March 6th, 2007
Best Buy’s Intrastore Web Site Under Investigation
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
Hmmm … the sites looked the same … but the prices were not necessarily the same. The Connecticut Attorney General is investigating Best Buy over the use of an internal web site that looked the same as the normal web site, but with different prices. How could this be used? Well …
What Best Buy is accused of doing is misleading consumers. The original reports had store associates disputing special offers announced on the Web site and making their case by calling up a copy of the Web site right there and then, in the store. Source: eWeek
We Say: If this is true, and this all started with an investigation by The Hartford Courant, I’d say … throw the book at them. Another disadvantage of brick-and-mortar stores, eh? If you’d bought on the Web, there’d be no chance of getting misled by a static site. 
Tom K says:
This very thing happeded to me like a month ago. I saw on the website the prices of 2 tv’s i was looking into and when we looked at the web the prices were not what i had seen.
March 6th, 2007 at 11:30 am
techno says:
Best Buy is not the best store for shopping in person; occasional online offers with free shipping - yes. I’ve never seen such a waste of floor space with limited selection and overzealous salespeople trying to sell extended warranty contracts. Once, I did buy a Sony digicam for a great price with free shipping that beat other stores - I figured I could just return it in person at a store if dissatisfied. But that was a one-off thing - generally some other mail order place like J&R, Newegg, or even Amazon beats ‘em hands down.
March 6th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Freud says:
Best Buy reminds me of “The Wiz” and how they operated. I rarely shop there, even for comparison purposes. When I pull out my Treo and do my own on-line price comparison right there in the store, the sales staff isn’t happy.
March 8th, 2007 at 9:08 am
1 finger says:
Isn’t that the same company that got sued for pirating Winternals software?
March 8th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
doo says:
I have heard that there are some storefronts out on the web that use cookies and such to track you across multiple store fronts. They will then adjust the price based on other sites you have seen. So, just because it is on-line, doesn’t mean you are necessarily getting the best price.
For example, if you drop into a site via Froogle or some other shopping aggregator, you may get a better price so they show higher in the listings at those sites, but if you drop directly into one of these storefronts, the price may be higher, because they think you have no base for comparison.
Buyer beware.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
» Best Buy Faces Possible Suit Over Deceptive Intrastore Website » Blog Archive Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech says:
[…] You may recall my earlier story about Best Buy and the differences between its intrastore website, which it would often show customers to “prove” a sale didn’t exist, and its normal web site. At the time the Connecticut Attorney General was investigating, and it seems he’s looked long enough. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal accused Best Buy of “bait and switch” tactics and sent a complaint to the company on May 18. If no response is received by June 13, Blumenthal said he intends to file suit against the company. […]
May 25th, 2007 at 8:26 am
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June 19th, 2007 at 7:16 am