Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[BH85]

So I have been interested in the Nikon D60 for quite a while now, and I finally have the extra money to pick one up.  I have been shopping around for the past two weeks and realized that the price seems to be set in stone at $549.99, both online and in retail stores.

Now, I live in a not too large town in Idaho and the local camera shop is out of the D60 and after waiting for them to get more in I decided that they do not seem to be overly interested in my business.  My nearest best buy is just under an hour drive.  I look online and see that BBY online has the camera priced at $569.99, and I assume the store will be the same.  Even if it's not, I knew there was a local Ritz Camera in the same town, and they had the camera for $549, and I assumed BBY would match that.

Upon arriving at the store, I found the D60 in stock, but listed at $599.99, and began talking to a BBY employee about the camera and asked if BBY would price match it.  He said at the register that I had to have the cashier confirm that the price was lower at the other store.  So I ask him to go ahead and grab me one out of the case and I head over to the register.

At the register, I ask the cashier if she could price match it, she replies "Yes" and then stares back at me.  I told her I was not sure what information she needed from me, and she said she would need the name of the store so she could call and confirm the price.  I told her it was a Ritz Camera store named Inkleys, but I think it closed early on Saturday (welcome to Idaho, where stores close earlier on Saturday than they do on Monday).  She told me she could not price match it then, and preceeded to ring it up as it was.  I told her to go ahead and stop because without the price match I did not want it.  She replied "okay", grabbed my camera and walked away.  I left the store.

Now, I know this is getting a bit long, but I felt BBY should have done a little more to try and price match the camera.  I was in a town I was unfimilar with, and unsure who else carried the camera I wanted, but I do know that the D60 appears to be a fair trade item with a consistent price of $549.99 at every place I had researched online, and even in the local Ritz Camera store.  It doesn't take much searching to realize that BBY has a price set that is above the current retail price on that camera.  I'm pretty upset as it was a waste of my time and gas to drive to BBY to have a cashier, who obviously did not care, tell me flat out "no" and walk away with my camera. 

[MobileExpert]

BB's price match policy requires that we confirm the price of the product. The cashier really couldn't do anything since the store you wanted to PM was closed. Even if you feel that BB's price is above the standard street price, we still need proof of the lower price. If you go back when Ritz is open, we should have no problem doing the PM.

[Starflyer59]

What is BBY? I see this alot in the forums.

[MobileExpert]

BB's ticker symbol. It's used internally to refer to BB.

[BH85]

I'm not wasting another hours worth of gas to have the same thing happen again.  It's a city I'm not familiar with, in a state I'm not familiar with.  Would it have been that hard for them to check with another store?  Just because I don't know of other camera stores does that mean BB doesn't know who their competitors are?

I understand the policy but it seemed extremely unhelpful to me.  I've been in other stores where I knew the price was lower and the employees worked with me to find the lower price.  The price on this item isn't limited to a single competitor of BBY and it would not have been that difficult for an employee to help me match the price.  

[MobileExpert]

Per our PM policy, it is the customer's responsibility to know about the lower price, and know what store is offering it.

[BH85]

So many other stores advertise that they will seek out the lowest price and match it.  But BBY makes it so I have to know the names of every store, and their hours, so that they can match the price.  Was I expected to produce the phone number too?  Why advertise price matching if it's so hard for the costumer to do it?

I miss your red competitor. 

[MobileExpert]

What store advertises that? I know I bought lots of things from CC, and they never offered to call every competitor to make sure I was getting the lowest price.

[BH85]

SHLD advertises it, and I've had CC check online for me when I knew a product was lower, but wasn't sure who carried it.  There are also local stores in the town I live in that advertise the fact that they verify the lowest price on their products against their local competitors.  I've even bought something at one of these stores and I asked to verify that it wasn't lower elsewhere, so they got on the computer, checked, found it lower down the street and matched it.  Did I know it was lower elsewhere? No.  But that didn't matter, they took the 30 seconds to check and matched it anyway.

To me BBY is just not costumer friendly.  If I decide to invest a few hundred dollars in a product, I feel like I should at least get some helpful costumer service.  When I'm treated like I'm just annoying the empliyees it just seems to me that they don't want my business.  I'm more than happy to oblige.

[MobileExpert]

I've bought power tools from SHLD, and have never had them do that.