Class Action Against Best Buy’s Price-Matching Policy

In the past week or two, we’ve been posting about Office Depot’s less-than-stellar selling practices. One thing I made sure to mention, though, was that Office Depot is in no way the only company to stoop to such low levels, and it sure didn’t take too long before dirt surfaced on another company: Best Buy.

The target here is Best Buy’s price-matching policy, which seems to contradict itself depending on where you look. On their website, they make it sound like getting a price-match will be a hassle-free task, but according to an internal memo sent in 2006, that’s not the case at all. In fact, employees are directed to exhaust every possible angle in order to not award a price match.

In the memo, there’s a list of things to look for, to help build a case against the price match. For the most part, I agree with all of them, because if the model isn’t the same, or if the other store is going out of business and are offering products at below-cost, it doesn’t make business sense. The problem is that trying to get a price-match on product for legit means is too difficult, and that the company severely contradicts itself.

I’m going to hold off further comment until I see how this plays out. I make no secret about disliking Best Buy (and many others for that matter, including Best Buy’s Canadian counterpart Future Shop), but it’s one thing to accuse a company of doing something and them actually doing it. I’ll be interested to see where this goes. Until then, I’ll continue to wonder why people don’t just purchase the product at the store with the lowest price to begin with.

Best Buy’s defense for the existence of this document is that its author is a “long-standing employee with a sense of humor.” Further evidence provided in the complaint belies that claim. Numerous Best Buy customers are cited as saying the retailer refused their requests on multiple occasions, or in cases where they already purchased the item, Best Buy told them to return it and pay a hefty restocking fee if they wanted to buy from a competitor with a lower price. This, of course, defeats the entire purpose of trying to get a price match in the first place.