BBB contests Ultimate's lowest-price advertising

Ultimate Electronics is in trouble with the Better Business Bureau for claiming that its prices beat those found at Best Buy and Circuit City.

The Denver-based chain, with six Twin Cities-area stores, failed a comparison test with Best Buy, beating it on only three of seven television models priced, said Barb Grieman, vice president of the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota.

What riles Grieman just as much in the retailer's advertising is its assurance it does all the work for consumers: "We shop Best Buy and Circuit City every day for you so you know we have the lowest prices period," advertisements read.

"I think lots of times people, think, 'Good, we don't have to worry anymore,'" Grieman said.

The bureau has no regulatory authority to compel Ultimate Electronics to change its claims.

Its Denver affiliate found a similar problem there more than a year ago.

Ultimate Electronics defends its advertising. The nine-state chain checks competitors online every day, and drops its own prices if they're higher, said David Smith, senior vice president of marketing.

"We take this very seriously," Smith said. "We do everything we can do to make sure we're up to date."

The promise doesn't persuade Twin Cities retail consultant Stan Pohmer, who sides with the bureau, who said you can't tell customers you've freed them from comparison shopping, then tell them that a good deal in your store could depend on them doing precisely that, he said.

"You're still asking them to do all the work," Pohmer said. "It's wrong." Retailers know that these days, price is king.

"As discretionary income gets tighter, the focus on price is stronger than I've seen in 20 years," Pohmer said. "People are very definitely out there comparison shopping."

Minnesota's Better Business Bureau began noticing Ultimate Electronics' superlative advertising around Thanksgiving, Grieman said. It picked Super Bowl weekend -- when Americans buy a lot of TVs -- to send secret shoppers to an Ultimate Electronics and a Best Buy store. They looked at seven televisions, priced from $479.99 to $2,599.94, and Ultimate Electronics had the lowest price on only three.

Both agencies investigated the retailer's price claim because it violates the national BBB Code of Advertising, which objects to terms it argues advertisers often abuse to mislead consumers, such as "lowest price," "factory direct" and "liberal credit terms."

"Superlatives are the single greatest thing we challenge," Liehe said. Not long ago, for example, the staff challenged a workman's claim to be his city's "Favorite Deck Builder."

Who says so, her agency asked him, but his answer was not convincing: His mother.