Thanks for the tip. Here is my story:
It seems that this is an in-store only special, but not available at all stores. I went to my local OD and asked the guy if the had the memory/software combo as I did not see it in the case. In fact, they did have it, but I was looking for something larger given the software, but it is an OEM disc inside a fairly small box that looked like it contained just memory so I didn't see it.
I wanted to confirm the price, and he told me it was $99.99 less a $15 MIR. I told him that I had seen it listed for less online, and he offered to go to the OD site to check the price. I explained I had seen a link to the deal elsewhere, and he asked if it was at anandtech. I confessed that it was, and he went to anandtech and then got called away from another customer and asked me to find the deal. I found the post, went to OD and they had cookied the computer for their store, which listed NO IN STORE SPECIALS. I quick search for specials at other "nearby" stores (OK, it was across the country) found that this special was in all the CA stores. The fellow came back, saw the post and the window I had at OD's site listing the special and noted it was at another location, but said that "If we match other store prices, we'll have to match ours too." I was in business.
I went to checkout and grabbed a cheap item to get me over the $50 minimum for the $15 off coupon, and handed the cashier the memory, printout and clearance item. She asked the store manager to look at it, and he was quite confused. He finally got the tech guy to come down and explain it, and rang the memory up, but at $64.99 . When I pointed out one rebate was instant and the price was $49.99 another round of calls, SKU checking and general frustration ensued. Finally, the price was right at $49.99, but the entire other transaction was so confused he zeroed it out to start again. At that point, the casher rang it up, totaled it, but didn't mark down the clearance stuff, so it had to get rung again. While earlier I had given up hope of using the coupon, it was now 20 minutes later and the manager couldn't stop apologizing, gave me his card if I needed his help in the future, etc., so I decided to try the coupon (it was scanned and linked at FW but the UPC was removed by whoever scanned it) and the manager took the coupon without complaint.
The rebate printed out of the register, and I've now got another stick of cheap memory to put in the SV24 that I put together last night.
My suggestion is that you check online to see if the special is runnig at your store . . .if it is not, make a printout from a location where it is on sale (west coast seems good) and bring it with you and be prepared for the confusionl. I've learned that being good natured, friendly and apologizing for the confusion your coupons, pricematches, etc. goes much farther than trying to argue about it, and this is a case in point.
Thanks and good luck.
HC
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