***** Bestbuy!

Best Buy Confirms It Has Secret Website George Gombossy: Consumer Watchdog WATCH DOG March 2 2007 Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com. Company spokesman Justin Barber, who in early February denied the existence of the internal website that could be accessed only by employees, says his company is "cooperating fully" with the state attorney general's investigation. Barber insists that the company never intended to mislead customers. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy's practices on Feb. 9 after my column disclosed the website and showed how employees at two Connecticut stores used it to deny customers a $150 discount on a computer advertised on BestBuy.com. Blumenthal said Wednesday that Best Buy has also confirmed to his office the existence of the intranet site, but has so far failed to give clear answers about its purpose and use. "Their responses seem to raise as many questions as they answer," Blumenthal said in an interview. "Their answers are less than crystal clear." Based on what his office has learned, Blumenthal said, it appears the consumer has the burden of informing Best Buy sales people of the cheaper price listed on its Internet site, which he said "is troubling." What is more troubling to me, and to some Best Buy customers, is that even when one informs a salesperson of the Internet price, customers have been shown the intranet site, which looks identical to the Internet site, but does not always show the lowest price. Blumenthal said that because of the fuzzy responses from Best Buy, he has yet to figure out the real motivation behind the intranet site and whether sales people are encouraged to use it to cheat customers. Although Best Buy also refused to talk with me on specifics of the intranet site or its use, it insisted that its policy is to give customers the best price. "Our intention is to provide the best price to our customers which is why we have a price-match policy in place," the company said in a written statement to me. "As prices and offers may vary between retail and online, our stores will certainly match BestBuy.com pricing as long as it qualifies under the terms and conditions of the price match policy." "As a company, everything we do revolves around our customers' needs and desires. It is never our intent to mislead them as their loyalty is incredibly important to us," the statement said. Then they threw in this interesting line: "Although we have an intra-store web site in place to support store operations (including products and pricing), we are reminding our employees how to access the external BestBuy.com web site to ensure customers are receiving the best possible product price." That last sentence seems to indicate that Best Buy, which is supposed to be staffed by tech-savvy employees, is putting the blame on memory lapses: that employees have somehow forgotten how to access BestBuy.com from the store. Having been to many Best Buy stores where some helpful employees showed me how they access the intranet and Internet, I can assure Best Buy officials that the re-education process will probably not be lengthy. After making sure the computer is turned on, employees should click twice on the Yahoo Internet icon and then type in BestBuy.com. This is not the first time the giant electronic retailer has gotten into trouble misleading customers. The firm, based in Minneapolis, operates more than 1,100 electronic retail stores in the U.S., Canada and China. It has more than 125,000 full-time employees. Attorneys general in New Jersey and Ohio have accused Best Buy of deceptive sales practices, repackaging used merchandise and selling it as new, and failing to pay rebates and refunds. It paid $135,000 in New Jersey three years ago to settle that state's suit, which was based on hundreds of consumer complaints. The Ohio case is ongoing.

:scratch: thats definitely happened to me before :cursin: yeah best buy sux...

Awesome! Now hopefully they get sued and have to shut down... I love those going out of business sales! Hit Sun TV way back in the day and just recently Media Play...

Awesome! Now hopefully they get sued and have to shut down... I love those going out of business sales! Hit Sun TV way back in the day and just recently Media Play... I dusted Media Play when those suckers went out. I got a ton of cd's for a couple bucks each. Some solid metal that the civilians wont touch.

I dusted Media Play when those suckers went out. I got a ton of cd's for a couple bucks each. Some solid metal that the civilians wont touch. I did half of my girlfriend's christmas shopping there for under $50... Heck, that's what the ACDC DVD box set would have cost had I just bought her that... Plus I got her some CD's, a couple shirts, a poster, and some other random crap...

wow im glad i dont goto best buy

I don't know about your locations, but where I am at Best Buy is the cat's meow and other places sorta get the shaft... Over the past couple years I have found better deals, better service, and NOBODY ELSE at Circuit City... I picked up a Sony 5 disc DVD changer home theater system for $75 less than any other sale price anywhere... We got my 'rents a pretty nice laptop for about $100 less than Best Buy right before last Christmas... Around here it seems like Circuit City is the red-headed stepchild of the electronics stores, but they get a big :dthumb: from me...

yeah best buy sux... :withstupi Best Buy blows. I've had several bad experiences with them. Definitely not recommended. :nonod:

I don't know about your locations, but where I am at Best Buy is the cat's meow and other places sorta get the shaft... Over the past couple years I have found better deals, better service, and NOBODY ELSE at Circuit City... I picked up a Sony 5 disc DVD changer home theater system for $75 less than any other sale price anywhere... We got my 'rents a pretty nice laptop for about $100 less than Best Buy right before last Christmas... Around here it seems like Circuit City is the red-headed stepchild of the electronics stores, but they get a big :dthumb: from me... Our CC's suck big hairy goat ballz. But so does BB...so what can you do?

Best Buy wanted me to fill out 2 full pages of information just to LOOK at my computer. I asked them why & all they told me was "it's company policy". I asked what exactly is the "policy" & what purpose does it serve? They didn't have an answer. I asked them if they sold the info they collect.....they didn't have an answer. I walked into the area where my comp was plugged in, yanked the wires & told them to shove it. That was 2 years ago. I'll do without if I can't find something anywhere else. GEEK squad indeed!! :loser:

Best Buy wanted me to fill out 2 full pages of information just to LOOK at my computer. I asked them why & all they told me was "it's company policy". I asked what exactly is the "policy" & what purpose does it serve? They didn't have an answer. I asked them if they sold the info they collect.....they didn't have an answer. I walked into the area where my comp was plugged in, yanked the wires & told them to shove it. That was 2 years ago. I'll do without if I can't find something anywhere else. GEEK squad indeed!! :loser: :lol: :iagree:

it sucks Best Buy bought out my old company Magnolia Hi Fi and changed the name to Magnolia Audio/Video. Slowly but shurely it's driving it into the ground. Mag was one of the best companies I've ever worked for... AWSOME to it's employee's.. since Best Buy took over... they've turned to ****.(I still have alot of friends working there)

I always print the ad I seen on the internet. That way there is no question about price when I go into a store to buy something on sale.

I always print the ad I seen on the internet. That way there is no question about price when I go into a store to buy something on sale. i do the same thing but, sometimes they try and pull the whole its only and internet deal thing. and then you have to get nasty othewise they are going to charge you 50+ dollars. for x-mas this past year my mom bought a 20" flat panel for $400, and i went to CC and saw the same one for $310 so i had her return the $400 one and get the $310 one.

it sucks Best Buy bought out my old company Magnolia Hi Fi and changed the name to Magnolia Audio/Video. Slowly but shurely it's driving it into the ground. Mag was one of the best companies I've ever worked for... AWSOME to it's employee's.. since Best Buy took over... they've turned to ****.(I still have alot of friends working there) Its funny about the magnolia rooms. They just put up a new BB at the mall no less! :nonod: and put a Magnolia room in there. The stupid thing is that the area its in.. the peeps don't have the money to afford those high end pieces! IDIOTS!

Its funny about the magnolia rooms. They just put up a new BB at the mall no less! :nonod: and put a Magnolia room in there. The stupid thing is that the area its in.. the peeps don't have the money to afford those high end pieces! IDIOTS! That doesn't stop some peeps from buying spinners & 20" wheels so perhaps they're hoping to prey on the borrow-till-my-eyes-fall-out types :idk:

That doesn't stop some peeps from buying spinners & 20" wheels so perhaps they're hoping to prey on the borrow-till-my-eyes-fall-out types :idk: yeah the BEST BUY CARD!! what's funny though... is I have a Magnolia card.... (so I could get no intrest on my TV till 09) but I can't use it in a Magnolia that's inside of a Bestbuy only the stand alone Magnolia's take them!... :wbs:

You might be right... but damn! I will say this.. my wife and I were there one friday night...killing time before going out. We were dressed nicely and the sales peeps were on us like flies on ****. I was told by a BB employee that BB also has a social indetifiing program to help aiding costomers that are spenders instead of lurkers.

I was told by a BB employee that BB also has a social indetifiing program to help aiding costomers that are spenders instead of lurkers. :scratch: Like what?

:scratch: Like what? Like if you is dressed up reeeeeal nice they thinks you gots some cashes.

I personally liked CC alot better all along. They meet and beat competitors prices. Most of the time if I'm making any type of electronic purchase though, its just done online... or maybe even radio shack.

Yeah its not racial profiling but more like sniffin out wallets. If you are a nicely dressed biz man or just look like you got money. you might get better service than if you are wearing the latest FUBU sweat outfit or a bunch of NASCAR crap loking like a piece of cracker trash. No offense peeps..just paintin a picture. That night, the wife and I must have gotten stopped by 6 different employees asking if we needed any help. And this was only in like 20 mins... if that.