BestBuy.com

[Y2K]

Best Buy needs to evaluate their price match policy on clearance items. I purchased an item on clearance on Friday. The clearance price dropped by about $5 on Sunday. I called the BB Elite Plus customer service number for a price match. After talking to a rep and waiting on the phone for an additional 10 mins I was told that the price match could not take place because the item was on clearance and it was against the policy. I explained that the item was already on clearance when I first purchased it. But that was inconsequential since “this is BB’s company policy”. So I told the rep I’ll simply reorder the item at the lower price and return the original. Keep in mind I was price matching a BB price against a BB price.

So, BB, let’s evaluate how efficient this business practice is. Instead of simply refunding me $5.19 on the item I already purchased you will have to complete the following:
-process the new order with the lower price...labor
-prepare the new order to ship...packaging and labor
-ship the new order for free...more labor
-process the return for the old order...even more labor
-take a clearance item back into inventory and figure out how to sell it again
All of that is on top of the new lower price that the customer gets anyway. And you’ve frustrated your Elite Plus Customer. I would think you would want to keep those customers around since they spend a lot of money at your stores.

[Vince-BBY Social Media Specialist]

Hi there, Y2K!

Welcome to the Best Buy Support Forums! Also, if you are a My Best Buy Elite Plus member, thank you for your continued loyalty to Best Buy! 

I understand you have some concerns regarding our Price Match Guarantee. Our Price Match Guarantee is there for our customers to help ensure they are paying the best possible price when purchasing new tech! I can definitely understand your concerns here, and it is true in that our Price Match Guarantee does not apply to items that are listed in the exclusions section of the policy, such as clearance or open-box products. We do appreciate you taking the time to provide us with your feedback here, as we are always looking for new ways to improve.

Should you have any other questions or concerns for us, please feel free to let us know on here! 

Sincerely, 

[Y2K]

Thank you for taking the time to copy and paste a form letter. That is really genuine customer support.

[Y2K]

I understand that the price match is a privilege that you provide your customers but it is hardly unique to Best Buy; most companies provide some sort of match. What I have noticed about your policy is that it becomes more and more exclusionary as time goes on. But if that is what you choose to do then your sales and profitability will reflect the effectiveness of your decision. As I stated before I was pricing BB against BB.

[Vince-BBY Social Media Specialist · Accepted solution]

Y2K,

It disappoints me to hear that you feel that my response was of a copy and paste nature. I assure you that it was not, and that it was not my intention to sound that way. This being said, I do appreciate you providing me with that feedback. Just so you know, we have excluded clearance items in our Price Match Guarantee for quite some time now, and this is not something that has changed recently. 

Regarding the purchase in question, have you already gone ahead and reordered the item and returned the old one? While I cannot guarantee a specific outcome, I'd be happy to take a closer look into your purchase and see what options may be available. 

Sincerely,

[Y2K · Accepted solution]

Vince,
I apologize for assuming that your initial reply was a canned response. And thank you for offering to look further into my particular situation. At this point I’ve already moved forward with my purchase.

I may not have had a prior instance where it tried to price match a clearance item. But I have seen where it’s more difficult to price match against Amazon. First the item had to be sold by Amazon. Then that wasn’t good enough and the item could not be Prime (which probably accounts for 98% of the items on Amazon).

I’m sure financial wizards that know way more about accounting than me have helped you develop your policies and you have your reasons for what you do. I simply wanted to point out to BB how it turned a refund of $5 into a lot of unnecessary and costly labor. Personally speaking, BB has lost sales in the past because of the whole Amazon/Prime policy. I try to support brick and mortar stores such as BB as often as possible but I can’t consciously pay twice as much for a product.

[Vince-BBY Social Media Specialist]

Y2K,

It's really no problem at all, as we're always happy to help out our customers however possible! I can definitely understand, as I too get frustrated when there is something great and then over time it makes it's way towards not so great. As for our Price Match Guarantee, I want to ensure that you are able to take full advantage of this great policy, as I genuinely find it to be beneficial to our customers.

Regarding the Amazon Prime exception, what this means is that our policy does not cover pricing that is only available to select groups of customers including loyalty offers, discounts relating to non-warehouse membership programs and government exchange store offers. An example of this would be Prime Day deals or deals that are only available to Prime members. This does not mean that an item that is Prime shipping eligible would be excluded, and we would still be able to match these prices. At least in my experience, many of the deals I have come across tend to be regular sales that are available to everyone, and not limited to Prime members.

I hope this helps. and if you ever have any other questions regarding our Price Match Guarantee, please feel free to reach back out to us on here! 

Sincerely,