The thing that PISSES me off the most. I called Conn's today as I didn't go there yesterday. They don't have what I want. I called Fry's and they do have what I want. But even without that 10% I thought I'd be getting......Best Buy still has....the best buy. So....the pissed off part of me is still going to write my letters and send them off to the BBB and the AG... ...but the practical me is going to suck it up and get the stuff from Best Buy. I'm not so principled that I'll give up a couple hundred bucks. No telling what my wife thinks about all this.
My son used to work at Circuit City. They were required by their management to give the customer the warranty pitch 3 times before giving up. He was especially frustrated with that because quite a few folks already knew they did not want a warranty. In addition, he was on commission. He would make next to nothign for selling a $2000.00 computer system. but he would make a lot of money for selling that 3 year extended warranty. I know Best Buy folks don't make normal commissions, but I suspect they do make commission on warranties.
yah...Sears was one of the ones we went too. I didn't know they did price matching. I think the price has to be advertised though for that, and these prices were only displayed in the store. Regardless, we weren't all that thrilled with our Sears experience either. Sadly, as pissed off as they made me, I can't find anyone that even gets close to their price on the fridge. Part of the thing that I didn't mention was that the price of the fridge was actually better than 10% off of their un-displayed "regular" price of $1699. I overheard the salesperson tell the manager that that was because of price matching. That means that someone around here is selling that fridge for the same price. I'd sure like to know where.
I liked this reply on the second one: This just... Kmart Corporation is going after thousands of shoppers for purchasing items at sale prices. When officals were contacted they were flabbergasted that people would stoup to such a level as to purchase something at a rate that did not allow the company to make as much money as possible. A Kmart spokesperson said that their perception of realty was based upon what the RIAA had been doing for years In this story, the person isn't being arrested for trying to make a price match, though. He was arrested for trying to get BestBuy to live up to an order price placed on BestBuy.com. But I remember reading a story a few years ago about a guy who was arrested in a Best Buy for writing down prices on various items in a little notebook while walking around Best Buy in an effort to comparison shop.
wow, i was one of those 2000 people that ordered the geForce4 card on bestbuy.com the morning of the problem... hypothermia.com set up an online complaint forum for us to get the card at the advertised price... instead, best buy offered us gift certificates of $35 if we would sign a release saying we wouldn't try to get our vid cards! i laughed at that email and considered going to best buy to make a HUGE fuss!!! thank god i'm lazy! i might have been in jail now!
<a href="http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/articles/bestbuy_gf4deal.html">I see this has already been posted, but I'm posting it anyhow. (Hypothermia link for Geforce4)</a>. I ordered it as well. When they first cancelled the orders, I was disappointed, and perturbed, but not too much. I was willing to accept that it was a "pricing error" or whatever it was, and just have them cancel my ordre, and leave it at that. HOWEVER, the way they've handled the situation from that point onward has been AWFUL, and has exposed Best Buy as the fraudulent corporate monolith that it is. If they'd just left it at that, and maybe done something HONEST, then that would've been cool, IMO. But no! Instead, they see the need to lie, cheat and deceive. Stories like "Best Buy and BestBuy.com are unrelated", arresting the one guy, and the dozens of other debacles have made me TOTALLY lose any respect I ever had for this POS company. I haven't purchased a thing from them since this began, and I don't intend to. Bastards!!!
Oh, one more thing -- Complain to the BBB, but it won't help. They are merely a highly-funded mouthpiece for Best Buy. The Attorney General is the person to talk to. The response from that started out badly, but it's turned around to where the AG is on our side.
Best Buy also has the worst sales people in the bid'ness. Here's a number I found on the channel 2 web site: To reach Akin's Army, call (713) 771-KPRC (771-5772) from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Monday through Friday. They do the kind of consumer investigations you are talking about. Good luck. os
Whenever I start the sales process at Best Buy or Circuit City, I tell the salesperson way up front in a very serious tone... " if there is one mention of an extended warranty, the deals off and I'm out the door". And I mean it! Often they start the sales pitch right after I mention the warranty, but I cut them off with "starting now". Not having practical experience, it woukd seem like the SAG would be much better the the BBB. Good luck, Pole.
