"Best" Buy? Good Luck!

"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 done the bit where I go to a big store for a sale, find the item NOT on sale, go home, print out the internet page, go back to the store and show the clerk only to be denied the sale price. It happened twice at different stores across town from me. I did not buy the item, I complained all the way up and included my gas and time in the bill I sent with the complaint.

Interestingly, one "bill" was paid in an offer that was sale price minus the amount of my "bill" which one of the above companies made "to reclaim my business". I bought two of them.

Now I print out the ad first, call the store to see if the price matches--I also tape the conversation on speakerphone as its legal in Iowa (yes I know this makes me weird but since people/corporations cannot be honest and do things the accepted way I play their own game against them), and THEN go to the store. If they refuse to match the advertised price from their OWN website, I demand a manager and tape their bullshit. I have stood in stores and called regional managers on the store phone.

I have yet to be denied the sale price and generally receive excellent service thereafter. I wouldn't imagine its because I'm unforgettable, more "there is the crazy woman again".

Since I started doing all of the above, I haven't had a clerk stupid enough to try and pull up their website in-store and give me a different number. Most of them just shrug and say the "mis-marked price just hasn't been updated" and after a little conference, give me the correct price.
Thus rendering my super powers deflated! Or something equally as fascinating.

But since the investigation (above article) was launched the day after Anna Nicole Smith's death, one could presume it was because everyone was looking for a condolence gift.

I'm just assuming...because there just aren't enough Anna Nicole Smith-related stories.