If anyone needs a lead plaintiff, give me a call.
The HD Guru visited three Best Buy stores in the New York market area and asked to purchase a Panasonic HDTV priced in a competing regional multi-store electronics retailer’s advertisement at more than $700 less than Best Buy’s price.
When asked to match the price, salesmen at all three stores said “no,” giving the same excuse: “The advertised Panasonic was on sale for three days and Best Buy’s price match policy exempts limited time sales”. However, there is no “limited time exemption” in Best Buy’s price match policy. Store personnel simply made up a phony excuse, or were instructed to do so by higher-ups.
Denying a customer a price match price is nothing new. It’s been going on for decades. It even has a name: “murfing”— a code word often used by managers to instruct sales people to disregard the price match policy so the customer either leaves the store or pays the tagged price! The origin of the word (as legend goes) began with NY City Canal Street consumer electronic stores.
Seriously, though: This is the kind of behavior that (a) needs to stop and (b) won’t stop until Best Buy gets hit with a big verdict or settlement on behalf of everyone who got “murfed.”
