Best Buy caught denying price-matches

But but Best Buy does no wrong. God the crap I had to put up with at Best Buy is enough to write a book. This is just insult to injury.

Best Buy has CRAP written all over it. They should be sued for false advertising because in fact they are NOT the best buy.

@shaolin007 Totally agree with you...I also, can write a book of my bad experiences with best buy as well.

I too couldn't get them to price match a Panasonic TV but the other store was only 1 mile away. BB wanted 1899.99 and where I got it at costco was 989.99 they were indeed the exact same models.

I was not able to get Best Buy to match the price for a wireless media extender. They claimed NCIX was not a brick and mortar store (false) and that the price to match was below their staff pricing (who cares?). I got it for the staff price, cost me an extra $20.00 bucks, but saved me a 1 hour drive. Now there is a local NCIX and I have not been back to Best Buy since.

Dr. Who - Costco is not quite the same as you pay a membership fee. I have not gotten anyone to match Costco.

To all you of you here I work for Loblaws and I am an electronics dept manager and we do not price match anymore because customers would walk in with flyers and we would call Best Buy up for confirmation and they would lie to us all the time so now we do not price match . And they have actually not price matched some of our items ( Digital Cameras) because the savings was too big customer was upset at BB and bought it from us..



Best Junk is more of a name I would call it. All they hire is morons who do not have a damn clue about anything!!!! You can get better customer service from The Real Canadian Superstore that is mainly a food store, all Big centers have an Electronics dept.

Ahh feel the Bestbuy love!! Thankfully, I have a HH Greg in town. They price match and do 10% beyond that. I bought a TV from there and Bestbuy was selling it for $100 less. Well, went to HH Greg and showed them the internet printout and whalah, pricematch!! Painless, quick, no moaning about this that and the other... Also, I would like to add, walking into HH Greg, the sales associates were very helpful and informative. They didn't hang their head down low just to avoid eye contact so they can act like they didn't see you so they wouldn't have to help you. Bestbuy gets my proverbial middle finger instead of a thumbs up or down.

A similiar situation happed to me at Sears essentials before thanks giving. I tried to get them to price match Circuit City for a Wii game. It was on sale for $20 normally $24.99. Anyhow they told me that they don't price match Circuit City because they were going out of business. This was before they started liquidating. It conflicted with what their policy stated. I was told this info came straight from corporate. I called customer service requesting a call back. 3 weeks later I got a call back asking if the situation had been resolved. I told them it has not. The store manager, nor corporate manager ever did call back. Just another reason I don't shop there.

There used to be a site..(.bestbuysux.org) that used to be a goldmine for potential shoppers. Apparently they sold out to BestBuy and it no more. There were some horror stories on that site!

I guess I've been fortunate, I've only had some minor problems with BB.

From this point on, I'm not defending BB, I'm just stating that they've done me right in the past.

At one point I returned a dvd burner that was 7 months old, but I did still have the reciept, and because I was very popular at that location, the assistant manager let me return it for a newer model of the same brand burner. This was in early 2005, I guess, since then, they've suddenly become jerks. http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im.../6/biggrin.gif

And recently, I was promised they would price match some Verbatim's when they arrived, 2 days after the sale, but gave me the wrong info, but the assistant manager (different location, different assistant manager), looked into it & decided to just give me the price match, even thou he didn't have to.

There's a few other good stories I have, but they're not as significant & they may make look like a BB sympathizer.

I get free membership as my wife works for them so no membership yearly fee for me.

It looks like you can't make sweeping statements about Best Buy saying what "they" do or have done. It looks like it is up to the individual store managers to price match or follow any other policy that might hinder their profit margin.

now that circuit city is gone bestbuy can go back to being A-holes to the customer again, and charge way to much, yay!

One other comment I would like to make. If Best Buy will not honor a price-match...tell them to their face that you are just going to the competitor to buy the product anyways and save $$$. Since $$$ is all BB sees, maybe they will pay attention when they start losing sales on their overpriced stuff.

Also...@bill....ummm in my experience, BB has ALWAYS been horrible with customers. I've had bad experiences like 2-4 years ago...WAY Long before CC closed.

I'm not surprised by this. I've never had a really good experience at Best Buy, and have actually stopped shopping there. Unfortunately, with the demise of Circuit City, there really are no other options other than Walmart, Kmart, Sears, etc., and a few extremely overpriced high-end electronics stores. Nothing national, though.

There's no such thing as customer service in Canada. Its disgraceful what passes for customer service at Candian Tire, Sears, Future Shop, Best Buy and most Canadian stores. A big problem is they hire young people who are clueless about customer service and don't train them. Getting help can be like pulling teeth. Its as if the corporations dont give a s**t.
There are exceptions but I find we are way behind the US as far as the aspect of courteous polite service, specially in Quebec. Its like its not even taught during training.
Walk into a Target in the US an you are hounded, press one of those service buttons and they keep announcing over the PA that no one has served you yet, every 15 seconds, until someone runs over and serves you. THAT is service.
That my 2 cents

I feel that Best Buy is going to come under a lot of scrutiny now that they're the last nationwide CE retailer. Being on top has its pitfalls.

I have been keeping up with multiple websites on this and Office Depot's poor excuse of customer relations. For me, I haven't had much problems in getting discounts, but maybe it's because I shop in Los Angeles. A year or two ago, someone posted info on how to get additional discounts on purchases at most retail chains, which worked successfully (I got two LCDs at that time). I recently went to Office Depot to get a price-match done on a 500gb WD, which prompted the salesperson to verify with Costco as to the discounts, SKU/model #. He mentioned that each store is capable of matching prices, as well as ordering stock to be delivered if the product is not available at the store. The most likely reason a store would be out of stock is if there is a crazy special that week, but usually, neighboring stores will likely to have it. Only in rare cases, such as rain checks, are certain products/special not available.

With the economy slowing down, companies are doing their best to stay profitable. Price-matching, returns, and exchanges are all calculated into the scheme of daily operation (somewhere along the lines of 1-8% of total gross sales). If stores are worried about commissions or profit sharing, the more products sold would help the company. Items just sitting in warehouses are depreciating daily, so the fast they are sold, the better for the company. Discounts from price-matching are usually taken care of by corporate, and shouldn't affect the individual stores total sales.

Aftermarket service and warranties are big business, but not worth it (unless it's for a car or similar high-priced product). If a product, if properly used, is going to break, it'll break within the first month to first year. That is why good high-end gaming pc manufacturers offer limited warranties to consumers for free. Most products will exceed the life of an extended warranty, which the money spent on the warranty could've been put into a money market to gain interest.

We all are doing our best to survive in the slump of the world economy. Just know that each person you encounter are doing the same, but to remind one another to keep a strong ethical approach. The ones who are at fault at Best Buy and Office Depot are doing things to survive, even though they know it's wrong. I'm sure that Best Buy and Office Depot will announce changes to business operations for the benefit of consumer relations. If they don't, they'll suffer the fate of Circuit City.

@beatpoet

"The ones who are at fault at Best Buy and Office Depot are doing things to survive, even though they know it's wrong."

I look at it like this, you want to make a sell or not? If not price matching means the consumer going somewhere else to buy the product they want, then you don't make zilch. Better to price match and make something than opposed to make nothing, simple logic. And another thing, if you do make the sell, at least you are moving your inventory and it isn't sitting in your warehouse doing nothing for you.

The last time I was in a Best Buy was for Black Friday sales a few years ago. They decided to throw in a bunch of restrictions on item quantities at the last minute that really ticked me off. The next BF I went to Staples instead and found a lot better deals on PC stuff. Now I skip BF as rebates aren't worth the hassle. I use Newegg and MWave for most things and occacionally stop in at Micro Center.

As a sales associate who works at Best Buy here are some of the things which I see.

Our store personally has no problem price matching LOCAL competitors. The way it is explained to us is that the competitor needs to be local, be the exact same model, and actually have the product in stock. There is no threat to us if Staples or whomever doesn't have the item, and there's no threat to us if they're an hour drive away. (Not saying that's the standard, I just threw out a number.)

Beatpoet, as to your stand on the protection plan I'll tell you straight out that the plans worth investing in are the ones on the iPod's, laptops, and the LCD TVs. These are the 3 main products which have the highest failure rates, and they are the least repairable. iPods have a speedy exchange program and constantly fail when you try to sync them or charge them. Electronics are like cars, the more wear and tear you put on them the more shit fails. If products all failed within the first year as you claim our GeekSquad wouldn't be as prosperous right now repairing people's 2-3 year old products. You can't find parts for laptops from newegg and other places very easily, and even if you do, the installation process almost requires the hand of a surgeon. If the backlit goes out on either a laptop or an LCD tv, it's a giant paper weight. Other than that, yes, I agree the service plans aren't really worth it.

Dr.Who I HIGHLY doubt that Costco had THE EXACT SAME tv for a 50% price difference. Yes, there are times where they have significant price discounts compared to us but 50% is obsurd. I'm calling shenanigans on that claim unless you can prove otherwise

You guys also need to understand that if we sell something below our cost we now lose money. Any manager would rather make 0 dollars, instead of -100 dollars. Half the time we can send it back to the manufacturer for a full reimburssment so the theory of "moving inventory" isn't always well justified. If you are buying services, protection plans, or a good amount of accessories the manager's are more willing to bend.

Call all you want when I got the TV in Feburary it is kinda hard to prove it now. Point is they are or were the exact same model and I even showed them the flyer plus told them they can call if they don't believe me. They declined and such.

@thespoon

You need to read bud. I said "Make something" not "Make nothing". You can't tell me the prices of the tv's you sell are at such a tight profit margin that you can't price match a few hundred dollars. These tv's probably have 35% or more mark up on them and you guys are buying them in bulk. Also, returning to the manufacturer cost money. They might not charge a restocking fee but it does cost money to send the item back, ie transportation costs. So would you rather move your inventory or send it back, at your expense, for full reimbursement? Trust me, I am a ex parts manager for a company. I know about ordering and returning stock.

And about the 1 year thing, some people perform a "burn-in" on their electronics. This is equilivalent of 1 yr of operation in a few months of continous operation. Most failures will occur then.

The things I have bought from BB that have failed:

1 sony tv 4 months to failure. Picture tube blown.

1 24" LCD monitor Gateway 16 days to failure. DVI stopped working.

It is the only place where I have bought something that has failed within 1 year, in this case less than 6 months.

Bought an HP deskjet all-in-one at a sale price. Found it for $20.00 less at CC (this was year ago) 2 weeks later. Brought thead to BB and they gave me a credit for the difference + 10%. No complaints. I'm not saying that ther people haven;t had problems, but the one time that I called BB out on a price match, they honored it, and this was after the purchase.

This surprises anyone? In America, corporations can lie through their teeth and not a damn thing is done about it. Fraud, deceit, downright theft. It's the American way, get use to it.

FWIW, I had a terrible experience with a Best Buy store in the Greater Detroit area. Without going through all the gory details, the asst. mgr. of the store refused to price match a Seagate hard disk that Micro Center had for $70 less than Best Buy ($179 versus $109). His rationale was that they would lose money on the deal. I asked him to show me where the Best Buy price match policy was to price match except when they don't want to, as was the case here. He obviously couldn't show that. He did get real nasty in front of witnesses. He didn't price match. I went to Best Buy HQ with my complaint. They gave me a $75 Best Buy gift card and I got an apology from the regional manager. Had this not happened, I would have gone to the Michigan Attorney General's office and I guarantee you it would have gotten fixed (I say that because I had to do this once before with Best Buy over a failure to honor their advertised price situation). I like Best Buy and buy a lot of stuff from them, but I can tell you that I am 100% confident that their price match strategy is to basically say no and see if the customer accepts it.

You ain't no sales associate either.

Probably your complaint from Attorney General is on their records. I have used MO Attorney General also for various complaints. People, make a complaint through your state Attorney General. They do not mess around with these thieves.

I've not had really bad experiences at our local BB. The only price matching I've had to do was when the item was cheaper on their web site and after they verified I was given the web site price.
I'm also selective on what items I get at BB and what items I buy at other stores. For instance I go to HH Gregg for major appliances and TVs.
I too agree that quite a few of the customer service folks at BB don't know their A__ from a hole in the ground. Expecially the Geek Squad. They had his PC for nearly three months and it still wasn't right when he got it back. So I told him to ask for the manager and give him a choice to either fix his PC or give him a comparible new one. Funny, all of the sudden his PC was fixed properly.

As for price matching I have found Staples to be the best. When I upgraded to Vista Ultimate 64-bit I found where I could get it from Microsoft for $150 USD. I printed it off and took it to Staples and they matched the price. I have never had a problem with Staples on price matching or returns.

If BB isn't careful they are going to go the way of Circuit City.

I had a similar experience with Best Buy. I could only get them to match the price of a competitor if I would pay the 100 dollar installation fee. I asked what the installation fee covered and was told that it included color alignment from the service port. So I agreed. When they came out I found out that the 100 dollar fee was for plugging in my receivers and such. I already had the set hooked up and working. I was told that the color alignment was an additional 100 dollar fee. I refused to sign the delivery sheet and went back to the store to get a credit on the 100 dollar fee. Needless to say that if I decide to buy something else in the future I will look elsewhere. I am amazed that they can get away with conduct like this.

I guess I was lucky, I bought a phone from BB and two days later they had the same phone for fifty dollars cheaper, so I called and was told to come down ,I got the money plus ten percent back. It must be the individual store.

This past summer I was in the Boscov department store and they had a Sony 40 Inch 1080 HDTV on sale for $1299.00. Their ad was a two week specail for this TV so I went to Best Buy which was a cross the street in the mall and the manager refused to match the price saying it was way under their cost. So they do play games and I will never buy from them again. I have told over 100 people so far and they agree that their business practices suck.

I've had so many problems with Best Buy over the years that now I only use them to see and handle an item I might want to buy, then I buy it elsewhere, either from the Internet or locally.

30% markup?
Are you serious?
More like 5% markup with all the back-end crap.
Walmart,Cosco and many of the "discounters" are not discounting but having "special" models built for them. You are lucky if you get a power cord. No wonder everyone is going out of business. Expections of discounts is insane. It's all right I kid the distributors that I know they are the ones making the 30%. We all have a good laugh.

I might add we bought our plasma from Best Buy. Damn good service. Snow storm, Saturday night and the guys came out and set us up. Wallyworld had the "same" unit for $200 less but I would have to pay the shipping ($200). Wait why is the wallyworld SKU have a slightly different number then everyone else..I wonder
Trying selling computers some time. That is about a 1% margin. Oh I might make another 2% on the back end if I sell 10,000 of them.

Best Buy lovefest is over

In store the clerks ignored us which was OK because it was cheaper on-line from Best Buy. The local store was not honoring the website price but guess where the unit came from? I know different divisions for acounting.

@SamIam

"30% markup?
Are you serious?
More like 5% markup"

Yes, I am considering that the manufacturers suggested retail price is almost exactly the same as Bestbuy's. Do you think they only put a %5 profit margin in there for the reseller? You're kidding right? That wouldn't even pay for the employees, lights, water, ect.. If that was the case, why sale tv's?

I bought a Frigidaire 6K BTU AC from the BB down the road last summer, on special; my brother checked Consumer Reports for the best Energy Star-compliant window units and that 10.7 EER job was the ticket. BB had just gotten 2 units in, and when I bought it, a sales dude carried it out to my car for me. I got it home, discovered the front bezel had been fractured in shipping, and called the store. They said, "Sure - we'll swap you our other new one for it," and the same dude came outside, got the damaged one, and carried the replacement to my car. Everyone was jolly, and I was happy. It's a great AC, and quietly cools the whole 3-brm. house.http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im...ies/2/cool.gif

I think it all depends significantly on the individual store's staff and mgmt., and how much pressure they're under from owners and upper mgmt.. http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im...es/4/angry.gif I know everyone lost out on that damaged AC except for me, but no one could've been nicer than the store people were.http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im...ies/7/clap.gif Of course, I was cheerful when I first walked into the store, and joked with the personnel right off, and was not stingy with my praise and thanks.http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im...ies/2/wink.gif Try selling yourself as a customer as soon as you get inside the doors, and you might find out why flies like honey http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im...s/6/flower.gif rather than vinegar... http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im...es/3/pukey.gif

Best Buy sucks. Yeah, I guess that's all I have to say.

shaolin007 MSRP has really nothing to do with it. That is an abratrary number that is created for consumers to "compare" pricing. Why do you think the web is killing brick and morter? Because we can work at even lower margins. Your right about the expenses. The idea is to have a mix of products, some we make higher margins on and some are loss leaders. Computers, TVs, monitors are all commodity items which means very thin margins. Blu-ray discs, printer cartridges, any accessory, the candy at the checkout counter: $$$ It is true that the more units of the commodity type (and why they are a commodity) the greater my backend rebate might be. I might make 1% on the first 20 I sell and then with the back end rebate that might rise to 3%. Now the bigger margin killer that you did not mention and what really makes it hard to make any margin is the CC charges at 1%-3% (if you are a really small reseller).

Oh and did I mention extended warranties?

As far as free delivery, I know their ads use to specify that the free delivery offer was not valid in conjunction with any other discounts or offers. The price match would qualify as an additional discount.

Back when they first came to Ohio, they were real good about price matching and customer service in general. Over the years, that's all gone to crap. Fortunately, HH Gregg is still in town (but don't use their delivery service - they require the drivers to open the box and inspect for damage before loading, they don't put it back in the box or even put any packing materials back on, and they're lucky to get 1 or two packing blankets per truck. I bought a $2000 fridge from there, they scratched and dented the first one up to the point where I wouldn't have paid $500 for it and seemed surprised when I wouldn't accept it. The crew that brought the replacement was much nicer and explained WHY there was no box or protection for it on the truck.)

6,000 BTU's cools your 3 bedroom house? Where at you live? (just the state)

I garee, have tried to get a price match from another retailer store in my Tri-County area and they would not match it even if I talked to the supervisor, what they tried to do was to sell me additional items that I did not need at a lower cost then there advertisemt if I bought the item that I wanted a price match.

My conclusion was to tell them that they are heading on the same road as Circuit City and then walked out.

Another BestBuy embarrassing lie- Porn DVD found inside "New" DVD player! LOL http://consumerist.com/5177420/new-b...kets-o-cum-dvd

What I don't understand in price matching is ..........
If you can find the price for less, why not buy it there? Why go to a second retailer and ask for a price match?

It's a nice option to be "given" especially if it's a time after purchase policy. If after 30 days you find it cheaper, we'll reimburse you the difference.

I've used it on more than one occasion.

Also, some retailers will price match and do 10% beyond difference of that so you end up getting a better deal. Bought a TV at HH Greg, 2 weeks later Bestbuy was selling the TV, online and they didn't have any in stock at their stores, for $100 cheaper. HH Greg matched the $100 and an extra $10 bucks and never complained, whined, moaned, got angry, called managers out for a conference over it, come up with lame excuses why they can't, they just did it.

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I've ALWAYS had good success with Best Buy price matches, and I don't think they've ever denied a legitimate match in the nearly 20 years I've been shopping there. I've never had a restocking fee on a return, either, and I've returned PLENTY to them.

Granted, they have issues with retaining good personnel, but given the consumer demand for low prices they can't afford to pay people high salaries and still make a profit. I don't think that's significantly different than any retail location.

My most recent example of a price match was memory normally at $39.99 which was on sale for $9.99 at Microcenter. They matched the price +10% of the difference, and I got the memory for $6.99/ea. Unfortunately, they only had one stick and I needed 4, so they had the other 3 delivered to my home for free in 2 days.

I guess much of what you get depends upon how you ask. BB is great for some items, and really good if you need something quickly. One good move is to buy there, and then get online if it's much cheaper and just return when the online order arrives.

Just don't buy cables there. Talk about huge mark-ups!

There are some exclusions listed in their price match policy. From their website:

"The Price Guarantee does not apply to our or our competitors' free offers, limited-quantity items, items for sale November 28th & 29th, 2008, open-box items, clearance items, Outlet Center items, mail-in offers, financing, bundle offers or pricing errors."

Since Costco is considered a outlet/warehouse merchant, they were well within their rights to decline the price match in this instance.

I'm never quite sure why people are so caught up in price matching. Just buy it at the cheaper store and reward them for their efforts to keep prices low. Unless you're the kind of person who just seeks out confrontation to play the "Gotcha" game, just save yourself time and buy it from the retailer with the consumer in mind....i.e. lower prices.