What's the difference?Price.
Consumers using bestbuy.com for price comparisons have complained that upon arriving at the store, they're surprised to discover that the price on their desired item is different than the price quoted on the public web site. When asked to verify the price on bestbuy.com, store officials have been known to log into the company Intranet site - a carbon copy of the Internet site, which is internal - which displays prices that are in most cases higher than what the customer has seen from home.
Given that the two sites look exactly the same, it would be easy for a consumer to assume he must have been mistaken.
Best Buy is a Fortune 100 company and the largest big box specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States and Canada, commanding 17 per cent of the market.
The Attorney General was moved to respond after in-store associates at two Connecticut Best Buy locations denied customers a discount advertised on bestbuy.com - a discount that did not appear on the store's internal site. At issue is whether or not the in-store Intranet was created as a sales tool for sales associates (and not adequately updated to match information contained on bestbuy.com) - or if the practise was developed to purposely mislead, and defraud the public.
Best Buy, named as Company of the Year by Forbes Magazine in 2004, is saying little about the issue. Initially, a company spokesperson denied the existence of the Intranet site altogether. However, Best Buy has since admitted to the Connecticut Attorney General's office that the internal site does, indeed exist - but hasn't been forthcoming as to its purpose, or how it is used.
Many consumers, after being told that the in-store price for an item is higher than the advertised price, will just go ahead and pay the difference without challenging the employee.
Those that do cry foul are taken to a computer screen and shown the Intranet site - which looks identical to the primary site at bestbuy.com. Only the most computer-savvy consumer would notice that the web address for the Intranet is different than the URL address for bestbuy.com. Carrying around a laptop, or some other device capable of logging onto the Internet via WiFi would put a quick end to the confusion. But who does that?
It also puts the burden of price verification on the consumer, rather than the store, which the state Attorney General says is troubling.
This is not the first time Best Buy has been associated with misleading consumers. Used merchandise re-packaged as new, failure to deliver on promised rebates and refunds, and other deceptive practices have been at the root of past complaints.
Meanwhile, the company appears to be doing well. Best Buy operates 1,110 electronic retail stores with locations across the U.S., Canada and China. There are 125,000 full-time employees on the payroll.
Blumenthall launched his investigation into the website sleight-of-hand on February 9th of this year. For its part, Best Buy says it is co-operating fully.