Best Buy tries to add hidden subscriptions

⚠️ Article status notice: This article has been marked as incomplete

This article needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues.

This notice will be removed once sufficient documentation has been added to establish the systemic nature of these issues. Once you believe the article is ready to have its notice removed, visit the discord and post to the #appeals channel.

Learn more ▼

This Article Requires Additional Verification

---

This article has been flagged due to verification concerns. While the topic might have merit, the claims presented lack citations that live up to our standards, or rely on sources that are questionable or unverifiable by our standards. Articles must meet the Moderator Guidelines and Mission statement; factual accuracy and systemic relevance are required for inclusion here!

Why This Article Is In Question

---

Articles in this wiki are required to:

• Provide verifiable & credible evidence to substantiate claims.
• Avoid relying on anecdotal, unsourced, or suspicious citations that lack legitimacy.
• Make sure that all claims are backed by reliable documentation or reporting from reputable sources.

Examples of issues that trigger this notice:

• A topic that heavily relies on forum posts, personal blogs, or other unverifiable sources.
• Unsupported claims with no evidence or citations to back them up.
• Citations to disreputable sources, like non-expert blogs or sites known for spreading misinformation.

How You Can Improve This Article

---

To address verification concerns:

• Replace or supplement weak citations with credible, verifiable sources.
• Make sure that claims are backed by reputable reporting or independent documentation.
• Provide additional evidence to demonstrate systemic relevance and factual accuracy. For example:
  • Avoid: Claims based entirely on personal anecdotes or hearsay without supporting documentation.
  • Include: Corporate policies, internal communications, receipts, repair logs, verifiable video evidence, or credible investigative reports.

If you believe this notice has been placed in error, or once the article has been updated to address these concerns, please visit the #appeals channel on our Discord server: Join here.

Best Buy is trying to add hidden subscriptions to purchases, when explicitly declined AND manipulates inventory stock in order to force one to buy a different, more expensive product. Best Buy sales agents also intentionally manipulating the inventory availability in order to sell more expensive products to the customer.

A simple internet search would indicate that such behavior has been happening since an early 2020 and is true in several capacities.To understand better what is happening, the author of this article personally has been a victim of such behavior, hence the research and the time has been allocated to investigate such behavior further, provide proof with screenshots and transcript of conversation with an agent.

On 09 FEB 2025, one unsuspecting customer decided to purchase a laptop. Best Buy being the big player in electronics resell community was the obvious choice to find the deal. The customer has identified a laptop, which suited his needs, specifically the ROG Zephyrus G16 OLED. The chat was initiated with the agent in order to purchase and ship an open box of the aforementioned model. The promotional deal running on the Best Buy's website allowed the laptop to be purchased for $2,200 before tax; however an open box price was $2,075. The agent has been advised that the customer would like to ship this open box product and also inquired about the military discounts (if possible).

Consumer impact summary

$2

• Best Buy is subscribing customers to yearly subscription WITHOUT CONSENT
• Best Buy does not take customer's rejection
• Additional fees for unsuspecting and/or trusting customers
• Credit implications if the subscription is not canceled
• Predatory business model
• Intentional product inventory manipulation to up-sell
• Dishonest behavior

Incidents

If the company page is short enough and/or the incident is not deserving of it own page, add incidents below in sub-sections (including the points outlined in Consumer_Action_Taskforce:Sample/Incident/Help) and delete the list after this box.

If the company has various incidents listed and/or this page is getting too long, do not add sub-sections, and instead complete the list after this box.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

This is a list of all consumer protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Best Buy tries to add hidden subscriptions category.

• Example incident one (date): Short summary of the incident (could be the same as the summary preceding the article).
• Example incident two (date):

Products

This is a list of the company's product lines with articles on this wiki.

• Example product line one (release date): Short summary of the product's incidents.
• Example product line two (release date):

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

See also

Link to relevant theme articles or companies with similar incidents.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.