To follow dealership deception story which is getting some good feedback so far, Best Buy is making me think twice about doing business with them too. Apparently they have websites with two different prices. The one you see inside their stores and the one you see from your browser at home.

Download Squad:

So far the Attorney General says he’s learned that Best Buy policy is that it’s the consumer’s responsibility to inform store employees of the lower price. But if employees are routinely showing customers a fake website to indicate that the price must have changed again, or perhaps they had misread the website the first time, that’s just silly.

Here’s what you do, go inside armed with your laptop, Tablet PC and EV-DO connection OR cell phone or PDA with internet access. Then you can point to the price on your device from the real internet, not the inside store one.

This sucks and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Attorney General slaps Best Buy with some serious fines if their investigation turns up this happening. I’ve never had any Best Buy employee refer to a price on their internal store web pages, but if they are running a different website and passing that off as the “official price” to customers than that is very dishonest.

Although I’ve stuck up for the Best Buy Reward Zone program before, we visit there at least once per week doing hundreds of dollars a month on average over the last couple years and I know they don’t always have the best prices, I could take or leave them tomorrow. If some other retail electronics chain opened up in the general area that had comparable selection and prices I’d shop there too or maybe even instead. My loyalty to Best Buy as a customer is weak at best.

Alternatives? Wal-Mart electronics and DVD selection isn’t there, although they have good prices, so they’re usually out. Circuit City has the selection but is too expensive. CompUSA went out of business in our area within less than a year. Office Depot doesn’t have the selection or the prices. There isn’t a close Frye’s, last time I checked. Target and K-Mart are too cheesy. What else is out there?

I remember shopping at Smith’s Home Furnishings a lot, then Incredible Universe, Futureshop and others. These type stores don’t seem to last very long. I wouldn’t do a penny more worth of business at Best Buy if they ever tried to pull some internal website pricing stunt on me, but the fact is every time we’ve ever challenged them on a lower price, they’ve given it to us with zero hassle. We haven’t had the problems receiving Best Buy Rewards coupons either and we’re regularly invited to private members-only events.

One time I remember a DVD that was 40% cheaper elsewhere and the cashier didn’t even ask us for proof, she just gave us the lower price. My Reward Zone card pictured in my hand above pretty much tells the story.

BTW, for those curious, the weekday Hmmcast will be back tomorrow at 4:20pm. Took my first vacation days of 2007 on Friday and again today.

• Best Buy not really the best buy, Reward Zone and RFID by 2007
• Buy The Police reunion concert tickets if you are a Best Buy Reward Zone member
• Trouble for Best Buy
• Walmart grocery a sign of unwise expansion with niche competition like Winco?
• Not surprised by half of CompUSA stores closing
• I Sold It on Ebay: cool looking store, subpar internet presence