Ad Circular in PostCourier 05/23/2010
Negative comments surfaced again this week regarding BestBuy’s selling practices and alleged misrepresentation of “sales” items as those having a discounted price. Last Sunday’s Post Courier included a sales circular from BestBuy (depicted above) offering for sale a MacBook computer at a price of $999.99. Visiting Apple’s web site, we noted that: a) Apple discontinued that unit for a newer model on May 11th, b) the replacement model with its newest features and design is available for the same price as BestBuy discontinued model, c) for about $200 less, the MC207LL/A is available elsewhere on the internet.
This isn’t the first allegation of these type practices. Several months ago, there was a flurry of complaints regarding $150 ‘calibration’ services that offered among other things to “sync your 3D glasses for an amazing experience.” Elsewhere, Connecticut filed suit regarding alleged overcharging practices. In BestBuy’s defense, the larger you are, the larger the target you become. Additionally, the SKU’s for this company are voluminous so picking on them for a single item is not a fair representation.
On occasion, our company has suggested buying opportunities to our customers on selected items at BestBuy, CostCo, Sam’s, and others. In doing so, we pay attention to the make, the model, the small print, and the other “gotchas” that led us to our posting title today, Caveat Emptor.
Tags: Apple, Caveat Emptor