Yet another day, yet another Best Buy rant

[AndrewR]

Seriously, what corporate baboon thought up that policy, so that a customer winds up paying full price for what is essentially a USED item and then receives the "bonus" of additional merchandise? There was a large plasma on display that was $6000 with a $1000 gift card. Oh, come on!

Anyone else think this is ludicrous? Apart from discounts on music when first released and some scarce deals on computer hardware (after rebate, of course), I really don't see any reason to shop there anymore.

 

[Corporate Thug]

it only makes sense: they give you a gift card instead of a discount and that way they are assured that $1000 will be re-spent @ BB so they lose a whole lot less than a $1000. Besides, you can usually haggle with them on the price depending on how desperate they are to get rid of the item

 

[Yzzim]

I think they're still testing the market for it. Was in a BB in Sioux Falls, SD and they had the gift card "discount". At the Mankato, MN BB they were still giving cash discounts.

Hopefully no one buys Open Box items with the gift cards. But people are stupid.

 

[Kreon]

My neighbor works at Best Buy
He hates it (working and the corperation)
I agree, they have some stupuid (at least for teh consumer) policies. Like the Geek Squad "deals", and the crappy rebates.

Sorry if you like them

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

I have to agree... that policy is stupid, although I see its intentions.

Firstly, the discount (er, gift card) is never enough to justify what you get: i.e., an open-box $250 DVD player was being offered with a $25 gift card. But, the player was missing the remote, box, and manual?? I want a hell of a lot more than $25 if it's missing all that stuff.

 

[everman]

It's a great idea from the business perspective, and absolutely sucks from the customer perspective. They're probably making more money from it overall.

 

[Sluggo]

If you can negotiate and get a larger gift card amount, you could always resell it here @ 80% of face value and possibly come out ahead.

Dont hate the system, learn to make it work to your advantage.

 

[AndrewR]

Oh, I understand the business reasons for this policy. The decision was obviously based on maximizing profit and had no consideration for the customer. That's typical Best Buy, but it still sucks.

Originally posted by: Sluggo
If you can negotiate and get a larger gift card amount, you could always resell it here @ 80% of face value and possibly come out ahead.

Dont hate the system, learn to make it work to your advantage.

So I have to take an additional step to make it my advantage? That's perfect!

 

[mugs]

I guess that's the trade-off for being able to return an item simply because you decided you don't want it.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead
I have to agree... that policy is stupid, although I see its intentions.

Firstly, the discount (er, gift card) is never enough to justify what you get: i.e., an open-box $250 DVD player was being offered with a $25 gift card. But, the player was missing the remote, box, and manual?? I want a hell of a lot more than $25 if it's missing all that stuff.

at CC they keep all that stuff and will give it to you with the item, and if they can't find it (we had a couple filling cabinets for this kind of thing, but every once in a while we wouldn't be able to find the pouch for an item) they'd just throw a universal remote in for free.

but CC > BB.