August 13th, 2009
Best Buy will not honor $9.99 HDTV deal
Best Buy’s Web site offered a 52-inch TV for less than $10 yesterday, but the deal was too good to be true.
Early Wednesday morning, BestBuy.com listed a 52-in. Samsung LN52A650 LCD HDTV for $9.99 — more than $1,600 off the $1,799 sticker price (itself nearly half off a $3,399 list price).
But roughly 45 minutes after customers caught wind of the deal and began ordering them, Best Buy admitted the “pricing error” and made the product unavailable.
“We will not be placing any more orders for this unit,” a customer service voicemail declared.
Customers who managed to sneak one or multiple orders into that brief morning Window were left wondering if they got away with the deal.
The answer: nope.
In a statement, Best Buy apologized for the mistake but said it would “not be honoring the incorrect price.”
In a note posted in its online forums, the company has stated that “All current and previous orders made for the TV at this price on BestBuy.com will be cancelled, and customers will be refunded in full for the purchase.”
Naturally, Best Buy policy reserves the right to “revoke offers or correct errors” even if a credit card has already been charged.
(In case you’re wondering, the Federal Trade Commission bars unfair and deceptive practices. Honest mistakes don’t count.)
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
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