A little detective work by the website HD Guru turned up three Best Buy stores whose rules on price-matching allegedly contradicted company policy.
The "HD Guru" visited three stores in the New York area and tried to purchase a Panasonic HDTV at the price listed by a "competing regional multi-store" electronics retailer. In all cases, the stores refused to honor the competitor's $700 discount, saying that price was offered for three days only, and that Best Buy does not honor limited time offers.
In New York state, retailers are required to post their sales policies in the store, so HD Guru asked for proof at one of the locations. After confirming that Best Buy does not, in fact, exclude limited time offers from its price-matching policy, a salesman conferred with a manager who finally honored the discount. To add more pain to the ordeal, the employees added a $100 delivery and hook-up fee, even though Best Buy was offering free delivery for TV's over $1,000 at the time. They claimed that free delivery was not valid with a price-match, which their policy also makes no mention of. A corporate customer service representative later said over the phone that the delivery fee should have been waived as well.
Speaking with an anonymous "Best Buy source," HD Guru said company managers are encouraging their sales staff not to honor price-matching in order to increase Best Buy's profit margin. The company's media relations department hasn't responded to HD Guru's request for comment. For good measure, we sent a request as well, and are waiting for a response.
Has anyone here been "murfed," as HD Guru describes the practice, out of a price-matching offer by Best Buy or any other retailer?
