jiggyblau

First posted on slickdeals, but here it is.

Free ship to store or you can pay about $2 for shipping to home.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lord-Of-Th...creen/16405980

JohnBeas

Looks like its sold out online.

Adam Tyner

Yeah.

Pointyskull

Damn - missed it!

TAC

Will anyone pricematch Walmart.com? Thanks

jiggyblau

Sorry guys, that really did not last long.

DVD Polizei

Don't be discouraged. I have a hunch more copies are out there to be sold at an even lower price. Along with Harry Potter there is a copy secretly reserved for every man, woman, and child on this planet.

larrythefatcat

Some folks over at CAG were saying that Best Buy was price matching... it's pretty YMMV, though.

Manzana

Yes, it's very YMMV get a PM to a place that's out of stock. Amazon won't PM something that's OOS, and my local BB stores *ALWAYS* call the other store to make sure it's in stock before doing a PM. I always remind myself (and go in knowing) that they will try to find every possible excuse in the book to get out of a PM which is why I only try a PM if I have an original ad and know the other place is not OOS. Of course, it has been well established that some BB stores in other parts of the US are more lax on their policies and don't check inventory. Basically Target and Walmart are the only 2 stores I know that don't call to verify an item being in stock, but they both require (at least in my area) original (not printouts) ads, and this LOTR deal was not advertised.

Given these recent LOTR deals and that Fry's had this for $39.99 in the past (which Target refused to PM with an original ad because I got a nasty rep who said that "1 day only sales" are special promotions and don't qualify for a PM... and the store manager agreed), I'm confident it'll hit $35 or less again at which point I'll order it. No way I'm jumping on Amazon's $49.49 price right now. While there obviously aren't billions of copies floating around as DVD Polizei joked, I do hope that there is a bunch of excess inventory that the patient will be rewarded with.

Schloob1

So what you are saying is they actually followed their policy? The horror
Let me guess though, you would have been on here saying the rep was really pleasant if they let you get the deal.

But I do agree with you that I see this hitting the $35 range again. Probably around Black Friday time I'm guessing as a lightnig deal fro example.

That'sAllFolks

No they didn't -- They are supposed to PM sales from other retailers. Calling it a "special promotion" is just semantics ... it was a ONE DAY SALE.

Jon2

What is their policy? Is it, "we don't PM titles on sale"? If so, that's short-sighted and stupid.

Or is their policy, "we don't PM titles that are "special promotions"? That's short-sighted and stupid nit-picking.

What makes a 1 day sale more of a "special promotion" than a 3, 4, 5 day or week long sale? Any sale is, by definition, a "special promotion".

Rather than pissing off potential customers by weasely adhering to the "letter-of-the-law" of store policies and quoting conditional fine print that lets them deny a sale, any retailer is better off (customer service-wise) making potential customers happy by giving them what they want... even if it entails a bit of loss (say by PM a "special promotion").

Look at the customer service reputation Nordstroms has compared to that of Best Buy. Which one is most likely to go out of business because of how they deal with customers?

And how they deal with customers is the only real reason any business succeeds or fails.

Proglodite

I'd hazard a guess here that you've never owned your own business. Until you have, you should lay off the advice in such heavy-handed terms.

I do own my own business...and oftentimes I will honor competitors' offers...but I've also told a fair share of customers - "If that's the price they quoted you, by all means go back and take advantage of it! I personally think it was a mistake, but if they'll honor that price, you'd be a fool not to take advantage of it!"

I've been in business since '92 and I've had a lot of hard knocks, but I've survived and largely because I learned early on no business advice is never black and white; all this or all that...and the customer is most assuredly NOT always right. Oh, and not everyone who walks through the door is necessarily a customer; there are some that are determined to be a COSTomer.

Peter

That'sAllFolks

I agree with what you said. However, Target has made a policy that says they will match competitor's ads. It creates bad blood to find loopholes to not honor YOUR OWN POLICIES. Best Buy used to do this all the time when they didn't want to PM ... and for that (and many other reasons) I did not shop with them for many years. I never got mad at Target when they did not have a PM policy, but if they did that to me, I would have made a phone call to corporate.

Michael Corvin

damn. Finally a price I'd jump in on but sold out. Bummer.

masetodd

I assume Walmart B&Ms won't pricematch their online store??

b2net

^ there is legend that some people have succeeded in online vs store pm, but I have never been able to get them to do it. I usualy get the response to buy ths item online.

Manzana

I totally agree with your comments, Jon2 and That'sAllFolks. I didn't think my little aside comment would've generated a little discussion. I was surprised myself having PM'd Fry's 1-day sales at Target before and having been told by other Target employees that as long as the sale lasts at least 1 day it's OK to PM. That info came from pre-Black Friday questions when I asked what kind of sales they would PM.

In fact, I went out of my way to buy the LOTR set the day before because only 1 store in a 20 mile radius had it and I had early notice of the 1 day only sale. So I had it with me and the receipt and had intended to stop by Target after work, but work got on my back with yet another last minute emergency deadline ("due yesterday or else") so I wasn't able to escape work until right before Target was closing so I hurried to the store nearest me... only to be denied by the rep there. Then I asked for the manager who also denied it based on it being a special sale. I seriously almost never have problems at any Targets except my nearest store, and had I had time I would've gone by a different store, but it never occurred to me I'd be told they couldn't PM a 1-day only Fry's sale since I'd been told by other employees in CS they'll PM any original ad as long as the deal lasts at least 1 full day. So to me it's a manager inventing her own policy of what qualifies as a special sale to get out of PM'ing something. This same manager has patrolled CS before and one time right before hitting total on a deal where I did a PM + Target coupon + mfg. coupon, this manager came over to ask what was going on and then said you can't PM and use coupons at the same time. I said I'd done it before at other Target stores. She said "well, you're not doing it at my store" and "it's not my fault that other stores don't follow Target policy". I felt like saying "or maybe they do follow Target policy but you invent your own", but I kept quiet. This happened before the LOTR PM attempt, so I knew when she came out it was game over. As a result, I don't go to my nearest store if I need to buy something requiring a PM. As usual, my beef is always with the inconsistent application or interpretation of policies. That's my big gripe with BB too. Fortunately it's just my 1 store that's this way, and I use the word "nasty". Obviously the ones who don't give problems are "nice".

I actually called up the Target customer service line when this happened (for the first time ever) and got an utterly clueless rep on PM policy. I had to explain it to her, then she said she they support the local store's interpretation. I asked for a supervisor there, she said she'd ask, came back about 20 seconds later, and said no. I had a similar "we support whatever the store says" experience with BB customer service (after very long waits). The moral is... I've never once accomplished anything calling the CS numbers except wasting time, so I don't even try.

IMO, most Target employees have been pretty reasonable and nice in my experience, so there has never been a deal I couldn't get at some Target store. By denying me at my nearest store on what I think are bogus reasons, they just force me to waste time and gas to go to another one where I always end up getting the deal they denied me (except in this LOTR case because I ran out of time). Of course had I gotten it, it would still be sitting in shrinkwrap. I'll wait for a lower price and get it someday.

I could go on a whole side discussion about the ever-present words on virtually every coupon every made: "cannot be combined with other offers or promotions". That's the magic phrase that allows any employee or manager at any store (BB in particular) to deny any coupon whenever they want because theoretically anything in the weekly ad or not at full MSRP is an offer or promotion. The difference is some people/stores choose to apply this interpretation constantly while others don't. As a result, once I learn who behaves what way, I adjust to avoid the high probability deniers. I have yet to have Walmart deny me a mfg's coupon on a food product on sale, but the wording is still there on the coupon if they wanted to. If my BB stores sold food I guarantee they'd deny all those same mfg. coupons that Walmart accepts if any of the food item were on sale.

Anyway, though this has generated a long message from me, this is fortunately the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time I have no problems at most Target stores, and they are still my first choice. It's just a few isolated occasions like this which I chalk up to "nasty" employees rather than Target being deny-happy. The end result is that I have to waste a little more time and gas going to a slightly further store because I know how my local Target is.
That has always been my experience at Walmart too. I don't even attempt to PM an online price or a printed ad at Walmart because I've learned it's a waste of time.

Timber

They treat the online store as a completely seperate entity in my experience.

I get the same response as was stated above. "Order it online then"

godzilla rules

I work at Target and the company policy states that to pricematch you have to have the full ad from a store in the area (no bringing in just ta page from the ad), the ad has to be for the current week, and we don't price match any type of special promotion (ie one or two day sales, door busters, BOGO, any percentage off). So the store that denied you were right. Any price match is investigated by the higher ups and you can get into a lot of trouble if you don't follow the very strict guidelines that they have set in place. Trust me, I know.

DaveNinja

after not getting it for xmas and the price jump up to $70 i was happy to see amazon had it for $49.99 this weekend and i jumped on that deal. $35 would have been better, though, but i'm tired of not having the set haha

Schloob1

Back in stock!!!!!

Adam Tyner

Ha, and as I post two minutes later, it's already out of stock.

Mike UFC

LOL. I just bought it not just a minute ago.

SkullOrchard

Just ordered. In stock as of Monday 1:55 PM Eastern time.