Text 16660, 88 rader
Skriven 2007-03-03 09:19:06 av mike (1:379/45)
Ärende: Best Buy Confirms It Has Secret Website
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From: mike <mike@barkto.com>


http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-watchdog0302,0,5198012.column?coll=hc-util
ity-local

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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.

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.

Barber insists that the company never intended to mislead customers.

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.

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.

"Their responses seem to raise as many questions as they answer," Blumenthal
said in an interview. "Their answers are less than crystal clear."

Based on what his office has learned, Blumenthal said, it appears the consumer
has the burden of informing Best Buy sales people of the cheaper price listed
on its Internet site, which he said "is troubling."

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.

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.

Although Best Buy also refused to talk with me on specifics of the intranet
site or its use, it insisted that its policy is to give customers the best
price.

"Our intention is to provide the best price to our customers which is why we
have a price-match policy in place," the company said in a written statement to
me. "As prices and offers may vary between retail and online, our stores will
certainly match BestBuy.com pricing as long as it qualifies under the terms and
conditions of the price match policy."

"As a company, everything we do revolves around our customers' needs and
desires. It is never our intent to mislead them as their loyalty is incredibly
important to us," the statement said.

Then they threw in this interesting line: "Although we have an intra-store web
site in place to support store operations (including products and pricing), we
are reminding our employees how to access the external BestBuy.com web site to
ensure customers are receiving the best possible product price."

That last sentence seems to indicate that Best Buy, which is supposed to be
staffed by tech-savvy employees, is putting the blame on memory lapses: that
employees have somehow forgotten how to access BestBuy.com from the store.

Having been to many Best Buy stores where some helpful employees showed me how
they access the intranet and Internet, I can assure Best Buy officials that the
re-education process will probably not be lengthy.

After making sure the computer is turned on, employees should click twice on
the Yahoo Internet icon and then type in BestBuy.com.

This is not the first time the giant electronic retailer has gotten into
trouble misleading customers. The firm, based in Minneapolis, operates more
than 1,100 electronic retail stores in the U.S., Canada and China. It has more
than 125,000 full-time employees.

Attorneys general in New Jersey and Ohio have accused Best Buy of deceptive
sales practices, repackaging used merchandise and selling it as new, and
failing to pay rebates and refunds. It paid $135,000 in New Jersey three years
ago to settle that state's suit, which was based on hundreds of consumer
complaints. The Ohio case is ongoing.
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