Is Best Buy Scamming Its Own Customers?

How many of you have seen great discounts on store websites only to find when you got to the store that discount wasn't good? It's happened to me, and according to this article, Best Buy may have actually set up a website for use in the stores that mirrors its public site...with the exception of not having the same discount prices (h/t Glenn):

Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com. . . .

Based on what his office has learned, Blumenthal said, it appears the consumer has the burden of informing Best Buy sales people of the cheaper price listed on its Internet site, which he said "is troubling."

What is more troubling to me, and to some Best Buy customers, is that even when one informs a salesperson of the Internet price, customers have been shown the intranet site, which looks identical to the Internet site, but does not always show the lowest price.

Blumenthal said that because of the fuzzy responses from Best Buy, he has yet to figure out the real motivation behind the intranet site and whether sales people are encouraged to use it to cheat customers.

If salesmen have been trained to use this mirrored site to deny discounts to customers, I predict the mother of all class action lawsuits will be heading Best Buy's way real soon.