Best Buy Confirms 'Secret' Version of its Website 356
Iberian writes "The Courant site confirms an oft-rumoured possibility: Best Buy does indeed maintain a second website for what one could assume is for the purpose of defrauding its customers. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy's practices on Feb. 9 after columnist George Gombossy disclosed the website and showed how employees at two Connecticut stores used it to deny customers a $150 discount on a computer advertised on BestBuy.com. Says Gombossy, 'What is more troubling to me, and to some Best Buy customers, is that even when one informs a salesperson of the Internet price, customers have been shown the intranet site, which looks identical to the Internet site, but does not always show the lowest price. [State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal] said that because of the fuzzy responses from Best Buy, he has yet to figure out the real motivation behind the intranet site and whether sales people are encouraged to use it to cheat customers.'"
I've seen it. (Score:5, Interesting)
Wait for the flood of OMG CORPORATIONS posts to follow...
Enron 2.0? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Many tricks to price discriminate (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Interesting, but... (Score:1, Interesting)
If it's not illegal, then I guess I'd sue them in small claims court for the cost of gas to drive there to listen to them lie.
CORRECTION Re:Enron 2.0? (Score:2, Interesting)
So your comparison of Best Buy to Enron because of Enron's affiliation with Arthur Andersen (and BB's current affiliation with Accenture) is completely false.
Are people STUPID? (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Obviously (Score:1, Interesting)
I'd rather whore myself out to a thousand fat chicks for fifty bucks each than work there ever again. The whoring would pay a lot better, too.
Best Buy will Ho out Your Email (Score:5, Interesting)
When I write them the second time, I'm still polite and explain that they must be sending them because that's the only place I've used this particular email address. They write back and insist quite rudely that I must have used this email address to register somewhere else. Furthermore, they're quite rude in insisting that they're not spamming me and asked me why I was so stupid as to think that they were. "Surely you realize that a reputable company like Best Buy wouldn't spam you."
My third missive wasn't polite at all. I rather pointedly asked them if they were mentally deficient or inbred, since they seemed to be too slow to pick up on the fact that they were corresponding with me at the email address of bestbuy@mydomain.com. And as I pointed out to them, I am not likely to be using this anywhere else. It has be used in one place and one place only and that is their web site. I also tell them that they don't get my email address back from people that they have so rudely, and in violation of their own privacy policy, ho'd it out to, that I'll be doing some spamming of my own. Groups like the State Attorney General's office, FCC, UseNet, anyone and everyone else I can think of that might be remotely interested.
Finally I got a letter back from Best Buy claiming that a security breach had "liberated my email address". I called the person that sent me the letter. He was rather nicer than the nimrods I'd been dealing with. When I asked if they had filed the proper disclosure, which is required in several states in which Best Buy operates, I got a long awkward pause and he finally admitted that one of their employees had been busted selling email addresses harvested by the web site. When I asked if they were at least terminating the miscreant, I was told that they were not. That was the last time I ever purchased anything in a Best Buy.
2 cents,
QueenB.
Sometimes BBY employees are BBY employees (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyway, I was an employee at BBY when they started this switch, and, embarrasingly enough, I didn't notice the switch for over 2 months - and I was a customer service senior. They never even bothered to tell us!! (and i worked at Richfield, MN - just across the street from corporate HQ) - they were most probably thinking that we would deny the price match out of ignorance.
But, in my stores defense, once we found out of the switch we checked through the internet website and even went as far as printing it off if they had to go to another store to pick up the item.
Basically, with any corporation you will have great stores and horrible stores - it all depends on who the GM is. I've had good ones that make a great customer atmosphere and horrible GM's that make me deny price matches and basically be a bitch to the customer. But one thing I've found to be true no matter what GM I have is that the customer initiatives at the corporate level are in the right place - which is much more than I can say for most other Fortune 500 companies out there.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Best Buy will Ho out Your Email (Score:5, Interesting)
Create some email addresses, and then don't use them, ever.
There's still a good chance you'll start getting spam, sooner or later. Having done this myself, I can only conclude that some spam list generators use dictionary attacks against MTAs, trying different usernames on known good domains until they find some userids where they don't get immediate bounces.
Even that aside, there's a difference from an employee selling your email address on the side (regrettably, very common), and corporate actions.
Circuit City = very cool (Score:5, Interesting)
I recently bought a DVD recorder... I did exactly this, and checked prices online. I wanted a specific model (Pye PY90DG) and Circuit City had it. When I got to the store, it was about $9 more. I asked the guy at the returns counter (nobody there) if they matched their online price, and he said they didn't because they were different systems (or something like that). For $9... I was just going to buy it and pay the extra, but he could see it wasn't sitting well with me. It was only $9, but the price was around $90. That is a considerable percentage! He took me over to one of their net-connected PCs, and let me order it online for in-store pickup. Then I went and took one off the shelf, walked it over to his register, and picked it up. He said they do it all the time, because their online prices are lower than the store prices quite often, and they didn't think that was very fair. I was very happy with my purchase, and would go back there for that reason.
My Best Buy service polemic (Score:5, Interesting)
Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of Best Buy, so am glad someone is calling them publicly on this intranet pricing thing (potential scam).
Anti-consumer, but not the way you think (Score:1, Interesting)
Each division in Best Buy functions effectively as a eparate business. bestbuy.com has to fight Best Buy stores for sales. Store advertising space on bestbuy.com is sold to the highest bidding department. In-store pickups involve commissions between .com and stores.
Stores have to spend money to drive people through their doors They'll be damned if they advertise their bestbuy.com "competitors" on in-store computer systems and let them get the sale.
Add complexity to your site-specific reg. addr (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, I have a Yahoo! email account of the form xx2000xxx@yahoo.com and I have never received a single spam in that account whatsoever. It was registered in 2000 and used for communicating with a certain well-known online auction site.
Never received a single spam in my inbox or in my junk email folder. So I have concluded that 1) nobody's doing dictionary spamming that complex, and also 2) ebay hasn't shared their customer email list with spammers (yet).
So if you really want to be sure, register as bestbuy2007@example.com and you probably can be sure when they start spamming you that somehow, that address got onto the spammers' lists.
Interesting Anecdote... (Score:5, Interesting)
Once had a customer come in and accuse us of selling his (physical) address information to spammers. Every time he applies for a service, he uses a different middle initial for his name, and keeps a record of what initial he used for what service. Said he used the middle initial 'K' when applying for our service, and soon starting receiving junk mail (of the snail variety) addressed to "John" K. "Doe."
As you may or may not know, customer privacy is something Verizon takes very seriously (being one of the only wireless providers that didn't hand over call records to the NSA, for instance). Every customer is automatically enrolled in the Do Not Call registry, etc.
Well, we investigated the matter, and eventually found out what happened.
The handsets we sold at the time used vendor-issued mail-in rebates, which, of course, require you to fill out and mail in a form with your name and address... and, naturally, this guy used the same middle initial for the rebate submission as he did when he established wireless service, not making a distinction between the two (can't blame him). Investigation found the vendor (or the rebate company they employed) was the one "sharing" the customer info.
We have since abandoned vendor rebates and now Verizon handles the rebates in-house.
A piece of advice: Use a unique e-mail or middle initial for any rebates you submit than you do for making a purchase or establishing service. The responsible party may not be who you think it is, nor may they be aware it's even happening.
Neither apply in this case (Score:3, Interesting)
-Many websites require you to locate yourself before presenting different prices for your area.
-DVDs are region coded, and are priced differently based where you buy them.
-Gas prices are based on what the locals are willing to pay.
-Public transportation charges lower prices for old rich people, and higher prices for the young and poor.
Sometimes it's just economics, and sometimes it's just unfair, but it's not illegal due to special intrest groups that can "convince" (kickback, bigotry,
Re:CORRECTION Re:Enron 2.0? (Score:5, Interesting)
It was a fortuitous breaking off, too -- not long afterwards Anderson Consulting changed its name to Accenture did Arthur Anderson implode due to Enron.
Re:Are people STUPID? (Score:3, Interesting)
Possibly because some people like buying things at a physical store, and, let's be honest: all the competition with Best Buy is about as bad.
I already refuse to shop at Circuit City. That leaves Best Buy and CompUSA, at least until CompUSA starts closing stores, at which point the closest CompUSA to me will be in another state. So you might argue that people should buy online or buy from other stores.
But, really, when it comes to the things that Best Buy sells, if you're set on getting them at a physical store, none of the competition is really any better.
Re:Enron 2.0? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Many tricks to price discriminate (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I've seen it. (Score:2, Interesting)
Geek Solution (Score:3, Interesting)
A shorter path exists, using the search function on the www.state.mn.us website, but might change. Bonus points for anyone who (using this starting point) figures out how to get (a) a full fledged IE window with address bar (b) a command prompt (c) system level privileges and/or (d) a way to reinstall the hard drive with Linux from the kiosk environment. Changing the kiosk webbrowser home to CircuitCity.com would be another nice hack in several senses of the word.