Five Cent Deposit

I live in NYC and our Circuit City stores are absolutely terrible. But the Best Buys are pretty good. Has anyone ever tried getting BB to match the prices in CC's weekly circular?

MikeDeN2K

Yes, and they do.

pinata242

Almost weekly.

Five Cent Deposit

Sweet. I wish I had known this for a long time. The Circuit Citys here are the worst stores I've ever been in. The DVD section is supposed to be alphabetized but I can never find a single thing because they are only barely organized- a wall of "S" where everything is stacked several layers thick and you're sure to find lots of other crap mixed in (R, T, and even plenty of other random letters.) Also, they never seem to have the titles that I want (from their weekly ads) and yes, I do go early. The employees are horrible too. Is Circuit City like this everywhere? I'm just going to start looking at their sale prices as an appendix to the Best Buy ads. Thanks for the quick answers.

Brian Shannon

I guess the stores are different in different areas.

I have never been able to get a price match at "Best Buy" in my area. They always have an excuse, it is not the same item, they are out of stock and my favorite, "we can only price match if you have the ad".

The WHOLE AD not just the item torn out, the WHOLE AD. Explanation? They need to be sure that the item is being currently advertised (it is by "Best Buy" isn't it?) and it is the exact same item without a rebate or giveaway.

No thanks, I'll gladly go to Circuit City where their prices at least in my area are lower on the same advertised items.

KFelon

My closest Circuit City is in the middle of the ghetto, & for some reason they just moved across the street into a newly built store thats just as trashy as before. Much like you said all the DVDs are just kind of thrown together with no real order. The only easy stuff to find are new releases since they're displayed separately. If it wasn't for a couple of the really nice bonus discs I'd never go there at all. If there's nothing but a better price I almost always goto Best Buy, I've done a price match at Walmart once too.

That being said, if there was a Circuit City closer than 30-45 minutes away, I'd probably shop there more than Best Buy as they tend to offer better prices to begin with & in the cases they don't, then Circuit City will do a price match + an extra percentage discount which is a plus.

JarJarBinks

Sounds like you're the one being unreasonable on the price matches.

Considering that those excuses are actual store policy. It has to be the exact same item, Circuit City has to have it in stock, and you do need to have the ad. Seems reasonable to me.

FangsFirst

Not true. Stores like to tell people this, but according to bestbuy.com and the instore posted information, you do NOT need the ad. They prefer it, it IS simpler, but it is NOT required.
If they wish to maintain it is, tough for them, their phrasing does not specify it as required. If they want to change it, fair enough...but as it stands, there's no justification for REQUIRING the ad.

vballboy51

only thing i've seen rather consistantly is that they put their dvds in order, but shelf by shelf, meaning top shelf 16 or 20 or 24 feet across, then start at the next shelf, instead of being nice and going 4 foot section by 4 foot section. That is why i can never find anything there

vocalhouse

As JarJarBinks pointed out, Circuit City needs to have it in stock. In my experience, I have brought the ad with the product to the Service Desk then they call the store (Circuit City, Target, etc.) to make sure the item is in stock.

It's just a pain especially if there is a line. I've usually just ended up buying the DVDs at CC instead of having BB price match it.

pinata242

I've never had BB call a competitor for stock. Then again, I PM at the regular cashiers because I usually don't care for the 110% guarantee as it is normally like 30 cents. In fact, I took a Game Crazy ad in there the other day and she'd never heard of the place, but that didn't stop her from honoring the ad, no questions asked.

vocalhouse

I wonder if this is region-specific? I tried pinata242's way but cashiers always told me to go to the Service Desk. I'm in MN by the way.

Jah-Wren Ryel

Best Buy pricematch policy is whatever the hell the person you ask thinks it is. Consistency is not a priority.

Sabrett

We have to be visiting the same CC store (I'm in NY, too). They are absolutely horrible. Their DVDs are never organized. It looks like someone ran a truck over most of the DVDs, and the employees are the most arrogant people I've ever encountered in a store. I will happily go into other CC stores, but definitely not the one by me.

Sabrett

I've never had BB call a competitor for stock either. I PM at the regular cash registers, also. If you're PMing a store they never heard of, they put it in as "Other", no questions asked. CC usually calls or gives me a hard time for one thing or another.

PrometheusUFO

I price-match Circuit City's prices at Best Buy quite a lot, especially since CC seems to be more cheaper lately. Just this week, I bought the last four seasons I needed to complete my collection of Buffy by price-matching all four of them from $19.99 to $17.99. I wasn't sure about getting them all right away so I ended up going to BB twice. And I even used the exact same ad.

shelland

The specifics tend to differ from store to store. The Eden Prairie store requires price matches be made at Customer Service, but I've never had any other stores do that - including Richfield 2 blocks from corporate headquarters.

I price match regularly. I've normally only done it for DVDs and CDs, and don't think they've ever called the competitor to verify if they have it in stock. But it's in the policy, so I'm sure they would if it was a great deal or high dollar item. I did price match a camera at a local camera store a few years ago, and they verified stock at the competitor. I can't blame them for doing so - if they're going to lose money, they might as well make sure you actually have the ability to buy it at the competing store.

I've always taken the ad with me, so can't comment on matching without an ad. I'd think they would also price match based on a call to a store, because they aren't necessarily going to be matching an ad - it might be a downright cheaper regular price or an unadvertised special. As far as asking for the entire ad - I wouldn't expect any differently. They have no idea whether or not it's from a current ad. Someone could take a ripped out picture that's 2 months old.

I've never had a single problem price matching, and have done it probably 50+ times. I much prefer BB to CC, and will gladly drive further to shop at BB. And by doing most shopping at BB, the Reward Zone numbers rack up that much quicker.

Every company is in the business to make money. They price match as a service to their customers - potentially severely cutting profits. Because many ad prices are based on "deals" they get from their supplier, they could conceivably lose money by price matching if the competitor is getting the item at a cheaper cost. As long as they are sure you're getting a legitimate price, they'll make the match to get your business.

animefan

My Bestbuy has been pretty good with matching prices. I have done it with Circuit City, Toys R Us, and Target ads.

They don't accept price match without the ads, but I don't have to bring the entire ads, just the page that has the item With the DATE. I think that's very reasonable. I always handled it at regular cashier and they never called the other stores.

BUT one time they did refuse to honor the price matching which just pissed me off. Has this happened to anyone else?
They (well this one rude manager) won't honor the buy 2 get 1 free ad. Said it was their policy to not honor the "get free" ads. Now I would totally understand and logical if it was some exclusive free item which bestbuy doesn't stock, but they did carry ALL of the items that I was trying to buy (and all of them were in stock and yes I was trying to buy 3 at the same time). I would say that this is similar as buying 3 for $30 or something - which they have honored in the past. To me this was ridiculous and the manager just won't listen to my reason and won't give me an satisfactory explanation except that it was their store policy - and she had very rude tone and manner too. So I didn't want to deal with her anymore and just went to Circuit City and they honored it without any problem.

Star Wars Guy

Circuit City had the Stargate SG-1 seasons (1-9) in their ad this week for $17.99 each, though they didn't have any of seasons 2, 6, or 9. I took the ad to Best Buy just down the street and they refused to match the price for season 9 and couldn't give an answer as to why. Best Buy was running a $19.99 deal on all Stargate SG-1 seasons EXCEPT season 9, and would price match on the first 8 seasons.

Bottom line YMMV if you get a PM or not.

Five Cent Deposit

Yeah, the whole reason I started the thread was because I've been waiting for Circuit City's $17.99 TV stuff, but then when I went to the store they didn't have anything. Nice work. I'd guess that they usually only have 65%, at best, of whatever they advertise every week. Best Buy is usually a lot better in that regard. I'm hoping to pick up a copy of Firefly there and have them match the $17.99 but if they won't do it I'll get it next week when they are offering it for $19.99.

Star Wars Guy

One thing you can do (which I do a lot) is have a CC employee look up what their current stock is of a title. If they don't have it at that location, they can check all the other locations to find who has it. I had them do that with Season 2 of Stargate since my store didn't have any, but the town I work in had 2, so I was able to get it there.

Rbow854597

Has anyone seen Criterions being sold at BB? For those California residents that get screwed by DVDPlanet charging tax on their orders, have you tried PMing the BB Criterions to DVDPlanet? There is a physical DVDPlanet store in Huntington Beach. I read the BB 110% pricematch policy while I was in line today and it says price matches for online items are allowed if the site has a physical store.

davron

At my BB they price match CC ad every week. I pull up [on the computer] each week
and print out a copy of their DVD sales ad and take it in to the Customer Service desk and all the girls their know me now because I do it every week. In this day every store wants your business and price matching their competitor is the least they can do, sales are sales. If I wasn't so lazy I can take it to the Navy Exchange and save even more $$$ because of NO SALES tax.

Pasco

While I shop and price match at Both Circuit City and Best Buy, I prefer price matching at Circuit City since they also give you 10% of the difference. Also, I've been denied price matches from both places. It usually depends on who has the stronger will, the cashier or you.

leest3

I've pricematched at the bestbuys at 86th and lex, in Noho, and the one in Trumbull, CT, and they always did it without calling to check if it's in stock, no hassle.