Originally posted by: Insomniak
Oh my god, they apply for rebates that Best Buy offers. How dare they! They buy loss leaders that the company itself marked down to those low low prices. How DARE they! They request that the company make good on it's own policy of matching lower advertised prices at other retailers. HOW DARE THEY?
^ That's all friggin ridiculous. While I do disagree with the return-rebuy method (that's just chickensh*t), the rest of the stuff is something Best Buy only have themselves to blame for. They set their prices, they set their price-match policy, they determine their sales. If they don't like people buying things that are on sale, discount, or matching prices from other stores, they can feel free to change their policies. Until then, I don't want to hear them whining.
i have to agree with this post - if the company puts an item on sale and that price happens to be below cost then is it my fault that i bought it at that price? as far as rebates go, that whole deal is such a scam that it really pisses me off - if i didn't watch my rebates like a hawk i would frequently be ripped off for no good reason. my favorite is when they claim the original submission "didn't meet the rebate requirements", then when i fax them my copies of the EXACT SAME submission with no modifications they approve it. clearly the entire goal of the companies is to stonewall and stall and hope you don't complain. there is no penalty to them and everything to gain.
KJW also makes a good point - i work near a bb and frequently visit the store on my lunch hour. i also religiously read the weekly flier and scan the forums for deals. while many of my purchases are sale items i also frequently buy a non-sale item at the same time, just 'cause i do a little window shopping and find another gizmo i like. so at least in my case (and KJW's, it sounds like) the sale serves its purpose - it gets me into the store where i buy other stuff.
i will admit to being someone who occasionally takes advantage of the return policy to "demo" an item that i know i will most likely return. when i do this i am very careful to package all items in their original condition; in fact i'm not sure you'd be able to tell the item was used, but still, this is a hassle for the store, and they have the right to discourage this practice. if i am penalized for doing this (by actually being charged the 15% restock fee) i will be buying fewer items from bb. of course this also means i won't be keeping the items i keep - i just won't buy, period, if i know the return policy is more restrictive. so bb will loose some business (and some profit) on this one.
there is one part of this policy that really bothers me tho - clearly a big part of this new strategy is that bb is going to push even harder to upsell, that is, pressure the customer into spending more money than they planned to. i'm not worried for myself; i have no problem turning down the hard sell and telling the csr to get lost. but it really bugs me that businesses engage in this practice. basically they are praying on the weak, counting on being able to coerce some number of customers into buying something they weren't going to get and therefor don't really need. some number of these folks will experience econimic hardship as they spend more than they should, all with the blessing and encouragement of bb and it's minions. i know this is standard business practice but i think it's immoral and offensive and it really bothers me to see a business executive discuss it so casually. i think it's been a long time since anyone in american business asked if this was wrong, and that's a damn shame.
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