Best Buy Or Bait And Switch?

Connecticut has filed suit against Best Buy over alleged price deception in store.

It seems that Best Buy might not be offering the best buys after all. According to a lawsuit filed by the State of Connecticut, the huge electronics chainattempted to deceive customers, telling in-store customers that prices posted on their public web site were no longer available, and showing the higher prices at kiosks in their stores that werelinked to an employee-only web site.   Following reports in the Hartford Courant in March, ConnecticutAttorney General Richard Blumenthal received a number of complaints from consumers and launched an investigation in April, which has resulted in the suit being filed.   “Best Buy gaveconsumers the worst deal — a bait-and-switch-plus scheme luring consumers into stores with promised online discounts, only to charge higher in-store prices,” Blumenthal claimed. “BestBuy broke its promise to give the best price — an Internet version of bait-and-switch.”   In the suit, the state is seeking refunds for buyers, as well as penalties and costs.Additionally it requests an end to the alleged practice. Best Buy has until June 13 to respond, but a company spokesperson said,   “Best Buy adamantly denies the Connecticut attorneygeneral’s characterization of our in-store kiosks. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves.” The company claims that the web site in the kiosk is used for employee training, and that once theywere aware of the problem with customers they took steps to rectify it.   For the last two years, Best Buy has publicly stated that’s its stores will match any price advertised on a website – even its own.   The lawsuit is currently limited to Connecticut, and had little effect on Best Buy share prices on Friday.