georgec

Does anyone think the $8 off one DVD/Blu-Ray (min price $40) coupons will fly during a future Criterion sale? I remember it was tough enough to convince the clerks to apply the $5 off $20 coupons (blu-rays were $20 after 50% off and before other discounts).

wormraper

well, if the min price is $40 I don't see how $20 titles will have it work

Manzana

I've been tempted to go to B&N to preorder LOTR EE BD as today is the last day. Lately my painful work schedule (mandatory unpaid overtime every week and we are not allowed to take any vacation time) has meant I haven't had time during the week, and on the weekends I want to stay home and relax. I'd make the trip today except after reading various posts, while most people seem to be successful on preorders, enough people here and on SD got denied for various reasons (usually the preorder exclusion). Unfortunately the only 2 B&Ns in my area are out of my way and I'd hate to drive out there and be denied.

Another factor is the last time I was at B&N. That was when I successfully preordered the Star Wars BD set at 50% off (which I hope has not been canceled since I haven't seen a credit on my credit card yet). When I was done with that order, I mentioned I had printed a 2nd 50% off coupon and wondered if it would be OK if I used it on a separate order if I could find something. Instead of getting a simple yes or no as I expected, the employee went so far as to say she was going to call the front to tell all the cashiers if some guy tries to use a 50% off coupon, call her first so they can describe the buyer to me to make sure I couldn't use it again. I thought wow... who made her the gestappo? So I just left. Afterwards I was frankly amazed that she allowed my 1 50% off preorder. Thinking about this makes me think I'm not even going to try today. Maybe B&N will do another 50% off coupon in a few more months when LOTR EE BD set is no longer a preorder.

BTW, does anyone remember if the January 50% off coupon also had a preorder exclusion?

felcher

BN is in hard times right now. They are following managers orders to keep a tight ship. Right now it's a buyers market out there. I was at the Mall of America last week and every other store there is a primped up closeout store. Obvious to us dinosaurs but the kids had a field day. BN gave me a 15% off coupon in email. If I got a 50 % coupon that wuda ben nice. O well.

BuckNaked2k

Yes, just like this time, there were pre-order exclusions in the fine print. Thing is, most clerks won't read all that fine print, and will instead rely upon the B&N information system to accept/reject the coupon, which it consistently accepts.

P.S. - Sorry about that girl clerk, she sounds like a real winner.

kenbenobi

I can't believe Ten Commandments dropped AGAIN. $53.99 online, for $26.99 with STH. WOW! Luckily I had one store with it OOS, so was able to do STH without issue...
When I went to the cashier in media and pulled the coupons out of my pocket, the lady said "I bet you know how much these are for, don't you? I think I stared at her in disbelief, debating how I should answer that question. I said no, but when they both rang up 50% off she said, "Yep, another 50% off. I guess they're all 50% off" but she said it quite sarcastically. She obviously knew they spread around somehow, but I hadn't checked out with her during this sale, so she allowed it...

kstublen

Yeah, I'm not sure how I would have responded. I mean, that's not something most of us would expect to hear I am sure. If I wasn't trying to cram so many coupons into these few days, it would probably be effective to bring a 50% Off Coupon and a 15% Off Coupon and then just put one of the items back. But like I said, I don't have time to waste doing that, lol.

I've gotten the same cashier three days and I just tell her they keep sending me more every time I do a ship-to-home order. I don't know if she really buys it or not, but either way, she doesn't care.

lumberjack

Ordered Star Wars Blus from the January coupon.
Ordered LotR extended Blus with today's coupon.
Ordered Absolute Sandman vol. 5 slipcased book for $36.52 with another coupon.

Funny, with the current coupon, I'm able to place two preorders, which isn't supposed to work, but when I try to order ship-to-home for two Blu copies of Mad Men season 4, the price ends up being $56-something. That's terrible. I don't know why I was getting this high total when it should have been much cheaper with the current TV promotion. So I passed on getting Mad Men.

I managed to pick up a used copy of Mad Men s4 from GoHastings.com this morning. Used the $5 OLIVER coupon to basically cancel shipping and sales tax ($23-something). I bet it ends up being a new copy. It seems way too soon to get used product for such a new release.

sleepyhead55

Yeah, the cashier I had in the front yesterday definitely knew. She didn't even scan one of the coupons yesterday and just said "one 50% coupon per customer" If they ever have this again. I'm going to abuse the shit out of this on the first day before they catch on.

ProfessorEcho

The last time they did this in January, I was behind a guy in line and heard him telling the cashier all about how he was going online and printing up as many 50% off coupons as he could. He told the guy how easy it is to do and that you could just Google where to find the 50% off coupons. He wondered why anyone would even think about coming in with a blind coupon when you could so easily find the 50% off ones. The cashier just laughed and said: "I guess corporate is making these promotions easier to generate business in the store."

kenbenobi

Agreed. I had no problems Thursday or Friday. I actually didn't go to B&N yesterday, but then today the cashier obviously knew. I am going to another B&N shortly to try for my final 2 purchases. Hopefully they don't give me any issues. So far, I've had a different cashier every single time. With the last 50% coupon, I got the same cashiers over and over and over again...

kstublen

I've actually lucked out, all things considered. I've used 6 coupons with one cashier (two coupons each time on three different days) and 4 coupons with another cashier (four coupons on one day). And then I've used the coupons with a few other cashiers and once at a different Barnes & Noble.

The latter cashier is working there tonight and I stopped in just now and was going to do two more ship-to-home orders, but the system froze. I knew she'd have to call a manager to fix it, so I just said I'd get one in-store and come back later before they closed when the system was working.

Hopefully when I go back tonight I can get my last two ship-to-home orders and I will have gotten everything I set out to get (all of the pre-2007 Doctor Who DVDs that I've been missing) and then some. Obviously this sale isn't as good as it would have been during the Buy 2 Get 1 Free or the BBC 50% Off Sale, but I don't want to risk these DVDs going OOP, so as long as they're cheaper than on Amazon I'm fine with the prices I'm paying.

Lipid

Had some groupons to use up so I went overboard at my B&N today. Did 3 store to home shipments, got 2 CDs for $6 each, pre-ordered the new Malcolm X biography for $8.50, and picked up a CD for $12.

I used 4 today, and 3 yesterday. I only had one employee actually give me some disbelief/gasp that I pulled a 50% off coupon. Everyone else just scanned it and didn't really give a fuck or make any statement. I imagine they knew what was up and like any person making barely above minimum wage should respond, they didn't care. Can't wait for the next one to come around. They're not making as much profit as they'd like, but they're still selling a lot of items that normally would never get bought.

efordvt

Tried to do a ship to home order over the phone just now, didn't work. They said they had to "verify the coupon in person" to do it. lame.

dino88

January's coupon also said pre-orders were not allowed.

georgec

Okay, final blu-ray haul is:

Star Wars - $45 + tax (pre-order)
Solaris - $15.20 + tax (pre-order)
Apocalypse Now Full Disclosure - $24.30 + tax

Not a large haul compared to other posters, but good enough! If I had a car I could use this more, but I have to bike 20 min each way to the closest B&N and it's hard to do multiple trips in a few days.

sleepyhead55

Yeah, I have the same issue except that I depend on public transportation.

As long as you got what you really wanted, that's all that matters.

Murmur

This is truly a YMMV situation. When I did this for 10 Commandments, the first store wouldn't let me. They didn't give me this reason - I was told that they needed to see the coupon to input the proper % value off...in the end I had no idea what he was talking about and tried another store. I asked up front if I could do this and they didn't give me any problem at all.

I ended up at B&N one last time today and had one coupon left. I wandered around trying to decide what to use this for. I already had purchased 10 Commandments, LOTR EE, Harry Potter 7 part 1 and Taxi Driver. I finally decide upon Big Fish for $6.xx. I like the quirky nature of the movie, but more importantly, my wife does as well - and well, everything I have purchased has been mostly for me, so I wanted something for her as well. I handed the coupon to the cashier, she scanned it in, and said, "Whoa! You got a 50% one here - a golden ticket. Haven't seen one of these at all." After I left, I bet she was a little puzzled that I used a rare 50% off coupon to get a $6 movie. I guess not too many people hit this store.

kenbenobi

Went back to store #1. Made 2 purchases upstairs without issue using two coupons (a different girl was working, and kinda cute, too). But then I went downstairs to do a STH order. Oh oh, the guy from day #1 was there (the one who specifically told me I couldn't get any further discounts on a STH order, and followed me to the checkout). Then I thought I could be sly. So I went to the registers by the mall. Drat! They closed them 10 minutes earlier! I went upstairs to the registers in the children's area. Damn, they closed 10 minutes earlier, too. So then I went down to the main registers, and had her look my titles up. She said she'd be happy to have them ship to the store, and pay for them when they arrive. I said "well, could I ship them to my home instead?" She said "Sure, but you'd have to place the ship to home order over there" and points to the mean bearded guy. I thanked her and walked away. Ugh.

So I decided to drive out further to a store I haven't been to in over a year. I did a STH order for True Blood S3 in the media dept. The lady gave me the evil eye though, when she saw it was 50% off, so I didn't dare try another transaction. I tried to go to Customer Service, but no one was there. So I went to the main registers, and the kind old lady helped me there, but it took her a LOOOOONG TIME to do it. She kept making mistakes. The line behind me became HUGE, so I didn't dare ask her to do a 2nd one. So I left, with 1 item remaining that I really wanted to buy. Oh well. I should be happy with the 12 items I did buy. I hope they do this coupon thing again, but I'm sure they must get wise to it spreading over the internet like wildfire eventually... Thanks again, Lasermovies, for helping us get super bargains!!!

Harold Chasen

Huh, hadn't been checking the B&N thread but I still hadn't used my groupon, so thanks to the OPs for identifying the 50% coupon! I used it for the TV, BO,GO@50% sale. Picked up Futurama V 5 for $15 and MST3K The Movie for $7.50. Even better, with the $20 Groupon was less than $5 out of pocket (well, plus the $10 originally paid for it).

And the clerk seemed surprised that the coupon was 50% off. Didn't give her a chance to wonder why I wasn't so surprised!

kenbenobi

Maybe you just need to get in better shape!

(this is a huge case of the pot calling the kettle black)

kstublen

Somehow, I had tons of luck with this coupon. There were 23 items I wanted to get (all Doctor Who DVDs) and I wound up being able to get all of them. The crazy part was, I used 20 of the coupons at the same store; two were used at a different store and one was an online code. I spent a ton of money, but everything was cheaper than it has been on Amazon and I don't have to worry about the earlier titles going OOP anymore.

When I went back tonight there were three things I still needed to get, but I was going to be satisfied with two if I felt I wouldn't be able to get all three. The computer in the DVD department still wasn't working, so she told me to just go to another Customer Service Desk, which I did.

Unfortunately, I had had terrible luck thus far at other areas of the store, but tonight, low and behold, the girl over there was super helpful, cute, and very pleasant. I asked her if I could do three ship-to-home orders because the computer in the DVD department wasn't working and she did it no problem (every other employee either said they couldn't or refused up until that point).

So she printed out my three slips, I went back to the DVD department and had the cashier scan two of them, with coupons. Then I took the third slip up front and used it there.

One cashier in the DVD department wound up accepting 7 coupons from me, and another accepted 6 I really hope they don't get yelled at or anything.

So sorry for the long post, but just wanted to share my experience. Thanks LASERMOVIES, as always, for keeping us apprised of these coupons and deals.



That really sucks. Been there before, so I feel for you. Luckily, there was only one employee I think would have really given me trouble, and I was able to avoid him after the first trip to the store.

georgec

Hehe how dare you...

I am in good shape - it's just the time sink that makes it tough!

kenbenobi

I guarantee you're in better shape than me, but I just couldn't resist the joke! :P

ProfessorEcho

Nothing for me this coupon go around. No money and not a lot of titles I just can't live without, at least for the moment. Oh well, I still enjoy reading what people picked up, so keep on posting and CONGRATS to all of those who were able to tweak the system as much as possible and get some great bargains.

P.S. If anyone decides they don't need that crummy silent version of 10 COMMANDMENTS that comes with the box set, feel free to send it to me!