Buy A GeForce4 Ti4600 And Get Arrested @ BestBuy.com!

[jadison]

After hearing of Best Buy's previous product pricing mistakes, this one definitely takes the cake. Here's a quote summarizing this story from Neowin.net (http://www.neowin.net) and originally from Hypothermia (http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com)

"Here's a strange one... we found an Advertisement at BestBuy.com yesterday that proclaimed "VisionTek GeForce4 Ti4600 for Special Pre-Order Price of $129.00..the savings is a $200.00 Value". Normally a "typo" or mistake would be something to the effect of a misplaced decimal point or an accidental wrong price. It usually doesn't consist of adding terms like Special Pre-Order Price and savings is a $200.00 Value, ( since it sounds reasonable $129.00 + $200.00 savings for a card announced that day with no real set price yet ) all over the advertisement. So we did the right thing and CALLED. BestBuy.com confirmed the price of $129.00 twice, at which time they gave us the $200.00 value / saving quotes. After a whole day of ordering, they reneged on the deal and cancelled all orders. The money has yet to be refunded. I have made a sign-up page for all of you that placed orders with Best Buy so that we may get as many people taken care of as possible. I have been in contact with them all day....

Best Buy has stooped to an all time low. It seems that if you live in Dekalb County Georgia and you take these receipts in asking why you did not get your videocard while hundreds of other people are, they will HAVE YOU ARRESTED. Abraham Cherian went into the store to ask why he was not given the card while others were....he showed the receipts...they made him stand out front while they hid in the back calling the police. Abraham has suffered the humiliation of being arrested because Best Buy says they have RED FLAGGED these receipts.</font>

Read more about this here. (http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/articles/bestbuy_gf4deal.html)

What are your ideas and opinions of this matter? Post your comments here.

[KenKun]

What a horror story :eek: :D

What a mistake :bunny:

[caddmannq]

I really hate Best Buy, & will probably never do business with them again. I've gone in there several times when merchandise that they advertised "on sale" was not in stock at all and hadn't been in stock.

When I bought my GF3 card there, they only had one left, and it had a "security girdle" locked around the box. But under that, the box had so obviously been re-shrinkwrapped (loosely) that I immediately knew it had been previously opened. I made the sales clerk open the box, and check the contents. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "This ones been opened. Give me another one."
Him: "Sorry. That's the last one."
ME: "Ummm...is that really a GeForce 3 Ti 500?"
Him: "Yeah...sure."
Me: "How do you know?"
Him: "It says it on the card." (He opens the box.)

(BTW: it does not say it on the card. I did my homework first. In fact, unless you know what to look for, it's almost indistinguishable from a Ti200 or a GF2.)

Me: "Oh? Where? Show me."
Him: "Ummm...I can't take it out of the anti-static bag."
Me: "You have no idea, do you. See this little thing here (pointing to the slightly different componant location) it is a GF3."
Him: "Oh...good."
Me: "But this one's been opened. How do I know that it's not used? What if it doesn't work?"
Him: "Bring it back and we'll give you another one."
Me: "You just said this was the last one!"
Him: "Oh, yeah. Well, we'll get some more in another week."

I'd been to four stores, and evidently this was the last GF3 Ti500 in town. So I bought it, and it worked. Lucky me.

But talk about an uncomfortible way to spend nearly $400!

(I have more ugly Best Buy stories, but I'm outta time now.)

[caddmannq]

Ugly story No. 2:

I went to Best Buy for a car CD player for my son-in-law for Christmas. They've got about 30 different ones on sale. The one I want is on the top shelf, waaaay up there. There are two salesmen and 5 customers in the isle, and I wait as long as I patiently can. The salesmen are pretty much just BS'ing away with some kids in ratty jeans and rock-n-roll t-shirts, and they see me waiting for them. And I see them see me waiting, and I see them ignore me, and I'm tired of waiting. So I push their little rolling step down the isle and get the box down myself.

No sooner do my feet hit the ground, than a salesman breaks off from his life-and-death conversation, runs down the isle to me, and rudely grabs the box from my hand.

He says: "I'm sorry sir. I can't let you do that."
"Do what?" I ask. "Buy a CD player?"
"I can't let you take that box."
"Why not?"
"I have to take top-shelf items up to the check stand for you."
"Why? It's not that heavy."
"We have a lot of thefts of these items."

Now I'm standing there in all my bald, over-fed middle-aged glory, wearing a $500 leather dress coat, $400 glasses, a $60 hat, $75 slacks, $200 hand-stitched loafers, wearing a $900 gold ring and a $600 watch, and my wife was very well-dressed too. I'd just cashed my Christmas bonus check, and I've got a wad of bills in my pocket big enough to choke a horse; and this $5-an-hour moron thinks I'm gonna steal a cheap car stereo? I felt like embossing the end of his nose with that gold ring.

Instead, I said: "Well, lets GO!"
"First I have to finish helping this customer."
"Has he offered to buy anything? Or are you just BS'ing about stereos?"
"Ummm...just a minute."

I considered my options for a moment while he went back to his pressing business, and then excuses himself. We go up to the check-out, he gives the box to the checker, and I get in line.

Three customers later, I'm fishing $100 bills out of my pocket and pushing them at the checker.

"What did you have? She asks.
"The Sony CD." I said.
"Where is it?"
"You stashed it under your counter? The red and gray box??"
"Oh, this?" She pulls it out.
"Yup."

She rings it up. "$239." (more or less)
"Ummm...that one is on sale for $179." I said.
"Oh." She calls up the assistant manager, and they spend a couple minutes argueing about whether that one is on sale, and what the price is. Then they correct the cash register.

I hand her two $100 bills, and she looks at them like two rotten catfish. She looks at me, decides I am a notorious forger, and tries to check the hundreds with her little marking pen. It's dry.

"Hey Sylvia! Can I use your marker?" Sylvia tosses the marker. With the cap off. She misses, and it hits my wife right in the face. My wife yells ar her, she yells back, the assistant manager (and everybody else in the store) watches the whole thing, trying not to crack up, and he comes over and apologises to my wife. Who now has a new freckle on her cheek.

We finally get our box and our reciept, and step five feet toward the door. To be immediately intercepted by the "door checker" who wants to see our reciept, and our box. (Mind you, he saw the whole incident with the marker, as he was talking to the assistant manager when it happened.) I grimace, hand him the reciept, and he checks it. I hand him the bag with the stereo. He drops it.

Walking back to the car, my wife says, "You know, every trip to Best Buy goes just like that, doesn't it?"

I couldn't argue with that. She was right.

[GohanSSJ]

Hmm thats strange Kenkun just have been made mod on TechIMO and now he post here, what a coincedence (yeah i saw his register date)

[jadison]

Ever thought about making a short film or documentary over this, caddmannq? I mean, you tell it so well (again, I apologize for the utter insolence and stupidity of the novice staff at Best Buy)...but seriously? I mean, I would be the Editor (:D) ... and you'd write the screenplay... and we'd get maybe KenKun or NDC to host the show, and work out the rest later...boy, we'd have a killer documentary for 20/20 or Dateline! :)

And, at the same time we would promote XtremePcCentral! :cooldude:

What do you say? ;)

[Mntsnow]

hehe

[NeoStarO1]

Hehehe, let me know when it airs so I can watch all the XtremePC dudes squashing Best Buys Butt!!!!

hehehehehe ;)

[caddmannq]

Originally posted by jadison
Ever thought about making a short film or documentary over this...boy, we'd have a killer documentary for 20/20 or Dateline...What do you say?Umm...well, maybe. But would I HAVE to go back in that store???
:jaw:

[BBA]

LOL...

You guys are funny. I think your problem is not BestBuy...it's location.

Umm...cad: Fresno, CA, might have something to do with the store clerks attitudes. That kind of reminds me of the impression I got from clerks in various stores in Ca when I went there a few years back. -Not to mention a little episode at Fry's where someone important to me was hurt in the store.

I've bought quite a bit of stuff from the Best Buy here...no problem with anything yet, but, refusing to honor advertisement is something that would piss me off as well.

[Socal]

LOL @ BestBuy clerks. There's one close to me also, but I really don't go in there much.

I swear, Fry's isn't nearly as uptight ... I've had to grab stuff off the top shelves before, and so I just climb up the shelves and get it. :D I'd grow old waiting for a clerk, sometimes. If I was spotted, they didn't care.

BestBuy arresting ppl for this? Sounds pretty ridiculous I bet they end up with at least one civil suit due to this. The folks in the great state of Georgia seem to like slapping the cuffs on ppl pretty quickly, though - remember Dave McOwen?

[caddmannq]

Umm...cad: Fresno, CA, might have something to do with the store clerks attitudesYeah, it's a nice place to live, but they'll let just about anybody in here. :rolleyes:

[surrealchereal]

I too gave best buy the kiss of death,,, uh several times..
(kiss of death means I'll never darken your door again) hee hee

then i got my car stereo from them.. it went OK, but thats it, and i made em redo the install,, but.. when i blew my sub and went to vegas, they gave me full credit on the old one cause i wanted to upgrade,, and then talked me out of buying more than i needed,
in a nutshell,,, they were awesome.. i think it depends on the store and the management..


my .02

[JacobM5727]

maybe there is something the arrested guy could sue for.. :)

[jadison]

So far all of my experiences with Best Buy here in Austin and San Antonio, TX have been positive ones. My last big purchase from them was a $326 Sony monitor and a $69 Epson printer. Before that I had purchased Half-Life Game of the Year Ed. and found the game manual to be missing. I returned to the store receipt and all, and I was easily able to exchange it for one with everything included. They apologized and all was well.

[Kurylo]

I see only one: BEST BUY SUCKS !!!

[MDS]

The Best Buy about 40 miles from me that I've been in several times in the last year salesmans are complete idiots. They can't even tell the differnce between sdram and ddr or pci and agp, it cracks me up watching them try to sell a sales pitch on someone that knows more about the product than the salesman.

[knothead]

Cadd: I think it's just Fresno...every year or so, I stop at the Hendrix Restaurant on my way to Yosemite, and the crowd there just makes me wonder...and laugh hysterically to the point where I have to be dragged out of there for my own safety! :eek:

The Best Buy here always honors their ads, the service is snappy...I go in, I get what I want, I'm outta there, and nobody gets hurt. :D

I have NO DOUBT whatsoever that if I showed up at the BB in Fresno, you would read about the result in your local paper. :eek:

You and Pupus need to move down here. Granted, the air is not as good; but then, you smoke those awful Cohibas, anyway! :D :D

[caddmannq]

I remember hearing one Best Buy salesman, as he points to the fancy blue and white plactic front-cover of an HP sitting next to a plain-jane Packard-Bell, tell a cutomer something like:

"Yes, the Hewlet-Packard is more expensive than a Packard-Bell; but Hewlet-Packards have better CPU's." Both machines had exactly the same Intel processor in them. The poor customer nods and says "Yes, it looks much nicer!"
:rolleyes:

[cyclone2]

lol Cadd :rolleyes: :) :D

[caddmannq]

...every year or so, I stop at the Hendrix Restaurant on my way to YosemiteWell, it's been a while then. Hendrix is long gone, and has been the AutoMart for almost eight years. ("But Captain AutoMart...my car won't start!" "Don't worry! I'll get you to AutoMart!")

You really must get out more! :p

BTW, the air here is almost as bad as SoCal now. We get all the smog that blows down from Frisco too, and they don't have real smog checks there yet. :rolleyes:

[knothead]

You really must get out more!

Oh jeeez...you're right! But...but... The Hendrix...is GONE???:eek:

Shoot, what'll I do for my cultural fix when I'm passing through Fresno???

Oh, I know...I'll stop over at Best Buy...

and ask if they've seen any suspicious penguins! :lol:

[caddmannq]

Ummm...Try The Bulldog Brewing Company on Shaw & Palm.
(It's a lot more upscale than Hendrix ever was, but you won't need a tie.)

BTW: Hendrix was actually the first building you'd hit outside of Fresno, as it was actually in Pinedale. Now the area north of that is all built up with major shopping malls and offices, and you won't recognize it at all. That's Riverpark now, and where the BestBuy is also.