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Circuit City has announced that they’ll have a website with one price that will be the same as their store prices.  So, you ask, what’s so novel about that?

According to the Consumerist, “The state attorney general’s office has started an investigation into whether Best Buy maintains a secret intranet site that may have been used by some salesmen to deny customers discounts that appear on the company’s public Internet site.”

That’s right, Best Buy’s website has a lower price than their stores’, and when you are in their stores and try to access their website to prove to the salesman that the price is wrong, you find a matching Best Buy website with the same prices as their stores.  That’s because they have two websites.

The Consumerist went on to say, “Regardless of current legality, we think maintaining an identical website with different prices is a deceptive practice and should be investigated. The State’s Attorney will also be investigating other chain stores to see if the practice is common. Are there any Consumerist readers who would like to take it upon themselves to document these practices in other stores, or at Best Buy? Photos would be helpful.”

So that brings us back to Circuit City.  Here’s what they had to say:

“One Price Promise assures Circuit City shoppers that they will be treated fairly and equally regardless of how they shop with us,” said Jeff Maynard, vice president, marketing at Circuit City Stores, Inc. in a press release. “Customers have been telling us how important this is to them, and we want to give them a strong and competitive value proposition when making purchases.”

“We plan to let consumers know about One Price Promise in a big way,” added Maynard. “We are launching an aggressive national advertising campaign that includes print, broadcast, Internet and in-store marketing tools, and we believe this message of consistency, simplicity and transparency will resonate strongly with consumers in today’s world.”

Gee, should we give Circuit City kudos for not trying to bait and switch us?

Steve Laser (136 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook