In the lead up to iPhone X preorders today you may have noticed that Best Buy’s website was showing the full price cost of both iPhone X models $100 above the retail price. I also noticed it last week and figured it was just a mistake that would be corrected sooner or later. As it happens, Best Buy is doing this intentionally, and provided a preposterous statement to Bloomberg.
It’s well known that the iPhone X is priced at $999 for the 64GB model and $1149 for the 256GB model. Whether you chop that cost up in an installment plan or pay outright, that’s the price from Apple and all other retailers…except for Best Buy, which is charging customers an extra $100 for outright purchases.
Here’s the absurd statement that Bloomberg obtained that sounds like it’s pulled from a satirical post by The Onion.
“Our prices reflect the fact that no matter a customer’s desired plan or carrier, or whether a customer is on a business or personal plan, they are able to get a phone the way they want at Best Buy,” Danielle Schumann, a company spokeswoman, said in an email. “Our customers have told us they want this flexibility and sometimes that has a cost.”
While most consumers likely will opt for an installment plan, which don’t include the $100 Best Buy fine, there will undoubtedly be unknowing consumers who will overpay for the iPhone X.
It’s difficult to imagine how the option to buy an iPhone outright “has a cost”, but the Best Buy spokesperson could be referring to possible kickbacks the retailer will miss out on when customers don’t opt for installment plans.
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