Quote:
Originally Posted by maximus83
I actually saw that Best Buy discount, and still decided to forego the $25 and buy from Amazon. I do get a few hardware things from Best Buy, even more so from Newegg.com and a couple other online stores, but if there's any chance I might need to return something, I always go Amazon as they have such great service and return policies here in the US. Despite my occasional ranting about their growing monopoly in the ebook space and their anti-open software practices  , I still think they are a great company and the number one reason I give them business is their great service. |
With Best Buy you are likely okay purchasing Apple hardware as Apple makes sure that the hardware they sell through various retail sources is exactly the same no matter which source you choose to purchase from. However, in the past Best Buy had an ugly history of negotiating with computer companies like Hewlett Packard wherein HP (or some other computer manufacturer) would deliver a stripped down model to Best Buy, but it would have the same exact model number as those sold at other retail sources but with fewer components installed. That way Best Buy was able to beat the sale price of other companies, but the consumer got a stripped down version of the computer. Consumers were usually unaware of this deceptive practice. If consumers carefully read all the options that were included with that computer model at Best Buy they would see that some components were missing compared to the identical model number being sold at another retail source like Walmart, but most consumers probably didn't read the fine print then got burned. Also, Best Buy is well know for selling returned items as though they are original unsold items, and sometimes you get home and find parts missing. Once I bought a landline phone and when I got home to set it up I noticed that it already had a few dozen phone numbers/contacts programmed in. I've heard and read many such complaints that are similar. Needless to say, I rarely buy from Best Buy any more.