Re; "Best Buy" Is The Worst Buy For Consumers

[gilbert]

I am sure that the horrors you describe are prevalent throughout the retail
industry, and certainly BEST BUY is not alone in its practices. From a
consumer point of view, the thing that I find most onerous about BEST BUY is
that during the past six months they have ratcheted up their prices,
tightened up on price matching and started getting much stricter with their
return policy. This is not the same BEST BUY that I first shopped at
several years ago. I'm not sure why you left BEST BUY, and I am not
directing this comment at you, but I would imagine that anyone with a
conscience would have a hard time reconciling their feelings with BEST BUY's
policies. Somehow, Circuit City just seems to be much more consumer
conscious-- better price matching and more liberal return policies. Thanks
for your candor Gavyn.

 

[Ramsey]

What do you mean when you say "stricter" return policy? Their return policy
hasn't really changed very much over the past few years. High rental items
like digital cameras and laptop computers have always had a short return
period plus a restocking fee to discourage people from borrowing them. CC
did drop the restocking fees about a year ago and ended up with shelves full
of returned laptops which they're still trying to get rid of. As for
prices, CC prices are usually higher than BB, especially since they don't
run very many rebate promotions. And on the subject of maintenance plans,
every retailer you go to pushes those now. It's a great profit center like
any life insurance policy. The whole concept depends on only a few people
actually collecting.