lamphorn

So, after months of pining and agonizing and pondering, I had an awesome birthday that included a $75 Best Buy gift card, and finally got a video iPod with a firewire cable, and video conversion software and spent WAY more money than I usually do on anything.

Then I come home to find a coupon in my mail for 12% off at Best Buy for this weekend, including mp3 players. That would be close to 30 dollars off the iPod, certainly worth it.

My question is, does Best Buy have any kind of policy about coming back with a very recent purchase to honor a coupon?? I kind of doubt it, but just checking.

TimeandTide

If you opened the iPod, you're SOL. I'm pretty sure the coupon states that it's not valild on prior purchases.

If it's unopened, however, return it and re-buy using the coupon.

tonyc3742

I'd definitely return and rebuy, if opened. Or, if the specific item you bought isn't identified on the receipt...
Check the fine print though, I recall lots of those coupons saying "not valid on Apple products".

lamphorn

Turns out the coupon does exclude Apple products. Thanks for the replies. Problem solved!

romuo

offtopic- i personally despise the 10%/12% off coupons off REGULAR PRICE argh...such pointless coupons (especially with terms like 299&up, regular price, not valid on this and that blah blah)

acubfaninmd

they have to do that on apple products because apple has a strict pricing policy where you are supposed to sell it at the price they tell you

Jah-Wren Ryel

Even for opened purchases you can still return and re-buy, you just have to do it in the reverse order - go in and re-buy it at the discounted price and then return the newly purchased (and thus unopened) unit with the higher-priced receipt from the original purchase.

TimeandTide

Good tip. Can't believe I never thought of that.

maxfisher

If it's around the holidays, you can also use this to take advantage of changes in price beyond 30 days, because of their extended holiday return policy. I did this when a portable DVD player I bought my girlfriend was on sale for $75 cheaper than I had paid about 2 months previous.

beesonosu

I'm sorry Best Buy - but I do shop their exclusively and spend quite a bit there..not like that makes up for it.

ernestrp

I bought some computer speakers about 4 years ago and the next week they were on sale and had a rebate to. I took the receipt back and asked the CS girl if they could do anything since they were a lower price now. She did like return and then rang it up again and gave me some cash back and a rebate form.

Mosskeeto

This method won't work on some specific items where the unit's serial number is recorded on the receipt. Quite a few items fall under this exception, including I would guess, iPods.

TimeandTide

How is "cheating the system" different than stealing? You were essentially taking money from BB that you knew you weren't entitled to. Sounds like theft to me.

tonyc3742

What was 'cheating the system'? I know there's lots of 'murky areas' and various opinions on ways consumers maximize their dollars, but I have no problem with returning an item (with receipt, within the return period) and rebuying the same thing at its current, lower price. Bought a Christmas gift from BJs that dropped dramatically 16 days after purchase, their return policy is 30 days, their PM policy was 14 days. Hence, a return and rebuy. I used their policies to the letter.

TimeandTide

I was responding to beesonosu's post which he's since edited. His example was markedly different than yours.

Mosskeeto

If I recall it correctly, that was the post where he descibed how a friend who worked at BB would buy items that were heavily discounted through special employee savings or something even more elaborate and the non-employee would do a return without receipt and they would split the proceeds (i.e. a $5 item that somehow they were able to get a $40 credit for). I too thought that was unethical or worse.

TimeandTide

Yeah, that was the one. They would do their returns at multiple stores to maximize their gift card credits or something. Shady.

tonyc3742

Okay, yeah, that's pretty bad. If nothing else, it's surely a violation of the employee purchase policy, either buying lots of discounted products for a non-employee, and/or returning with no receipt to make more money (I would assume most employee purchase plans have some fine print, "For your personal use only"). Any of those things in that example, taken separately, would rate a raised eyebrow, but taken together, surely a shaken head. Maybe even a 'tsk tsk.' I'm a capitalist, and I certainly want to stretch/maximize my dollar as much as possible, but I still try to be 'honest' and play by the rules (for the most part).

Jah-Wren Ryel

If you only look at the outcome, beesonosu's activities probably had no impact on BBY. Compare these two options:

1) Beesonosu and compatriots buy a bunch of crap from BBY at employee prices and keep it.
2) Beesonosu and compatriots buy a bunch of crap from BBY at employee prices and return it at retail prices and eventually it is resold at retail prices.

To make the math easy, I am going to say that
Wholesale: $100
Employee: $105 (5% markup)
Retail: $200.

In scenario 1) BBY makes $5 ($105 - $100 = $5)
In scenario 2) BBY makes $5 ($105 - $100 - $200 + 200 = $5)

So in either case, BBY comes out the same. The only difference is that scenario 1 is probably just fine by "the rules" and scenario 2 is probably grounds for firing.

The only case where BBY ends up a loser would be scenario 3 - after it is returned, BBY never sells it and eventually returns it to their supplier, or sells it to another employee. That's definitely a possibility, but given the kind of high-margin crap he was talking about (monster cables and all) I think its probably rare since BBY brainwashes the smurfs into selling that high-margin crap as fast as they possibly can.

tonyc3742

Item purchased for 20.00 after discount, instead of 40.00. BBY has "lost" 20.00, but this is a cost of doing business they allow as a reward to their employees.
Item is returned, no receipt, for full shelf price of 40.00. BBY "buys" the item back for 40.00. They have the item, but they're still down 20.
They sell the item to Joe Customer for 40.00.
So yes, in your scenario they 'make' 5.00. But had the return activity not occurred, they would have made 95. They "lost" 90.00.

And some things, even if there's no direct impact (which is not the case here), are still wrong.

Jah-Wren Ryel

Your math is very sloppy, either that or you are trying to say something that is completely unclear.

It is the act of selling it at the employee discount, not the act of returning that prevents BBY from earning $100 (not $90).

pinata242

Bullshit. That -200 isn't just -200 to be offset by a potential future sell. It is free credit BB is extending these people. $200 they should have to spend out of their own pockets. It isn't just about breaking even on one particular item, it's about POTENTIALLY breaking even (which may not even happen, like in scenario 3) AND giving away $200 in other merchandise, likely also on the employee discount (if they were reckless).

You can't honestly say Best Buy is in no way harmed by that practice, regardless of your feelings against retail markups.

Peep

I'm not sure that I agree with what you are saying or your logic, but I do agree that it does harm Best Buy.

Scenerio #2 assumes that Best Buy can sell that second item. That assumed sale, as such, needs to be factored into Scenerio #1. After adding that assumed sale to scenerio #1, BB is out the profit that they would have made on that item.

While it may be true that Best Buy doesn't lose money in Scenerio #2, they have lost the $100 profit that they would have made if bozo 1 & 2 hadn't come along.

beesonosu, how would you feel if somebody came along once a year where you worked and did something that cost you your raise for that year? Would you say, "well, I'm still making the same, so I'm not upset." Or would you be pissed about all the money that you were entitled to (for that same amount of effort that you put in at work) that you will never see?

Now, if you want to admit that the company is being hurt, but that you're OK with that, then that's fine by me (as readers of the Amazon thread may know). Just be aware that what you are doing does have consequences.

pinata242

Assuming the item sells later is a moot point because the item would have sold regardless of this activity.

That said, let's look at the math.
BB acquires the item at wholesale: (100.00)
BB sells the item via emp discount: 105.00
Item is returned w/o receipt for store credit: (200.00)

That's it, BB is out $195 on this transaction regardless if the item will sell later or not. If that item is sold later, then they make a $100 profit on that sale, but they're still out the $195 in credit they gave out. That credit is only good to use on items already in the store and therefore they're just giving stuff away for free.

Peep

Wrong. If that item is sold later, they make $0 profit on it. If you buy something for $200 (which is what they did when they allowed the receiptless return) and then sell it for $200....

Well, you do the math.

Look at it like this. All the store really did was buy an item from company X for $100 and sell it to person Y for $105. $5 profit.

Then they bought the same item from company Y (which just happened to be person Y) for $200 and the best the can get for it is $200 from person Z. $0 profit. If the item goes on sale or the person has a coupon, they lose money on that transaction.

If they hadn't bought that item back for $200, person Z would have bought a different one (and they would have made $100 on the transaction). Even though they lost no money, techinically, they could have made $100 on that sale instead of $0. At the very least, it reduces the average profit across that whole product line.