Bad Best Buy Experience
 

Our 23 year-old washing machine bit the dust and it was going to cost $300 to repair it. So my wife and I decided to buy a new one.

What great timing. We've got the 10% coupon for Memorial Day weekend. When we got there we learned it excluded the model we wanted.

We were also told that was because Whirlpool would not allow any store to discount their machines. If we visited another store, it would be the same price, because Whirlpool didn't allow it.

We decided to try Sears anyway. We walked in and could see their posted price was lower than the minimum that BB said they were not allowed to go below. Also, Sears honored BB's 10% coupon.

What a lie we were told! And it wasn't implied, the BB gal made it very plain that nowhere is town, or the nation, was their a lower price.

Thanks! Ordered 5.

LOL :lol:

This should probably be in the store forum if you don't get his post.

Darn it, Groucho! Now they're sold out! Might as well label this "Deal Dead"...

Best Buy Employee Application

1. Do you lack opposable thumbs? Yes No

2. Do you express anger by hurling your own feces? Yes No

3. Have you ever forgotten how to breathe? Yes No


*If you answered no to any of the above questions, welcome aboard! If not, proceed to manangement orientation.

I used to work there yes I agree most of them are pricks. But heres the thing there are certain products we were not alloweed to discount such as BOSE. If you were to buy other things tho they could have discount the other items low enough to make it to where you got that 10 percent off or more. Thats what we would do. Also sears and bestbuy pay different amounts for products. So sears cost might be less than bestbuy visa versa. At bestbuy if this ever happens again just ask for the store manager or GM and they will work with you. Belive me they want your business.
ps. Did you tell them you didnt want PSP? If so thats why you got ****** service never tell them a direct no. Act like you are going to untill the very end.

Is that store policy or Bose requiring that? You know getting discounts on other products doesn't do you a lot of good when you're not shopping for something else.

Also, I didn't like being lied to. I can only assume that to be the case since Sears was willing to discount Whirlpool.

A PSP (I presume that's a warranty extension plan) wasn't even discussed. I really don't like them. It seems to me that when you buy one, you've incurred a repair expense before you've walked out of the store.

That fact that they are so important to the deal tells me they must be 90% profit, another reason not to like them.

I work at a sporting goods store, and products such as those by Schwinn cannot be discounted, so this type of policy does exist.

As for the Whirlpool deal, it could be because Whirlpool has a special type of agreement w/ Sears so that other businesses cannot undercut them. The sales clerk at Best Buy may not have known this and just been under the impression that no other place could lower their prices either.

At least that's what I think...

The PSP's are almost all profit and a tax write off. Few years ago UPS won a court case against the IRS about writing off their insurance operation which was based overseas. After they won it seems everyone is pushing some kind of PSP. Just the fact that there is a small amount of risk is enough for it to be a write off.

And yes, some manufacturers tell stores to sell their products at a certain price with no coupons. Every time Macy's distributes coupons there is a long list of brand names and departments that it excludes.

Maybe a stupid question, but isn't price fixing against the law? If a merchant lawfully buys an item from the maker aren't they allowed to sell it for whatever they want?

Didn't the record labels just get in trouble over this? Wasn't the one major deal with Microsoft?

During college I worked in a high end audio shop. We did not discount ANY items. But that was our choice, not an order from the brands we purchased. And, on occasion we would discount if we had to much stock, it was being discountinued, etc.

Don't know whether it's against the law, but certain companies do have minimum pricing on some products. Bose was mentioned, and when I worked at BB, it was true that some models of Maytag appliances couldn't be reduced. Supposedly, Best Buy could lose the ability to sell any Maytag products at all if we were found discounting certain products, like the Neptune washing machine.

To the original poster, I know you don't still have the coupon, but I bet somewhere in the fine print, it mentioned certain products weren't covered by the coupon, such as Bose and some Whirlpoot products.

It's not uncommon in retail for certain brands -- especially premuim/designer brands -- to carry minimum pricing.

I have a cousin who owns a clothing store and there are certain items and brands that they can't discount or sell below a minimum price or they will lose their contract with the manufacturer.

Apparently, such things are policed by competitors. Rule of the snitch.

Actually, I'm not surprised that the buyers got a better deal at Sears. Best Buy is probably one of the more profitable B&M stores out there right now, and Sears is on their last legs (I wouldn't be shocked to see them in bankruptcy within the next 5 years).

Sears was probably so happy to be actually SELLING something that they had no problem honoring the discount.

Re: Bad Best Buy Experience
 

Maybe I'm missing something here. But SO WHAT! So some snot-nose kid told you a fib, or maybe she actually believed what she said. In either case, don't let it ruin your day. It's a minor pimple. You sound like this is the first time you have ever shopped in America. This kind of crap happens all the time. Stop whining and move on.

From my experience over the years at BB, I couldn't disagree with you more. My impression is that they couldn't care less if you gave them your business or not. This has been evidenced time and time again by the lack of help, stupid sales people with little or no knowledge of the products, long lines, and on and on.

As with most 'large' retail chains today, the whole package is a disgrace.

As I read what you wrote it appears you're more upset than we were. Certainly, we were not upset, just irritated about the situation.

It seems to me the this forum is here so that people can relate their experiences and opinions about merchants. That's what we did. People do this on the forum all the time. Stop whinning and move on.

Oops. My bad, and my apologies to you Johnny. I thought I was in the 'Hot Deals' forum. I don't know HOW I got here. I didn't even know a 'shopping experience' forum existed.

Of course your story is appropriate here, and, again, my apologies.

Actually, both our bads. I first posted this in this the Hot Deals forum but it was appropriatly moved to the Merchants forum. You probably clicked on the "Moved" link that it still in the Hot Deals forum.

As Chick Hern used to say, No harm, no foul.

When I buy a big item, they usually try to sell me a PSP too. Now I've learned that saying OK to the PSP is actually better in most cases. If I say I'll buy the PSP, I can haggle on the price a little bit with the manager and have to pay less for the item itself. Then I can come back within 30 days and return the PSP for a full refund. It works great with items like TVs, fridges, etc.

Gotta love being a Best Buy employee and coming here to watch everyone bash my employer.

The question is whether the sale between the manufacturer and the retailer can involve a contract specifying a minimum price at which the retailer will sell it. No contract = no sale, so the question is whether such contracts are legal.

I believe the Supreme Court flip-flopped on this issue five to ten years ago, and moved it from a per se violation (always illegal) to a practice evaluated by the rule of reason (case by case approach, that looks at what the practice is supposed to accomplish). I'm not positive, however. The practice is called "resale price maintenance", if you want to search for more information.

Being a BBY employee myself, I love reading these things. Its just so funny. Everyone always bitches about how dumb and stupid we all are. But all I have to say is I have as many dumb customer stories as there are dumb or bad shopping experience stories. And to Johnny Angell BBY is not allowed to mark down Maytag appliances, and its the same for Bose. If you want to get all mad about it thats fine. But dont be mad at the employee for doing her job.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

I can't stop laughing at this

Well first of all it was Whirlpool. 2nd, she didn't say BBY was not allowed to discount Whirlpool, she said no store in town could. It was not implied or inferred, it was clearly stated.

Now I didn't walk out of there seething mad, just suspicious. My wife and I were glad we went to Sears. It just seems to me if you're going to be that positive about something, you ought to be sure you're right.

Was she doing her job mis-informing me?

BTW, I am curious about one thing. She told us that she didn't get a commission for the sale, so if we came back, we could talk to any employee about. That true, no commissions on the big-ticket items?

Unless things have changed since i left...no there is no commission on any sales.

However employee's are "encouraged" to sell service plans with items customers buy.

And by "encouraged" i mean "offer and try to sell as many of those PSP/storage items or you will be written up or fired".

So its commission sales without the commission.