What with Amazon and Google Shopping Express winning the world's laziest misanthropes' affections, other companies are left doing everything they can to stay in the fight. In Best Buy's case, that means offering free shipping on major appliances—and (apparently) praying that folks don't realize the $30 required cord ships for more than double that.
Discovered by a reader over at The Consumerist, this tricky little bit of fine print is either a pretty sketchy deliberate move or an egregious oversight on the part of Best Buy. Either way, it really takes some of the fun out of free delivery. As the reader's email points out:
Turns out, that free delivery only applies to the dryer itself. They charge you $69.99 to deliver the power cord along with the dryer. Dryers don't come with power cords. They must be purchased separately because there are two types.
We spoke to a Best Buy customer service representative over the phone who was able to confirm that the $70 shipping fee on the $30 cord was, in fact, legit. And while customer service reps aren't always completely clued in, but it seems that Best Buy has a standard shipping fee for any appliance-related products that don't hit the $399 minimum to qualify for free shipping—that is, $399 per product, not total. So any (in this case necessary) add-ons will seriously cut into the freeness of that shipping.
So whether that questionable fee is actively malicious or not, it turns "free" into something that's anything but. [The Consumerist]