Best Buy Apologizes For 360 Bundles 102
drScott2 writes "During the launch of the Xbox 360, some Best Buy stores created bundles of Xbox 360s and accessories, and would not sell the Xbox by itself. Thus, if you wanted to buy an Xbox 360 you had to buy the accessories too. The president of Best Buy has officially offered an apology. From the Brian Dunn's letter: 'I'm writing to apologize. While all of us at Best Buy were thrilled to be part of the recent launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game system - one of the most anticipated events in the history of electronic gaming - the launch did not go as we had hoped.'"
Re:It's So Easy (Score:5, Informative)
"Customers who are unhappy with Xbox 360-related purchases made in November 2005 may return unwanted items for a full refund at any Best Buy store. In addition, if your Xbox 360 purchasing experience did not meet your expectations for any reason, please email us at [email address will be inserted when the letter is posted to the website]. (Employees with information pertinent to our investigation are encouraged to call our Ethics Hot Line instead.)"
This is not new. I worked for BBY... (Score:5, Informative)
Best Buy does not condone pressuring customers to purchase items they may not want or that may not fit their lifestyle
The don't condone it, but they do reward it. The sales force at BBY is not on commission, but the management IS compensated for store preformance. An in-store sales manager determines how sales are conducted, and this would not be the first time a manager decided to artificially inflate his numbers. Regional management and upper management only looks at the balance sheet and customer comments. So if the store makes or exceeds expectations, and no one complains, then the store management gets some cash.
Best Buy Flamebait! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's So Easy (Score:4, Informative)
I work for BBY, so first, it was simply some stores that took initiative on their own to create these bundles to drive their numbers. My store did not force people to buy bundles, we did put together folders with suggested accessories as well as coupons to entice people to purchase their accessories at a discount wiht the 360 that day. To my knowlege, none of the stores in my area participated in this practice, but clearly some did.
That said, BBY is very competative internally, so stores are always looking to innovate in ways like this. Unfortunatly, bundling in this way is against BBY's corperate policies. We can create all the bundles we like, but when we say you *HAVE TO* buy a bundle to purchase a product, that's where it steps over the line and is against BBY's corperate policies (not the law, though).
As far as law is concerned, it's not illegal at all. I seem to recall some of the game stores only sold bundles. If you wanted a 360 from [GameStoreX], you had to pay $800 or something retarded like that to get the system, controllers, a memory card, and like 4 games, or something. Didn't even get to pick the games. This makes sense to me, as if something is going to be ultra-rare, and it's price controled, like the consoles are, and you *know* you're going to sell out, why not make the most money possible for it?
Re:The usual corporate BS (Score:5, Informative)
Test your model: the classic McDonald's case (Score:3, Informative)
That was what the punitive damages turned out to be in the "scalding coffee in the lap" case against Mickey-D's. McDonalds was originally assigned damages equal to a few days (IIRC) profit from their coffee sales. The company's own doctors had described the temp the coffee was served at as undrinkable and dangerous given the cups. McD's execs said the higher temperature was a competitive advantage thing, that they'd gained an edge over their competition serving it noticeably hotter. So the jury assigned damages that went to that issue: removing the cash they'd made via that competitive advantage. (After the settlement that followed, we won't know what McDonald's really paid, though.)
Not sure how you feel about that one. It's often used as an example of a frivolous lawsuit, though I think that's a knee-jerk reaction taken from pop media accounts. But it's a decent example of what you say you want...