After being sued by a customer and investigated by Connecticut’s Attorney General, Best Buy has reportedly updated their in-store sites with a disclaimer letting customers know that kiosk prices might not be the same as the public website prices.
Best Buy Disclaims Pricing Scandal
I haven’t run down to our local Best Buy to check this out yet, but Consumerist.com has a screen shot, which shows a yellow banner at the top of the homepage reading:
THIS KIOSK DISPLAYS IN-STORE PRICES – WHICH MAY DIFFER FROM NATIONAL INTERNET PRICES/ Promotions can differ between stores and Internet. See your sales associate if you have questions.
Best Buy came under fire last spring for in-store prices being higher than prices listed on the Internet. This may have been no big deal if it didn’t appear that Best Buy employees were bringing up the intranet website as though it were the public Internet site to refute customer assertions of product price.
Best Buy denied any shady doings all along, but it didn’t stop lawsuits and investigations. The updated message seems to be at least a base covering, if not an official admission.
