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Best Buy Says iPhone X Costs $100 Extra at Full Price Because Flexibility Sometimes 'Has a Cost'

xgman said:
Anyway this is BS because I tried to order an X on Best Buy yesterday and was forced to provide carrier account details, so I could not just buy the phone without having a contract in effect. I call total BS!
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If you had tried to buy full price, you would not have been forced to provide carrier account details. The fact that a buyer has a freedom to buy full retail Verizon phone, which is the best model in the market due to universal modem for both CDMA and GSM, without having to open a Verizon account is worth $100.
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XBeatzX said:
I don't know if this has been mentioned. But this photo was taken at a Best Buy in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. Will never step foot in another Best Buy.
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Just because one store did this, it does not mean entire Best Buy will do the same thing. It is like generalization or discrimination.
 
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chriscrowlee said:
Don't think so... they're just doing this for unactivated phones as a way to dissuade people from coming in and buying up their inventory vs people activating in store on lucrative plans where BBY makes a commission from the carrier.
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Are you insane? A manufacturer absolutely can sign into a vendor agreement with a retailer to only charge MSRP\disallow discounting of the items. What planet are you living on? Let me guess, you think a company can't dictate how a franchise runs their business either. LOL. How do you think franchises like McDonalds and Burger King are so consistent? Because of contracts that stipulate that they have to follow everything the franchise grantor puts into the contract or they lose their franchise. Gosh I wish people knew what they were talking about on here.
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Depends on the business, but you're right. Most franchises have Policy Manuals that include language where they can take away your franchise if you break a rule. As far as I have seen every company has slightly different rules, and often underdogs will make their policies more attractive to motivate people to buy into them over someone else. This can cause issues when, for example, corporate wants to start selling something new that requires an investment by the franchisee. Food that requires special tools to cook are a common example, but selling phones that have no carrier lock is still a new idea in the US. It's quite possible that Apple has set upper prices on carrier devices but gave liberty to raise prices on unlocked ones.

McDonalds is a special case . They not only have Policy Manuals, but they also own 70% of the real estate. Being the landlord was born from Ray Kroc's direct desire to make every location identical. All the way down to the smile.
 
democracyrules said:
If you had tried to buy full price, you would not have been forced to provide carrier account details. The fact that a buyer has a freedom to buy full retail Verizon phone, which is the best model in the market due to universal modem for both CDMA and GSM, without having to open a Verizon account is worth $100.
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Just because one store did this, it does not mean entire Best Buy will do the same thing. It is like generalization or discrimination.
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Yet this company is certainly more than willing to price gouge for the sake of profit on the iPhone. It's a corporate culture they have created.
 
XBeatzX said:
I don't know if this has been mentioned. But this photo was taken at a Best Buy in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. Will never step foot in another Best Buy.
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Those Dasani bottles cost $2 a bottle here. The Smart Water is nearly $3 a bottle. That wasn't price gouging. That was just a bad bundle. If not giving a good enough discount for buying in bulk is an issue for you I might recomend that you steer clear of Target as well.
 
4jasontv said:
Those Dasani bottles cost $2 a bottle here. The Smart Water is nearly $3 a bottle. That wasn't price gouging. That was just a bad bundle. If not giving a good enough discount for buying in bulk is an issue for you I might recomend that you steer clear of Target as well.
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Well it comes down to this, if that water was priced at $43 a case for the simple reason of Hurricane Harvey happening outside those doors, then yes, it's price gouging. They released a "Sincere Apology" proving that fact.
 
Still potentially cheaper than a scalper if you *need* one now. There is independent Apple authorized retail store in my area charging an extra $200 "fee" with the phone.
 
It's interesting indeed. To all those in the thread flaming best buy and saying "who shops there?"... I managed to get my MacBook Pro from them for ~$300 cheaper than Apple (new, not open box), so uhh I sure do. I personally advise all my friends and family to not buy Apple computers via Apple directly since there's never any discounts, except for their joke of a Black Friday sale
 
Howyalikdemapls said:
I just spent 2 hours on the phone with Best Buy and 2 hours chatting online with Best Buy. I climbed the ladder with both and spoke to the highest person that they would allow me (about 4 levels up), and they would not budge. They’ve specifically been told today not to price match the iPhone X. I thought after wearing them down for a couple hours they would eventually cave, but they didn’t because they’ve all been given specific orders today not to since that’s what everyone is calling in about.
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That seems like a waste of time on both ends. Not that you aren't well within your rights to do so. But 4 hours asking why something is expensive is only going to make it cost more. : )
 
democracyrules said:
If you had tried to buy full price, you would not have been forced to provide carrier account details. The fact that a buyer has a freedom to buy full retail Verizon phone, which is the best model in the market due to universal modem for both CDMA and GSM, without having to open a Verizon account is worth $100.
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In fact I was, but they have changed that since yesterday, still $100 for a 12/15 delivery and no contract is still price gauging. very bad charma best Buy.
 
pika2000 said:
Retailers don't just sell stuff for less automagically (unless they are really trying to clear inventory).
What usually happens is that, the sales team at Apple or Apple's distributor had some budget for marketing. Often times those teams can use that budget to support retailers in putting discounts/promos on their products. And yes, this can result retailers selling Apple stuff for less than Apple store. Most of these promo/discounts are actually within the control of Apple.
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I get it but the Apple Store won't even match Best Buy sales (i.e. $100 off MBP, etc). Weird.
 
Wow, what a scam. People "Best Buy" somewhere else then because apparently buying here isn't the "best" you can do. I don't get that either, as even at one hundred dollar markups with limited supply this won't earn them all that much extra and makes them look like scam artist so why do it?

Really they should change their name to Worst Buy.
 
XBeatzX said:
Well it comes down to this, if that water was priced at $43 a case for the simple reason of Hurricane Harvey happening outside those doors, then yes, it's price gouging. They released a "Sincere Apology" proving that fact.
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Except they also said they priced it that way because people were buying cases of water, when they normally only sell singles, and it made it easier for customers to know what the case price would be. Since they don't have a case price they listed it at 12x or 24x a single bottle price. They are under no obligation, regardless of the reason for the demand, to offer discounts.

I bet they only apologized because it's easier than fighting a social justice warrior who thinks they are an actual reporter because they have a twitter account.

There are a lot of valid reasons to hate best buy, but this isn't one of them.
 
XBeatzX said:
Well it comes down to this, if that water was priced at $43 a case for the simple reason of Hurricane Harvey happening outside those doors, then yes, it's price gouging. They released a "Sincere Apology" proving that fact.
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Price gouging? Lol. It was a mistake. A stupid one but mistake nonetheless. There is no sku for bundled water. After all it's best buy, not Kroger. The sales person basically took the the price of one bottle of water and multiplied it by however many bottles were in the "bundle" and came up with the price. It was was just a massive brain fart and I highly doubt it was done for malicious intent
 
MadeTheSwitch said:
Wow, what a scam. People "Best Buy" somewhere else then because apparently buying here isn't the "best" you can do. I don't get that either, as even at one hundred dollar markups with limited supply this won't earn them all that much extra and makes them look like scam artist so why do it?

Really they should change their name to Worst Buy.
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hahahaha you're so clever!
 
I think the real question is ...Why is Apple selling the phone cheaper than it's dealers?

Apple doesn't provide typical retailer margins, if any, on the phone. The store is supposed to make their profit on the accessories or commissions for selling plans. Apparently that isn't happening, so they're making the phone more expensive to try to turn a profit. Good for them, i dont care.
 
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but another reason for the $100 price hike is to discourage those who have a Best Buy credit card from purchasing at full price. The Best Buy credit rewards card give 5-6% back. So at the normal retail prices of $999-$1149 one would effectively get $50-$69 back in reward credits. That would make Best Buy the best place to buy an iPhone. However Best Buy would make no money especially since they would also be loosing out on carrier subsidies.
 
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bernuli said:
That seems like a waste of time on both ends. Not that you aren't well within your rights to do so. But 4 hours asking why something is expensive is only going to make it cost more. : )
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It was absolutely petty of me and it’s one of the most juvenile things I’ve done in a long time. I’m on vacation now and my buddy and I were having a great time chatting with Best Buy. We kinda made it into a game. I know it was a waste of their time and honestly that’s why I kept it going for so long after it was clear they had a new specific policy directly for the iPhone X. It won’t cost more for me though because I also have a preorder through Apple. I’ll just have to wait a couple more weeks. No biggy =)
 
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