Best Buy Price Limbo: How Low They Won't Go but How Low They Are
posted Sunday Aug 16, 2009 by Jon Wurm
My fellow upstream contributor and co-host Nick recently wrote an article about Best Buy and their yellow clearance tag of a brand image. Well Nick I'm sorry to say that in this story they don't live up to your expectations or the expectations of some very upset customers.
The morning of Wednesday August 12th if you were browsing BestBuy.com for a TV and drinking a hot beverage chances are you burned yourself after noticing a 52in. Samsung TV for $9.99! I'm sure some people even knocked over their spouses or other family members running to get their wallets out of the drawer or dirty clothes pile. Alas, even if you successfully placed an order, your efforts and unnecessary medical bills are in vain. Best Buy said it was an online pricing error (you don't say?) and they will not honor the incorrect price. Those orders will be canceled and refunded back to the customer.
Excuse me?!?! That's like an insurance company saying "Well your policy says you're covered for flood damage but we have been accidentally charging you less than other holders of the same policy so we won't be honoring it." If it's any consolation Best Buy's stock fell $.27 per share to $36.50 by close of market Wednesday.
I have worked in retail for several years and have never run into an issue where a company did not honor a legitimate pricing error. As a consumer how does this make you feel? Should Best Buy we able to get away with possible false advertising? Tell us what's on your mind.
