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Best Buy Claims High Pricetags Are 'Hot Prices'

by Terrence O'Brien on May 25, 2010 at 06:30 AM

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It almost doesn't feel like news anymore, but Best Buy has once again been caught trying to take advantage of uninformed customers. After being caught baiting customers with low advertised prices only to pull a switcheroo, charging $130 to plug in a PS3 and faking low Wii inventories to drive up demand, the latest scandal to hit the big box retailer seems like a minor offense. It appears that the company has been listing laptops at a "hot price" or as "Best Buy Exclusives," insinuating the machines are being sold at a steep discount, while those hucksters in blue and yellow are actually charging above list price.

Donald, a reader at Consumerist, recently pointed out several instances where Best Buy suggested a computer was on sale, while actually charging $20 to $50 over the price available at the manufacturer's website. Since Best Buy never specifically called these offers a "sale" or used the word "discount," it's not clear whether or not this would technically constitute false advertising. Still, when a Toshiba laptop is listed at the "hot price" of $499 -- when Toshiba itself lists it for $479 -- we'd consider that a tad misleading.

In the best case, at least we can smile at the folly of Best Buy, but sadly, nothing that it does is particularly shocking to us anymore. All we can do is continue to suggest that consumers look elsewhere to do their electronics shopping until the mega-chain cleans up its shifty act. [From: Consumerist, via: Engadget]

Tags: BestBuy, business, computers, ethics, FalseAdvertising, sales, scam, top

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