{"id":10257,"date":"2007-03-06T18:02:21","date_gmt":"2007-03-07T01:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/03\/06\/best-buy-except-when-they-hide-the-sale-price-from-you.html"},"modified":"2007-03-06T18:02:21","modified_gmt":"2007-03-07T01:02:21","slug":"best_buy_except_when_they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/03\/06\/best_buy_except_when_they.html","title":{"rendered":"Best Buy … except when they hide the sale price from you"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a remarkably clever — and sleazy — scam. See a great price at Best Buy’s web site, drive to the store, and get told that the price has gone up — as proven when the employees pull up the Best Buy web site.<\/p>\n

Except … it wasn’t really Best Buy’s web site, but a mysterious “internal” site with, surprise, higher prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.<\/p>\n

Company spokesman Justin Barber, who in early February denied the existence of the internal website that could be accessed only by employees, says his company is “cooperating fully” with the state attorney general’s investigation.<\/p>\n

Barber insists that the company never intended to mislead customers.<\/p>\n

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy’s practices on Feb. 9 after my column 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.<\/p>\n

Blumenthal said Wednesday that Best Buy has also confirmed to his office the existence of the intranet site, but has so far failed to give clear answers about its purpose and use.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Scum.<\/p>\n


\n<\/small><\/p>\n

(via Doyce<\/a>)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a remarkably clever — and sleazy — scam. See a great price at Best Buy’s web site, drive to the store, and get told that the price has gone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":83,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/06\/18\/todays_public_s.html","url_meta":{"origin":10257,"position":0},"title":"Today’s public service annoucment","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Jun-03 10:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This evening I received a pair of e-mails regarding a possible fraudulent use of my credit card at Best Buy's online site. And thereby hangs a tale ......","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132540,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/10\/when-the-geek-squad-becomes-the-vice-squad.html","url_meta":{"origin":10257,"position":1},"title":"When the Geek Squad becomes the Vice Squad","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Jan-17 9:15am","format":false,"excerpt":"I have no problem with (in fact, I applaud) Best Buy \"Geek Squad\" technicians who come across illegal material (specifically, in this case, child pornography) voluntarily, or even as a corporate policy, turning that information over to law enforcement.I do have a problem with Geek Squad members become paid informants\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16495,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/05\/sub-optimal-pc-optimization-at-best-buy.html","url_meta":{"origin":10257,"position":2},"title":"Sub-optimal PC optimization at Best Buy","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Jan-10 12:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Consumerist has an excellent analysis and (for the most part) take-down of Best Buy's \"optimization\" service for PCs.\u00a0 This is essentially where they go in and tweak your computer to make it faster, safer, and less irksome -- doing what an un-computer-savvy person might ask their geeky neighbor (or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5164,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/22\/ch_ching_3.html","url_meta":{"origin":10257,"position":3},"title":"Ch-ching","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 22-Oct-03 9:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone's heard about being able to buy American-made drugs for much cheaper in other countries. But tne new story is how the same is true for textbooks. Just like prescription...","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15465,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/30\/unblogged-bits-for-thursday-30-july-2009.html","url_meta":{"origin":10257,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Thursday, 30 July 2009","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 30-Jul-09 6:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... The Curtiss-Bleeker Helicopter, 1930 In the September 1930... When the Conspiracy Theory Becomes the Conspiracy Theory - \"They're all conspiring to make us look like crazy conspiracy theorists! Eek!\" Doug Kendall: Al Franken and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10806,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/06\/27\/the_santa_fe_art_scene.html","url_meta":{"origin":10257,"position":5},"title":"The Santa Fe art scene","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 27-Jun-07 5:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's amazing how quickly, with exposure, things go from \"that's an outrageous price\" to \"hmmmmm, fairly reasonable ...\" UPDATE:\u00a0 The picture is unfair to the Santa Fe art scene,...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1405\/642507592_56d051f71d.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}