from home. I always thought this was really stupid and knew they would probably get some **** for it someday. Best Buy essentially operates their website as an entirely different store. The prices are *not* the same as they are in the store. Sometimes the store is cheaper and sometimes the website is cheaper. If you would access BestBuy.com from inside the store you would more or less see the same prices that you would see in the store. But it would have the layout, look, and style of the normal BestBuy website.
I had a workaround for this. I called our local cable company and told them we would sell way more of their services if they would provide free business class cable internet for us. They came onsite and installed our own cable internet feed in the GeekSquad area. We used this for everything and never used the corporate network. Now we had access to the REAL BestBuy.com website and would let customers use it when needed. We would just tell them to click "Pick up in Store" and they would get it for the lower price. We never let any of the managers and never let corporate know that we had our own unauthorized feed.
Eventually a select set of managers got sick of me being the standard operating procedure nazi and attempted to pressure me into something. But as some of you know I can be very stubborn. I looked at them, told them I quit, and threw my GeekSquad uniform in the garbage by the security guy on the way out. This all happened in about a two minute time frame with a ton of customers watching and no one left to help them once I walked out.
As far as the whole BestBuy.com thing. I will agree that it was pretty deceiving. The BestBuy.com website that you would see on any of the corporate computers was not the same as the BestBuy.com you would see from home. I always thought this was really stupid and knew they would probably get some **** for it someday. Best Buy essentially operates their website as an entirely different store. The prices are *not* the same as they are in the store. Sometimes the store is cheaper and sometimes the website is cheaper. If you would access BestBuy.com from inside the store you would more or less see the same prices that you would see in the store. But it would have the layout, look, and style of the normal BestBuy website.
I had a workaround for this. I called our local cable company and told them we would sell way more of their services if they would provide free business class cable internet for us. They came onsite and installed our own cable internet feed in the GeekSquad area. We used this for everything and never used the corporate network. Now we had access to the REAL BestBuy.com website and would let customers use it when needed. We would just tell them to click "Pick up in Store" and they would get it for the lower price. We never let any of the managers and never let corporate know that we had our own unauthorized feed.
Eventually a select set of managers got sick of me being the standard operating procedure nazi and attempted to pressure me into something. But as some of you know I can be very stubborn. I looked at them, told them I quit, and threw my GeekSquad uniform in the garbage by the security guy on the way out. This all happened in about a two minute time frame with a ton of customers watching and no one left to help them once I walked out.
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tomcat
Pre-takeoff checklist
Micro Center, yes; Fry's, no.
I have had consistently good experiences with Micro Center, and I think it must be a reasonable corporate culture thing, because they don't try to up-sell me in the stores, and have been very cooperative with unusual requests (like, can you sell it to me and get it delivered today? Yep, $25.00 and a courier delivered, ba da boom, ba da bing).
Fry's, on the other hand... unless it's on sale right now, the deals are very ordinary... and their staff have less than zero knowledge, IME.
flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
Because Best Buy spends an awful lot of advertising dollars... So much for responsible journalism.
flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
They're not supposed to do that for online-only stores.
When I first bought my GPS, I found it online for $975. BB was selling it for $1300. I printed the online ad and took it to a store. "Sorry, we can't match that, it's from online." OK, can I speak to your manager? Sure.
Manager says "We can't match that - We have to make enough money to pay for this building, blah blah blah..."
Me: "Okay. It's like this. I'm either going to give you a thousand dollars, or I'm not. Will you match the price?"
Nope. No deal. Bought it online.
jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
That's correct. They won't match it unless it is a brick and mortar store. It is understandable in my view. I could check the pricing of what Best Buy paid for items. Quite often it was only a few dollars less than the online price. Most online retailers have almost no overhead and quite often no inventory. They can afford to have barely zero markup. That's not the same for a physical store like Best Buy.
flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
Funny.
One of my fraternity brothers in college worked for Best Buy. He was a "secret shopper." His job was to go to all of their competitors and write down their prices.
He learned all of the different chain-specific model numbers for everything and all that as well. For instance, the Sony MagicBox 1510DX that you see at Best Buy may have the exact same features as the Sony MagicBox 1501BL that you see at Circuit City with just a different front panel. It's all to confuse the pesky consumers (and the secret shoppers). It also allows Best Buy to say that they have the best price on the MagicBox 1510DX because nobody else even sells that model!
Funny thing was, all of the competitors knew exactly who he was and what he was doing. Once, he walked into a competitor and he was the 1,000th person to walk through the door that day, and he won a MiniDisc player or something like that. Guy from the competitor walks up and says "Hey, you're the 1,000th customer, you win!" and they both start laughing. He offered to forfeit the prize to the next customer in the door, but the competitor's employee said "Nope, they told me to give this to the 1,000th person in the door... Here ya go!"
wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
Oh, I agree. But Fry's has some stuff that other folks (including MC don't). While I much prefer MicroCenter, the nearest one is in Houston, while Fry's is in Austin.
I'll take either one over CompUSA
TangoWhiskey
Touchdown! Greaser!
I know, which is why it really surprised me that he got his refund, but he did!!
Ghery
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Ghery Pettit
Fry's hasn't known what customer service means since they opened the door to their first store in Sunnyvale, CA back in the mid 1980s. I know, I shopped there. Now, the one in Oregon is a bit strange. Plenty of parking and people who know where things are, even if they aren't in their department. Or that's how it was 10 years ago. Funny place.
gprellwitz
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Grant Prellwitz
Fry's just opened down the road from me, and we've got two MicroCenters. I've found both of them to have some knowledgable salespeople, as well as some duds. It all depends on who you happen to find working that day. I will say that I've found prices at MC to be a bit better, and I like their returned items bin; you can find some deals there. I also used to like looking through the back room of what is now TigerDirect. They have a warehouse a few miles away.
K
KennyFlys
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We have two MicroCenter stores in the Atlanta area. They beat the haywire out of the five CompUSA stores. I'll get sale items from CompUSA but they aren't my first choice. I've bought open box items there. I bought my Okidata color laser there. But, only after substantial research on who had the best price and where I could pay the least sales tax.