The problem was you went into Best Buy not knowing what to buy. You always have to scope out everything on the internet first and find the model you want. Being electronics blind or by brand is the way to get screwed, no matter the store. Once you know what you want, Best Buy rules. Not only will they Pricematch Amazon/Tiger/Newegg without fighting (thereby beating almost any other brick a mortar price) but then you can get Best Buy rewards on top.
The REAL way to get the most value out of Best Buy is find what you want before you go and buy it through Ebay via their webstore there. Almost every product in their store is on ebay, and most even let you pick up locally. That way you get Ebay Bucks from the deal (multi-X if you buy when that promotion is running) plus you can call Best Buy and make them add the purchase to your reward account afterwards to double dip. Hell I have used a Paypal coupon on top to triple dip. The trick is you can't pricematch ebay, but on for-sale items often they will already match Amazon. That is when you swoop in for the kill and when things are on normal sale you can make it your personal Black Friday sale.
Heck I could write a book on screwing Best Buy. You want the small item on Black Friday everyone lines up for? Don't wake up early and be a rube, go the day before, find that item, and hide it somewhere in the store behind another product. When you go on Black Friday it will be there, for the sale price. You want to max out rewards? Just make sure everyone in your family puts your rewards in when they go. Sell them on the benefit they get (extra return time once you go elite) and rack up your points. I push my Best Buy number on my family like its freaking Amway. Oh and be sure to review things they bought on the website, Best Buy will give you a ton of reward points for crappy reviews. They don't have near the standards Amazon has. Oh and make SURE you when do a phone trade-in deal you do it at Best Buy. They give rewards members EXTRA trade in money almost every time, and they are lazier than the carriers when qualifying trades. For the Note 4 I bought a Windows Phone from them the week before for $30, and then the next week traded it in for $250 towards the Note 4. That particular Windows Phone was a model that wouldn't qualify for that promotion anywhere else, but since Windows Phone is like alien technology to them (again they sell that model) they just took it. End result is $220 off a Note 4 day one, you can't beat that kind of value in the entire technology sector.
Is what I am advising "good" for Best Buy? No, "Elite" scamsters like me rip out their margin out and force them that much closer to a Circuit City existence. But this is a me-first world and Best Buy is gonna die eventually anyway, might was well suck the blood while you can. I have actually shifted my few margin heavy electronics buys (aka the smal items I don't force a pricematch) to Frys to help keep them around because they need nerd traffic. Best Buy balances a me on the books by squeezing clueless printer buyer, so just do your best to not be one of those. ESPECIALLY around back to school, unless you know what you are doing you are asking to be their financial windfall.
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