The Devils are in the details

[Squalish2357]

Article

Ars Tech. reprint

Ensuing slashdot discussion

 

[mscdex0]

First post!

 

[Sandor]

"Some see this as Best Buy trying to "have its cake and eat it too," by wanting to keep rebates, loss leaders, and massive promotions going, but exclude those who make routine use of them."
:Q

 

[usernamemax20charact]

That's why I almost never shop at BB unless it's a really good deal (i.e. loss leader). I mainly go there to see and play with products I might be interesting in purchasing elsewhere.

 

[bigpow]

ditto

 

[rizzo56]

F' Em! ...and their blue shirts.

 

[cirthix]

Originally posted by: rizzo56
F' Em! ...and their blue shirts.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

Best idea ever.

 

[NasdaqTrader889]

Looks like I will continue to avoid Best Buy. They can keep their evil attitude to themselves.

 

[JohnDoh]

sent to NewsCenter@bestbuy.com (closest thing I could find to public relations)

Brad Ansderson's interview in The Wall Street Journal posted here... http://online.wsj.com/article/...6,00.html?mod=yahoo_hs inflames me as a customer. To keep it simple and short he spread misinformation about the sole called "devils" who take advantage of the system he claims "They can wreak enormous economic havoc". The Internet is growing, people are making more use of it, 'deal tracking' sites (or whatever you wish to call them) are popping up everywhere. They our powered by US, the consumer. His claims of people returning the merchandise to buy them back later as open box is very rare among these communitys and is only the fault of bestbuys policys.

The problem is rebates. Rebates are mild form of trickery. They are to draw in customers to buy the product and other products they may buy while in the store and counting on them NOT to fill out the rebates. We all know in the past (and still) that a large majority of customers dont fill out rebates and in the end it becomes a profit for bestbuy. While that practice has not always proved to be sucessfull in drawing back repeat customers who are frustrated with the whole rebate process and even though because of there own doing they do feel tricked. They might be more inclined to avoid rebates and sellers like bestbuy who push rebates heavily and instead go for a straight forward retailer with a decent price and less hassle. As I mentioned earlier do to the power of the internet people are becoming more shopper savvy. You need not be angered at your customers because more and more of them are taking advantage of offers you provide to them, when youve so often relied on the mild form of trickery with rebates as a huge source of income. We understand in our communitys of deal tracking that the more we take advantage of these rebates the less they will become available. You will just have to live with the fact times are changing and adopt business practices to draw customers in without relying on rebate trickery.

The customer is always right, I may be that 20% you wrongfully choose to shun away do to your ignorant business practices BUT... I will make sure that the in my family and everyone I know that fits into the category "High-income men, referred to internally as Barrys, tend to be enthusiasts of action movies and cameras. Suburban moms, called Jills, are busy but usually willing to talk about helping their families. Male technology enthusiasts, nicknamed Buzzes, are early adopters, interested in buying and showing off the latest gadgets." and others to NOT shop at your stores period, that its a moral boycott I ask them to stand by me and explain it to them. BUT personally I will remain the "devil" customer and take advantage of every rebate deal that will cause you to lose money on and enjoy every minute of it.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

not a hot deal. There is already a post on this in OT.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...8&threadid=1437060

 

[imported_elwood]

They do have a point, somewhat. I do not agree with someone who will purchase an item or items with rebates, fill out the rebates, return the item then try to buy it back as "opened box" or whatever, just to turn around and make a profit on ebay. That is shady. And i do agree that these type of people should be stopped.

It doesnt seem right to stop the normal "savvy" consumer, like myself, who is just looking for a great deal on an item to save a few bucks.

 

[BentValve]

They cannot win, I will always beat them at their own game..they can change all the policies they want and cut back on sales or whatever. I will always find a loophole to save some cash.


Buying stuff at BB and turning in on Ebay for a profit? Plllllleeeeeease. ..ha ha get real BB..your deals are not that great.

 

[amheck]

I agree, but can you even return something that doesn't have a UPC? i.e. one that has been sent in with a rebate? I didn't even think it was possible.

Originally posted by: elwood
They do have a point, somewhat. I do not agree with someone who will purchase an item or items with rebates, fill out the rebates, return the item then try to buy it back as "opened box" or whatever, just to turn around and make a profit on ebay. That is shady. And i do agree that these type of people should be stopped.

It doesnt seem right to stop the normal "savvy" consumer, like myself, who is just looking for a great deal on an item to save a few bucks.

 

[phenderson]

it is a little retarded.
How I would suspect that less than 30% of their actual clientele are Jill's, Buzzies, or Barry's. The whole idea is plain retared. Tell them to take a look at Winn Dixie... them suckers are just about or are out of business. Why, because Walmart offered more volume, lower prices etc. I average maybe 3 or 4 visits a year to Best Buy. As opposed to 2-3 visits to Walmart a month. To be honest if they would just concentrate on smaller stores and increases their online revenue, they would get some more of my money. How retared is it to walk into best buy and see a stupid Nvidia mx400 video card for over $100.00?
Or a Radeon 9800 for over $300.00? Nowawdays?
When you shop at retail stores you are paying a lot of money for overhead (storage, shipping, store facilities, electricty, warehouses, employees, benefits, etc.)
It is very undesireable to me to be able to purchase a 56K modem on line for anywhere between $5.00 to $20.00, and then see it retail for no less than $20.00.

We will see how well his scheme works... I do not condone people buying stuff with coupons, then returning them and then buying them back as open box items. That is very very very dirty and dishonest.
But I really think that the actual number of Devils to Angels is about 80% to 20% and he will find this out. And by devils, I don't mean folks who actual do the Coupon shop-n-swap thing. I mean folks who go to fat wallet.com for honest deals. No one in their right mind wants to pay $5500.00 for a stupid plasma screen that they could buy for $2500.00 to $3500.00 online with warranties.

I spent maybe $1500.00 at best buy, the year of 1997. Since then I have spend maybe $500.00 total down through the years. Do I sound like a guy who seems very unappreciative of Best Buy's awesome inventory? Well I am...

 

[Gothgar]

the best buy right next to my work is one of those so called pilot stores, I am going to go in and test out their training...

I'll let you all know how it goes...

 

[MisterJackson]

Originally posted by: amheck
I agree, but can you even return something that doesn't have a UPC? i.e. one that has been sent in with a rebate? I didn't even think it was possible.

Originally posted by: elwood
They do have a point, somewhat. I do not agree with someone who will purchase an item or items with rebates, fill out the rebates, return the item then try to buy it back as "opened box" or whatever, just to turn around and make a profit on ebay. That is shady. And i do agree that these type of people should be stopped.

It doesnt seem right to stop the normal "savvy" consumer, like myself, who is just looking for a great deal on an item to save a few bucks.

Alot of times (years ago when I was with an Office supply store) we would get certain people who came in ONLY to buy rebate items. They would return them the next day with UPC intact.

What they were doing was photocopying the UPC and submitting the rebate that way. They would argue until they got the rebate. Some even went so far as to come in and try to get our manager to help when the rebate center refused them. It was rather repulsive.

If they didn't get the rebate, no biggie, they lost nothing but their time. If they got it, then they basically stole.

Call me a racists if you will, but the ONLY ones doing this were Indian, without exception. Not all Indian customers were doing it, I'm not saying that.

These are "Devil" customers. Not someone who actually just turns in a rebate to get their money back on a product they bought and kept.

 

[MailBoxHead]

Ha ha I hope they dismantle the rebate system all together and honestly sell what they're willing to let the item go for.

Rebates really suck, I don't care about all the testimonials refuting otherwise they're probably shills anyhow.

 

[JHawk]

Instant rebates instead of MIR would get rid of a lot of the "devils". People buying the items with instant rebates would most likely be interested in the item instead of trying to game the system and get the cash. Probably wouldn't help the company's cash flow though....................

 

[sivart]

Man I wish one of those stores was near me so that I could (as a single man) walk in with a nametag that says "Hi, my name is Jill." Just to see what kind of looks I could get from the employees

 

[karty]

Damnit! I fell for the 'stores popular with young Buzzes, Best Buy is setting up videogame areas with leather chairs and game players hooked to mammoth, plasma-screen televisions' scheme!! I got punk'ed!

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: NasdaqTrader889
Looks like I will continue to avoid Best Buy. They can keep their evil attitude to themselves.

They deserve to go out of business . . . . along with Gateway.

:thumbsdown:

 

[smartt]

They can play that game if they want, but if they had competitive prices to begin with it wouldn't be such a problem. They had to lead customers to their stores with gimmicks because their normal prices couldn't compete with Internet sales and stores like Walmart. Trust me if I could pick up a DVD, Video Game, or CD on the cheap without having to slither through Walmart and all of the screaming kids I'd be all over it.

What's more is most cities already have an upscale store for high priced electronics , and if Best Buy wants to compete in that dismal market go ahead. However, if they want to remain a mainstream electronic retail store they should look at their overall product line and discount more of the items the devils buy, even a small profit with that many customers would be great. These devils being frequent customers would be more likely to buy there high priced items. I would guess that the some of those devils are angels in disguise. Instead they knock a $100 off of a $5,000 television set and expect the customers to start knocking down the doors, or they advertise a $50 rebate on a $60 electronic product and get pissed off when people apply for the rebate.

Best Buy will last about as long as ToysRUs will selling just baby items. Instead of mimmicking Wal-Mart's model of selling everything under the sun, stores are becoming more siloed. Should be interesting to see how it turns out. Probably about like any software vendor against Microsoft.

 

[JHawk]

Just curious--is there a list of pilot stores?

 

[Robor]

Shrek2

WalMart - $14.97
BestBuy - $16.99

Any guess where I got my copy?