WALL·E Q

(I just registered. I've been a long time reader and wanted to add this..)

So yesterday I printed out the manufacturer coupons and I had a thought: I'm more of an Amazon customer than Target or Best Buy so I sent them a message through chat. I let them know that I'm an Amazon Prime customer and that I had two coupons from Disney that equaled $18 and I'd like to use it towards both The Incredibles / Cars which I had in the cart. It took five minutes but the customer service representative came back and gave me $18 in promotional credit to use in my next checkout.

Between that and the $10 savings they have on both releases, I ended up acquiring them for $21.61.

Solid Snake

......you bastard. Honestly though...that's pretty cool.

WALL·E Q

Yeah, I'm surprised it actually worked. I had to give the rep the code on the coupons and I wasn't sure which ones to give and the silence on the opposite end had me worried that I was about to give up and then I got an email explaining I would be receiving $18 promotional credit.

I was pretty sincere and honest with them and told them upfront that I'm a loyal Amazon customer and a Prime member as well. I wonder if that possibly worked in my favor.

jiggyblau

I tried via chat and then via phone to discuss the situation. They said no, but the Amazon rep was a good guy who was aware of the situation and was as puzzled as I was why Disney issues e-coupons for some purchases on Amazon (Bambi) but not others.

So off to BB to hopefully snag these later this week.

nycdude

no Incredibles left in the target by me so its either waiting till a good deal comes along on Amazon or hitting up BB for the combo deal.

decisions....haha.

I will probably wait and see...

mifuneral

Managed to nab a copy at Target yesterday at around noon. There were only a couple copies left at that point. Does Target just suck at stocking stuff? I rarely go there anymore.

Used both coupons. The Target coupon did not work but since it said Target the girl ran it through manually.

DirkBelig

I have a shopping center near my work with a Beast Buy and a Meijer right next door to each other and a Target on the other side, so I wasn't going to be too put out if I had to try a different place. I printed a Bunny Money coupon from a scan someone posted here on plain paper with an office inkjet, taking an educated guess on how to resize it - I was at work and didn't have Photoshop available - and folded it over and taped it.

I went to Target at 6 pm and got the very last copy of The Incredibles in the store. I know because in cramming it into the security shell, they wrinkled the sleeve and I asked if they had any more not maimed and they didn't. Took it to a slow register with a cashier whom I figured I could flirt with because she was short and a tad zaftig. Figured a combination of devastating handsome looks and charm would smooth over any questions about their provenance.

She didn't blink at them. The biggest problem was getting the damn disc out of the security case. It took three girls 10 minutes to pry the damn thing open. The last was about to go back and get another when I told her it was the last one.

$13.61 out the door. Sucks paying tax on the pre-$10 discount price, but oh well.

DirkUSA

I was denied the use of the coupons at my local bestbuy too. They didn't have have Cars but I checked if its possible to have Cars send to me since the store was advertising free shipping to home for items that were not in stock over the in store speaker system but I was told that this item was too small to be send it me (????????????????). They also told me that I couldn't use the coupons anyway since they already had an offer for these two Blu-rays. I called corporate and the lady was all lost and had no answer except she would call the store and talk to the manager to find out more. I told her that the "other offer" part on the coupon was ignored 2 weeks earlier when BestBuy advertised the Tangled Disney coupon even though they had 2 offers going, first a discounted price plus a plush toy. I asked her where the difference is between this and this weeks scenario. She told me that this time there are also movie tickets involved which I told her come from Disney Movie Rewards, the same company that issued this weeks coupons and the one 2 weeks ago. A total joke that Best Buy uses this coupon to promote something one week, including an offer (discounted price plus plush toy) and two weeks later they refuse to accept that type of coupon.

vmars

I am so freaking happy that the Target stores near me still don't use the security cases. They use the spider-wraps on some of the bigger items every once in a while though.

Manzana

A bad experience at BB is always to be expected for me if a coupon is involved. I normally don't even try coupons at BB because I have enough experience to know what's going to happen. However, I was already there doing an in-store pickup of a $10 game (which nobody else has for that cheap), so I figured why not try since the only other person in line was the other guy trying to do the same thing. That wasted about 3 minutes, and I was incredibly curious to see what excuse they used on someone else.

Yes, six copies of a featured new release popular Disney BD is ridiculous, and I think this trend is going to continue. It's called "lean inventory" and "cost cutting" which retail bean counters think is brilliant (they probably got raises and promotions for coming up with that idea) w/o factoring in counting how many people go to Target or BB later in the day, probably get mad, and end up ordering from Amazon instead. IMHO, anything less than 30 copies is probably too few. Someone speculated stores got burned by the Alice in Wonderland 3D release where they ordered tons of copies that never sold, so they overcompensated to the other extreme instead of picking a logical middle ground. We wouldn't want common sense from a B&M store, would we?

I do hope that enough people gripe and complain to the stores that maybe the word will get back to the inventory bean counters who will perhaps up the inventory a bit rather than reduce it further (though you can't reduce 4 or 6 copies by much more without quickly hitting 0).

Regarding the BB stories, I'd say in the Slickdeal's Incredibles/Cars coupon thread (which I scanned and didn't read every page) maybe 1 out of 4 posts about BB is a deny story, so while the majority clearly have no problem at their BBs using coupons, enough people do that everyone should realize coupon usage is YMMV based on your store and the employee you get. As I've been told, it's all store or district dependent based on the managers' decisions, and clearly kstublen and I live in area's with, shall we say, less kind than average managers. I know I've heard things about raises and promotions being dependent on sales and I don't know if coupons are subtracted... so that could be a reason. Of course I never have understood why unfriendly people go into retail. I could never do it and wouldn't try. I'd get mad at somebody on the first day and get fired no matter where I worked.

WALL·E Q, you're very lucky. If you read the Slickdeal's coupon thread, you'll see several people tried to do this with Amazon and most people were shot down. I've also heard that depending on your spending habits and "favor usage" level Amazon will grant things to some people that they won't to others to keep them happy. I didn't even try because I had confidence in 2 out of 3 of my Target stores which came through again. It was a pain to run around a bit and waste more time than it should've, but oh well. Thankfully all my stores are within 1 mile of the freeway on the way to work.

mattysemo247

Can't belive all the people having problems at Best Buy. I don't think I've ever had a problem with them not using coupons.

Manzana

If you read my post above, I explained that. Based on my observations I believe 3 out of 4 people (i.e. MOST) do not have problems with coupons at BB, but a "lucky" few of us (maybe 25%) do... and consistently so. So while those in the "good" 75% may love their BB stores, those in the "bad" 25% probably don't love their BB stores. Anyone knowing me actually knows that saying I don't love my BB stores is an understatement. I think they are the worst, but I don't think they'll be going away like Ultimate Electronics or Circus City did. Enough people love expensive impulse buys, especially of Apple products, to keep them in business.

Foghorn

Does it have a sticker on the front saying the movie ticket is inside or not? The I was going to buy yesterday didn't so I waited. This was at Target.

RonBoster

I don't know that I've ever read a post where you had a positive experience at BB? If you are constantly fall into the "bad 25%", why do you keep hitting your consumer head against the wall? What do they say about someone who repeats the same process, but expects a different result?

JoeyOhhhh

I went to my local target around 6:30 last night, there was two copies left. One had a smashed up slip cover, the other was fine.

Both coupons were used with no problems. Atleast I didn't have an issue like last week with Tron

vmars

There isn't a movie ticket inside. There is a sticker on the front of both Cars releases and The Incredibles. You get the ticket when you enter the normal magic code into DMR for your points.

Obi-Wanma

There are no tickets inside any of them. The movie ticket is activated with you enter the Disney Movie Rewards code at the DMR website. So it doesn't matter if there is a sticker on the front or not.

Foghorn

Thank you!

jeffkjoe

I went to Target, picked up a copy.

2 coupons -
10.00 Incredibles manufacturer's coupon
5.00 Target Disney Blu-Ray coupon (black and white copy, no less)

And it worked!

14.00 total for a 26.00 DVD.



The key is: Choose the least suspicious-looking Target cashier. A good clueless dude in his 20's is your golden opportunity for success.

lordzeppelin

I did not say you, and your experience are mistaken nor that you should stay silent. I'm saying that your statement regarding their inventory practice and your assertion that someone saying Target has a better idea of stock levels than you do is ridiculous. Multiple people on this web community = a fraction of a percentage point of the shopper base. The stores get inventory based on historical volume of sales. If they don't move much Blu stock at the Target that you personally shop at, don't expect them to be over-stocked on new releases, regardless of what title it is. I'm saying that if you see a particular store is light on Blu inventory, there's probably a reason for it, AND that you should adjust your expectations accordingly.


From a customer point of view as a whole? Hardly. And you're missing the point completely - commenting on it is one thing, claiming that it's the experience of the masses and not just you is what I'm pointing out. I've bitched many times about ME PERSONALLY not being able to find something. However, I'm not sitting around claiming that Target on the whole doesn't know what they're doing because 'Blu-Ray X' is out of stock at the store closest to my house.

lumberjack

Tuesday night, 7 p.m. Incredibles only:
I miss the Toys R Us deals from a year ago.

Oh, and to answer a few posters question on how soon you'll get the DMR coupon should you request they mail it to you…. I made the request on Friday and received it the following Tuesday's mail (three postal days). Same timeframe with Tron Legacy last week, too. So that marketing group is getting coupons out very quickly, should you request it.

DrnknMstr2

Ugh! I requested it on Saturday. Nothing in the mail today AND I'm leaving town tomorrow for work until Monday!!!
I don't think I will be able to take advantage of this deal.
Had the Bunny Money all ready to roll too!!
Grrrrr!

Update:
The missus said that she would take care of it should the coupon arrive in the mail by Saturday.
My one problem...she isn't "deal" crazy like I am. I am not sure she would fight for the "Bunny Money" coupon to work, should it be questioned. Or if the cashier isn't sure about the legitimate Disney coupon.
I don't want to leave this with her in charge!

lumberjack

Maybe you could go make the purchase yourself minus the DMR coupon, and speak with someone in customer service to see if your wife can come back later in the week with the coupon and get the further reduction. Get the CS rep's name so your wife will know who to speak with. It's worth a shot and she'd only have to deal with getting $10 in credit back. It might work.

ScottsdaleSaint

Not going to belabor this issue with you ad nauseum, as it's just not that important, to me or you, I'll just say it's very curious and silly that a store would stock 2-4 copies of something on release week, when demand is at it's highest, running out of that item in hours, causing customers to shop elsewhere, and losing potential sales, and then to have a dozen or more of that exact item one week later. Those are lost sales that they can never make up, and it makes no sense for a store to stock a high profile new release in higher numbers the week AFTER everyone is trying to purchase said item.

We are not talking about one store close to my house, as I've stated, I've asked for inventory checks which anyone can do at a Target by bring a stock bin tag to a clerk, so you see if it's in stock at any neighboring Targets. I'm talking about two dozen Targets in a ten mile radius...OOS. Incredibles, Tron Legacy and Tangled...not an isolated incident, or an isolated area.

TerryW

It's ridiculous that you have to lock in your movie theater now for the free tickets. They should be general passes.