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Best Buy Admits To Misleading Customers With Kiosks
This raises two points. First, Best Buy was one of many chains that were falling victim to the quicksand that is different prices for Web and in-store. It might make sense from a business plan perspective, but it’s awfully messy in the real world. Ironically, the first chain to truly tackle this properly was Circuit City, which did so just before it collapsed. Its approach was to simply have one price across both channels. (It was the right move, but attempted far too late.)
The second issue about Best Buy’s kiosks was that the sites were absolutely identical in look-and-feel. That, coupled with a lack of associate training—and an absence of meaningful signage—made it inevitable that associates would tell customers the kiosks were displaying Web pricing. It was never established that management told associates to mislead consumers, but the kiosk program was handled in such a way as to make such confusion almost unavoidable. Best Buy employees at the time didn’t exactly help the chain’s cause, saying that the goal was indeed to confuse.
Editor’s Note:
Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general (and now U.S. Senator-Elect), was heavily involved in his office’s Best Buy case and he issued a strong statement on Tuesday (Dec. 14). “Best Buy had a bad idea: an alleged scheme that lured consumers into stories with Internet sales prices, only to find higher prices displayed on in-store kiosks,” his statement said. “At the height of holiday shopping, consumers are on buying blitzes and are more vulnerable to such alleged deceptive schemes.” (Every time we read that statement, we thought it said “buying blintzes.” Have to stop reading legal statements right before dinner.)
The Senator-Elect’s statement continued: “More than the money, this agreement holds Best Buy to its name, ensuring that consumers truly get the best buy advertised.”
Blumenthal then waxed poetic: “This settlement rightfully returns money to consumers and taxpayers for Best Buy’s alleged scheme: a tale of two Web sites and two prices.” (Wonder if an earlier draft continued with that Dickensian approach? “It was the best of prices, it was the worst of prices.”)
The statement itself marked a strange series of U-turns.
-Marc
December 15th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
I wonder if the store kiosks configuration were nationwide or if there was any targeting by region/zip.