AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Does Best Buy Use a Secret Website to Mislead its Customers?

George Gombossy, the Consumer Watchdog of the Hartford Courant newspaper, posted a column disclosing the existence of a secret intranet (that’s right, intra-net, as in internal) website that is identical to the company’s internet website, identical that is except for prices. George was alerted by a reader who said that the price for a price for a computer that he saw on the regular internet website was not the same as the store price. When the customer brought it to the sales clerk’s attention, the sales clerk, showed the customer a website reflecting a higher prices. Only later did the customer discover that there were actually TWO websites, one for the public, and one just for staff. After George failed to get a straight answer from Best Buy officials regarding the purpose of the website, he brought it to the attention of state regulators. They apparently haven't been completely satisfied with Best Buy's explanation of the purpose of the site, but Best Buy did confirm that the secret site exists. Read the details in the linked articles.

I can remember going to Best Buy several years ago with a web print-out in hand only to have the sales clerk tell me (and show me) that the actual sales price was now higher. Now it all kind of makes sense.