kenbenobi

I did not. Have you actually used your registered Visa card at B&N? I'm curious if that is why, or if the selection process is random.

kenbenobi

I received the "approve an extension within 24 hours or we'll cancel the item" email. After I approved it, the item shipped in less than an hour. So why did I have to approve an extension?!?!?!?!

clckworang

I think I have used it at B&N before.

Brooklyn

Maybe if you'd declined they would have sent it to me

kenbenobi

LOL! Sorry, I wasn't talking about Godzilla. Just the crazy way that B&N operates...

Louisville S

$34 and change for the three Hitchcocks.

pathman

How? They still aren't eligible online.

Louisville S

They were available at my store. I called in the morning yesterday and the guy in the Media Department confirmed they had one of each on Blu-ray. I was excited! He held them for me and after work I went to pick them up.

They were $24.99 each and I received an additional 10% discount since I am a member. I got the third movie free ("Buy 2, Get 1" Promotion), then I used a 20% member coupon, 15% non-member coupon, and $5 off an order of $15 or more (text from BN Buzz for enrolling).

• $24.99 * 0.90 = $22.49 * 0.80 = $17.99
• $24.99 * 0.90 = $22.49 * 0.85 = $19.12
• $24.99 * 0.90 = $22.49 * 0.00 = $00.00

• $17.99 + $19.12 = $37.11 - $5.00 ($5 off $15 or more)
• $32.11 * 1.0625 (Sales Tax)
• $34.12



I wasn't going to wait and hope Barnes & Noble fixes them so they work online for the "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" deal. Nearest Costco is 66 mile roundtrip and I don't have a membership, and my Best Buy rarely carries new catalog titles. I figure this was the next best deal.

Living Deadpan

As always, thanks for the printout coupons, LASER.

Now, pardon me while I bitch about my most recent B&M visits...

Unless there's a Criterion sale going on, the main reason I stop at a B&M store is to pick up what they don't sell online: the latest issue of certain magazines (Rue Morgue, Video Watchdog, the occasional heavy metal mag like Terrorizer).

For the last few years I've been able to use these coupons without incident. However, my last couple of visits, the cashier's claimed "these don't work with magazines". I politely say they've been working for the last year or two. Then they pause to scrutinize the fine print, or hold up the line even longer by calling their supervisor over to scrutinize the fine print. They scroll their finger past "Additional Rules", spot the word "magazines", and respond with the corporate equivalent of a sarcastic "abracadabra".

Now, the first time they pulled this shit, it was late at night & they were closing, I assumed they were right & let it slide. But when I got home & read the coupon, I saw... they misread it & treated me like a dick for trying to use a perfectly valid coupon. Nothing unscrupulous about it. They can't read their own fine print:
They skipped over the "digital content" part.

But I let it slide. "Hopefully everything will be back to normal next time. But if they challenge me again, I won't look forward to reading their own coupon to them."

Sure enough, next time I'm at the B&M delicately clutching a magazine, the clerk says "These coupons don't work with magazines sometimes." She calls her equally middle-aged supervisor. Both middle-aged ladies misread the fine print. As politely & non-condescendingly as possible, I point out that the "magazines" they're isolating appears in a larger parenthetical context of Digital Content. The says, doubtfully, "Well, we can try it." She scans the code with the physical equivalent of a *sigh*.

Of course it doesn't scan. They never scan.

So then she goes the full nine yards of manually punching in the 6 number code, looking forward to revealing me as a misguided, difficult customer who's holding up the line. Oh, she really doesn't want this coupon to work with the December Cronenberg issue of Fangoria. "Oh, it worked." I get my 15 fucking percent off (which is only like 6% after the 9% tax). And I have the nerve to ask for one of their slim magazine bags to keep the magazine protected during my 20 minute drive home.

It's not a nice feeling to leave a B&N saying to myself "Fuck this, I might as well stick to Fearshop.com if I want to buy the latest Rue Morgue. It usually arrives a few weeks before B&N put it on their shelves, anyway."
------------------------

To end on a more positive note: I've never encountered shit like this in the calm, segregated media section. In fact, sometimes I've ended up with the media clerk ringing up my magazine & coupon. I've grabbed my magazine first, then brought it with me as I browse in the media section. I'm the only one there. The media clerk's at the desk, not dealing with anyone. I hold up my Fango Rue Watchdog:

"Would I be able to buy this here?"
"Absolutely!"

There's an old lady in the media center who treats it as a positive, impressive thing when I'm able to find a bargain (especially using a coupon in conjunction with a 50% off Criterion).

The moral of the story is: The media center of a B&N B&M is a calm, understanding, tasteful oasis surrounded by ----s who are doing their part in discouraging potential customers from buying printed media at B&M stores.

At least in my experience with one particular B&M store. Anyone else find their media clerks to be far preferable to the ones lined up at the front of the store?

[And yes, I'm well aware what a petty First World Problem this is when compared to the grand scheme of a world bathed in bloodshed, oppression & rape.]

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

At least you have a media center. We only have books at ours.

When I first got my membership, I wrote down the number that it said to use in the email, until I got my card. The guy at the counter said that wasn't the right membership number because it had too many digits in it, so I had to dig my phone out, look up the email to show him that it really was the right number. If he hadn't been acting like a douche the entire time and was more open to the possibility that he doesn't actually know everything, I wouldn't have cared.

Louisville S

When I handed the coupons to the cashier last night he started to say "They're not going to work on these items . . . oh wait!"

He thought they were $8 off $40 coupons. I had to explain they were percentage off coupons.

nealg

Here's a first for me:

Last night I handed the media manager/cashier the 20% and 15% coupons to use towards Annie Hall, Manhattan, and The Apartment, which I'd called to place on hold the night before. He said "One coupon per transaction." I said "Since when?" He said "It's always been the policy." I told him it was the first time I've ever had an issue, but of course to him that didn't matter.

Then he told me, holding up the 15% coupon, "You can't use this anyway, since you're a member. This is a non-member coupon." I said, "You mean if I didn't have the 20% member coupon then I still couldn't use the 15% coupon?" Then he said quietly, "It might work."

Calmly annoyed, I said "No thanks" to the whole deal, and I walked out. Twenty-five minutes each way, packing my baby into the car. Great. I could go back and hope I get my usual guy, but I think I wasted enough gas and time. Which I only did because the titles are NOT included in the B2G1 online.

Yeah, it was only like a $4 difference, but I don't NEED to buy them now, just that the deal would have been pretty good. Besides, they'll probably show up at Costco next week for $9.99 like the Hitchcocks.

ProfessorEcho

Great post as always from my buddy, Deadpan, and the responses are equally entertaining and informative befitting the caliber of talent Laser inspires in this thread, but I still think my recent experience may trump all....

A clerk at the Burbank, CA B&N had waited on a woman wearing a lot of perfume right before me and engaged me in a conversation about how the greatest smell in the world is a man's natural scent. He boasted how he never used any deodorant or cologne and loved the way he smelled. He went into the biology and history of male odors and finally at the end of it asked if I wanted to smell him. I told him I thought I left the coffeemaker on at home and had to go.

albert_m

Magazines have always been excluded. I would never even try because aside, from reading it on the coupon clearly, it just seems so obvious.

I find coupons like these - 20% off, on top membership discount and any sale price if any, makes for a decent deal on a cd, dvd or book.

kenbenobi

I received a text from BN Buzz with an in-store coupon for 20% off. I assume this would be difficult to use if you didn't receive the text, but here it is:
503391
Valid for 3 days

chaingunsofdoom

Any idea why the online sale wasn't fixed for the entire time it was on? Did they fire their website staff? I am trying to get 6 items for the B2G1F sale, and the cart refuses to give me more than one item free. I know this used to work OK during previous sales... I would contact them, but what good would that do?

kenbenobi

^ Are you positive that ALL 6 titles were eligible sale titles?

jwstl

I think it's been one freebie per order for some time. I don't recall being able to get 2 free in an order when all 6 qualify. I just place 2 orders.

Living Deadpan

Damn, I thought this would lead up to something like...

"The clerk, btw, was John Landis."

ProfessorEcho

Laser Movies

A couple of more store coupons you can try if you need them. These might be ymmv since they are the unique code variety and have already been redeemed online.

kenbenobi

^ If my theory holds water based on recent experience with one-time use coupons, EACH local store's computer will allow each coupon ONCE. But for only 15% off, I won't be trying them. If anyone else tries them, post your success or failure stories here...

forumsmy

I have never had a problem with magazines and coupons whether 15% or 50% and would also get the normal in-store 10% on top. Been doing this for years in the past, not recently though.

Laser Movies

Just a reminder today is the last day of the b2g1f sale. Maybe a chance of getting some last minute bargains tonight before it ends on the B&N web site.

Laser Movies

Just discovered the surprise coupons are coming again this week. To receive a valid coupon will require receiving B&N emails.