Best Buy questions

I'm thinking of getting an hdtv, which is on sale this week (West. 32"
$850.) A friend has a 12% off coupon. On the coupon it says not good
for sale items. Has anyone every tried to use such a coupon at check
out and had them take it, for a sale item?

And how about that Preferred Customer plan or whatever it's called? It
costs $10. Is it worth it?

I've seen them offer something off also if you get their credit card:
does this work with a sale price?

Cheap Pete

They are changing their Reward Plan to be free starting now. (I wish they
would give me back 9/12 of my $10.) You get 1 point for every $1 - and get
$1 in coupons for every 250 points. Make 1 purchase per year.

Cheaper Carol
--
C and A Bredt
"P T" wrote in message
...
I'm thinking of getting an hdtv, which is on sale this week (West. 32"
$850.) A friend has a 12% off coupon. On the coupon it says not good
for sale items. Has anyone every tried to use such a coupon at check
out and had them take it, for a sale item?

And how about that Preferred Customer plan or whatever it's called? It
costs $10. Is it worth it?

I've seen them offer something off also if you get their credit card:
does this work with a sale price?

Cheap Pete

My sad experience with BestBuy is such that I would be reluctant to buy any
high ticket items from them if you have need for any kind of service,
installation or repair, or have expectations of extended warranty service.
Best Buy contracts with the lowest priced providers with absolutely no
assurance that these people have the faintest clue what they are doing.
BestBuy may be no worse than any other bigbox store but there is certainly
nothing at all to recommend BestBuy, particularly on price.

C and A Bredt wrote:
They are changing their Reward Plan to be free starting now. (I wish
they would give me back 9/12 of my $10.) You get 1 point for every $1
- and get $1 in coupons for every 250 points. Make 1 purchase per
year.

If I've done my math correctly you save 40 cents on a $100 purchase with the
Reward Plan. Big reward that is. Not worth the space the card takes up in my
wallet. And you have to wait months to get the rewards and until there is
some minimum built up you receive nothing. I suggest you never let the
reward program enter into any purchase decision making.

Bestbuysux will not stop me from shopping at BB. In a lot of the
customer complaints detailed there, the customer had some culpability
for the unhappy outcome. EG, buy a dvd player, but don't open the box
for THREE MONTHS, then try to return it, claiming the box had a cd
player. EG, cancel a dishwasher purchase, but don't follow the simple
procedures BB has. EG, don't read the software box carefully and buy
the wrong item, then try to return it.

I think "bmoag" had some good advice about BB, but buying cutting edge
technology that costs hundreds of dollars is bound to leave some
customers unhappy.

An old saying says that every customer wants good service, low prices,
and high quality merchandise. Unfortunately, you can only get 2 of the
3.

"P T" wrote in message
...
Bestbuysux will not stop me from shopping at BB. In a lot of the
customer complaints detailed there, the customer had some culpability
for the unhappy outcome. EG, buy a dvd player, but don't open the box
for THREE MONTHS, then try to return it, claiming the box had a cd
player. EG, cancel a dishwasher purchase, but don't follow the simple
procedures BB has. EG, don't read the software box carefully and buy
the wrong item, then try to return it.

I think "bmoag" had some good advice about BB, but buying cutting edge
technology that costs hundreds of dollars is bound to leave some
customers unhappy.

An old saying says that every customer wants good service, low prices,
and high quality merchandise. Unfortunately, you can only get 2 of the
3.

If the old saying holds true you should get two out of three, so let's give
BB a thumbs up on the quality of merchandise they resale it they don't build
it and have brand names. A thumbs down on pricing, you'd be a fool to pay
their everyday prices. The everyday price on some items exceed the
manufactures suggested retail price which IMO speaks volumes about overall
pricing. As to the third item service that the hardest to judge fairly as
you'll always be painfully aware of service issues that are not handled to a
customers satisfaction. Not because there are some unhappy customers but
because their service agreements are suspect and they don't have a
reputation for helping after a manufacturer's warranty run out, IMO it's
thumbs down.


I don't see a reason that just because it is possible to get a good price
after rebate, buy a close out product or sale item that it is justified for
a retailer to lowering their quality of service. Warehouse discounters in my
experience have service as good or better then BB, look around for customer
comments about Costco's service and return policies. I have and will
continue to purchase on sale items from BB but do not and will not recommend
that anyone shop there unless they remember that BB is buyer beware
shopping. BB drives business to online retailers because they won't step up
and add value to shopping there and leverage the brick and mortar appeal.

C and A Bredt ) wrote in alt.tv.tech.hdtv:
They are changing their Reward Plan to be free starting now. (I wish they
would give me back 9/12 of my $10.) You get 1 point for every $1 - and get
$1 in coupons for every 250 points. Make 1 purchase per year.

No, it's $5 in coupons for every 250 points.

But, the new plan is a real ripoff even with no yearly fee, especially
since most people with any purchase history seem to be given a pass on
the yearly fee.

Historically, here have been the changes:

Points per $ $5 coupon at...which is
100 12,500 points...$125
100 15,000 points...$150
1 250 points...$250

The bad changes this last round:

- Obviously, the change from getting $5 for each $125 to $5 for each
$250 is the worst. With the yearly fee being $10, this means that
previously the first $250 was "wasted" paying for the fee, but then
the next $250 got you $10 back. Today, the first $500 gets you $10
back with no fee to cover. After that, the $5/$250 plan is obviously
at a disadvantage.

- Although they don't amount to much, you used to get credit for pennies
on purchases...now, there will have to be some kind of rounding, and
I suspect it will be "whole dollars spent only".

- Previously, the plan was based on the bottom line of your receipt
including tax. Now, only purchases count.

So, previously the discount in a 7% sales tax area was 3.57% of the
merchandise price (for every $140 in merchandise, you paid $150 and
got $5 back). Now, the discount is 2% of the merchandise price.

--
Jeff Rife | "Don't try this at home, kids. This should
| be done only by trained professional idiots."
|
| -- Plucky Duck, "Hollywood Plucky"

Save yourself lots of pain and buy the 32" Vizio at Costco. Their return
policy is no questions asked up to five years.
It's a great tv to boot, just look up some reviews of it. Scores up there
with Sony and the other big boys at half the price.

"P T" wrote in message
...
I'm thinking of getting an hdtv, which is on sale this week (West. 32"
$850.) A friend has a 12% off coupon. On the coupon it says not good
for sale items. Has anyone every tried to use such a coupon at check
out and had them take it, for a sale item?

And how about that Preferred Customer plan or whatever it's called? It
costs $10. Is it worth it?

I've seen them offer something off also if you get their credit card:
does this work with a sale price?

Cheap Pete