Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[strobel65]

On Monday April 3rd I had some errands to do so I headed to buy office supplies and a new laptop. I stopped by Staples first as it was closest to purchase office supplies. They happened to have a Toshiba quad core(I-7) laptop that was perfect for my needs. My plan had been to go to Best buy for the Laptop so I had the clerk at Staples make a copy of the sales display including price, model number, details etc.

I read about Best Buy store closings, stock drop etc. and had planned to go to Best Buy anyway. In 2011 purchased 6 laptops, 3 cell phones, 2 televisions, and PS3(or some game system my kids had to have). In less than 10% of these purchases did Best Buy have the best price which is unusual as 5 years ago it would have been 90%. In those purchases I never asked for a price match and just purchased somewhere else. I kinda felt bad because maybe $20,000 would have made some kind of a difference and if other people did the same thing maybe we could save a few jobs?

So I went into Best buy and they had almost the exact same computer except it has 30 GB larger hard drive and $250 higher price. The sales person told me I should just go back to Staples and buy the computer but I persisted and asked to talk to the manager. I had the full sales display detailing all the necessary info and figured they could order the exact match or maybe I would pay the extra $20-40 for the slightly larger hard drive and everyone would win. 

40 minutes and two managers later I was told they only price matched on exact products and since they did not have the exact model from Staples  in stock they would offer no discount what so ever and to take my business to back to Staples. 

Which I promptly did and would be happy to provide the receipt to show how hard Best Buy had to work to NOT make a sale. Overall I understand the the stock issues and unemployed workers though sad is a natural outcome when not making sales is the objective. I notice online it is now possible to select products on your site from "Buy.com" You have dropped the Best from the name. I see why and would suggest doing the same at  the retail level as well. 

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

What are the two model numbers?

[NoNoBadDog]

I really do not see what your problem is.  The computers in question are two different models, and the proce match has always been for same model. 

I also find it amusing that after your long relationship with BB, you are willing to drop them over something that is a non-issue. 

Good Luck.  Hope you have a long history with Staples before they act within their published guidelines and p*ss you off.

[kst8no1]

Buy.com is a marketplace vendor-a third party

[CrimsonRain]

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strobel65 wrote:
Which I promptly did and would be happy to provide the receipt to show how hard Best Buy had to work to NOT make a sale. Overall I understand the the stock issues and unemployed workers though sad is a natural outcome when not making sales is the objective. I notice online it is now possible to select products on your site from "Buy.com" You have dropped the Best from the name. I see why and would suggest doing the same at  the retail level as well. 

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Not all sales transactions are beneficial to the seller. If a business sells a product below their cost, they would be losing money. I don't see a problem with your issue. Price matches are for identical models (e.g. UND4600X1 = UND4600X1, TF101-X1 =/= TF101-A1).

I don't see how Best Buy's stock price is an issue here. After announcing that they would be closing 50 stores out of their 1200 locations (which is a good thing because they need to close their unprofitable stores), the stock price slid from $25 to $22 and has been holding at $22. Store closures are not always a bad thing from a business management point of view. By the way, did you also miss the part where Best Buy stated that they would be opening an additional 100 Best Buy Mobile stores? Closing unprofitable stores and opening profitable ones. Sounds like a good business decision to me.

[NoNoBadDog]

The OP was just being overly dramatic, as well as showing his lack of knowledge about how stock prices are set. 

I think he will be running back to Best BUy when he finds out how the other retailers treat him.

[rellarillear]

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NoNoBadDog wrote:

The OP was just being overly dramatic, as well as showing his lack of knowledge about how stock prices are set. 

I think he will be running back to Best BUy when he finds out how the other retailers treat him.

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It's generally these folks that sell off stock in a panic, because they have no idea what is going on, and cause these prices drops. 

Just like Warren Buffett automatically gets a boost just by buying stock, because others immediately buy it as well, assuming he has good info on that stock.

[Justin-BBY Community Connector]

Hello strobel65, 

Thank you for posting with us and welcome!

I'm sure that it was unnerving to be told to go to Staples, when you originally wanted to purchase your desired computer from us. I appreciate your continued business and willingness to pay a bit more for a larger hard drive if the store was willing to make an exception to policy for you. On the other hand, they were abiding by policy and as you know our price match policy states that in order to receive a price match, the items in question must be identical-no exceptions. I'm very sorry for any inconvenience this caused you, and if you have any other comments or concerns, feel free to reply. 

Regards,