Thursday’s Thoughts – Best Buy selling $9.99 TV

A couple of days ago if you were thinking about buying a new television, Best Buy had a  Samsung 52″ TV for $9.99.  Well, just on the surface that is.  Turns out, somebody at Best Buy goofed up and put the wrong price on their website.  No, I wasn’t lucky enough to get one and neither was anyone else.  They wouldn’t honor the price and claimed that the offer could be changed at any time.  You know somebody’s heart skipped a beat when they stumbled across this deal.

So what should they have done?  Should they have awarded the first consumer with the deal of a century and thenchanged the price?  Should they have appologized for the inconvenience and admitted a mistake?

I have made a few mistakes that benefited my customers and I always honored my quote.  I’ve closed loans that have literaly cost me money instead of making a commission because of my errors.  I suppose I could have explained that I messed up and changed it but how would my customers have felt afterwards?  Would they come back to me for future transactions or would they lose a little respect because of the retraction?

Have you ever had your order messed up at a fast food restaurant?  Isn’t it great when they let you keep the mistake in addition to giving you what your ordered?  It just feels good and besides, if they didn’t give it to you it would just end up in the trash.

If you’re in any type of retail business, think about all of the lonely french fries that ended up in the trash because of somebody’s mistake.  Think about the unhappy customer and how easy it would have been to satisfy them.  Think about how many times someone buying a $9.99 TV at Best Buy would have talked about it and how they would have became their biggest fan for many many years.  Do the right thing and give them the TV!