Connecticut AG Goes After Best Buy for Fraud
BestBuy, Where The Customer is #1,233,405,203,568,021
Monday, March 5, 2007 by Zoomba | Discussion: WinCustomize News
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.
Reply #2 Monday, March 5, 2007 8:12 PM
Reply #3 Monday, March 5, 2007 8:27 PM
Reply #4 Monday, March 5, 2007 8:43 PM
Reply #5 Tuesday, March 6, 2007 9:31 AM
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 Tuesday, March 6, 2007 3:34 PM
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."
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Reply #1 Monday, March 5, 2007 7:48 PM