On BestBuy.com, under the heading “Check out our expanded selection of Apple® PowerBook® and iBook® notebook computers below,” Best Buy lists three MacBook models and three MacBook Pro models and uses the same photo of a 15-inch MacBook Pro for every model of MacBook Pro and MacBook they offer.
Particularly galling is Best Buy trying to sell black polycarbonate 13.3-inch MacBooks (MA472LL/A) with a photo of an obviously aluminum 15-inch MacBook Pro.
Lest you think we’re being too hard on Best Buy for a minor mistake, there is a long history (Sears, for one nasty example) of third-party retailers shortchanging Apple products, leaving Macs on display without mice, broken keyboards, and worse in stores staffed by salespeople who knew absolutely nothing about Macs and worked hard to steer customers on over to the Gateways as fast as they could.
On the bright side, at least Best Buy didn’t show an Acer or something: http://www.bestbuy.com/site//olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat64400050028&type=category
MacDailyNews Take: Already the screw-ups begin. Note to Best Buy: Apple is known for attention to detail. Do it right or don’t do it at all.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “G Thing” for the heads up.]
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Related MacDailyNews article:
Best Buy now selling Apple MacBook Pro, MacBook, and iMac models – May 31, 2006
Bait and switch? No – Best Buy doesn’t sell the Pro model.
It’s nice that they hire the handicapped.
I mentioned this in the original thread on the Best Buy announcement and you blocked the URL – you rock Much Dumb News
Not a muck up.
We know how to bait and switch thank you very much.
I can get a BLACK Macbook Pro??? Cool….I am off to Best Buy. I do not understand why Apple doesn’t advertize these things?????
Maybe I have time to get my (blonde) hair cut beforehand?
“bait and switch”
No, no, no. Just for the Apple section of Best Buy it’s wait and bitch.
Oh MAN! I knew this type of stuff would happen. I mentioned it in my previous post in the announcement article. To quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail “Run Away, Run Away”!!!!!!
Proof once again, that the Apple Store were SO the right thing for Steve to build.
this is news ?
why not just send an email to Best Buy and tell them ?
Best Buy are idiots. Here in Montreal they blew their grand opening last year by putting in English language only signage, a direct violation of the provincial commercial language laws as well as a slap in the face to their majority French speaking customer base.
Regardless that I was delighted to see the arrogant French language nazis get insulted, I do realize that it only happened through incompetence and I’m not entirely enthused about Apple getting so tight with a company that is so obviously careless in it’s marketing efforts.
Simply,
This is news precisely because of the past history of third-party retailers screwing Apple every which way. A lot of us were waiting to see if Best Buy would pay attention this time. Not from the looks of it, so far.
Have you ever been to Best Buy?
This doesn’t shock me at all, I am pretty sure they hire the best of their retail employees to create the web site.
Just one more reason never to shop at BB
I just hope they are selling that 18.3 pound monstrosity that Dell just “designed”. I can’t wait to lug that thing around.
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m2010?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
The customer, “So why should I get a Mac over these cheaper PC’s what is the difference”. The salesman who by the way does not get commission replies, “Well this Mac is more expensive and uh its uh well how about this Toshiba its cheaper and you can do the same things”
-I’ll stick to the apple store
HAHAHA!
Is that Dell’s response to the iMac? $3500? Wow!!! Worse than all those all-in-ones Gateway ever developed.
More proof that Dell is a sinking ship.
Anyone notice how Dell now has Dell MediaDirectTM a clear copy of Front Row ? http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m2010?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
on their ugly ride-on mower computer copy of the sleek imac.
Nod to macromancer for link
Try searching for laptop or notebook in the computer category. You’ll find no Apple products except a power adapter.
Now you know, if you already did not, why Apple is building more Apple Stores.
What really cheeses me off is the number of time you see adverts for a particular add-on with a USB connector that is plugged in to a Mac – because it looks cool. but when you read the small-print it requires Windows XP.
( note: I obviously don’t have an intel chip Mac)
Does the ‘N’ in MDN stand for ‘Nazis’? Just curious.
Has anyone else looked at BestBuy’s larger image of the MacBook Pro? It seriously looks like it’s running MacOS X 10.2. It’s definitely not 10.4 or even 10.3. You can tell by the style of the Window widgets in iTunes and the look of some of the icons in the dock.
I’m not quite sure how they pulled that one off since no version of MacOS earlier than Tiger can run on one of those things.
Photo doctoring, anyone?
Best Buy is not using the same ‘generic’ photo in their adds ONLY for mac laptops, they are doing the exact same thing for the PeeCee manufacturers laptops they sell as well.
Every model of the Gateway laptops they sell uses identical photo’s regardless of the actual computer being sold. Same for the others.
BB just see’s themselves as carriers of boxes and view their customers as being too stupid to be able to tell the difference from one model to another…. so why go to the trouble of changing the pics?
Buy from an Apple Store.
MDN MW = “Play”… what BB employees do with themselves?
Yes the ad’s photo is doctored. They needed to get a Best Buy webpage on the screen. They are also using Internet Explorer for Mac. But with no Dashboard icon and no Spotlight icon in the top right, this is not a screen shot from 10.4.
I went into a Best Buy in Canada right around Christmas, looking for an external HD. Finally cornered one of the employees and asked where the external FireWire drives were. “oh, we just have USB drives. FireWire is more of a Mac thing.” I said “yeah? well, they’re a lot faster too.” Then I looked at their Mac section… pathetic. Their entire Mac display was no more than 10 feet by 2 and consisted of a Mac mini connected to a monitor, no keyboard, no mouse, so all you could do was evaluate the screen saver. There was a G5 iMac, but no one knew the password for it, so you couldn’t check it out and finally, there was a G5 Power Mac, but there was no monitor OR keyboard OR mouse connected to it, so you couldn’t do anything with any of the Apple products. I went home and typed a letter to Apple Canada complaining about Best Buy and their horrible display of Apple products. I got a phone call from Toronto 3 days later thanking me for my input and the next time I went to that best buy, more floor space was devoted to the Macs, they were all useable and people were checking them out, rather than dully walking by them in their normal stupor. They still had no FireWire drives, but hey, it was nice to see that someone from Apple must’ve chewed some dipshits ass good enough to get them to put at least SOME effort into setting up the equipment properly. It felt good doing a good thing…
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Oh My God! Best Buy is going to try and handle Apple hardware again?!
Back in the early 90’s when this was attempted it was a major disaster, IF for no other reason than, Best Buy employees would go out of their way to divert consumers to the myriad Windows boxes. And let me say that, having to bring “official” Apple reps. into a store to ensure that Apple products get a fair shake is, well, crazy – at least.