Best Buy Sued for Being Scummy

Wow Shame on Best Buy for actually thinking consumers are smart and know that prices aren't the same everywhere you go. Damn did ever think of the cost of shipping products to different stores. That does effect the final price. The price on the national website is usually an average of all national prices. That is why there is price differences between the website and the store, especially in areas with a higher cost of living. It is called reality and happens in every company that sells something across the company. But since people are idiots they now include disclaimers. Websites aren't considered advertisments if you can conduct the full transaction there. What I have come to find is that most of the time the people complaining are the people who have unreasonably high expectations and can never be satisfied.

Good one Ed Hernandez. The only hole in your story is that BestBuy didn't sell Dell computers 3 years ago. In fact they have only been selling them for a couple of months. Whoever paid you to write that one should be the one looking for a refund. Idiot!!!

Heads up- if you print the on line ad and take it with you to your local store they more than likely will honor that price. Most states ( I know for certain in mine) the AG forces them to honor the advertised price....

Here in the great USA, we seem to have adopted an attitude of apathy and stupidity. We know that stores are out to get us, so find one that you don't hate, and do your own research. Then you can win instead of loose.
Best buy is a big bummer, They are not a consumers advocate. Our negative experience with them came from their credit card company, which assumes that all people are deadbeats. We purchased a computer and some accesories on a supposedly o% for 6 month deal. The fine print states that they can bend u over a desk anytime they geeky feel like it. So for the tune of $39.oo they lost my business forever.
We have used COSTCO since then, and they will take back anything you buy, almost without questions. They have a decent policy towards customers and treat you with respect.
Pay attention BEST BUY. People do care.

I have to say that most of the employees are not smart enough especially out in ohio to know that there is two websites. the employees that are smart enough to know the difference will always check both sites and will usually check to see if they can get you a better price

have worked for wards, circuit city(rip),sears and best products, have sold everything they stock...have you considered the shipping costs.. many times the distribution center is not near you..have figured it for customers comparing prices and with shipping it would be the same..if not a store manager can adjust the price..but consider shopping at your local mom and pop..keep the money in your town..also big box sores can sell the products for less than small companies can purchase the product wholesale...it is not always about price..been laid off before ..

haha... this is rediculous. There is one site my friend. Yes, we do have a kiosk and yes there is a Bestbuy.com there and guess what... its the same damn thing you at home see. now grant it, ads do change. So if you look at this TV on saturday and go in on sunday, the new ad started, so sorry you have to pay full price. Also, there's this great thing called, WE PRICE MATCH. Because at one BB a laptop maybe 450 and at another it may be 400, Corporate thought about that situation. So in any case we price match our website, our other stores in different geographical locations, and other retail stores.

Two things. I went to Best Buy 2 yrs. ago to purchase an air conditioner that was one price on their website and at the store I was told I couldn't get it for that price because it was a website item. Unbelieving, I asked to speak to the store manager. The manager never came but the same sales person did and stated the manager said to sell it to me for the website price.
Two months ago I found a great price on a computer on the shelf of the store and was told the one sitting on the shelf was not the one advertised on the sticker. The one on the shelf was a lesser model of the one advertised but still meet my needs so I purchased the lesser model for the price of the better model. There was about $100 difference. Bait and Switch is what I thought. Shame on you Best Buy- you will eventually go the way Circuit City went.

My experience with Best Buy is this. If you choose to shop there, ignore their ads. 99% of the time they will not have the advertised item when you get to the store. I'm talking about big ticket items such as computers, TV's and the like. I have been to Best Buy many times within the first couple of hours of an ad breaking to purchase an advertised item, only to find that it was sold out. They tell me they had 4 or 6 when they opened. While their ads may be legal, they are unetheical. How many customers do they serve in a stoe in a given week and what percentage of those customers would be able to buy one of their sale items. If you shopped at your local supermarket and they advertised a gallon of milk for 99 cents you would expect to be able to purchase a gallon of milk for 99 cents when you arrived at the store no matter what time of the week you arrived, and you would either get your milk or a raincheck. Why is it OK for Best Buy to entice customers to shop at their store through advertising a price that such a small % of their customers are able to take advantage of? Sounds like bait and switch to me and our consumer groups do nothing to stop this. Best Buy is not the only stores involved in this. I've had the same experience with Staples, Circuit City and Office Depot. Well at least CC got their dues. Hopefully these other retailers will get their dues if they keep bilking the consumers!

My son worked for Best Buy, he was an asset to them, with the knowledge he had about computers and accessories and received many compliments and thank-you's. Then Best Buy cut his hours to maybe 4 a week. They do this to get the employees to quit. Many still hang in there, why?, I do not know. How can a company survive when they treat their employees so bad? Even when customers go out of their way to report a good employee to them, it seems not to make a difference. Customers lose.

I got screwed by Best Buy too- in a bit of a different way. I was told by several Best Buy stores in Minnesota that if you bring in an old computer monitor, you get 10% off anything in the store. We went in with an old monitor and were told by the cashier that we could get 10% off anything-- We got an XBox 360 for our son but they would not take 10% off that- they would only take 10% off a $30 game... so we saved a grand total of $3 rather than the $30 that we thought we would save. Dishonest!

sadly here in the states as our economy sinks,wonder why? everyone is scrambling to get the best deals or get any penny they can charge to survive and not go under. yes it has become a mess and greed does play into it also. a few years ago i tried to solve a legal situation by trying to talk to "best buy" head quarters and got the brush off with about the same off handed comment. "each store has different policy's and the management in each makes the final decision". last time i read, it still was illegal to false advertise, misrepresent or change/raise the price on something at time of purchase even due to error by the store. most of us would even say ok no problem if mistake and pay the increase or not buy. but they are required by law, not policy to honor the price marked and go correct mistake before it costs them any more lose. if an advertisement in paper or tv was in error, when entering the store a retraction should be posted of mistake some where or be told before the transaction is made. but many of us dont have the time or money to take legal action against a business that has lawyers on call and can drag out a case til the individual victim gets tired or runs out of cash, because you dont always recoup equal the cost and time spent on going after the wrong doer.and they even get to do a sorta write off to recoup some of their cost as legal cost etc.thing is it was no error in my case - i went to buy a new washer and dryer (i am leaving the brand un-named its not their fault ) the sale signs were taped onto every washer/dryer made by this company stated "all appliances" made by (brand) had a special sale offer price that week. the machines i wanted to buy had the signs "taped" onto them and they were made by (brand /company). yet when i was purchasing at register i find out the store doesn't coincide the ones i am buying to count as part of the sale because the machines have (sub name made by brand / company). i pointed out that if i had not been watching the ring up and stopped purchase i would have been charged well over 300 dollars extra on my credit card. and that if those are not on sale. why have each machine by that brand marked as on sale taped to it? you dont have the same sale signs on other non related brands non sale appliances, only on the ones that are "made by brand X." thing is the manager of store and head corp of "best buy" both say they can do that and dont have to remove the sale signs from the ones not on sale.and they taped the sale signs back onto the 2 machines i now didn't want. can you imagine the people who thought they were getting a sale and didn't realize til later they got ripped off /charged more. i have never set foot back into any "best buy" or the one in La Crosse, Wis summer of 2005 and never will. but i will tell the truth about it. buyer beware and take action if you can- businesses that you thought you could trust, you might not be able to any more. sad when you cant trust the integrity any more. if its pictured with nuts and cream then that's how they are offering it. unless tiny print under picture or somewhere, where consumer can easily see saying "picture many not be true representation of product size, color or options etc." if its pictured and price is linked to it then that's what your expecting if i order a dairy cow im not expecting a different type or breed of bovine to be delivered and neither would you - angel gordon

I got disgusted with Best Buy's practices and stopped patronizing them when I was 13. 17 years later, I may have to WORK a little harder to get what I need for a decent price, but it still feels good knowing that I'm not giving my money to these selfish crooks.

Does any of this really come as a surprise to anyone? This is just not Best Buy, this is every place you shop. My business was purchased in Aug and I was hired on to continue to run the business. I'm quitting because of how corrupt the place is, being honest does not keep the doors open.

I'm reading through all these comments and am amazed at how rude and selfish everyone is. I've worked for best buy for 3 years now. I know at MY location, we ALWAYS honor the national website and the reason there are different prices, is because cost of living and different geographical locations call for different prices. That's life. Deal with it. You want the deal, bring in an ad, or print the price online or ask the employee to look it up. We aren't on commission so it isn't any money out of OUR pocket to get you a good deal. However, things have changed in the last couple years. Coming in and saying "I KNOW you can do better on that tv" is no longer quite accurate. The mark-up in tvs nowadays is almost non-existent. THAT is why the cables that you gripe about are so expensive, if they weren't, we wouldn't make ANY money at all and the business would go under. Anyone with ANY brains at all understands that a business has to make money to succeed. So we can't just sell everything at our cost just to make it all easier. All best buys price match and offer a 30 day price match guarantee so that if you DO find it cheaper somewhere else, or even at our store, you are reimbursed. Sounds pretty fair to me. Also, to the guy that was saying we were lying about the whole "having 6 when we opened" that's not a lie. I have worked SEVERAL times where a people have waited outside, bought the big ticket items, and we run out by noon. It happens. That is a shortage from the manufacturer. Not our fault. and guess what, we can usually order it for you and have it within 3 days. It would be nice if the world was perfect and catered to our every need and desire...wouldn't it?

Steve,

Your Best Buy bonus is in the mail,,,boy you do a good job of doing the companiy's bidding. How does it feel to be a slithering snake?

enjoy those bonus checks!