OK, I admit it. I’m dumb, not smart, well, maybe even a idiot. That doesn’t make it right for Best Buy to take advantage of that weakness, does it? Here’s the story: Roughly 6 weeks ago I bought a Motorola SURFboard modem from Best Buy. They were offering a $20 rebate, then a $60 rebate after service activation, a better deal than what the service provider was offering. So I filled out all the forms and mailed them off, being sure to fill in all the proper order number etc.
Today we got a received a letter from the Best Buy Rebate Center saying we won’t be getting a rebate as our service provider is not participating in the offer. So, the local Best Buy is selling modems and giving customers rebate forms which they have to know are worthless. After calling the rebate hotline and having the nice young lady point out that the rebate form says, in large capital letters actually, “EXCLUDES INSIGHT< EARTHLINK< ROADRUNNER & AOL.” Well, that’s where I’m stupid. But Best Buy is oucnting on me being stupid! Why else would they do it?
I’d be yelling at the store manager right now, but no one answers the fucking phone over there, it being the Christmas shopping season and all.
So, in short, yeah, I’m dumb, I should have noticved the large capital-lettered exclusion, but Best Buy (at least locally) are a bunch of theiving, money-grubbing scumbags, and they will certainly not be getting any of my business in the future.
Yeah! when I bought my copy of LOTR:Fellowship from Best Buy they sold me the fullscreen edition instead of the widescreen edition I wanted. Sure, it said FULLSCREEN on the front of the package, but still, I mean, come on!
Rebates are a big scam; they’re a waste of time and not worth all the trouble. Just go to Planet Feedback and look up any electronics retailer. The complaints most frequently mentioned are from people dealing with the hassles of redeeming rebates.
Um, am I being whooshed here? Some fuckwad doesn’t read the rebate form and it’s the store’s fault how? Remind me again who forced you to buy that particular modem?
Hell, yes this is serious! The problem is that Best Buy sold me this modem when they knew I thought I was going to get a rebate on it. They had fliers in the store. The clerk got me the particular modem they were offering in the deal. They were completely involved in the process. A process they knew would not be honored in our area. There’s only one cable internet provider in these parts. It’s not like it’s a mystery. The rebate forms shouldn’t even be available in the store.
Best Buy got a sale from me by false advertising. Do you think I would have bought the thing there otherwise? I know Best Buy knows I wouldn’t have. They got money from me by lying to me and counting on me missing the fact that the rebate wasn’t available in my area.
And thanks for the link, Frumious Bandersnatch, you guys think I’m as big an asshole as that guy?
And fuck you, XJETGIRLX, just fuck you. I fell into Best Buy’s little trap. They outsmarted me because I’m just a simpleton. Thanks for the advice. Oh, almost forgot, fuck you.
Well, I really shouldn’t be surprised that you were too fucking thick to include this little snippet of information in the OP, which happens to make a great deal of difference.
If you leave out the relevant info in the OP, then it sure as hell is a fucking mystery.
You started with the name calling, but I do notice that I did not include “cable” in front of modem in the OP which perhaps would have change your point of view.
I’m talking to the manager, somehow. This just seems wrong.
I did the same thing at Walmart with Two Towers, I buy everything in widescreen if it exists in that format. I did not even check the box, just grabbed, paid for it, went home, pulled it out and :smack:
I deal with the OP every day. If not him specifically, then his idjit kin. People who ask me “if I pay $100 on my $200 bill, how much is left?” and who in response to the question “do you know how to do addition?” reply “I know most of it.” I have no sympathy.
Sorry I called you names, but without that little piece of information it does appear that you were being as much of an asshole as the guy Frumious Bandersnatch linked to.
Have you asked for a refund yet? Just because the rebate is not redeemable in your particular area doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s worthless, at any rate. While I agree that the store staff should inform customers that the rebate cannot be redeemed by any local cable ISPs, the store probably can’t legally take the rebate forms off the product, and may have no choice in whether it participates in the advertising of the rebate.
I still don’t understand your sheer level of invective, though. If the store agrees to give you a refund for the purchase price then I see no foul.
Of course, even though there is only one cable provider in the immediate area around the Best Buy it could be part of a national advertising campaign(as AOL, Earthlink, and RoadRunner are all national cable providers). In large store chains like Best Buy(at least I know it was this way at Service Merchandise back when I worked there in the 90’s) the rebates and ads get designed and shipped from home office and the local store doesn’t do anything more than just hand them out. It seems you either expect HQ to study which rebates/offers would be available to the majority of customers for each regional store and only distribute the appropriate ones, or for the local store to run their own ads and rebate offers targeted for their locale. Neither of these is out of the realm of possibility, but it simply isn’t how large chain stores operate. If they didn’t build them all as cookie-cutter copies of each other and have the same merchandise in all of them then they couldn’t take advantage of a central planning/marketing organization and the cost benefits it offers. So this means sometimes a local store, which is virtually identical to every other store in the chain, is not as good a fit for the locale as it could be. That is a risk they run by running the business that way and it is a risk you accept when you shop there. Sorry it bit you this time.
The Rebate Center sent me a letter telling me no rebate. I haven’t talked to the local store yet. If I get the rebate I expected I’ll be ok, but I’ll probably not shop at Best Buy again.
There’s only one cable internet provider for miles around. Perhaps Best Buys close to provider boundaries would have a much bigger problem with this, but there’s only one cable internet provider for miels around. People from 100 miles away aren’t going to drive here to buy the modem, or someone on vacation passing through isn’t going to stop and pick up a new modem for their new service. It’s smacks of, if not false advertising and lying, very poor customer communication.