Semi-ot: Did you get your GF3 from BB? What was it like?

[IndyJaws]

It appears the vid card is not available on the website any longer. Surprised it lasted as long as it did!

 

[frazzled]

Managed to score one at the new Best Buy in Yonkers NY this AM.

Got there at 5:45 AM, I was 6th in line and headed straight for the cards. There were only *two* on the shelf and it was quite the dodge since all of the Xtasy cards were marked 99.00......you had to look very carefully to get the right one.

I was a little nervous since the shrink wrap was a bit loose (better not be a re-wrapped non-functioning return!!!), but a large crowd of guys was heading down the aisle towards the cards so I grabbed one of the two and took off.

It's for my boy so I feel like SuperMom this AM!

fraz

 

[Joony]

maybe 200 people at my store...people rushed to the computer section to get the burner, HD, and GF3

 

[digme]

For those of you who were in front of the line, what time did you get there?

i wasn't at the front of the store(arrived there 6:00AM and there were 30-50ppl in front)...

the guy who was at the front was there @3:45Am... i asked him...

 

[Burnt]

I got there at 6am, and there was easily 100 people in line already. Stupid philadelphia...heh

 

[cejay]

Anybody goto the Cobb Pkwy Marietta, Ga. location? I got there at 530 and was about 30th in line..
and the line at 7 was 400-500 people, and lots of people just got there at 10 till 7 and rushed the front door..

The BB didnt have any GF3'S to start with.. I was about the 1st one to the video card aisle..
luckily I had my receipt from the GF3 I purchased a few days ago..
They didnt want to pricematch it.. (said no pricematch on the fri/sat sale)..i said thats a load of crap..
and walked away to get a store manager.. he approved it.
They returned the unit.. then re-rang me and then the rebate slip printed out.
I grabbed a 60gig drive off the shelf.. and bought it at the cust service counter too
(no waiting in line for me!).. got IN and out in about 5 minutes..
(I was all set to FREAK out on someone IF they didnt let me pricematch the GF3)
cj

 

[paig2956]

** WORD OF WARNING ** I just talked to a CSR at the Best Buy 1-800 rebate number, and he said it will only work on a return and a rebuy, not a pricematch. This is because the pricematch rebate states the original purchase date across the top. I would not count on the $50 rebate, without a return and rebuy...

 

[Zedtom]

I got to the Aurora, CO store at 6:40 am. There were about 250 in line in front of me, so I wasn't optimistic. They started letting people in about 6:55, and I got in at 7:05. They were distributing all of the computer items at a table near the front door. I got in line, and I got my Xtasy 6564 card within five minutes. BUT WAIT! I already bought my card Tuesday, and I had a receipt in my pocket. So i went over to the customer service counter, stood in line for about ten seconds, and ta-da, got my price adjustment and rebate form with no hassle at all. I then went back to the video card aisle, stood around for a few minutes and observed the long line to get computer sale items. I struck up a conversation with a complete stranger who was trying to locate the GF3 boxes. I told him that you had to stand in the line, and they might be sold out. When he told me he was overclocking his Athlon, I said take this box! Good luck to you guys tomorrow morning if you got shut out today.

 

[Ionizer]

BEST BUY IS SUCK! (the new store in Monmouth County, NJ)
...and ill tell you why

Sure I went ahead and bought the video card on monday and the price fixing went fine. BUT LET ME Tell you a story about the hard drives.

I was like 78th on line at around 6:15am, we all rushed to the hard drives and there was NONE. The first person online didn't get one, they had not put any out. So we all start asking "where are the hard drives" meanwhile we all grab the 7200rpm thinking maybe they will give it to us since they are not meeting their minimum of 15 per store. Then someone says they are going to the back to check, so we all kinda follow him towards the warehouse opening. After much waiting, we get some bullSh.. that they had already given out the 15-20 they had and there was no more. We start saying that's BS b/c this guy was first in line and there was none when he got here. Turns out they apparently did give them out, but in some other area, and it's total bull--- b/c people who may have entered the store later got them by being lucky.

The manager was a total d|ck and wouldn't do anything to help out the customers. Best buy is suck. If you're going to have a deal where you know people are going to be mobbing the store for it, then be prepared and set up properly for it.

Now I've completely wasted a day off that I could have been sleeping.

 

[webley]

paig2956, About your post:

** WORD OF WARNING ** I just talked to a CSR at the Best Buy 1-800 rebate number, and he said it will only work on a return and a rebuy, not a pricematch. This is because the pricematch rebate states the original purchase date across the top. I would not count on the $50 rebate, without a return and rebuy...

Was that for the GF3 card? Did you return/rebuy and is there a best way to go about the return/rebuy? Thanks for calling them, that's good to know.

 

[paig2956]

I bought the GeForce3 earlier this week, and got a pricematch today. However, the lady at the counter said, "I don't know if the rebate will work but I will print it out for you." I called the 1-800 number for the rebate, and at first the CSR is like "no problem"... but then he moves to, "let me check..." and then comes back and says that it has to be the original receipt. So I ask him, if I want to get the rebate, I have to go return it, then buy it back again? And he says, "yep, that would work." So, I am deciding when to go back again... (since all I have is the original receipt and a pricematch receipt with today's date, along with the original sale date)

 

[Clocker]

I work at Best Buy as a Comp Tech. And overall most of the deals posted at BB were not that great. Further I think people who actually go to the store to buy their stuff on Black friday are a bit asinine. Simply because Best Buy never has the minimun amount promised on the day of the Black Friday Sale.

It really bothers me when customers get screwed.

For example,

I WANTED THE PALM PILOT VX FOR 149.99. THEY HAD NONE IN INVENTORY SINCE THE PAST 3 DAYS BEFORE THE BIG SALE. THAT IS BS.

Therefore,
Always buy in advance and always depend on ananders to find the best deals.

Im not trying to flame anyone. But sharing my thoughts from a employees perspective.


Sincerely,
Clocker

 

[spinn]

wasn't lookin' for the card, but I was able to snag another HD. They actually had the HD behind the counter and people were scrambling to get one from the shipping boxes. I was up front, next in line, and had my hand out, and this kid steps up and gets one. I ended up taking it from his hands, cuz he knew I was there before him. Mission 1 accomplished. Time to format for my Showstopper.

I also got the Pacific Digital 16x10x40 (Lite-On) from Staples for $100. After $20 off and MIR, total= $36. Nothing else I really need. I'm happy.

 

[spinn]

Best Buy is suck??? LOL

Anyways, I feel for the people that may have had vouchers for the HD at the BB I went to. They handed out vouchers and you had to have that to buy certain items. Don't know if they handed them out for the HD, becuz I was too far back in line to get one. Luckily I was up front when they handed out the HD from behind the counter...

 

[Midnight Rambler]

<< t really bothers me when customers get screwed.

For example,

I WANTED THE PALM PILOT VX FOR 149.99. THEY HAD NONE IN INVENTORY SINCE THE PAST 3 DAYS BEFORE THE BIG SALE. THAT IS BS.

Therefore,
Always buy in advance and always depend on ananders to find the best deals.

Im not trying to flame anyone. But sharing my thoughts from a employees perspective. >>

If you're a BB employee, then the best thing to do is call BB corporate and tell them about what is happening with all the "buy aheads".

The lady I talked to was already well aware of the problem, she also said I was far from being the first to call today and complain about people buying sale items ahead of time and returning them later for the price credit. She also had the names/URLs of many of the sites where sale info can be found ahead of time. FW and AT (though she couldn't pronounce it right ... , among others.


People are more greedy today than ever before, they'll screw anybody for any reason they can. As such, it is now more than ever, BB's obligation to have those advertised items on-hand which list "at least xxx per store". A person could easily win a fraud suit against BB if they wanted to pursue it ...

 

[RISman]

In St. Louis, Best Buy shafted all the early birds and opened at 0600! Everyone planning on 7AM got F'd...

 

[Typhon]

Hmmm. I just got off the phone with a CSR at the BB rebate center and she said it would be no problem getting the rebates with the pricematch receipt as long as the date on it was within the offer period...

Called again and was told it would not work and I would need to return and rebuy. :|

 

[Blitzkrieg]

woke up at 5 this morning, drove an hour and waited in line an hour in a cold 10 degree wind. I was about 90th in line. Ran in to find an empty store shelf. Another guy who was close to first in line was also staring at the empty store shelf of no gf3s and a little later about 10 people. They never had them in stock for the morning even though later after talking to the assistant manager he claimed of having them. (lying out of his teeth) After waiting an half hour and hearing bs from employees i left. At home i called the manager and he also claimed to have them in stock when doors opened and said he had stock records to prove it. i asked him for sales receipts of the cards for the morning and he gave me the workaround. So here i am pissed off and then i see posts saying some of you are buying the cards ahead of time and getting the rebates honored today even though best buy isnt supposed to allow it from what i gathered from a manager. Well i would like to thank you for giving me a great shopping experience. do you guys have any ethics. this country was based on equal oppurtunity and some of you fu?ked us people that do have ethics. Boy that felt good.

 

[gimlids]

Sucked in Champaign IL, pop. 100,000, line wrapped around the building when I got there at 6:30. They began letting people in right when I got there too. The drives were gone, the cards were gone...they had the cards in customer service, but it would have taken half an hour to make the ten foot trip...I didn't see anything on the website, that would be great though, are they out or is there some trick to it?


Edit: they said they were behind the counter, from what I'm hearing they didn't have the drive or the card.

ugh...

 

[tazmania99]

<< do you guys have any ethics. this country was based on equal oppurtunity and some of you fu?ked us people that do have ethics. >>


Nothing offensive on my comment! But I do think you are the only ATer who does not know how to take advantages of being a member on this forum. We exchange valued information here. You should go blame BB but not us coz it is BB who allow the PM, return and rebuy, and honor the rebate. If you are an ATer but does not take the advantages of valued first-hand information here, then it is your problem. What's your point of being a member here? Many of us already suggested thousands of times that you should go get your stuff and then re-ring the receipt today. Equal oppurtunity? We ATers all had the equal oppurtunity to pre-purchase the stuff we want. You just didn't move your a$$ to get what you want. Or you don't claim you are an ATer?

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Taz:

You need to take your high-handed opinion and stuff it. It's not about being too lazy to buy ahead. While that is a questionable (morally) practice at best, you're still out of luck if your stores had none ahead of time. Greedy scammers combined with BB' failure to have their advertised min. quantities on hand makes this whole deal very bogus, not to mention fraudulent.

 

[HeavyB]

Heh, Zedtom, I think I have you to thank for getting my card. See my post in the long thread on this topic and I mention overhearing a guy telling another guy that the cards were behind that table on the right as you walked in the door. I got the last one! Thanks for helping-out, even though you didn't know it at the time.

HeavyB

 

[Cherub]

Best Buy and some dishonest AnandTechers really f*cked this one up.

I was about 15th in line, at 5:45 a.m. at an MA Best Buy. Nobody in front of me got a card, and there were none when I got inside the store at 7:00:30.

Two gripes:

1. Basically, these Hot Deals forums are about sharing difficult to find info on brief or un/barely advertised specials and sharing experiences attempting to get much better deals than stores anticipate (coupon, plus price match, plus rebate, etc.) But the buy-early-then-price-adjust-later routine is really just dishonest and is not what Hot Deals is about. People who do that are really cheating the system, as opposed to finding the best way to get deals. Why would I share a deal with people who are going to snatch it before it arrives?!

2. That being said, Best Buy really screwed up by not having reserved inventory to meet its 15 per store guarantee. My goodness, they had a whole day off to restock! After waiting over an hour at "customer service", the managers simply lied when asked about inventory, of course, so nothing could be done. BTW, it took me over an hour because there were literally DOZENS of people with *unopened* hardware in the return line to do price adjustments...

3.5 wasted hours...somebody owes me a GF3...

 

[LoStZ]

<<
3.5 wasted hours...somebody owes me a GF3...
>>



You can have my Voodoo3 if that's any consolation.

 

[manly]

<< Taz:

You need to take your high-handed opinion and stuff it. It's not about being too lazy to buy ahead. While that is a questionable (morally) practice at best, you're still out of luck if your stores had none ahead of time. Greedy scammers combined with BB' failure to have their advertised min. quantities on hand makes this whole deal very bogus, not to mention fraudulent. >>



I agree his attitude is uncalled for.

But let's not get silly here; how does morality come into play at all? Fortunately or unfortunately, the Best Buy ads were leaked. What I and others did is pre-purchase, and come back to get a price adjustment. If Best Buy had denied the request, then so be it. I wouldn't even say that pre-purchase is unethical, let alone immoral.

Now BB's failure to honor their advertisement is very unfortunate, and if you want to take them up on it, hound Best Buy corporate. If you advertise you have 15 of an item, you better set aside those items before the sale date. That's just common sense.

The blame doesn't rest on greedy shoppers. And yes, we are greedy (some more than others). However, this nation was and is built on greed. You may not like it, and neither may I, but none of us really has the option of opting out of a greedy capitalist economy. You can go move to Montana, and hole yourself in a shack, but that's a different story...