About a week ago, Best Buy announced that as of March 3, it will make permanent the price matching policy that it introduced last fall for the holiday shopping season.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Online or In Store: Find a Lower Price and We’ll Match It

If you find a lower price on a qualifying product at a local retail competitor’s store or a designated major online retailer, we will match the price.

At the time of purchase, we will match the current pre-tax price for new, identical, immediately available products from a local retail competitor’s store and these designated major online retailers: Amazon.com, Apple.com, Bhphotovideo.com, Buy.com, Crutchfield.com, Dell.com, Frys.com, hhgregg.com, HP.com, HomeDepot.com, Lowes.com, Newegg.com, OfficeDepot.com, OfficeMax.com, Sears.com, Staples.com, Target.com, TigerDirect.com and Walmart.com. We will match prices between our stores and BestBuy.com ®. We will also match prices post purchase if we lower our price within 15 days of your purchase.

The Guarantee is limited to one price match per identical item, per guest and does not apply to: Contract mobile phone devices and plans, the online prices of retailers not listed, the online prices of third party vendors (Marketplace vendors) on designated major online retailers websites, post purchase price match requests to competitor’s prices,

Best Buy for Business™, offers that include financing, gift card offers, bundling of items, free items, pricing errors, mail-in offers, coupon offers, competitors’ service prices, items that are advertised as limited-quantity, out of stock, open-box, clearance, refurbished/used items, our and our competitor’s Deal of the Day, daily deals, special hour sale event items and credit card offers, BestBuy.com Clearance & More and Marketplace items, and items for sale Thanksgiving Day through the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The new policy unfortunately continues to exclude some of the best sales (limited quantity, “deal of the day,” etc.) and best sale days (Black Friday through CyberMonday), and limits online price matches to 19 specific stores only. That is better than most stores which don’t match any Internet prices. And, now Best Buy will also match prices for accessories which were excluded previously.

Another change that does not benefit the customer is making the low price guarantee primarily a “before purchase” price match plan. In other words, while they would previously match prices either before or after the sale, now they will only match competitors’ prices at the time of your purchase. After the sale, they will only give you back the difference if Best Buy itself lowers the price, but only within 15 days of purchase.

Why for only 15 days? Because that is the little surprise that wasn’t disclosed in Best Buy’s press release.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Effective March 3, Best Buy’s return policy is being reduced from 30 days to just 15 days for most customers.

Mouse Print* asked Best Buy’s PR department why they were reducing the return period to just 15 days when most competitors’ policies are longer than that, and whether they thought that offering a price guarantee was a fair trade for cutting the number of return days.

“Overall, our updated return and exchange policy is still generous. Best Buy does not charge restocking fees, regardless of the item. Two of our major competitors charge 15 percent restocking fees on all or some consumer electronics products. We expect the impact to our customers to be minimal. The vast majority of our customers already make returns within 15 days of the purchase. In addition, customers have told us that price is more important that return and exchange period.” –Best Buy External Affairs

Just imagine the shocked look on customers’ faces when they try to return a purchase to Best Buy between day 16 and day 30.

Just a year ago, J.C. Penney’s new CEO, Ron Johnson, promised to do away with that chain’s use of phony sales and “fake prices.” Finally, an honest merchant. What integrity. How pro-consumer. His reward: consumers left in droves and sales plummeted.

Now one year later, guess what’s coming back? Although not to the same degree, the chain is re-introducing sales, and has begun making price comparisons again to prices it never charged.

Here is a sample item from their website:

This shirt is being offered at its regular price of $25, but just above it is a $34 price crossed out, described as “$34 elsewhere.” Well guess what, this shirt is NOT $34 elsewhere because this is JCP’s own brand and it is not sold elsewhere. So what does “elsewhere” mean?

*MOUSE PRINT:

JCP says it means the price for the same item or a comparable item at some other seller. To the average person, “elsewhere” in this context most likely is understood to mean that that item sells elsewhere for such and such a price. If JCP wants to refer to the price of a similar quality item elsewhere, they should use the more commonly understood term for that — “comparable value” or “compare at” — as you might see at TJ Maxx and Marshall’s.

Now, moving over to JCP’s jewelry department, if you are shopping there for Valentine’s Day, heaven help you, because they have a new type of price comparison for jewelry — “appraised value.” The lengthy definition is above.

It is unfortunate that JCP has taken a step backwards to once again make price comparisons to inflated prices it never charged, but we, as consumers, are really to blame. We just love a bargain, even when it is a phony one.

In October, a new wireless Internet service popped onto the scene, promising up to 500 megabytes of free 4G data each month, and even a free modem to pull down their service if you paid a fully refundable security deposit of $49 – $89. (See c|net story.)

Two months later, the Internet is buzzing with a variety of troubling complaints.

1. Some users are saying that the company is rounding up data usage to the nearest whole megabyte, when the terms and conditions state they will round up to only the nearest tenth. This might greatly increase usage for checking email every 10 minutes, for example, and could result in overage charges.

*MOUSE PRINT:

“At the end of each broadband session we will calculate your broadband data usage rounded up to the nearest 0.1 megabyte. “

The company denies that it is rounding up data usage. However, their spokesperson admitted to Mouse Print*, “We round on site for display purposes.” After suggesting to the company that this practice could very easily give their customers the impression they are being overcharged, the spokesperson conceded, “that could result in perception we’re overcharging so I’ve raised expanding out a couple decimal places for greater accuracy.”

2. The “fully refundable security deposit” may not be fully refundable. According to some complaints, the company keeps changing its terms and conditions.

The August 2012 terms which were in effect when many people signed up in early October stated:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Brief translation: they will refund your money within 90 days after returning the equipment, but they will subtract any money you owe above the free data allowance. They also say if you breach their agreement, they owe you nothing.

Complainants say the company changed the agreement [which the company grants itself the right to do], now imposing a variety of additional conditions and limitations on the “full refund.”

*MOUSE PRINT:

“LEASED EQUIPMENT

From time-to-time, FreedomPop may permit you to lease Equipment from FreedomPop instead of purchasing it. In such case, we may require you to pay a deposit when you place your order for leased Equipment. If we collect a deposit from you and you terminate your subscription to the Broadband Service (or we terminate your subscription other than for your breach of these Terms), we will refund the deposit (less any amounts that you owe to us) to your registered payment method within 90 days after the date on which you return the Equipment to us, on condition that: (a) FreedomPop is still actively providing the same Equipment to users of the Broadband Service; (b) you (or we) terminate your subscription to the Broadband Service within 1 year of the start date of your subscription; and (c) you return all Equipment to us (at your expense) within 30 days of the date on which either: (i) you notify us that you wish to terminate your subscription to the Broadband Service; or (ii) we notify you that we are terminating your subscription to the Broadband Service. For the avoidance of doubt, if we terminate your subscription to the Broadband Service as a result of your breach of these Terms, including without limitation, your use of the Site or Services in a manner not permitted by these Terms, in which case you will, to the extent permitted by applicable law, be deemed to have forfeited your deposit. When returning your Equipment and as a condition of receiving any deposit refund to which you are entitled, you must follow the Equipment Return Procedures below.

To the extent you are entitled to a refund of your deposit, we will deduct from your deposit refund all amounts owed and unpaid for any Services and for any Equipment you return that is damaged due to neglect, misuse, liquid damage or non-standard wear and tear. You will not receive a refund of your deposit if you do not meet all the refund conditions specified in the previous paragraph. Shipping and handling charges are not refundable. Restocking fees may apply. Any amounts withheld by us from your deposit become the property of FreedomPop to use as it wishes. If applicable law requires us to handle deposits, or any other matter relating to Equipment, differently than described in these Terms, we will adjust our procedures accordingly to ensure that we comply with applicable law.” — Nov. 13, 2012 terms [highlighting added]

In short, now they say they will only refund your security deposit within one year and only if they are still issuing the same equipment. They also added a restocking fee.

FreedomPop’s spokesperson defended the company’s actions:

“we do not “continually” update the T&C’s but have updated them two times since launch. … deposits cause a ballooning liability that could bankrupt [the]company … 2, 3 or 10 years from now we can’t get inundated with millions of dollars of refunds and more importantly we don’t carry some $10 million liability on books forever … [with respect to adding a restocking fee:] we have real costs associated with returns from our logistics partner – we can’t eat those.”

The company also said that it is applying the changes only to customers who signed up after the changes were implemented. However, some complaints seem to suggest that the restocking fee was being applied to them despite signing up early for the devices.

3. Some consumers say they decided to contact their credit card company and dispute the equipment deposit because they were having difficulty getting a refund.

FreedomPop, in its latest terms statement (as well as the original) addresses how and where disputes must be filed:

*MOUSE PRINT:

DISPUTED CHARGES

If you think that there has been an error in any charge associated with your FreedomPop Account, you must notify us within 30 days after the date on which the disputed amount has been charged to the your registered payment method. You must submit your payment dispute notification through our online Support feature and one of our advisors will investigate your claim. If you do not notify us within 30 days, and unless otherwise provided by applicable law, you hereby waive any right to dispute the charge in the future, including in arbitration or a court proceeding. If we determine in our sole discretion that the disputed charge was incorrectly charged and was raised by you in a timely manner, we will credit or refund the amount to you. If we credit or refund the disputed charge, you hereby agree that to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the dispute is fully and finally resolved and not subject to further proceedings.

CREDIT CARD CHARGEBACKS

If we have charged your registered payment method for a charge that we deem is authorized and valid under these Terms, and your credit card company or other payment provider subsequently withholds or revokes such payment to us because the charge has been disputed by you (a “Chargeback”), we reserve the right to suspend your access to the affected Services until the Chargeback is reversed or in the case of a billing dispute, the billing dispute is resolved as set forth in these Terms.

Brief translation: Customers have to file all disputes with the company within 30 days, or lose any other dispute rights, including even arbitration. And if you file a credit card dispute, the company reserves the right to turn off your service. Ho, ho, ho.

Some people have been very happy with the service, while some other complaints are surfacing. Amongst the not very happy customers are some who pre-ordered a FreedomPop sleeve for their iPhone last April, but still have not received it. On the other hand, some people report that other types of modems are being delivered by FEDEX within a day or two.

For an inside look at the good and bad, read the comments posted on the company’s Facebook page, and the nearly 100 pages of posts in Slickdeals.

Just about a year ago, we wrote about Save-a-Lot, a limited assortment grocery chain, that was promoting their Facebook page. They promised to give shoppers a $5 coupon to use at their supermarket if you “liked” them. See our story, “Save-a-Lot’s Deceptive Facebook Promotion.”

Only after you “liked” them, did they disclose that the coupon was really buy $25 worth of groceries, and get $5 off.

So, we pointed out this omission to them, and after a little pestering, they quickly updated the promotion to clearly disclose that this was a $5 off a $25 purchase coupon.

Fast forward to November 2012. On the homepage of Save-a-Lot, they were giving thanks to their shoppers saying “To give thanks and help you enjoy this season with your family, we are giving you a $5 coupon.”

When you click on that ad, you are taken to the company’s Facebook page, where the promotion is shown again:

And when you “like” their Facebook page, you discover this:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Yep, same old thing… you have to buy $25 worth of groceries in order to save the $5.

How could a company that was called on the carpet just a year ago for the very same deceptive practice not learn how to tell their customers the truth upfront about their $5 off coupons? We immediately notified the company of the recurring problem, but heard nothing. About a week later, we contacted them again, and were informed that they changed their ad right after receiving the first email:

When we replied to the company with the hope that they do it correctly and legally next year, their PR person replied:

“Legally the information is posted on the offer once the click through is made and the offer itself is not misleading. However, we understand your concern for it on the banner, as our desire is never to intentionally confuse our customers.” — Save-a-Lot Spokesperson

It is amazing to me that companies believe because they disclose a key fact or limitation SOMEWHERE that that is sufficient and legal notice to the consumer.

Lowe’s just sent out an email to shoppers on its mailing list inviting them to participate in its “Black Friday Showdown.” Doing so will give you an opportunity to preview 16 Black Friday specials and win them if you “like” Lowe’s on Facebook.

Sure, why not, thought MrConsumer.

Upon reaching their Facebook page, you discover that not only does Lowe’s want a “like” in exchange for your chance at winning all those prizes, they also want to install a Facebook app that will let them post messages as if they were you on Facebook.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Excuse me? You want me to allow you to probably send advertisements about Lowe’s to my friends but make it seem like I wrote those messages? I don’t think so. You can keep your 16 prizes.

On closer scrutiny of their Facebook page, however, there is a way to have your cake and eat it too.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Many people may have overlooked it, as did MrConsumer, but there is an option to control to whom the Lowe’s app would send their advertisements. As shown above, it defaults to sending those incognito ads to all your friends. However, you can change the setting so that Lowe’s only sends them to just you.

Mouse Print* asked Lowe’s to comment on their use of this questionable means of advertising, and here their response:

Lowe’s is not posting on behalf of the user without the user taking action and opting to share information. If a customer chooses to not share, then the app will not post any information on behalf of the customer. It is completely user initiated.

Lowe’s Facebook app and its ability to communicate is done in the same format as many other apps like it and is compliant within Facebook’s terms and services. The app notifies a user before they install it that it will post on content. However, it is important to note that the customer at that point has the ability to adjust who within their network will see the post. For example, it can be adjusted by the consumer so that no one can see any posts from this app should they choose. Again – this is standard protocol used by many brands.

To be clear, the only time the app actually does post is when the user chooses to ‘share’ their winning product on their Facebook wall. It will not post automatically. — Public Relations Manager, Lowe’s

This type of advertising just seems like it is overreaching.

In fact, similar invasions are becoming commonplace not just on Facebook, but when you download free apps to your smartphone. See Exposing Your Personal Informatio​n – There’s An App for That .