BladeVenom
Supreme [H]ardness
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I only buy stuff at Best Buy if I have a store advertisement in hand. Otherwise I wouldn't trust them or their prices.
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Best Buy Still Using In-Store Website On Customers
- Thread starter HardOCP News
- Start date
Great, now I have to clean the coffee off my screen and explain to my boss why I just started laughing. Thanks.
I've never had to deal with BB's customer service (thankfully, I rarely shop there), but I find it hard to imagine that it could possibly be WORSE than Fry's.
This actually happens in Alaska a LOT. Went to buy an iPod Touch as a gift for someone, the site said $299.99 for the 8GB. I go to the store it is $319.99. I am like WTF? So I ask dude what the deal was, sure enough....he checks the internal site to confirm the $20 higher price.
I walk into the mall (it's attached to the store), go to my cell phone / internet providers store, pull up the site and buy the iPod online for the real price which was now $284.99 because of a new sale going on. I selected in-store pick up and went back to BB.
After I pick up my iPod Touch, I find the employee....and get this, he is pissed, literally MAD that I went and got it for the right price.
That's too bad(for the sales dweeb at least
), For You Priceless, You did the right thing too as I would have done the same thing, Good job. He deserved what He got, No money from You. InorganicMatter
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I said they were top notch for a B&M shop, which is only a relative measurement and means they still overall suck.
Still, they blow away Best Buy's CS any day.A Shiny Demon
Limp Gawd
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You have to know what you want and have research done already when you walk into any B&M store or you're just screwed. I've had a CC employee lie to me about the specs of a car speaker while I was looking at the specs page over his shoulder! In his defense, I guess he could have been illiterate.
On the other hand, you do occasionally get help from a person who is actually knowledgeable and enthusiastic about what he is selling -- I've experienced this before in a Radioshack and in a Best Buy, and it's a pretty nice change, even if a bit shocking. To all of you employees out there -- don't be offended by stories and rants like the above if you do your job well; you are much appreciated. If you rip people off or have no idea what you're talking about, please just go somewhere else. Make me a hamburger or something.
On the other hand, you do occasionally get help from a person who is actually knowledgeable and enthusiastic about what he is selling -- I've experienced this before in a Radioshack and in a Best Buy, and it's a pretty nice change, even if a bit shocking. To all of you employees out there -- don't be offended by stories and rants like the above if you do your job well; you are much appreciated. If you rip people off or have no idea what you're talking about, please just go somewhere else. Make me a hamburger or something.
I had something related to this happen to me when getting a price adjustment on my TX-42. It was on sale for $100 less than I paid for it a few weeks earlier. I went to the customer service desk and asked for the adjustment, but it showed up as just a few bucks less than I paid. I asked her to add it to the cart and it showed the proper sale price.
I work at Best Buy.
There are two websites: the local website, and the internet website.
When a person logs in and they go ot the website, there are literally two options to choose from.
One says "Bestbuy.com - Local" and the other says something like "Bestbuy.com - Nationwide."
They are clearly marked when you log in.
The normal internet website shows everything that Best Buy can possibly carry, or can order for you. The local website shows only what the store has in stock. Sometimes the sales only show up on the internet website, and if you see items on clearance, those will only show up in the local website because clearance items are based on how many of that particular item a store sells, so if they don't sell many, it will go on clearance be and be really cheap, where the store down the road sells a lot and it never goes on clearance.
It's not a scam, it's just dumb employees that don't know the difference.
There are two websites: the local website, and the internet website.
When a person logs in and they go ot the website, there are literally two options to choose from.
One says "Bestbuy.com - Local" and the other says something like "Bestbuy.com - Nationwide."
They are clearly marked when you log in.
The normal internet website shows everything that Best Buy can possibly carry, or can order for you. The local website shows only what the store has in stock. Sometimes the sales only show up on the internet website, and if you see items on clearance, those will only show up in the local website because clearance items are based on how many of that particular item a store sells, so if they don't sell many, it will go on clearance be and be really cheap, where the store down the road sells a lot and it never goes on clearance.
It's not a scam, it's just dumb employees that don't know the difference.
BinarySynapse
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I'm sure Best Buy is doing everything they can to make sure all their employees know the difference between the two. But... Why do they make them both "BestBuy.com" and both look nearly identical. The Best Buy in my town had an actual inventory screen that's completely different from the interent site. It's only white text on blue screen that gives inventory information and a picture of the item(s) searched for. However the one in NLR uses the internet based internal site.
Modred189
Can't Read the OP
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I understand what you are saying, but it doesn't add up. The only reason a bby employee would try to decieve someone on the price is if they could get something out of it, right?
If bby employees are all non-commission, what do they care if you get price marched on something? Personally, I wouldn't mind if every customer got a price match... they'd all be happy. I'd rather deal with customers who spend less but treat me better, than a jack-ass that blew his bank account. I'd get paid the same, but would have less stress with the former...
Because price matching means the store makes less money, which makes the managers upset and shit rolls down hill.
Or
maybe the employee was really upset that he was found out to be a liar.
I mean I have had employess get really pissed when I pointed out that their memory prices were like 3-4 times the price at even Kingston own website.
Or
maybe the employee was really upset that he was found out to be a liar.
I mean I have had employess get really pissed when I pointed out that their memory prices were like 3-4 times the price at even Kingston own website.
InorganicMatter
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Trying to keep their numbers high?
I odn't know why they make both of the sites look the same. I'm guessing it's so they don't have to rewrite the entire site, they just limit the local one's search to the store you're at.
There are other inventory programs people can, the main one being called RSS. Most of the poeple at the store I work at use this over the website because it's usually faster. If they can't find it in RSS, they use the national page to find a SKU, then type the sku into RSS to see if it's actually in stock at the store. They don't use the local Best Buy page in that case because of the store doesn't carry that item, they will never find it on the local website... so if they use the national website, they can get the sku, find out how much it is through RSS, and also tell you which stores in the area have in stock and for what price.
Seriously, as much as I hate the man, people are blowing this way out of proportion, and the people that talk big saying they walk in and "demand" their product are just going to get crappy service because nobody wants to help a jerk. In the situation of losing the sale versus heping a d-bag, I'd rather lose the sale.
It pays to be nice to the people that are trying to help you, and to not assume that they're all out to get you...
We have a policy at best buy, that policy is that we will price match the price in the store. We will match other stores, and our website.
However if a customer comes back after they bought the product, we need to price match AND beat it by 10% of the difference.
So if we 'scammed' the customer and they went home and realized they found it cheaper online, they can come back and get the pricematch aswell as that 10%.
The issue here is the clueless employees and the clueless customers. The customers who use the Kiosk don't see the huge sign that the prices don't reflect online sales. (http://www.my3cents.com/review_images/27909.jpg) and the employees who don't follow standard operating procedure and using the correct website to pricematch.
InorganicMatter
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How many customers are going to bother? Not many, I'm betting.
Clueless? Or pulling strings on clueless customers to get their numbers higher?
That's the thing though, the websites don't look identical.
Having a gigantic, absolutely enormous yellow bar running completely parallel with the entire screen in big, capital, bold letters advising the customer and employee that it is not the national website, and to talk to a sales associate to see the national website is kinda hard to miss. An employee would have to deliberately page down about a quarter of the page in order to prevent a customer from seeing it.
I work for Best Buy, and I don't agree with having two different prices (though I can on the other hand quote times where the store price is lower, especially on appliances and things like mice) for the same product. I don't necessarily agree with the implementation, but you've either gotta be clueless or have the sleeziest salesman in the world next to you to not see the notice.
Having a gigantic, absolutely enormous yellow bar running completely parallel with the entire screen in big, capital, bold letters advising the customer and employee that it is not the national website, and to talk to a sales associate to see the national website is kinda hard to miss. An employee would have to deliberately page down about a quarter of the page in order to prevent a customer from seeing it.
I work for Best Buy, and I don't agree with having two different prices (though I can on the other hand quote times where the store price is lower, especially on appliances and things like mice) for the same product. I don't necessarily agree with the implementation, but you've either gotta be clueless or have the sleeziest salesman in the world next to you to not see the notice.
oROEchimaru
Supreme [H]ardness
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still a shady, redundant system. Pull the prices from the same database... thats what nation wide chains need to do. If you had two companies and they were the only two in the state, you might do economic supply/demand pricing for each store. when you have 1000+ stores you cannot do this and keep your customers satisfied since they expect the lower price. Why confuse and mislead customers even if only by "accident".
The simple solution is to have one database with one pricing scheme. What they are doing is running two databases with different prices, or lazily updated sale prices which costs more money, but also is a shady way of business by hoping to get higher prices from average customers. Not everyone is a hardocp member and we are proud of our best buy employees for finding this site (lol).
The simple solution is to have one database with one pricing scheme. What they are doing is running two databases with different prices, or lazily updated sale prices which costs more money, but also is a shady way of business by hoping to get higher prices from average customers. Not everyone is a hardocp member and we are proud of our best buy employees for finding this site (lol).
If BB would "simply" have bestbuy.com have you enter your zip code before being able to enter (hey, make it stick in a cookie then too, so you only have to enter it once!). This would allow them to give you the pricing of the stores that are close to you, if in fact, that's what IS really going on.
I have my doubts, though.
I have my doubts, though.
mustang_steve
c[H]ewbacca
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I had an RS employee go apeshit on me when I told him $20 for a 3ft USB cable was ridiculous, he then went on about how their price was $4 lower than walmart....I went to Office Despot, and found a cable for $18.....still didn't buy it, I ended up buying a $4 USB hub off the internet with some other misc hardware and cannibalizing the cable from it....it's sad when a cable + hub costs 1/5th of what just the cable costs.....that's why retail is doomed, screwing the customer.
CapnBiggles
Weaksauce
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I know they they're most likely encouraged to make a sale, in particular a higher-priced sale, but what's truly weird is the level of attitude some folks get when they manage to outwit the local store staff by showing the correct web price. Best Buy is non-commission. I can understand trying to push a little, but they should just shrug and say "yeah it should be priced lower here" instead of being unmitigated dicks about it. There really isn't any "losing the sale" for them.
I've had friends who wanted to pricematch the BB site against the store's sight and were refused before they pressed the issue or printed the web price off ahead of time. For one friend, the manager refused to let him get the online price, so he asked him "You can price match a competitor, but not your own site?" The manager paused for a second then caved, heh.
I've had friends who wanted to pricematch the BB site against the store's sight and were refused before they pressed the issue or printed the web price off ahead of time. For one friend, the manager refused to let him get the online price, so he asked him "You can price match a competitor, but not your own site?" The manager paused for a second then caved, heh.
You'd be suprisedHow many customers are going to bother? Not many, I'm betting.
This is just a thoughtless argument, you obviously have some sort of a grudge against best buy. Trust me, if someone doesn't price match on the correct national website, you can bet they will be in trouble for it. For some reason your under the impression that our managers tell our employees to do this, or our employee are out to get customers. That said, there are a few people who think Best Buy is one big scamming retailer, at least that's what the headlines tell you. Yes I agree that the two BestBuy.com sites look simular, but they are clearly labeled, however I do agree they should only have one BestBuy.com. Even that said, employees who use the wrong site to price match, break our SOP, and should get in trouble for it. Now at my store noone uses that site when we price match online deals, most of the staff is pretty knowledgeable, and we work as a team. Now I don't know how other stores run, but they should defiantly do what we do because we are highest in our district and we occasionally compete nationally. We do this without 'cheating' our customers.
Well, maybe one day consumers will wise up to these scams they call BB, CompUSA, Circuit City, etc. and start getting smart about their shopping and not paying 2,3,4+ times online prices.
Maybe one day these places will start hiring people that aren't rejects that's told to scam the customer as much as possible.
I don't know though, a lot of Lemmings out there that keep these scammers in business.
Maybe one day these places will start hiring people that aren't rejects that's told to scam the customer as much as possible.
I don't know though, a lot of Lemmings out there that keep these scammers in business.
movirefan66
n00b
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went in to a Best Buy in the Indianapolis area about 3 weeks ago to purchase a plasma TV and use my rewards zone coupon that best buy mails out every so often. The TV was listed as on "sale" at their website. It did not state an Internet only sale. I went into the store and spoke to a sales associate who I later found out was the dept manager in TVs. When I inquired about the price difference he went to their kiosk and looked it up and it showed their in store price. I stated firmly that I just saw it on their website less than an hour earlier. He was adamant that the higher price was the correct price. I then called my wife who looked it up while I was on my cell in front of the salesperson. I had her refresh the page to ensure she wasn't looking at a cached page. She assured me that the TV I was looking at in the store was on sale. I told him I didn't believe that he was showing me their website but he persisted in the charade. I went one aisle over to triple check the model# with wife still on the phone. When I went back to the salesperson he miraculously had pulled up their "national site" When I asked him what he was looking at the 1st time he said the "local site" When I asked why he didn't check the national site the 1st time he just said he could price match the website price. Unfortunately the fun didn't end there. With my TV and coupon in hand I went to customer service. When the cashier rang up the TV and coupon the price reverted back to the non sale price. Why? Because they can't or as their operations manager later admitted won't do a "price match" to their own website and honor a coupon. (the coupon states it is good on sale priced items) After 10 minutes of trying to convince the highest authority in the store at the time that she was going to force me to walk out without spending 800.00 because she wouldn't authorize a 30.00 markdown I gave up and left without the TV.
I had to really and I mean really push this TV associate to pull the correct price up on his kiosk.
I had to really and I mean really push this TV associate to pull the correct price up on his kiosk.
they wouldn't budge over $30 thats insane. I mean honestly I've had my store do the same thing. Even with a small sale of say $300 with a difference of $40 bucks. SOrry to hear about that problem. I typically say its online and will go to the national website, where if it says ONLINE ONLY then I can't accept that price but if it doesn't then yeah sure I'll match it. But I do think its a little sneaky sometimes
But on that note don't other companies do this with the sales prices and stuff online being cheaper
cant tell you how many times i've been at circuit city, ordered off the website in their store and then picked it up at their store because they will not sell it to me at the website price
that being said, i think these stores are really just trying to screw their own sales people
look at it this way, if i buy online, drive to the store and pick it up, then realy they only had to pay someone to walk to the store room and hand the product to me
if i go to the store and mess around comparing each product, i might waste a sales persons time and that would cost the store more.
they figure if they can get even half of their sales to be online then they will save alot of money in man hours, but if we go into the store then we pay a premium for the "help". its the equivalent of charging extra for a sales associate who probably knows very little about the product to sell it to you.
that being said, i think these stores are really just trying to screw their own sales people
look at it this way, if i buy online, drive to the store and pick it up, then realy they only had to pay someone to walk to the store room and hand the product to me
if i go to the store and mess around comparing each product, i might waste a sales persons time and that would cost the store more.
they figure if they can get even half of their sales to be online then they will save alot of money in man hours, but if we go into the store then we pay a premium for the "help". its the equivalent of charging extra for a sales associate who probably knows very little about the product to sell it to you.
BinarySynapse
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That would be true if the sales people were paid on commission. But they're all hourly now. It would be better for Best Buy to have their sale people selling products rather than sitting around waiting for the next internet customer to stroll in to pick up their new item. It's really just an attempt to capitalize on more diverse demographic (Those who shop online vs those who don't).
Modred189
Can't Read the OP
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Thought I would update,
Last night while working, I noticed that the kiosks in my store no longer show the yellow warning bar described earlier....
hrm....
Last night while working, I noticed that the kiosks in my store no longer show the yellow warning bar described earlier....
hrm....
LOCO LAPTOP
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heh. I tested my local best buy with this trick I had. I wanted a 320GB hard drive that I saw online for $100 that was on sale for $20 off. So I grab my Iphone pull up the page and when to the store... Later at the cash register is rings up to $120 so I say, that not what I saw on your website, so she pulled the store site saying $120, Here comes the best part I take out my phone on the web page and show it to her. she said "we just change the price" then I refresh the page and still came up $100. So then I looked on her screen and showed that it was not the national site. It got to the point that the manager had to come and ring it for $100 but with all the coupons that I had, it came up to $80
Btw. It was planned out and I really wanted to screw them over with their BS.
I take out my phone on the web page and show it to her. she said "we just change the price" then I refresh the page and still came up $100. So then I looked on her screen and showed that it was not the national site. It got to the point that the manager had to come and ring it for $100 but with all the coupons that I had, it came up to $80 Btw. It was planned out and I really wanted to screw them over with their BS.
Best buy has a whole bag of tricks and as long as they know they can make more off of it than the potential fine they dont seem to care.
When i worked there a couple years ago during the christmas season back when PS2's and Xboxes where very hard to come by. We would get them in and shrinkwrap them with a game, controllers and memory cards etc. we where all told to tell the customers this was how they came and the only way we could sell them. Unfortunately this is an illegal act known as inboarding. After having a chat with my supervisor (Really cool guy and he hated what the managers where doing) he told me that a few years prior they did the same thing when the PS2 was released in a few stores and they got caught and fined but the fine was nothing near the profit they made doing it so this time all stores where doing it.
Needless to say that made me hate best buy and was one of the many reasons i parted ways with them.
Best buy dont care because most of the time they get away with this kind of crap and even when they get caught they pay a small fine and go right back to it.
When i worked there a couple years ago during the christmas season back when PS2's and Xboxes where very hard to come by. We would get them in and shrinkwrap them with a game, controllers and memory cards etc. we where all told to tell the customers this was how they came and the only way we could sell them. Unfortunately this is an illegal act known as inboarding. After having a chat with my supervisor (Really cool guy and he hated what the managers where doing) he told me that a few years prior they did the same thing when the PS2 was released in a few stores and they got caught and fined but the fine was nothing near the profit they made doing it so this time all stores where doing it.
Needless to say that made me hate best buy and was one of the many reasons i parted ways with them.
Best buy dont care because most of the time they get away with this kind of crap and even when they get caught they pay a small fine and go right back to it.
heh. I tested my local best buy with this trick I had. I wanted a 320GB hard drive that I saw online for $100 that was on sale for $20 off. So I grab my Iphone pull up the page and when to the store... Later at the cash register is rings up to $120 so I say, that not what I saw on your website, so she pulled the store site saying $120, Here comes the best part
Btw. It was planned out and I really wanted to screw them over with their BS.
As a BB employee, that is seriously messed up and you should definitely talk to a district manager about that.
YeuEmMaiMai
Extremely [H]
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the only thing BB is good for is when they run movies on sale for $4.99
So, companies shouldn't be expected to honor a price that they advertise?
This is the real issue at hand. Now I'm sorry that you have to deal with jack-ass customers, but so long as BBY continues to put customers through this bullshit, it's not going to go away. Well, there will always be jack-ass customers, but with this many customers that would be nice are forced to be asses.
Droc
2[H]4U
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I got escorted out of bestbuy the other day when I told another customer that HDMI cables could be found for less then $10 up the road, just while the sales guy was trying to sell him a $120 10ft HDMI cable.
Bleedblue12345
[H]ard|Gawd
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just today i was in best buy and saw some sales rep trying to sell these poor people buying a computer all this antivirus and driver restore disks for over $150..... although the other day some sales rep was really nice and allowed me to pricematch my 8800gt on his computer and print out the thing that showed it was $252 not $279, just depends on the store i guess. I only really buy game software and if they have a really good deal (like my 8800gt) than i might go and buy it.
Modred189
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So, companies shouldn't be expected to honor a price that they advertise?
This is the real issue at hand. Now I'm sorry that you have to deal with jack-ass customers, but so long as BBY continues to put customers through this bullshit, it's not going to go away. Well, there will always be jack-ass customers, but with this many customers that would be nice are forced to be asses.
No they shouldn't match prices unless they promise to. And NOWHERE does ANY company promise to match online prices, not BestBuy, not Circuit City etc... It is a business, and as I explained before, costs on a given unit CHANGE depending on the area of the country you are in. So the question is, who should pay the difference; you or the company? Obviously you say the company, and the company says you. But they set the prices, so it's up to them. The point is, if you don't like a store's policies, shop online, because store policies are largely the same from place to place. What differs are the exceptions a store will make. My store will price match BestBuy.com ALL the time, period. It's the GM's policy. Others won't.
It's up to each store individually.
And it's up to each customer to read the damn fine print. If they don't, and get shoveled what they feel is crap, it's their own fault for being uninformed.
The customer is always right, unless they bring it on themselves
through laziness, stupidity or ignorance.
So? You might be able to do all the stuff in that package yourself in an afternoon, but the mom's and pop's that come in can't, or just don't want to mess with it. If they have $150 ($85-$90 of which is software and materials costs) to burn to have someone else do it, who are you to judge?
Don't mistake bad service with service you don't want. I offer that service to people every day, and I have yet to meet one who wasn't glad they got it.
I work at BestBuy, and I like working there (low stress, no selling pressure from above, non-commission), but I'll call them on their BS when it's warranted (like when employees look prices up on the wrong website for a given situation, or when service plans aren't fulfilled correctly). But I REALLY hate people with their flaming posts, ranting about how bad any retailer is, when it's plain the company didn't do anything wrong, the poster just wants to complain because they don't agree with something. It's just ignorant and frustrating.
Now, I'm not necessarily calling out the above posters, but it just gets me all irritated, because I have customers I've had to ask to leave the store because they sit there and complain about stuff that is their own damn fault, that I can't do anything about etc... (not reading the back of coupons, not making payments on their credit card, viruses they get that aren't covered by a warranty etc...)
I don't buy it. If a company is going to advertise a price, they should be prepared to honor it. I don't really care how much it costs to get into the store, that's not my problem. I'm not talking about price-matching the Circuit City website, I'm talking about BBY giving me the price that they said they would. If they won't then they should consider making BestBuy.com a separate company from Best Buy...
I do understand that retail employees take a lot of crap about completely ridiculous things. However I'm not going to sympathize on this one.
Bleedblue12345
[H]ard|Gawd
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Modred, I don't mind best buy at all, infact its a great store most of the time. I just wish they would talk to their customers more about what they are buying, and educate them a bit more, I don't know, whenever I walk into most best buys its just feels like they WANT your money and that's it.......
it really varies by whom you talk to and which best buy store you goto though.
it really varies by whom you talk to and which best buy store you goto though.