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Best Buy Admits To Misleading Customers With Kiosks
The statement itself marked a strange series of U-turns. The attorney general’s office first announced a news conference to discuss the settlement on Monday (Dec. 13). Then the news conference was rescheduled for a later time that day. Then it was rescheduled for Tuesday (Dec. 14). On Tuesday, Blumenthal’s office announced there would be no statement and that only the settlement’s text would be released. Interviews were being scheduled. Later in the day, a settlement was indeed issued. But due to a negotiation with Best Buy, the statement couldn’t be posted on the state’s Web site, merely E-mailed to media representatives.
Best Buy settles and admits misleading consumers and then it gets to dictate that the state’s comments on it won’t go on the state’s own Web site? Yeah, sounds like Best Buy was holding a pretty strong hand.
Editor’s Note:
The serious problem with the settlement is the impact on consumers. The settlement covers purchases from Nov. 1, 2001, through March 8, 2007. As many as nine years after the purchase (the best case scenario is still more than three-and-a-half years old), consumers must submit forms proving that they were ripped off and by how much. How many consumers will bother? And if they do opt to bother, how many will remember those details—what was the online price and the difference with the in-store price—and be able to prove them? Remember that many of these price differences may be only a few dollars.
The settlement requires consumers seeking such restitution to submit a statement with their name and address, the date when they purchased the product, the price paid and the price “observed for the product on the in-store kiosk.” That statement needs to include “copies of any invoices, receipts, computer print-outs” and “other supporting documentation.” Each purchase requires an additional form to be filled out. The form also asks for the store location and whether cash or a payment card was used.
It’s quite likely that the few consumers who bother to pursue refunds will end up getting almost enough cash to buy a t-shirt declaring “Connecticut proved that Best Buy ripped me off and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.”–Frank Hayes contributed to this story.
-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.