There's now an XBLA thread

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=513779

If anyone was on the fence about the Mad Catz Live Arcade Stick (like I was), you might want to know that if you can still find it at Target on clearance, it has dropped to the magic $19.98 price point. While the reviews weren't great (though IGN did give it a 7.5), it comes with 3 games valued at 1600 points. So it's like a wash even if you hate the stick. I'm hoping against hope that if nothing else, the fixed D-pad will make Pac-Man CE easier for me.

Do they do 110% price match? I'll have to go tomorrow and adjust the price, thanks!

JUST got back from Target (and it's 5 minutes away). They said they don't pricematch clearance items. Took them 35 minutes to finally show me on the wall where it stated that (I told them that I all I wanted was that policy in writing, and they stated that they didn't know if it was in writing and if it was they didn't know if they could give it to me). After 35 minutes they finally called a manager (they were in a meeting supposedly) and the manager finally pointed on the wall (in little letters, off to one side, not in big letters in the middle like the return policy) where it said no pricematch on clearance items. Their own employees don't know what's tacked on to their wall.

They also pointed out that it's covered on that same week or the week after, so if you buy on a Sunday, you pretty much just have a week of price protection.

I went to video games to get the item # (lost the receipt) and the guy told me 5 times he didn't have it and that they don't pricematch clearance items (but he also failed to produce the policy in writing) and by the time I got back to customer service he was on the phone with them giving them the item # and making sure I didn't get money back.

This is probably my last time shopping at Target (I don't regularly shop there as it is) unless it's this huge steal of a deal. Their price guarantee policy sucks. And that employee that called to make sure I don't get money back got on my nerves.

This could have easily taken 2 minutes. "Can't guarantee price on clearance items." "Can I see that in writing?" "Sure, there in small letters on the wall." "Oh. " ::leaves::

I agree that was a pretty crappy way to handle your situation. I do know that they don't pm clearance because the prices are based on how many that particular store has and how they are selling. The prices aren't set by the store but set by the corp. on a store by store basis.

Deb, sorry about that. I went through the same deal with Target with the game LOTR : BFME 2; and I STILL haven't cracked that puppy open (I swore this gen I wasn't going to buy games for the sake of getting cheap games but I still do a little).
Too bad you didn't have the receipt or you could do the old buy & swap. Still it's only $9 difference, and since you spent about $400 less than me on your 360, I think you probably came out ahead there.

As a former Target employee, I feel for the co-workers and manager that had to "show you the policy in writing". Last time I checked Target doesn't price match anything. Maybe that's changed but I doubt it.

My thoughts on the Mad Catz Arcade GameStick after brief trial:

It's not very good. The main stick is VERY loose. It actually works well for Ageis Wing (and probably other flying 2-D games like Time Pilot) since it allows quick, broad maneuvers but it's absolutely unusable for games that require precision like Pac-Man CE or anything that requires 2 stick movement like many of the best Arcade games (Geometry Wars, Assault Heroes, Robotron, etc, etc). The D-pad is actually pretty useful. Games like Pac-Man and Dig Dug require precise 90 degree turns and the big cross is a lot easier to do that than the loose standard 360 D-pad (not that it raised my CE score yet, but I'm still hoping). The spinner is completely worthless. It's a shame since at least in theory it's a cool feature to have, but if you can't use it at all accurately in Zuma or in Luxor, then what the hell is it supposed to be used for? I wish I liked it more, but still if the D-pad proves useful I might break it out occasionally. For $20 I still think it has potential, but if any sucker bought this thing for its original MSRP of $60, well I feel very sorry for them.

I just upgraded to the Elite today.

After doing the data transfer with the hard drives, what else do I need to do to make sure that there's no personal information, credit cards, etc left on the old 360?

Sorry, I have to side with Target. They told you they don't pricematch clearance items so you proceed to get two employees involved and pull a manager out of a meeting to just to show you the policy over $8? That's always been their policy, and just the nature of buying something on clearance. I'd even hazard a guess that most places regard clearance items the same, not just Target.

A few days ago you thought $28 was a steal. You got a deal. $20 in games you wanted and a $10 controller. You could have waited to see if it dropped further (clearance items ending $.98 always drop further), but then you run the risk of not finding one. That's the gamble.

If Decker is right, and it is now $19.98 it will drop at least one more time before they ship them off to Goodwill. If you see something with a price ending in $.94 that is the lowest it will go and will likely be gone by the time Monday rolls around.

The local Targets here stopped price matching anything quite a while back, almost 2 years ago I think. I've had luck returning an unopened clearance item, and then buying it back at the lower price, but I had the receipt.

I found one of the sticks last night along with a few 360 games that were now 50% off (Tomb Raider, Hitman Blood Money, Arcade Unplugged, Tiger Woods 07, and NHL 2K7) so yes they'll still have a 75% markdown. One of the stores had 4 of the Madcatz sticks when they went on clearance, and I was hoping at least one would make it 75% off. Although I will probably go back and pick it up for $19.98, as I always intended to trade in the stick at EB/Gamestop anyway.

Best Buy, Circuit City, Toys 'R Us, Wal-Mart, etc., offer price guarantee on their own items. They don't section part of the store for items they want to sell at a price but not have to match on past purchases. And I think it's reasonable to ask to see in writing those policies. I've never had a store tell me "because I said so and that's it" (not that they said that verbatim). How hard is it to know that in the store that you work at, the price guarantee policy is stuck to the wall to one side in small letters? I don't think it's too much to ask.

Couldn't have done that because I used the codes that came with it, so it wasn't returnable

Now that I've seen the policy, I won't buy there again because I find it worthless.

BTW I don't know if many people know this: You can redeem codes if you create an account at XBOX.com ... a lot less painful to do it with a full-size keyboard. You can also check and send text messages to/from your Live buddies and accept friend invitations (might be able to do a lot more, haven't explored it further). Just redeeming codes is enough to make the site a keeper for me.

"NOTE: Only prepaid codes for Xbox LIVE Subscriptions or Microsoft Points can be redeemed online." (i.e. prepaid games cannot be redeemed online).

Yeah, I'd think if there's a policy they should be able to point to it. Maybe not the guy stocking the shelves, but the person at the Customer Service/returns counter. She didn't know people were in a meeting, and that's the management's fault for not training their people enough to know their own policies. The inverse has happened more than once--I've been told a store doesn't do something, then I've pointed out where their own policies specifically say they do. The consumer has to be alert nowadays. I think I price guaranteed something at Target last year before Christmas, though it wasn't a clearance item. But yeah, I try to keep receipts and I definitely am not afraid to return/rebuy.
What games come with the stick?

Time Pilot, Frogger, and a game I've become addicted to, Astropop. That game is just awesome. I don't use it for the XBOX (I like the wireless controller) but I use it almost on a daily basis with the computer. I don't use the stick or the spinner, just the buttons and the D pad, and it works awesome. I've been looking for a computer gamepad for a long time and finally found one.

Anyone have a link to what this Madcatz stick looks like? I might have to check out my local Target but don't really know what I am looking for.

Does it just come with some points in the box or just certain game codes?

Comes with codes for the games.

Buy unit A for $28.98 open it. Keep the receipt. Then buy unit B a few weeks later for $19.98 and DON'T open it. Return unit B with the receipt from unit A and receive $28.98 back. Now do you get it?

That's not kosher, though If Target wants to play games like this, I just won't shop there. However I wouldn't do anything like that.

Another question...doesn't the new system come with a free month of XBL? Or did I just imagine that?

Play games like what? They have a policy. You tried to get them to do something against their policy. How is that playing games?

Please tell me how the following is trying to get them to do something against policy.

- I want to get a price guarantee on this.
- We don't do that.
- Please let me see that in writing.
- We don't have that in writing I think and if we do we may not be able to show it to you.

Play games: Call something "clearance" when you want to sell it for cheaper but don't want to price match on recent sales. Please let me know of another major retailer that does this.

There you go.

Maybe because i live in an area without Best Buys and the like... but could someone explain this "price guarantee" thing? From context i'm assuming it is supposed to be a guarantee that if i buy something at one price on day one and that item goes on sale on day 10 i would somehow be given that new sale price after the fact?

That seems really weird to me and i can't imagine businesses really doing things like that. I suppose it makes sense with big ticket items to encourage people to buy their TV from you... but on a game it seems silly.

Only if you start a new Live account/gamertag. That's why I switched my gamertag, I'd rather have a free month than to keep my gamertag that I used with the original Xbox.