Connecticut AG Goes After Best Buy for Fraud

BestBuy, Where The Customer is #1,233,405,203,568,021

http://dailytech.com/Report+Best+Buy+Internal+Website+Employees+Deceive+Customers/article6321.htm
from WinCustomize Forums

Last week, the big news was the confirmation that electronics retailer Best Buy was pulling a bait-and-switch on customers who browsed the site BestBuy.com for deals before going into the store.  Turns out that the company has an Intranet site that exactly mirrors the look and feel of the public website, only the prices are different.  Deals advertised on the public site in some cases weren't shown on the internal site at all, or at a higher price, forcing consumers to either not purchase the item, or purchase it at a higher price.  This behavior brought down the weight of the Attorney General of Connecticut who is now investigating the company for evidence of intentional fraud.

BestBuy of course denies that the differences were intentional, and that employees are encouraged to also check the external site in case discrepancies emerge.

This is could become the big corporate fraud story of 2007.

2,997 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top



Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
And this is new how? Big deal. They will just state that whoever is responsible for updating the sites "unintentionally" made a mistake and get out of it. Have you ever read any of the "details" of hardware items for PCs on the public Bestbuy.com site? Some of the info on there is BLATANTLY incorrect. Transfer rates of hard drives is not correct, etc. They will blame it on human error. Error on the part of someone is unintentional and unless someone is going to dig up any corporate correspondence to prove otherwise it's a lost cause. Welcome to the corporate world of "F the little guy!"
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
There's nothing I hate more than to buy something and later find out it went on sale or was marked incorrectly. I comparison shop every time I make a major purchase...buyer beware? Sounds like good advice to me...
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Caught them at it when we bought the wife's laptop last year. We got it at the correct price cause my wife threatened to put them on her list. lol. The Attorney General needs to call my wife.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I have had issues at BestBuy with the price at the register being higher than either the price listed on the shelf, or in the case of 'Live OneCare 1.5' last month, the price on the public website.

In all cases, I inquired into why the price was different, and the clerk immediately checked the shelf or website and gave me the lower price. The only problem is that I would have been charged the higher price had I not inquired about the difference.

Moral of the story? Always ask about the price if it is higher than expected (or ask about a possible sale that might be running each time you buy).

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
With best Buy, my wife drug them over to a computer and pulled it up. Somehow, through some site that tracks these mirror sites, she found a guy who works for BestBuy and tips people off in the forums on the Big Sunday specials.

The BestBuy salesman wasn't real thrilled when she pulled it up and I was amazed because I am usually the one who finds this stuff. I was rolling. Then they said 'You have to print it out and bring it in."

She looked at him without missing a beat and said "You print it out here and I'll wait by my new laptop."