345
Best Buy Membership "discount" (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by glarf@lemmy.world to c/mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
44 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I was shopping with my wife today and I said "oh let's see if my membership helps out." So we went and added the same item to each of our carts, and to our surprise, the total was the same! So what is it exactly that I'm paying for in this membership if the items "original price" is higher for me than it is for regular shoppers?

all 46 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 170 points 5 months ago

Reminder that Best Buy used to serve up a different Best Buy website if you were accessing it from their store kiosks. You would see a deal advertised on their site from home, drive to the store, and then they'd feign ignorance and have you try to find the deal again while there.

[-] voracitude@lemmy.world 95 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Edit: yeah, I am derp, the protection plan is part of the cart and is what makes the "member" price higher without the discount. Leaving my original response in case anyone doesn't know what would be illegal, if it was actually happening here

~~This is, in fact, actively illegal. Companies cannot advertise a "sale price" under a number of circumstances, such as when the price is the same absent the sale (e.g. there's no actual discount) or when the price was artificially raised just prior to the "sale": https://content.next.westlaw.com/practical-law/document/I6dfb3ee4077511e89bf099c0ee06c731/Beware-of-the-Sale-Complying-with-Promotional-Pricing-Guidelines~~

~~In this case, the "regular" or non-member price was raised precisely 0 seconds before applying the uh... "discount". Pretty cut-and-dry violation by any metric.~~

[-] unmagical@lemmy.ml 44 points 5 months ago

They gave him a protection plan. The price of the item didn't change.

[-] ji17br@lemmy.ml 13 points 5 months ago

And free shipping. I think he would have been charged for delivery on the non-member order. Probably why he didn’t add it.

Unless the item he is buying is one of the “exclusive offers”, then I don’t really see the issue.

[-] BugleFingers@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

Well its really hard to say tbh. Delivery isn't available in the top section but has a different area code. On the bottom section it's a different area code but has delivery as an option. Without checking if the top has free delivery without membership when the area code is fixed there's no way to tell. Some places do offer free shipping on cart values over whatever designation they set.

Looks like they got a free protection plan though

[-] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 5 months ago

Best Buy and most retailers offer free shipping on items $100 and above most of the time. You just don't see that until checkout. No special plan needed. It's to compete with the likes of Amazon.

[-] voracitude@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

That's true, I didn't notice that it was part of the cart with a (discounted) price. It looked like an optional extra that could be added. Makes the whole thing a nothingburger. Yet again, a derp is me - at least I have a few dozen friends in the same boat this time!

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 55 points 5 months ago

Best buy destroyed their membership about a year ago now, where you only get points if you put it on their credit card, and the amount of points you need to redeem went way up. (Instead of $5 for $250 spent it's now $5 for seemingly $500 spent).

I tried to shop there while they had their last CEO. he was investing in training, better wages, better stores, more stock, just overall a better experience. Now they have some basic late stage capitalism CEO destroying everything the last CEO built. If you've been into a store recently and noticed a decline in quality, that's why

Fuck em. They don't care about me as a customer anymore, why should I care about going to them vs a competitor? And trust me, I'm someone who made them wayyyyyy too much money.

[-] Melkath@kbin.social 1 points 5 months ago

Ya.

I worked there when they launched a membership thing, and it was points to gift cards that got printed on receipt paper in hopes the barcode on the carbon paper would fade before you tried to scan it, not any actual price reduction.

Kind of like how there was all that fine print in the 200 dollar service plan that made it sound like you got more, but it was always just the manufacturer warantee, so if your device qualified for manufacturer warentee, geek squad would give you the cheap out fix, and get the preemo replacements and put them into stock. If the manufacturer warantee didn't cover it, you were fucked.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 5 months ago

Sounds like that was soon after I worked there, Geek Squad agent myself, back in the "Tech Support" days. Always a pain to explain to customers. "No, tech support is only software" "No, black tie protection is only hardware". But then you hear how sales people are trained to sell it and they're essentially told to lie, make the sale no matter the cost. Then managers come over and complain that when people talk to me they don't want to buy it. Yeah, because I tell them what the actual plan covers and what it doesn't.

I gave them 5 years, they were a great 5 years, I met a ton of friends, it wasn't a terribly hard job, and I liked the tech. I left about a year after Hubert came in to run the shop, and things went from the lowest stock price to the highest in my tenure thanks to him. It kills me how much corporate has ruined the company, so out of touch with the stores. They were always out of touch, but for a brief time it was nice.

[-] Melkath@kbin.social 0 points 5 months ago

Yup.

I was in the computer sales department.

We were flat out told what the lies were, and how to make them more convincing.

The service contracts were non-refundable, so it didn't matter.

When a manager caught me helping a retiree get a cheap setup to email her grandkids instead of getting them on a line of credit for a top of the line gaming pc, they didn't even fire me. They just stopped scheduling me hours and told me to keep coming in to get my schedule.

Picked up a blank schedule for 5 weeks before I stopped going in and I'm sure they filed no call no show paperwork when I didn't show up for my 1 hour 3 weeks later.

Fuck best buy.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 1 points 5 months ago

FYI you can claim unemployment when businesses do this to you if you previously been working consistent hours.

[-] Melkath@kbin.social 1 points 5 months ago

My memory is I checked with no intention to actually file, first job lost and all, and Arizona + part time = no unemployment.

Gotta be over 40 a week to qualify.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 5 months ago

Oh my fuck that stupid fucking horrible credit card. So so so many people they wanted me to push it on who were definitely NOT in the position to have one. If you're struggling to put together $400 for your kid's college laptop the last thing you need is some high pressure manager telling you that this credit card will save everything. Just ignore the 29% APR and different ways to try to get you to forego payments and rack up interest as long as possible.

I did sales to start for the first couple of years. For a while I had the best sales in my department. They asked me what I did in a meeting. I told them, I'm honest with people. If someone works in tech, why should I push geek squad services? Get to know them, find out they have a baby, maybe they need accidental instead. Buying a new printer? Fuck the HP, get the brother and an extra ream of paper or something. You're a single woman living alone, steady job, just want a second computer? Why do you need accidental, but maybe tech support if you willingly tell me you have gotten a lot of viruses before. I sold them what I thought would be most useful to them. Of course you know how that meeting went. "Wait, you aren't selling cOmPlEtE PaCkAgEz?!" But my sales remained steady so they couldn't do anything, and then I transferred to geek squad shortly after.

I'm not surprised at all they couldn't even get the balls together to just fire you, they chickened out.

[-] burrito@sh.itjust.works 44 points 5 months ago

Pass on the fridge. I have the same one and it will freeze the ones in the back if you don't leave a space between the back of the fridge and your drinks. I can only fill it about 2/3 of the way or it doesn't work very well. I've considered adding a fan inside, and I've even powered a USB fan off a battery pack and it made a big difference.

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 15 points 5 months ago

Technology connections on YouTube did a video on mini fridges a while back. He focused on the peculiarities of one specific model, but one of the things he did to try addressing some of the issues with uneven cooling was add a fan, and he found that it didn't really help and made things worse in other ways.

IIRC, the fridge was designed expecting that certain parts would be cooler than others and accounted for that in how the compressor cycled on and off, but with the added airflow those parts stayed warmer than expected so the compressor never shut off.

This fridge very well might be different, and maybe the fan is helping in your case, but you might want to check that video out so you have some things to look out for in case it's causing other issues that you may not be thinking about.

[-] Evkob@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 months ago

Link to the YouTube video in question

Only Technology Connections could get me to watch a one hour video about a fridge.

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 0 points 5 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Link to the YouTube video in question

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[-] Ballistic_86@lemmy.world 40 points 5 months ago

I mean, you got a 2 year extended warranty and free delivery, both of which I’m sure Best Buy charges for.

[-] Vent@lemm.ee 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Yep, that protection plan is $1.49. The real sin here is having the "Original Price" not be an obvious order total, but that's pretty minor.

[-] 0oWow@lemmy.world 38 points 5 months ago

You got a free protection plan, according to the image you posted.

[-] solidgrue@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago

TIL people still shop at Best Buy.

If you want to get fleeced but still be respected the next morning, shop Monoprice or NewEgg.

Jeez. Best Buy? Just shop like you deserve to be treated like a carpet.

[-] Ajen@sh.itjust.works 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Is Newegg really any better?

[-] glarf@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago

Back when they introduced their marketplace, I found an extremely good deal. Thinking it was too good to be true, but cheap enough to say "what the heck," I bought it anyway. Fast forward a week and I received a completely different item than what was described (no surprise, to be honest) in the listing. Naturally, I reached out to customer service for a refund because the item I received was not as advertised. To my surprise, Newegg refused to refund me the whole amount even though they acknowledged the listing was essentially a scam, so I back charged through my credit card. Then, they banned my account. I had been an avid supporter of the company and built many computers from things purchased there, up until that complete joke of a refund process.

Newegg died the day they sold out way back in the 2010s, screw that horrible customer service.

[-] solidgrue@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

Wrong question.

Is NewEgg any worse? Too close to call.

[-] MeDuViNoX@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 months ago

Alright, so if those 3 are all bad, then what's the right answer here?

[-] Confused_Emus@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

Micro Center! Unfortunately they can be a little hard to shop with if you don’t live near one. Their inventory for online shopping and shipping is more limited than their in-store stock.

[-] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 months ago

You can still get a deal on occasion at Best Buy, but you have to be careful and you have to be ready to walk away.

[-] DarkPassenger@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

I know about Best buy and Newegg but what's the deal with monoprice?

[-] PorradaVFR@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Yeah….also curious. It's been a couple of years but when I previously bought stuff from Monoprice it was a smoking deal and I'm pretty certain none of the cables I bought ever failed me.

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

They were my go to for a long time for good charging cables and dongles. Don't know what happened with them. I do know they got delisted from online shops.

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

I'll still shop there if I can use trade in credit for old tech. But I literally only spend the store credit I get back from old tech. Its usually something that's several years old and worth like $40-50, and I spend it on something I was planning to buy anyway. I've tried reselling that kind of thing on eBay. It doesn't move because nobody wants a windows 7 computer or an old pair of earbuds from 7 years ago.

[-] JCreazy@midwest.social 10 points 5 months ago

I haven't been to a best by since the local one closed a couple years ago. They closed it do to poor sales and I can see why. Every time you would go there, the shelves weren't stocked. Things weren't organized, it was obvious that nobody that worked there gave a fuck so why would I wasn't to support a business that was in such bad shape. It was common to either not be able to find a single employee to help you with something or they would have 20 people working that would ask if you if you need help every 3 minutes.

[-] braxy29@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

i posted about having this experience on reddit a year or two ago and people were pissed? but yeah, empty shelves and barely any employees. it sucks, because i used to enjoy going there to see what's new.

[-] kat_angstrom@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

Omg they raised the original price to create some puny "savings"? That's scammy AF

[-] ji17br@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago

That’s not what’s happening.

[-] cooltrainer_frank@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

Okay, I like physical games and don't like the whole gamestop meme thing, so I went to Best Buy a few times for games. They didn't have Pikmin 4 when it came out, and no one there heard of it. I went to Target next door and they had some promo stuff they gave out and the person working the games section was dressed up like Oatchi.

Guess I'll go to Target for physical releases, not BB.

[-] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Greetings fellow Hoosier. The Castleton Best Buy is particularly awful, though I guess the website is not necessarily a reflection on that. Did you check the Micro Center to see if they have what you're looking for?

[-] glarf@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Microcenter doesn't sell fridges, unfortunately. However, I have been pretty pleased with them since Fry's is out of then picture. That was a rough couple of years.

[-] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Oh, bummer. But yeah, I remember being simultaneously bummed about the Fry's closing, and also feeling vindicated that they were going out of business after how bad they had become in their last years.

[-] glarf@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

Oh for sure, they really went to crap the last few years.

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

You're paying for the privilege of paying them even more money if you want them to build a PC.

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 5 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

You're paying for the privilege of paying them even more money if you want them to build a PC.

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[-] glarf@lemmy.world -1 points 5 months ago

Some less tired viewers have correctly pointed out that the "warranty" was added for a price and discounted in the cart, as well as free delivery. Perhaps, if you don't find the UI misleading like I did, this isn't a bad thing.

this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
345 points (93.0% liked)

Mildly Infuriating

35427 readers
766 users here now

Home to all things "Mildly Infuriating" Not infuriating, not enraging. Mildly Infuriating. All posts should reflect that.

I want my day mildly ruined, not completely ruined. Please remember to refrain from reposting old content. If you post a post from reddit it is good practice to include a link and credit the OP. I'm not about stealing content!

It's just good to get something in this website for casual viewing whilst refreshing original content is added overtime.

Rules:

1. Be Respectful

Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.

Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.

...

2. No Illegal Content

Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.

That means: -No promoting violence/threats against any individuals

-No CSA content or Revenge Porn

-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)

...

3. No Spam

Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.

-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.

-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.

-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers

-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.

...

4. No Porn/ExplicitContent

-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.

-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.

...

5. No Enciting Harassment,Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts

-Do not Brigade other Communities

-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.

-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.

-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.

...

6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.

-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.

-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.

...

7. Content should match the theme of this community.

-Content should be Mildly infuriating.

-At this time we permit content that is infuriating until an infuriating community is made available.

...

8. Reposting of Reddit content is permitted, try to credit the OC.

-Please consider crediting the OC when reposting content. A name of the user or a link to the original post is sufficient.

...

...

Also check out:

Partnered Communities:

1.Lemmy Review

2.Lemmy Be Wholesome

3.Lemmy Shitpost

4.No Stupid Questions

5.You Should Know

6.Credible Defense

Reach out to LillianVS for inclusion on the sidebar.

All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
LillianVS@lemmy.world
STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world