flansered

The funny thing was that the girl who checked me out told me what a great deal it was and that I should buy the other copy they had to and resell it. Which is really odd behavior from a Best Buy employee. I passed and only bought the one copy.

laidbacklarkin

sorry to ask this but where are you price matching it from ? from your canceled order email ? where do you see the price of the UCE at $12.99 ? sorry if I am missing something

Adam Tyner

The link in post #235:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Ben-Hur%...4176304&loc=01

davidlynchfan

How come they call it 50th Anniversary when Ben Hur was made in 1959? (52 years, no?)

stylesclash516

So I went to go pick this thing up and I grabbed the last one they had and headed to the counter. I asked if they could price match what was out the website, she said "yes, absolutely" until she see's it's sold out online. She said no she couldn't do it (I could tell she was new) so I asked for a manager or someone else, another worker came over and checked then he said "no, that price is an outlet center." So I sat it down and left confused and dumbfounded. What exactly is an "outlet center" because I plan to go back in a few days and try again.

soundman2

Apparently there are two similar version of 50th anniversary. One with and one without figurine they look the same size and all, guess one is "Ultimate edition". So did not have luck with price matching that one - will try another store with the real version

jwstl

Both versions are "Ultimate" Editions; the one with the figurine is a Best Buy Exclusive of the Ultimate Edition.

DVD Polizei

Outlet Center is BB's new way of selling shit on their website...without taking any responsibility for it. Meaning, you cannot apply any coupons, GC's, or anything and MUST pay the face value of the product selling on BB's website.

However, I looked up the BH UCE and for it to be an outlet center item, there has to be the outlet center's website named--normally next to the shipping availability area. For example, go to the video cards section and you'll find 70% of their video cards ARE NOT sold by Best Buy, but by Buy.com, Antonline.com and so forth.

This is a new scam by BB in order to avoid accepting ANY promotions they are offering, in addition to price matching.

But to answer your question, this Ben Hur UCE is NOT an outlet center item. They don't know what the fuck they are talking about, which is 99% of the case with Best Buy.

In addition, I think if you buy an outlet center item on BB's website...you'll have to deal with the actual website who shipped you the product, because BB, once again, does NOT ship you the product. It's simply advertised on their site. BB gets a nice little kickback for referrals, of course.

stylesclash516

To give you an update, I went back to my Best Buy store and tried a second time except this time with a printed out store policy and a paper showing it is not an Outlet Center item. Well the manager spots me trying again and whispers to the girl "don't price match" before she even rang me up. Well of course she didn't do it and claimed the policy I had printed out was wrong and their real policy says if it's out of stock on line they can't do the same price in store.

Well I got the district managers info from another worker then went home and called customer service. I was transferred three times until a woman who is high up with customer service decided to call the manager that denied me twice and basically yelled at him after I stressed that I wasn't happy with the customer service. Then he (the manager) talked to me directly and played dumb (of course) and said that the last copy is waiting with my name on it to be picked up tomorrow for $12.99.

So thanks DVD Polizei for letting me know it isn't an Outlet Center item. If anyone else has a similar problem just call customer service and they will resolve it for you.

TheBang

I think you're confused. You've described the Best Buy Marketplace, which is essentially like the Amazon Marketplace, product listings for 3rd party sellers.

The Outlet Center is Best Buy's clearance place, sort of. They have close-outs, clearance items, refurbished/returned items, etc. Because of the clearance nature of the Outlet Center, they won't do any price matching with it.

That said, Ben-Hur is not in the Outlet Center, so that cashier that told stylesclash516 that was wrong. In fact, when I did my price matching, the manager specifically said to himself while checking the pricing, "it's not an outlet center item..."

DVD Polizei

Yeah, sorry about confusing the outlet center with Marketplace. You're right.

Wouldn't be surprised if we get somebody at BB saying it's a Marketplace item now, since the Outlet Center story has been diffused.

Why in the hell do Managers and low-level employees try to be such jerks and idiots when pricematching a totally legit item. Do these people get some kind of secret commission for every sale they DON'T MAKE?

For the amount of time and energy these people put into making sure a customer never walks out with a legit deal, if they would actually just put that same amount of energy into doing their fucking job, BB would be a great place to shop.

I still remember the complete idiot who pulled DVDs for my online order, and didn't even know the difference between Blu-ray and DVD. It was like the employee just grabbed the title name, not even worrying about what format it was.

adrenaline78

lol. not that it matter that he didn't know the difference.. but he should be double checking the item #'s anyhow. There could be 10 different releases of the same item.

BuckNaked2k

I found the last one in my area at one of the nearby stores. Was initially denied the PM after a call from CS to the MGR as the item was "sold out online". I asked to speak with him, so he came over but was really cool and agreed that it was a legit PM. He said something about confusion between this SKU and the UCE sans statuette.

I think whoever said they're trying to clear these out in-store was spot on. It's a giant box of a 50 year old movie starring some guy named "Heston", that sells for $70. Basically, the limited audience who would buy one at that price has probably done so already. They did the same thing a few months back when they dumped their $120 exclusive Tom Petty live box set with 4 CDs, a Blu-ray, 2 DVDs, an LP, and a bunch of "collectible" junk for $15.

flansered

When I got my copy the thing that took the longest was the employees checking and rechecking to make sure that it wasn't an outlet item. Took almost 10 miuntes, but it was worth it.

efordvt

This thread is the best! So glad I kept checking it. Decided to stop by BB last night with the BB webpage dialed up on my phone. Found a set at the bottom of a center isle promo rack! Hadn't seen it before. Took it up to the register and got the bonus of a super cute, 20-something blond girl, who mostly just smiled and was congratulatory. Had to get the manager to override, who verified on the site on his computer - and I paid $13.90 cash and walked out the door!

soundman2

....Both versions are "Ultimate" Editions; the one with the figurine is a Best Buy Exclusive of the Ultimate Edition.....

Are people who are price matching getting the one with figurine. The reason I am asking is the when I took the one without figurine for pricematch - manager refused saying the web site item on sale was for one with figurine (SKU: 3235096) , the one without had a different SKU number. If both items are on sale then I can go back and fight

jwstl

The only one on sale is the Best Buy Exclusive with the figurine. Trying to price match the other isn't going to work.

Jediturtle

No luck for me last night at my store. I got the "we can't pricematch since it's sold out online" excuse. Guess I just wasn't meant to have this set. Oh well...after the original cancellation fiasco, it's just not worth any more fighting. At least I got the regular edition for $3 after the we're sorry coupon.

BuckNaked2k

^ My plan was to pay full price if I got denied, then try returning it to another Beast Buy to see if they could credit the purchase beased on the web price. Maybe too much work, but it's a thought.

flix1

I think the game clearance (outlet) fiasco this week has the B&M stores highly sensitized to outlet pricing.

In any case, this should not apply here.

sotra

Back up to regular price on the site now.

DVD Polizei

And surprisingly they'll be back in stock.

soundman2

Found a store that had one, went picked it up, the clerk of course called 1st store manager who verified price on the internet but then had to consult 2nd manager, who basically said ' this was online exclusive not available for store pickup and sold out online, so could not PM' I asked if I could call customer service - they both said yes if the CS agreed and they let me buy and pay on the phone, they would give it to me.

As I started to leave, they said you can call from the store, the 1st Manager dialed the # for me gave me the phone, the CS guy said that PM is entirely up to store manager and not sure how he could help. I mentioned that i had driven 15 miles ( true but it was on my way ). I said the store managers were very nice and helpful, they just want to be sure PM was ok. Upon hearing the last comment, the 1st manager just went and got the box set rang it up and said no problem i will do it, he said i just read the rules and we are ok with PM and said the 2nd manager did not know what he was talking about.

I thanked the manager and phone guy sincerely, walked out with the Big box set for 12.99 + tax. Guess being persistent and nice paid off !!

Sweet Baby James

^

Kiss-ass.

jwstl

Was going to try the in-store price match via my phone today but by the time I left the price had gone up to 69.99 at bestbuy.com.