The Hartford Courant has done an investigation into Best Buy regarding sales prices on their website. Here is what they found:
Many employees I talked with said they had no idea there is an internal site. But two employees at two different stores confirmed to me that there is an intranet site available only to employees.
One long-time employee showed me the intranet site Hammer and I had been led to believe was the bestbuy.com site.
The salesman told me it was a site that only employees could access because it contained confidential information as well
This is the most popular story on Digg right now and got me thinking about something that happened last year.
Last year I decided to add a couple DirecTV receivers in my house. We have had DirecTV for almost 10 years. The current dish was installed by me (as are the dishes at most of my friends homes). I have a very extensive technological background and am not afraid of tackling it.
I went looking for my DirecTV DVR receivers and first checked out Best Buy. They had them and the site said they were available for in store pickup. Cool, but I had one problem. I needed to update my dish also. No problem – Best Buy’s site said the Dish I needed was available for in store pickup also.
Having done my homework, I headed over to Best Buy (we do have one about 15 minutes from me). I get here and find the receivers, priced the same as the website. I then looked around for the satellite dish and didn’t see one.
I thought they might have stocked them in the back so I asked a sales clerk about it. Well she wasn’t sure and said that it could possible be ordered. I went up to the service desk and they knew nothing about this. Finally they got a person who actually works in that department to help me and that is where they tried to screw me.
The clerk quickly told me that I could not purchase the dish. He said the policy of DirecTV was to have all dishs installed by them now and in order to get it I had to pay an additional $99.00 install fee. I told him I was already a subscriber and had a dish installed (hell you don’t even need a ladder to get to it – makes it nice on snowy days), plus have installed numerous dishes over the years. He insisted to me that the only way I could buy that dish, or any DirecTV equipment was to signup to have it installed. Funny considering the receivers sit on the shelf where anyone can pick it up and take it to the cashier.
At this point I was very pissed. I took the two receivers I had in my hand and dropped them on the floor right there and told them they would never see my business again. I went home and turned to the old Google. I quickly noticed a number of companies selling the dishes. I called DirecTV and asked them about having to have a dish installed by them if I upgraded. They told me absolutely not and I could go to one of their authorized outlets, purchase it and do it myself. Well I informed her that Best Buy is one of their “authorized outlets” and they told me I had to pay them to install it. She told me that was absolutely wrong.
Needless to say I ended up ordering the equipment from a company in Georgia. I saved about $40 total and Best Buy can kiss my ass.
Now instead of Ralph Nader thinking about a 2008 Presidential run, I wish he would go back to advocating for consumers. Best Buy would be a perfect target for him. If you want something from Best Buy, check online first. Chances are you will get a lot better deal from a reputable place like New Egg.