.unholy

a) Despite all the bitching and moaning in this thread, most "disgruntled customers" don't bother with a formal complaint process.
b) There's been much talk here re: the "other offers" in conjunction with which the coupon cannot be used, but whether or not anyone here agrees if the weekly sale is in fact a "special offer" is really irrelevant, as long as the corporate lawyers behind Best Buy do.
c) In either case, it's a manufacturer's coupon and, at the end of the day, BB is under no obligation to honor it.

So, I'd say no. Not really.

DeltaSigChi4

Best Buy is INDEED obligated to honour it.

That is if they want to maintain their standing with the Better Business Bureau.

I'm going tomorrow. If not accepted, I will file a formal complaint through BBB. I will also author a letter to my newspaper.

E

The Cow

That'll show 'em!

DarkLord23

Anyone know if or when they are going to restock?

My Other Self

Probably this week. Just not with the coupon.

I hope they're saving the coupons and putting them back on after the sale then. That's not really fair to the consumer..

.unholy

No, they are not. They have the right to refuse any coupon.

Welcome to corporate marketplace.

CaseyB

I picked up the sets today. The cashier had trouble scanning the coupon and asked a manager if it was a legit coupon, and took $15 off the total. I told him that it was actually for $75 off and he called another manager over and kept trying to convince her not to give me the deal with "it's already on sale for $17 and they were originally $50." The manager wouldn't hear any of it and said "give it to him, we get reimbursed for the coupons...we mail them in."

DeltaSigChi4

We'll see what the Better Business Bureau has to say about the practice of REFUSING COUPONS.

E

dvdfansub

In reality, any merchant can refuse to accept any manufacturer coupons at their discretion.

Merchants who accept coupons are just providing value-added customer service but it is not dictated by any commercial law that I am aware that they MUST accept
manufacturer coupons for a sale even though they will be reimbursed later.

The Cow

Funny how you assume they are going to refuse it. Nice attitude going in.

Even so, they don't have to honor it, so the BBB won't care.

ltrain

Good luck with that.

DeltaSigChi4

^ I'd glad to have run into someone who has spent a career working for the Better Business Bureau. Small world I suppose.

E

Mazje

Dear God...what happens if a manager disrespects you?

DirkBelig

It's so tiresome to see people shrieking that unless every little fluke deal go their way, they're going to write their BBB and paper and THEIR CONGRESSMAN TO DEMAND SATISFACTION!!!! It was a glitch which went some people's way for a couple of days and you missed out. Wah. Life happens.

I've gotten the B1G1 glitch with 2-disc SEs for an end price of $5 ea. at BB thanks to this forum; the B1G1 HD DVD deal at CC when Transformers came out and they were supposed to be dealing BDs only; the E.T. Ultimate set from K-Mart.com for

The Cow

[QUOTE=DirkBelig]It's so tiresome to see people shrieking that unless every little fluke deal go their way, they're going to write their BBB and paper and THEIR CONGRESSMAN TO DEMAND SATISFACTION!!!! It was a glitch which went some people's way for a couple of days and you missed out. Wah. Life happens.

I've gotten the B1G1 glitch with 2-disc SEs for an end price of $5 ea. at BB thanks to this forum; the B1G1 HD DVD deal at CC when Transformers came out and they were supposed to be dealing BDs only; the E.T. Ultimate set from K-Mart.com for

My Other Self

Indeed. There's no glitch.. just a good deal that Best Buy has no obligation to honor.

See I'm still confused.. would there be a reason they don't want to honor given that Fox reimburses them? If anything it clears the stock of the Best Buys to sets that would otherwise collect dust. I mean the ones I got had almost an inch of dust on the top of them.

Just seems silly that BB would throw away business like that.

GenPion

Well, I was told by one manager that "I can't let you use the coupon with the sale because it's just too good of a deal for you to get, and nine times out of ten we don't get reinberused for manufactuers coupons so it's not worth Best Buy's risk to sell them to you for only $1.99".

Seriously. That was the response. He literally told me that he would honor it but that it's too good of a deal for me as a customer. WTF?

My Other Self

That doesn't surprise me. Of all the big box retailers, Best Buy is my least favorite when it comes to customer service. Their prices and selection however, can't be beat.

I swear their management is trained to treat everyone like a complete asshole.

DirkBelig

OK, "glitch" is the wrong term. "Fortunate stacking" is more like it, but when you consider that most discounts are not meant to stack on top of sales, then Beast Buy isn't really being too dicky about not honoring this. Yeah, yeah, they get their $15 back when they send the coupons in, but it's not as if they're making it up as they go along. No retailer is obligated to sell you anything at any price. If you walk in with a 'tude and they kindly suggest you go FOAD, it's not like your civil rights were violated. I'm just tired of people's first, last and only reaction to disappointment is to call in a nuclear strike.

etcl

geez tats really way off ....

i can understand if they refuse to honour it as its a discount on top of a special price ... but if its just because the deal is too good ?????

The Cow

I'm with you on the bitching. Like I said, it's mostly the trolls that are doing that, and you are feeding it. Just like the "i called a CSR posts" in a bunch of other deal threads.

But still, vendor coupons and retail sales are distinctly different.

mnementh

So what was the point of the online $15 discount? Even though it applied the discount to a single season set, that deal's gone from the website. I'd be surprised if that sale had been a glitch.

The Cow

Oddly this is still there (you can't get it, but the ad is there -- and the S1 SE is showing OOS), straight off the main page:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site//olspage...&type=category

DVD Polizei

As usual, BestBuy waits for how many customers buy a "deal" before they call it legit or not.

The problem here is, Best Buy has conflicting managers at every single store, allowing or disallowing a "deal". Not only does this invalidate any Best Buy reason to not sell you something, but it puts them in a position to be complained via outlets which deal with consumer complaints.

True, no retailer obligated to sell you anything, but at the same time, what kind of steps does Best Buy take to prevent such "fortunate stacking" incidents. It's like they do it on purpose, just to get you in the store.

You have to ask yourself, with all the Best Buy "deals" over the years, you'd think somebody in advertising would have half a brain to recognize such a problem. Which is why I call bullshit, and say BestBuy certainly knows about the deal, but tell managers they have the right to tell customers they can or cannot participate in it.

Not only does Best Buy participate in shady consumer marketing tactics, but they are ripe for class action lawsuits which will allege purposeful misconduct on sales to entice customers to set foot in their store.

This is a form of a Bait & Switch scheme. Best Buy simply hires a "3rd Party" advertiser, actively knows what's going to happen in their stores across the nation when a "good deal" spreads on the net like a viral campaign, and then simply washes their hands clean because they aren't responsible for their 3rd Party advertiser's mistakes, and sit back and watch the consumers flock to the stores to boost sales.

The Cow

Psst... They honored this for a whole lot of people.

How the hell is this a bait and switch? They still sell exactly what they have in their weekly ad.

This is a coupon on the set. It is not a Best Buy coupon, they can choose or not choose to go with it, just like any other store. As you have seen over the years, store managers have discretion. It's stupid that some won't, but that's their choice.

You know as well as I do, people aren't going to "flock to their stores" and find this unavailable and buy something else.