madcougar

This has happened to me before at BB. So no surprise here.

rickitickitavi

The concept of pricematching was originally established to keep a customer from going to another store and buying the item. If you end up trying to pricematch instead of buying the item at the advertised store, they have accomplished their goal. Requiring the item to be "in stock" is a way for them to get out of deal. Stores know that most people will buy the item at that point, and not deal with getting a raincheck at the advertising store. Sure, this is their perrogative, but the problem is that the rules are not enforced consistently chainwide or even within the same store.

The reason I'm in this forum is to get the best deal on DVD's I want. Pricematching, along with coupons or rewards points can really make a deal. I may not like the store rules, but guess if I really want the deal, Im going to have to deal with the inconsistency and BS. A few things I've learned are that all deals are YMMV (your mileage may vary) and sometimes you might want to swallow your pride if the deal doesn't happen, because it never fails, somebody will post a deal ond DVDTalk that you cant pass up, and you are going to have to deal with the store again to get it.

El-Kabong

See, here's your problem. The next words out of your mouth should have been. "Then please call ALL the Circut Citys in the greater metropolitian area. I'll wait."

Just keep having them call other CC's in the area until you either hit a store that has one or they get fed up and give you the price.

HistoryProf

I've had BB give me lots of crap in situations like this before, but CC ALWAYS pm's without any questions...for instance, a year or so ago when KMart accidentally pictured the 2 disc SE of Romper Stomper for 9.99 I walked in to CC, found a copy, and walked out 2 minutes later with it for $9 plus tax.

WestEndRiot

oh please. "stuck it to the man?" we're not talking about an eternal struggle for human rights here. it was an instance of miscommunication. had you stayed calm and asked to speak to the floor manager i'm sure he/she would have complied.

yet another glaring example of why everyone should have to work retail at least once in their lives.

Copenhagen

This is a pretty valid point...once you get some retail time under your belt, your perception of things change a bit.

Jah-Wren Ryel

Yeah, you realize what a really crappy job it is and if you have any ability whatsoever you will vow to never work retail again. Been there, done that.

Troy Stiffler

Yea... I did that at a CC when "The Rules of Attraction" came out. Originally, it was out of stock, and the CSR said that they don't give out rainchecks. But he said that I can just take back the ad later on, and still get it for the sale price.

Me007gold

ive worked retail for a good 2.5 years near the begining i was a dick about this, then near the end i stoped caring, what did i care if the company lost $2 on a dvd by me price matching?, if i saved them the money, would the give it back to me? no.

if the police is to price match, idont see what the big freakin deal is

Venom

i went to target to get the ben still show, actually to get an ad. they of course don't have ads that you can take, and they are out of stock. i grab a raincheck and head to best buy.

i figure i'm sol without an ad, but i grab stiller and another dvd target had a better price. i asked the guy if he could just call to see what the prices were. he did. i was abit taken back and surprized he would do this. of cousre he came back and said the one was a go but stiller was not since they didn't have it stock.

Barings

There have been times when I been prone to throw fits over Best Buy's erratic pricing and matching policies. There have been several times when I missed a sale by a day or forgot to bring in a competitor's flyer, but I found it's better to sometimes let the issue slide since they usually balance out in the end.

For example, I missed the opening week deal on La Femme Nikita, but they still had yellow price tags up. I mentioned it in passing to a CSR and he gave me the sale price.

I was really pissed off that they actually RAISED the price of the Magnavox MDV455 DVD player the weekend before Christmas. It had consistently been in the $50 range most of December, and kept putting off on the purchase thinking they would continue to lower it. Since I had a four-day weekend coming up and a lot of dvd viewing to catch up on, I finally swallowed my pride and bought it on Christmas eve for $70 plus tax.

That's probably a good description of all our relationships with these stores, but is it really worth it to get into verbal battles over $5 and then promise yourself that you'll never walk in that store again? The problem is with only four major B&Ms - BB, CC, WM, and Target - you'll eventually block yourself out of every store.

OTOH, I just returned the player mentioned earlier to one BB yesterday using the 30 day return policy to avoid dealing with the hassles of BB price-matching their own products. Every CSR seemed to have an attitude. The first words out of their mouths, "What's wrong with it?" were said in a very accusatory manner.

I simply said that it did not play all the media that I wanted it to. I bought the same model from another store at its regular price along with a copy of Crime Story!

Was it worth it? Maybe, maybe not. I nearly lost the first disc of Aqua Teen Hunger Force that I left in the player and had to go back to the original store the next day to get it. The $20 savings on the player was virtually offset by the stress of going back and the near-loss on having to replace ATHF at the same price.

So take this advice with a grain of salt: Walk away, it's not worth it!

Rob052067

Over the years, several stores have called their competitor to verify availablity of an advertised item before they would price match. I may not like it, but I certainly don't fault the stores for having such a policy - even if it is hidden in the fine print. There are often misprints in ads and limited quantities at the advertising store, and usually the advertised prices are discounted & advertised with assistance from the manufacturers and may be the result of the store buying a large bulk of items at a discount in order to advertise lower prices. Price Matching policies are in place so stores can compete better, but there's no reason to compete against a sold out product advertised by someone else.

By the way - I don't think this is a new policy. I don't usually have any problem with Best Buy verifying availability at the advertising competitor, but there have been a couple items in the past few years where they did. I think it depends on the item and how much the price difference is between the two stores.

- A long time, satisfied Best Buy customer.

asianxcore

again it just all depends on the person you are talking to. some employees are tight and go by the book a lot. then you sometimes get some that take like 2 seconds to do the pricematch. I priced matched the 2 Lord of The Rings Extended Editions a couple months ago during "Black Friday" and it took a total of 5 minutes. yup just all depends on whose working.

cynthia

Does Best Buy price match BestBuy.com?

WestEndRiot

no but you can use in-store pick up on most items that are in stock and get the item at the online price.

speedyray

Oh, I just wanted to add, from my ear;ier post that I wish I had the balls to go off on BB like cornflake. The customer service is pitiful there and the staff is a bunch of idiots in general that do not know what they are talking about. I correct them regularly while I shop there. Since the deals have been getting less and less, I just stay away. Like I said, CC will match it and they are at least nice when I ask them for help whether it be a PM or just where something is located. I have noticed they have very few really young employees - they seem to know if I am happy, I will be back when i need something else.

Scott27

The one time I tried that, I asked the guy in the DVD department and he said I would need a print-out from BB.com with the lower price (which I didn't have). But I went to the service desk just for shits and giggles, told the guy the price on the Web site, and he did it right away. Of course, that was only for $1, so YMMV.

Michael Corvin

I price matched the Cheers season 2 set last week, no hassles. I went with my brother, he bought a VCR, and I just said we didn't feel like making another stop so I wanted to PM target's price. I had no ad, he just asked how much they had it for and adjusted it. That's it. He said it didn't matter to him because he was off in 3 minutes.

sicklerice

I wish I could work as a BB CSR for a while. I'd be a real jerk about this stuff, cuz it's fun to be a jerk!

When someone wants a price check, you tell them they are on the list of PM abusers and you can't help them.

It boggles my mind that people waste their time in BBs and CCs when they visit DVDTalk. The gas you waste driving around to those hellholes offsets any amount of savings (over best Internet price) that you'll ever find.

Though, I can remember back in the days of pricematching and coupons in the reel/800/buy heyday. Man, that was nuts.

POWERBOMB

As far as I can tell only Best Buy, CC, Comp USA, Fry's and Wal-mart have a PM policy.

Target flat out does not.

And Toys"R"us and kroger's do, but only for certain chains. {This is what I find most bizarre}

For the thread starter, that has been BB's policy since as far back as I have been shopping there. Also know that they will only check stores within a few miles of their location. I once saw a "customer" get worked up because the employee refused to call every CC in the phone book.

eau

Last time I checked they would do a price adjustment within 14 days of purchase. After 14 days but before 90 days, the workaround is to purchase the item and return it with the old receipt.

STEVEIGNORANT

The policy was clearly stated at my Circuit City in writing that it has to be in stock. That is just to protect them as so many others have said from price matching on the higher cost items such as televisions, camcorders, etc. The 1 time I price matched it was in and out in 5 minutes. I don't think they bother with smaller priced items like dvd's for the most part, CC anyway.

bga

CC will do the 110% pricematch at the cashier's (although I once had a manager so no, but another manager said yes before I got out the do), but all the BB's in my area make you go to customer service before they'll do a 110% PM. I've had a few CS drones call, but unless it's something that flies out the door, they'll PM without bothering to call.

dvdphilic

My experience in winning in PM battle:

Assuming we all agree that BB only PMs a DVD which is in stock at another store.

Let's say you want to PM a DVD from Target's ad. How does BB know if this DVD is available at Target? You are right. BB must call Target. Well, here comes the tricky part, do you guarentee the employee at Target who answers this call knows where to find the DVD? Guys, I've been in this situation a lot. BB will play a trick with us here. They will call the general customer service at Target and then are transferred to the corresponding department. If the employ at Target happens to be not well trained and doesn't know where to find the DVD, then you will be in big trouble. In this case the guy at Target will say they don't have that DVD and BB will assume Target is out of stock. (Usually the BB employee will give you a big smile as if they have won and you are ****ed). So if you want to succeed, you'd better pay a visit to the Target store before you go to BB and find the DVD and remember the location. If the above situation occurs, you must talk to the Target employee yourself over the phone to prove he's wrong and tell him where to find the DVD which you want to PM. So there's a lot of effort and research you have to do if you don't want to get into trouble and waste your time. The more prepared you are, the more chances you will succeed.

Any comment from y'all is welcome.

Trevor

Why wouldn't you just buy it at Target then? The 4% you save in Reward Zone points isn't worth the time/gas to drive to another store I would imagine.