AfterDawn: News

Best Buy apologizes for Xbox 360 bundle scams

Retailer Best Buy has "sort of" apologized to gamers who were caught up in an Xbox 360 bundle scam. Customers were waiting in queue to buy the consoles at the advertised prices of $299 or $399, but what they were told by Best Buy staff in stores across the U.S. is that they were several hundred dollars short for the new bundles of the console that came with some more accessories. These bundles went for around $700 or more in some cases.

One employee at a Best Buy store who remains anonymous revealed that the store was intentionally ripping off customers on the launch night. He said the worst part was trying to explain it to children who had just saved enough money for an Xbox 360 based on the advertisements for the console. Best Buy now acknowledges that "some stores acted inappropriately."



The store has promise to refund "any unwanted Xbox 360-related purchases," and said it will ensure that appropriate measures be taken to stop this from happening with future Xbox 360 promotions.

Source:
Joystiq

Written by: James Delahunty @ 4 Dec 2005 7:11

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• 39 comments

• solargame

  what fags man.

  4.12.2005 07:27 #1

• arcanix

  Greedy sob's.

  4.12.2005 07:46 #2

• pollution

  Best Buy is a horrible store in my own opinion. I will go to Best Buy and look for the electronics that I want and then go to Circuit City and always find it cheaper. Also, Best Buys customer service was a hour wait when i returned a video card, and it was only one person in front of me. Now this is a scam! Does not supprise me best buy would do this. Here is a link to best buy costumers and employees stories, http://www.bestbuysux.org

  4.12.2005 08:08 #3

• DVDBack23

  Quote:what fags man.Couldnt have put it any better myself.

  4.12.2005 08:30 #4

• Shinraboy

  Shameless Bastards!
  
  Those poor children probably mowed 100's of lawns and the girls probably sold millions of $0.25 lemonades. Just for a measley, "Im sorry" well "im sorry" does'nt compensate for the next few weeks that the 360 will be out of stock!

  4.12.2005 09:16 #5

• dude845

  those monsters these are kids they are ripping off like wtf is there problem, i hope they go bankrupt..
  
  
  ~ALT~SCorpy

  4.12.2005 09:35 #6

• jdeboer

  shiiiiittt. Thats shameless. WORST BUY EVER

  4.12.2005 09:36 #7

• Invasian

  Man and I thought this was a great store. Ripping off little kids is messed up.

  4.12.2005 09:46 #8

• stve2

  what could i say about best buy,its over price crap,or the moroons that work their,or the hook tthat that you are getting some thing good for your money and getting ripped off,if ya whant electronics,sofware ,hardware,cds,movies,their are better places to get what you want,and less pricey.its called the internet. ban best buy,and wait for it to be shipped to you,overactive americans

  4.12.2005 09:48 #9

• LnkinPrk6

  I heard the xbox overheats to quickly and it makes the graphics all messed up n stuff, and the lens also scratches the discs really easily, theres a warning on the xbox 360 boxes that says don't move your system with a game in the system or it'll scratch it up really bad... i'm not gonna get a 360 now, im gonna wait for the ps3 reviews to come in after it comes out and then if there all good im gonna get that.. and ya that is pretty stupid that the bundle pack is a rip off..

  4.12.2005 10:47 #10

• malcdogg

  I haven't thought much about Best Buys sales people for years now, basically because i've had them blatently lie to me about things while trying to make a sale, but I have to admit I didn't think they would go this far.

  4.12.2005 10:55 #11

• Jay05

  they suck. how could they do that to little kids?
  

  4.12.2005 11:21 #12

• vgaddict8

  BEST BUY IS RETARDED!!! THEY RIP PEOPLE OFF SO MUCH!!!

  4.12.2005 13:19 #13

• K4kashi

  Best Buy sucks,i have never used there store to purchase anyhting before,and this certainly doesnt make me want to start buying anything there lol.

  4.12.2005 13:26 #14

• neurokasm

  bastards

  4.12.2005 14:09 #15

• embo22000

  Damn I had seen this like a month ago when i went to bestbuy.com to order a 360 from them and i saw that retarded $699 price wich i thought was just a mistake. BUt DAMN they did it in purpose!!! someone should sue the shit out of those fuckers....

  4.12.2005 15:08 #16

• embo22000

  Damn I had seen this like a month ago when i went to bestbuy.com to order a 360 from them and i saw that retarded $699 price wich i thought was just a mistake. BUt DAMN they did it in purpose!!! someone should sue the shit out of those fuckers....

  4.12.2005 15:09 #17

• embo22000

  Damn I had seen this like a month ago when i went to bestbuy.com to order a 360 from them and i saw that retarded $699 price wich i thought was just a mistake. BUt DAMN they did it in purpose!!! someone should sue the shit out of those fuckers....

  4.12.2005 15:09 #18

• AIM2Shame

  LnkinPrk6, They do not overheat if placed in the right place there megapower consoles you can't put them on carpet in a little tiny gab sitting on top of other hot eletrical equipment etc.
  
  As for scratching the disc, Who the hell moves a console around when there playing a game? The same would happen for DVD players etc if you decided to start moving it around on angels when a disc is loaded.

  4.12.2005 15:48 #19

• Reasons?

  This is such an awesome coincidencem but it'a a little bit too late. I'm writing an essay against shady corporate mishaps and under the table policy. Best Buy is the complete poster child for my paper, but I'm done with it and at the page maximum or else I would include this, damn.
  
  I am not the least bit surprised. Come on, it's Best Buy...

  4.12.2005 17:28 #20

• gaspasser

  Circuit City was doing the same thing here, only they started doing it and midnight for the launch.

  4.12.2005 18:02 #21

• Valor7

  "He said the worst part was trying to explain it to children who had just saved enough money for an Xbox 360 based on the advertisements for the console"
  
  ummmm...children?? Where the heck do kids get that kind of cash mowing lawns or bagging groceries. Youd have to sell crack to be able to afford a 360 if you were considered a child! ;)

  4.12.2005 18:28 #22

• gerthdynn

  I was in line with a kid and his (incredibly hot) sister and had been for 3 hours when they announced the bundle scam. The kid had worked his arse off to get the 400 bucks and had already played on a 360 that a friend of his won. She didn't have the extra money to purchase all that junk, since the one she was getting was going to be for her boyfriends chistmas present. They relented come 1:50 AM (yes it took them nearly two hours to relent after opening their doors), but after those two were told they couldn't get it for what was promised, they left and that really made my night just that much more misreble.
  
  Then there is the fact that they had enough Premium systems to give me one, but they were holding those 15 in reserve for when they reopened in the morning, while they were more than willing to sell all but 5 of their cores.
  
  I think the only reason they relented at our store when they did was because one of our news agencies was on site and in the store asking very visible questions about the release policy.

  4.12.2005 19:51 #23

• bigern2

  This Nothing new for Best Buy the try to jack everyone all the time.

  4.12.2005 22:29 #24

• mikey_ray

  trust me they did this-- i worked there that night and they made packs with the x-box harddrive,wireless controller,and a game----it was 650---and even if you were in line---you had to buy the bundle to get an xbox------cause the bundle were prepacked-----
  
  nights b4-----best bogus
  
  
  

  4.12.2005 22:47 #25

• Chris1000

  pollution, I don't know about that "Best Buy's stuff is cheaper at Circuit City". I have comparison shopped at both stores, and they both usually have the same prices, unless one is having a special of some kind.
  
  Best Buy should be whomped over this though. Stores advertisements are NOT handled in stores, they are handled by Best Buy's national marketing division, so Best Buy 'has some 'splaining to do'.
  They should give these children the XBox 360's at the price that was advertised, and then eat the rest of the costs.

  4.12.2005 23:18 #26

• MrPrngles

  Best Buy Suxs! Same thing happened to me on a car stereo. They advertised a fairly priced car stereo w/ MP3 and when I got to the store, they said it was a non MP3. Isn't this false advertisement??? Best Buy is almost as bad as Wal-Mart now.

  5.12.2005 00:04 #27

• bamaboy

  Wal Mart isn't any better either! They rip people off everyday of the week!

  5.12.2005 03:36 #28

• gerthdynn

  You were allowed to choose the games at ours, and it did look like a few of the people walked out with some green ribbon around it, but that ended early on in the evening/morning. The way they put it, they were only required to sell 20 unbundled premiums and 10 unbundled cores, as the ad had those listed as the minimums. I'm pretty sure, though, that our Fox32 guy came in and called bullcrap on them. I also know that some of the registers were just telling people to set aside what they didn't want and that they would just ring up what they wanted. Oh and our core bundles didn't have a hard drive with them in any configuration. Someone assumed that if you were buying a core system, that you obviously didn't want a hard drive, even if you were towards the end of the line. (I foolishly didn't leave work till 4, when I could probably have left at noon and been ~#17 in line)

  5.12.2005 04:31 #29

• Reasons?

  The Best Buy as was at was really good. We took a list down so you could walk around and talk and go eat and stuff. We made pizza and taco bell runs through out the night and somebody brought cake for about 8 of us in line together. They passed out geek squad t-shirts and mountain dew. It was blast, cars with nice sound systems were brought up to the waiting area and we listened to music and screwed around with remoe control cars etc.
  
  Best Buy sucks, but the people workign at mine are very cool. It was a 17 hour party pretty much.
  

  Formerly "cmmnsense", banned for lack of restraint.
  
  Fanboy is a term used to describe someone who is utterly devoted to a single subject. This generally is followed by the devotion and support even when proved wrong.
  
  Anecdotal, by my definition, it's the way too many people here think. It's also all the evidence you have.
  
  

  5.12.2005 05:02 #30

• p.dockery

  Firstly:
  http://bestbuysux.org/
  
  Secondly, Best Buy has a history of Bait and Switch. It happens to me every second time I go there. Buyers, Beware!

  5.12.2005 08:22 #31

• homeg269

  why the heck would you go and buy stuff at best buy? what idiots!

  9.12.2005 19:43 #32

• gerthdynn

  People buy from Best Buy for the same reason that people buy things from King Soopers or Albertson's or Walgreens. It is the closest resource that has what they want as consumers. This was actually my first experience with just how bad Best Buy can be. There are people who hate just about any retail store, and there are people who swear by those same retail stores. People who use the words "stupid" or "sux" don't really create an environment that assists in conveying their displeasure with the store or the reasons.

  10.12.2005 10:11 #33

• solargame

  @ gerthdynn, uuuuuuuuuh, WTF are you trying to say?????
  we hate best buy, thats all.

  10.12.2005 10:28 #34

• gerthdynn

  I should have added an @homeg269. I'm referring to people who disparage people for shopping there and finding out the hard way the way some retailers act.

  10.12.2005 13:23 #35

• p.dockery

  @gerthdynn - Right on.
  
  As it is, every once in a while I do some DJ work, and I'll have a very specific technological need: an inexpensive DVD player, a portable cd-mp3 player, and the Best Buy in my area is the only place that carries these things. I can usually find them on my own, having done the research online for exactly what I want--which is to say, I don't have to talk to a salesperson who is under horrible corporate pressure to sell me something I am not looking for.
  
  What frustrated me recently is that I bought a very small cd-mp3 boombox that was advertised to play .wma files. It does not play .wma files; nothing on the packaging indicated that it would play .wma files except for the Best Buy price tag. I went back in months later, and the tag was still falsely advertising my product.
  
  I'm writing here to confess my little bit of vigilante justice. I snatched that price tag... and scribbled out the ".wma" part. :)

  11.12.2005 03:12 #36

• lexiegram

  Best Buy knows exactly what they are doing all the time, and believe me, they always have something up their sleeve. And it's always to benefit the company-not with the customer's best interest in mind.
  I have had my fair share of problems with my local Best Buy store and know first hand that this company is very unethical, dishonest and sneaky to say the least. Do they know the law? Absolutely! Are they in violation of consumer law? Absolutely! What we all need to do each and every time we are screwed over is make a complaint with our Attorney General's office-ask for the number of your local Dept of Agriculture-they handle all complaints related to consumer law violations. They have to send a representative to the store to investigate every complaint and make a written report. This report goes to the Attorney General who determines if there was a violation and if there have been enough complaints against the store in question, they can be fined. Any way, if we do not complain to the right people, nothing will ever be done. Also, if you get on the web and go to your state consumer law's and look up consumer protection laws and pricing laws, etc., you will be amazed at what these stores can and cannot do in relation to advertising, putting prices on things and saying "sorry, we just made a mistake...", etc. If you know the law, then you are better prepared to confront the manager and demand him/her to comply with it. If they don't, then write the regional manager of the company and tell them you will be making a complaint with the Attorney General's office and the BBB. You will get action, I guarantee it. I have gotten to know my local Best Buy quite well, or should I say they know me! (ha ha)
  ***but, I do agree, they are scum bags!

  13.12.2005 19:52 #37

• goldrush7

  I personally have never had a problem in dealing with Best Buy. I spend about $2000-$3000 with them on an annual basis. If this report is true, then shame on Best Buy. What I find funny about this is that everyone is quick to point the finger at Best Buy for price gouging and the such. What about the people that bought the Xbox 360 just to turn around and sell it for 300-400% above retail on eBay or Craig's List? Do you feel bad for the kid that stood in line all night long, didn't get a system because they ran out, then seeing some idiot who did get a system sell it for $1000! That's the injustice! I'm avid gamer, but I hate it when a new system/console is launched. The greed that manifests from people during this time is sickening. Just wanted to get that off my chest...I hate greedy bastards that ruin the fun for everyone else.

  19.12.2005 13:35 #38

• p.dockery

  @ goldrush7
  
  While I'm sure we'd all agree that the greed of individual gougers is shameful, there is little to be done about it. However, when a group of gougers gets together and forms a legal corporation, well, that's injustice that can be fought with buying power.
  
  What is it, pray tell, that you spend $2-3k on every year at Best Buy?

  20.12.2005 09:10 #39