$30 BestBuy coupon for Geforce mistake

[Scootin159]

<< flame me all you want but..

I was thinking, and technically shouldn't we all get something for $30 and do the instore pickup deal the last day the coupon stands. then go back and return it to BB for cash back or store credit. come back march 4th when the GF4 Ti4600 is on shelves with our online receipts printed out, (you did save copies/screenshots didnt you?). tell CS that it was a special preorder price, with enough charm and the right attitude they might give you it for $130, thats when you whip out that $30, bam! $100. in your face best buy! >>



lol. Not bad idea...basically what I was going to do, but maybe with a little more 'charm', and less "IN YOUR FACE" .

 

[Lmandrake]

<< TOS are not legal and binding, state law overrides that $hit >>



All terms of sale are invalid in all 50 states all the time? I don't think so...



<< as for the money - they DID secure the funds and hold on to it for 5 days or more AFTER having issued cancellation notices (curious: What's the interest on a quarter million dollars for 5 days...j/k, kind of...). Tying up those funds suffices as accepting payment, so they did agree to the purchase - regardless of how bad their order system sucks. >>



They secured nothing.. Credit card accounts were "reserved" for the purchase amount to be calculated against credit limits in the event the sale was completed....



<< Reneging on that transaction would count as a bait and switch. >>



No. Where is the switch? Offering the item at the MSRP is not a switch, particularly where the item is new and in high demand and is first quality....

 

[rickn]

<< Dear Best Buy Customer,

Thank you for your recent graphics card order.
A recent systems error on our web site allowed you to
purchase the VisionTek GeForce4 Ti 4600 Graphics Card at $129.99. The actual
price for this item is $399.99. Due to the nature of this error, we have
canceled your order for this item. We apologize for any disappointment this
cancellation may cause.
We would like to inform you that the error has been fixed,
and if you are still interested in ordering this product, please visit >>



This could very well be interpreted by the courts as something to lure customers in at the low price, cancel their orders and then try and get them to re-order it at the higher price or to draw customers to their website. The facts are they had a link on their main page to the pre-order, it drew 1000's of ppl to their website, they then change it and cancel all orders, and tell customers they can buy it at a higher price. You are on very shakey legal grounds with that scenario.

I don't know about the charges, if the law differentiates between an "authorization" and an actual charge. Authorizations still remove that amount from your useable credit line or bank balances for those who used bank debit cards

 

[Roy2001]

We need a new thread how to spend the $30 GC.

 

[DaveNCheez]

If it was a B&M store, they would have to by law sell it for price on shelf. Trust me, I know I work at the damn place and managers have to write $ off of items all of the time due to old unchanged tags. My main question is that if this applies to the retail stores, why not the website?

Simply because hundreds (or thousands) saw it at the incorrect price, rather than just 1 or a few makes little difference.

Biggest argument would be that people called and verified, they confirmed the price. If this is the case, It couldnt just be a human error , or typo. That would be it was actually listed in BB's inventory system at the price. Also the verification calls notified them of the problem, if they simply ignored and never checked into it, its their loss. They had plenty of chances to verify the price, and therefore fix it, yet they didn't and because of it several hundred more orders went through.

Its their fault. If they verified the price, they are binded to the price as that would be a verbal contract between the company and the caller.

Dave

 

[johto]

<<

<< as for the money - they DID secure the funds and hold on to it for 5 days or more AFTER having issued cancellation notices (curious: What's the interest on a quarter million dollars for 5 days...j/k, kind of...). Tying up those funds suffices as accepting payment, so they did agree to the purchase - regardless of how bad their order system sucks. >>



They secured nothing.. Credit card accounts were "reserved" for the purchase amount to be calculated against credit limits in the event the sale was completed.... >>



Thank god someone understands!! It's called authorization - the company (BB) authorizes your card for the amount of the purchase. It just says 'hey, does this guy have the money, and if so, put aside this much for me"... then, later, usually after the product SHIPS, BB actually charges your card for that amount (and gets the money for the 1st time)

 

[MarkM]

Kudos to best buy for handling this with some class -- $30 gc is heads and shoulders above the joke 10% off dell gave us for the speaker typo a month back (gee, those 10% off adell deals are SO rare!)

Now if some people could just stop being such hard asses about all this and recognize that class. I think BestBuy has for years had a clause on their website allowing them to weasel out of deals based on typos. They didn't have to do ANYTHING, legally, but they did anyway.

IMO. Guess I'm just a chump, for being so reasonable in return. I mean, come on people, even before BestBuy figured it out WE ALL KNEW IT HAD TO BE A TYPO AND WERE POSTING THOSE THOUGHTS HERE. Let's show some class back to Best Buy, OK?

By the way, would anyone who swore they'd never do business with Best BUy again if they cancelled this, would they mind giving me their coupon since they clearly have no use for it? ta!

 

[SinnerWolf]

officially, best buy doesn't price match online vendors. and ironically enough this does include bestbuy.com as they are a seperate company from best buy b&m, especially when it comes to pre-orders as they do not regularly offer them in store. but depending on which csr/manager you get when you take your online purchase printout into store, it is possible to still get one for this price. But considering that the $129 price has nothing to do with besy buy b&m, lowest you could possibly get it for is $179 , as this is the lowest selling price for this card in the past 30 days on their internal database. Which leaves a one to two week window once the cards arrive to whine, bitch, moan, and/or complain your way into yet another card that will be obsolete in 4 months.

 

[neovan]

Thanks for the headsup!!!

That was nice of them!

 

[mingwong]

i got a coupon too! yay

 

[Mr. Pink]

Geez...did anyone actually thought this wasn't a price mistake in the first place? I mean, how many of you actually expected to receive the card anyway? ( I didn't..I wound up not ordering...D'oh!) Just enjoy your $30 GC since that is lot better than diddly squat that most places offer from their price mistake. Hey, $30 for just minute of your time is a great deal, imho.

 

[DorkBoy]

Got Mine

 

[Huggies]

Yeah quit being a greedy SOB and expecting them to honor the card for that price, companies don't make money that way, and yes some employee entering prices DID make that mistake it only reflects on him... Everyone who placed the order KNEW it had to be a pricing mistake and ordered anyway hoping to get the card KNOWING they wouldnt, take the $30 and run, BTW I'm paying $17.50 each for the coupon codes paypal =)

 

[ODYSSEY]

The $30 coupon sounds like it adds up to an former employee's pay. They are certainly stating 1,400 people ordered; that works out to be $42,000. Even if the number of people ordered was higher, all they have to do is fire two or three employees to cover the $30 coupon. I'm pretty sure a few people lost jobs over this.

ODYSSEY

 

[ScrapSilicon]

time for this to move to OT forum...

 

[geekender]

Wow, thanks. I actually posted it in OT first.

 

[mrwade]

How much can I get from Best Buy for the $675 61" TV I got in my cart that they refuse to deliver?? Should be worth at least 2 $30 coupons.

 

[Vette73]

Sorry but Bestbuy.com has NO PRICE GUARENTEE, and the BandM will only Price match if a local store has it and it is in stock and has the same UPC number with no rebates.

Sorry but the $30 joke they sent us to shut up will not bring anything to the level I can get it for at Newegg.com. Heck unless you buy their music or movies on special they are cheaper at Kmart or Amazon.

I can't be bought for $30 of nothing, BB needs to be a adult and complete the deal, period!!!

 

[aldamon]

Once you figure in tax and shipping, the amazing $30 coupon is worth $20 or less. Then, once you consider that you are buying things retail from an overpriced vendor, you'll realize that you've sold yourself for the cost of a DVD. w00t. I hope Harry Potter is worth it.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

You guys may really want to check out the last couple of pages over at the hardforums on this before you go and use those coupons. It's in the process of being confirmed there that BestBuy's wholesale cost of these GF4's are $99. If it turns out this is true, do you guys really want to just roll over if they would still make a profit by honoring the original orders?

 

[brab]

it is impossible that it costs them that much
and you know why?
just pure logic

nvidia is not gonna allow retail vendors to make 75% profit on each card
it's not like BB (or any other retailer for that matter) spent all that money on research and production and operations

you are equating this to the same idea that a car dealer pays $25,000 for a $100,000 mercedes and $75,000 goes to him instead of mercedes
does that make sense to you???

think with your brain

 

[aldamon]

<< it is impossible that it costs them that much
and you know why?
just pure logic >>



Why is it so damn hard to believe the $99 price? Regardless of its model number (4200/4400/4600), all of these NVIDIA GPUs come off the same assembly line. NVIDIA doesn't put in more effort to make a 4600! The price on the "4600" chip is artificially high because NVIDIA/VisionTek wants you to buy the 4400 (4200 later), which it can more easily sustain with high yields. Therefore, pricing the 4600 at a 400% markup benefits BOTH NVIDIA/VisionTek and BB: NVIDIA/VisionTek because they can more easily control which chip is mainstream and BB because it gets a 400% markup on a limited number of video cards, while making the lower-end cards "more attractive" and better sellers.

But what about the RAM you may ask? The recent price increase in the RAM industry is an artificial spike similar to what you see in the petroleum industry. You are crazy if you think that NVIDIA/VisionTek is getting hammered by these recent prices. Low-cost, BULK RAM pricing was secured for years long, long ago.

Take this post as you will. I am no economist, I just tell it like I see it. All of this discussion is moot though once the $99 cost is scanned and viewed by Steve at Hypothermia.

The proof of the $99 cost exists folks. You can either test your mettle or enjoy Harry Potter and a pack of CDRs. I think the choice is obvious.

 

[5to1baby1in5]

Never one to whine about a free $30 GC, but I will sit this one out for a while more just to see what happens.

 

[tazmania99]

"You bunches of losers! Eat the coupon and shaddup!"












Best Buy Senior Management

 

[aldamon]

Proof of the $99 cost for the GF4 has been posted here:

Click Here to see the scan

Go take a peek. Cost to BB is $99 while price is $399.