Best Buy Extorts Would-Be iPad 2 Owner Into Buying Rip-Off Protection Plan

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Best-Buy-iPad

Best Buy hasn’t exactly been playing fair cricket when it comes to distributing iPad 2s to customers. First, Best Buy admitted they were holding back iPad 2s, supposedly for an “upcoming promotion” but rumored to actually be to manipulate their sales quota numbers. Strike one.

Now we’ve got strike two. A reader writing to Crunchgear says a Best Buy manager effectively blackmailed him into buying a $109 rip-off Best Buy protection plan before he would sell him an iPad 2.

The justifiably outraged Best Buy customer wrote:

I was at Best But yesterday while my girlfriend was buying a new pc and asked if they had any iPad 2 in stock and I was told no. As I strolled around I looked up and noticed at least 40
In an overhead lock up area so I inquired about them. I was told by an associate that they were all sold. Two minutes later a manager walks over and says the only way I could have one is if I puchased a 109 dollar Best Buy protection plan.

I said that doesn’t seem right. He then told to try and find one somewhere else they can do what they want.

To be fair, another Best Buy manager confirmed that this was not official Best Buy policy. At the end of the day, this seems like a pretty clear case of a rogue Best Buy manager trying to manipulate his store’s numbers. Even so, though, how long is Apple going to let these bozos extort and disappoint would-be iPad 2 owners?

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