As part of the preparation for the relaunch of BestBuy.com, online purchasing will be temporarily unavailable beginning Friday, June 20; however, our product information and helpful resource articles will still be available.


This was in an email received just now, mostly about the email hoax. It doesn't say when today it becomes unavailable (perhaps already, I didn't try) and gives no indication as to when the functionality will be back.

Damnit ... I have a gut instinct that this will not bode well.

Not sure it's anything much really - I had received an email about a week ago saying their site was about to be revamped.

This is the email I got:

IMPORTANT: E-MAIL HOAX NOTIFICATION

Late Wednesday afternoon, June 18, 2003, Best Buy became aware of an unauthorized and deceptive e-mail to consumers titled "Fraud Alert." That e-mail message, which requested personal information (i.e., social security and credit card numbers), claimed to come from the BestBuy.com Fraud Department. That message was NOT from Best Buy or any of our affiliates.

Best Buy is working with the appropriate law enforcement authorities to quickly resolve the situation. We are working to shut down sites affiliated with that unauthorized e-mail and Best Buy will work with law enforcement authorities to prosecute any perpetrators involved in this illegal act to the fullest extent of the law. If you replied to the fraudulent
e-mail in any way, contact your bank and/or credit card companies immediately.

No Best Buy systems have been compromised, and our online business is secure. The privacy of your personal information is of the utmost importance to Best Buy and any information you provide to us is handled according to our Privacy Policy.

As part of the preparation for the relaunch of BestBuy.com, online purchasing will be temporarily unavailable beginning Friday, June 20; however, our product information and helpful resource articles will still be available. Rest assured, the fraudulent e-mail will not affect the launch of our redesigned Web site.

If you have any questions, call Customer Care at 1-888-BEST BUY (237-8289) or visit our Online Pressroom.

To find out more about protecting your information, visit the Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft Web site at www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

Thank you for being a valued Best Buy customer.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you've opted out of Best Buy promotional e-mails, don't worry: you haven't been signed up again. We just wanted to make sure you knew about this situation, regardless of whether you receive Best Buy promotional e-mails. You will NOT continue to receive Best Buy promotional e-mails. Thank you.

I just have this sinking suspicion that they may fix all of the 3/$20 type loopholes and perhaps find a way to stop posting all of their sale prices 6 days early.

I work for Best Buy, the Web Site will not be taking orders from June 20th to June 29th. The reason for this is that they remolding the entire site with a new promotion as being Best Buy's "Biggest Store."

Is BB nuts? Shutting down online orders for 10 days? Don't they have a development/test server to do the changes and roll out when it's ready?

Seems like a really bad business decision. Not like bad business decisions are a rarity at Best Buy. I hope they lose lots of on-line orders to Circuit City, DeepDiscountDVD, Amazon, etc., during the changeover.

They have done something like this before. I remember getting like a 20.00 off anything coupon for trying the new site after filling out something on-line. It seemed like it was a long time before they got their site up to taking orders but then again I have not not bought anything on-line from them in almost a year but if they send me another 20.00 off anything....

What 3/$20 loophole?

Don't get too excited ... it's just that usually when they say that you can by 2/$20, 3/$20, or whatever at the B&M, you can usually get the sale price online ($10 or $6.66 respectively) while only buying one or two of the items instead of 3.

I agree! BB have got the worst people using their technologies on the web. I've said it before, and I will say it again, the ones responsible for hampering their system the way they do ought to be fired (Originally, their defenciencies really shown on the digital coupons for pre-orders problems that always arises). They have one of the most elaboroate systems that I have ever seen with regards to its database and it's interactivity between online activity, store activity, and special ordering. However, they are the biggest morons for constraining their system the way they do. You can place an item for pre-order 4-6 months in advance with free shipping, but the day after, if anotherdvdsite.com has the same item for much less, you can't cancel the order with BestBuy. They will allow an order to sit in their system, ship it out (for free), and have you return it to the store for full credit, and they will glady tell you to do it that way. That has got to be the worst business decsion with regards to web ordering that I have EVER seen!

In addition, they REALLY needs to adjust their system so that you can pick up pre-order items at the store. That would save on shipping (i.e. uneccessary overhead) as well... Another stupid decison, especially with Free shipping. What they can do is charge the customer the day before (and clearly notify you of this), so that when the store closes on Monday, or before they open on Tuesday (or whatever the street date is for a title - you get the idea), they can collect just the ones that have been fully processed.

They've got the muscle to do great things, they just don't have the brain to do it with ...

Bill