BestBuy--scam or SOP?

[RallyJon]

I'm getting an LCD TV for the kitchen to free up some counter space. I found the one I wanted and Best Buy carries it so I went in to one of their stores to have a look.

On bestbuy.com, it's listed at $475, which is discounted from the regular $499. In the store, the tag says $499, so I mention the web site price to the salespunk. He says, "oh no sir, that's not possible, the prices are the same" and takes me over to a terminal in the store where he pulls up the web site. Sure enough, the price is $499. I smelled a rat, though, since the web site was kiosk.bestbuy.com not www.bestbuy.com. I went home and sure enough--$475.

kiosk.bestbuy.com is not accessible from the web, so it must be some sort of intranet-only site that they use to fool in-store customers. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

[RickM]

Usually they have one or two internet connected display PCs or laptops. I'd check one of those and/or bring a dated printout.

[scottmandue]

Unfortunately we can't really expect a very high of a level of quality of sale-person at any mega store (especially this time of year).

Something about new high school grads making minimum wage don't seem to be inspired to give great customer service.

If you really want it bad at that price print out the price from the website and take that in.

Or one time the same thing happened to me at best buy, so after they showed me the price on the kiosk... I then walked over to the computer department where they had machines that were connected to the Internet on display and showed them the web advertised price.

Haven't been to BB for a while, don't know if they still have computers on the floor connected to the Internet.

[scottmandue]

Rick beat me to it!

[89911]

Why don't you just buy it off the web? I've found many times specials are "web only" due to the decreased cost involved and wouldn't expect it to be the same in the store that employs all those "knowledgeable salesman".

[Vipergrün]

Buy it off the web at someplace else. Should be able to find a place with free shipping and no tax

[Zero10]

Lots of stuff is cheaper at the online extensions of the big chains. It is due to the lack of salespeople installed, and decreased hassle. I've seen it with future shop before as well. Usually they do free shipping, so if you have a couple days to wait, it's better

[Joeaksa]

Also worth looking at www.pricewatch.com

[GettinHeadStuds]

I like Best Buy... Their stores give me an opportunity to touch/feel the products I'm interested in buying.... then I go to costco.com and buy 'em there.

You want to return a tv after a month? No problem! They'll refund you the money AND your annual membership dues. No bend-over-and-take-it-like-a-man restocking fee.

[livewirevoodoo]

I hate purchasing online (except Pelican ) because I enjoy the instant gratification of swapping money for goods & services and immediately enjoying my purchase.

Check Circuit City's website... You can purchase online, and pick up at your local store. That should eliminate having to deal with any of their top-notch salespeople. (Seriously... you ask them a question about a product, and they read the box. Wish I had thought of doing that.)

[RallyJon]

You can purchase online, and pick up at your local store.

Yes, this is what I ended up doing. Whoo-hoo, saved $24!

What really bugged me was that Best Buy would go to the trouble of creating a parallel website with different pricing. If the guy had just said, "this is the store price" instead of pretending to check the web site, I wouldn't have been as annoyed.

[widebody911]

Best Buy is well known for it's various scams and bait-and-switch tactics.

[1967 R50/2]

Could it be that the website was recently updated, so you saw $479, but the store computer never gets turned off so it still had the OLD web-pages in cache, so it read $499??

[RallyJon]

Nope: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7366263&type=product&id=1122653806679