Holy high-tech hijinx, Batman...
Seth points us to a story in last week’s Hartford Courant, uncovering quite the scandal over at Best Buy. Apparently, Best Buy has a secret intranet site which lists higher prices than its normal, consumer-based web site.
When a customer comes in to the store saying they’ve found an item for a lower price on the Best Buy website, salespeople have been pulling up the intranet version, with the higher prices.
What kills me is Best Buy’s reaction. First, they denied the existence of the intranet site. Then, caught with their pants down, they actually said, “the company never intended to mislead customers.”
This makes my head hurt.
The sad predictability of the matter is that probably nothing much will happen over Best Buy’s unconscionable action, and there will be no accountability.
But guess who’s going to Circuit City for her next plasma TV?
Michele,
I had the same reaction (right down to the headache). What really put the cherry on top was that somehow they didn't think they'd get caught??? Hello???
Posted by: Mary Schmidt | March 06, 2007 at 07:16 AM
This was the first time that I heard about this!! I ALWAYS shop at Best Buy! Not now, I am with you on the trip to Circuit City :)! BTW - I highly enjoy reading your blog! Thanks!
Posted by: Alicia Rittenhouse | March 06, 2007 at 10:08 AM
No matter where you go, there you are. Ponder that. We've decided never to use Circuit City again for several reasons:
You cannot reach their corporate offices and store level management is practically invisible. They advertise a $24 giftcard if you order online, go to pick up your item and it isn't ready 24 minutes from order time - but when you invoke that guarantee, they exclude a myriad of products, though the Web guarantee makes no such exclusions. Their credit card customer service is in India - that department typically refuses to assist with billing problems, and store management will say that's between you and their credit card vendor (an outside bank)- so the customer gets trapped in neverland - that cost us $85 when Circuit City failed to post a credit memo and no one would speak to us about the problem. *Shrug* read up online - Google "Circuit City complaints." Maybe we all need to find a different electronics vendor?
Posted by: Maryan Pelland | March 07, 2007 at 05:54 AM
Bad customer service drives people away from companies, but unfortunately, bad behavior doesn't necessarily prompt the same response. For many consumers, it's simply about price. In your case, as you look for your plasma TV, you have a choice that offers comparable pricing.
I'm upset with what appears to be bad behavior -- lying about pricing -- from a company that is in the process of becoming a monopoly. In their case, if you don't like their behavior, you have nowhere else to go for the product. I wrote about the XM-Sirius merger in a post the other day at www.reichcomm.typepad.com
Just found your blog, through the Diva. Good stuff here; I'll be back.
Posted by: David Reich | March 10, 2007 at 06:45 AM
I don't doubt this in anyway but I can say that I shop at many of the Twin Cities Best Buy location and a few times I have seen price differences between the store and website. But in my experiences the employees have always pulled up the website with the lower price as I saw it earlier in the day and sold it to me at that price. Funny, but I stopped shopping at Circuit City about 4 years ago when I lived in PA and the store wouldn't sell me a CD for the lower price I saw online because their in-store computer showed it at a higher price than the one I "claimed" to have seen... go figure...
Posted by: Cherish | April 16, 2007 at 07:48 AM
I'm not sure what's worse, saving a few bucks or circuit city's unjust firing of 3,400 employees to rehire new employees, so they can save a few bucks(http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
/20070329/BUSINESS01/703290361/1066). I'm with Alicia, we really need to step up to some of these bully corporations and begin holding corporations responsible for all their actions affecting the public - without people you don't really have a business - do you?
Posted by: Jill | April 20, 2007 at 07:49 AM
The government just needs to shut down any company who engages in this type of activity.simply close their doors for good and imprison all managers and take their bank accounts from them. let them get a taste of their own medicine. call it starting over. their should be a zero tolerance law implemented imediatly.
Posted by: randyman | May 24, 2007 at 08:10 PM