OT: Black Friday purchase at Best Buy

[Chris Joyce]

So I go to best but on Tuesday night before Thanksgiving to buy a panasonic 42" plasma tv cause I found out it was going on sale on Friday from $1599 to $999. When I told the best buy employee about the sale he said I was smart for buying it before the rush and to just bring the reciept in and they will price match or just return it on Friday and re buy for the sale price. So I go on Friday at 7 am and they say that they can't price match due to a one day only sale and they are sorry I was misinformed. So basically I was fooled by best buy employees into buying a tv before the sale. That's $500 down the drain. Does anyone have any suggestions or opinions on what I could or should do?:angry::angry::angry:

 

[Jeff C]

Return it. My dad bought a lawnmower at Sears, and they didn't tell him it'd be on sale that weekend. Well, before he even used it, he brought it back. They said "I'm sorry, we can only give you the sale price refund, you cannot get a full refund" and he replied "sure I can, I bought it on Mastercard"



One call to the CC company and he was all fixed up.



Go talk to the manager and tell them what happened. It probably says the cashier's name on the receipt, and he/she will probably know who was working what section the night before. Best Buy has employees trained for certain sections, and there's probably only 2-3 people for the "Home Theater" section. If the manager won't do anything, raise hell. They hate having a commotion, not good for business.

 

[Aaron Yarbough]

If you don't think it's worth the $1599 then you can always return it for a full refund. There is usually a 30 day no questions asked return policy with the original receipt. Then, you go back a day or 2 later and they will probably have it marked down as an open box special. I'm sure it won't be the same $600 off though.....



*edit: I agree w/JeffC, if all else fails raise hell and that'll really get their attention.

 

[thomas weldon]

find out the return policy and take back the tv for a refund. then tell the manager that best buy has lost a customer for life because of the lies their salesperson told you and that you are going to tell all your family and friends not to shop at best buy unless the manager makes you happy.

 

[Casey B]

I would first find the employee who lied and cause a scene:lol: Then I would return it if they didn't honor that reps words. They will lose if you return it because they will have to sell it as used.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Check it out:

 

[George C]

Unfortunately, your only choice is to return the tv. I don't think that any stores will price match the black friday sales. It's not right but that's one day they don't price match. It sounds like the best buy employee just didn't know. They don't make commission there so he had nothing to gain by selling you the tv early.



George

 

[Todd Z]

I also know that IF you return something and it is on sale that day, you only get the Sale price returned to you......



Check to see if that is true or not by you.....



If not I would fight for the sale Price and if not, return it tomorrow.

Todd Z

 

[Jeff C]

Another thing, if you don't get your way, maybe a lawyer? Fraud anyone?

 

[Bill V]

Todd, at Best Buy (and most other major nationwide stores), if you have the receipt when making a return, you get the price you paid returned to you. The only time that you might not get the full price you paid returned to you is if you don't have the receipt--then you can only get the lowest sale price in the last X days. (I forget if it's 30, 60, or 90 days.)



I forget if Best Buy is one of them, but at many places, if you paid with a credit card, you don't even need the receipt. They can look up the purchase by scanning your credit card, and thus know the amount you paid--you then get that amount returned. I know Target does this. Menard's does as well, sort of--they have separate machines next to their Returns stations, where you can scan your credit card and re-print your receipt, which you can then use for your return.

 

[Bill V]

Jeff, it's not fraud if the salesman made an honest mistake. And Best Buy's price match policy (available on their website) clearly states that situations like this are excluded from price matching. Further, it sounds like joycie went to the store intending to initiate this specifically to do the after-the-fact price match--something that a novice salesman might not have thought of, in which case, he may have just replied to joycie by saying "Hey, that sounds like a good idea," without fully thinking through the rules of the store's guarantee--which qualifies as an honest mistake by an improperly trained employee (which are far too common at BB), not a lie. Lastly, it's not like they're not willing to give a full refund--if they don't do that, THEN it becomes fraud.



joycie, $1599 minus $999 is $600, not $500, "down the drain" if you don't return it. :angry:

 

[Todd Z]

But the store is responsible for their employees, if the sales person told you something then it should be accepted by the store.



Also just because a company is nation wide, does not mean there policy is the same from state to state. Each state can and some do have different rules.

Todd Z

 

[Frank Marano]

you should have returned it, then rebought it.

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

Return it. Besides, if it was that good of a deal the product is NOT that good in the first place. Best Buy buys a lot of close outs from its vendors.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Best Buys sucks...plain and simple. I buy from them, begrudingly, because for some items they have the best price around, even compared to online. The problem with buying online is if something shows up at your door and its broke, you're typically out the cost of shipping for the return. So if it's a heavier item (like a monitor or TV), then Best Buy gets my business. But you better check the merchandise quickly, and save the receipt, because the clock is running on the return.



I can't help but think, however, that joycie was trying to "beat the system", and even if Best Buy would have done what the sales rep suggested, that its still an abuse of a returns policy.



If everyone played games with the return policies of all the stores then in the end, we all pay in higher prices.



TJR

 

[Chris Joyce]

I went to the store intending and inquiring to buy the tv. When the salesperson told me to get it now and just bring the receipt in on Friday, I thought that was good advice from the best buy employee. All in all I wasn't rying to "Beat the system" I was just mis-lead by best buy...lesson learned.

p.s. Thanks for the math class Bill V.:angry:

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Joycie, then I am sorry about my choice of words ("beat the system"), but I think you are a little naive. It was bad advice, and even if accurate, overly bad advice to be given by a store associate. The returns system is used to return defective and even unwanted items during their return period. It is not meant as a price protection system for purchasing items pre-sale. That's not the intent of the system, so to use it as such would be trying to "beat the system."



As for "price match", sure, it isn't your job to know that Best Buy won't price match a one day sale item, but then again, should you really trust the word of someone likely just hired, and/or that more than anything else wants to make a sale? Most all Black-Friday door-buster and one-day-only sales come with a boat-load of restrictions, including: no substitutions, no rain checks, limited in-store supply, in-store only, etc., etc. Consumers should expect nothing else. Caveat emptor.



The Best Buy employee wants to sell the product. The more product they sell, the better they are doing. Especially if they can con you into the extended warranty, because they get rated on how many of those they sell. Did you purchase that by chance, because if so, I haven't met a Best Buy employee yet that wouldn't lie right to your face if they thought they could sell an extended warranty.



TJR

 

[Robert Stanton]

Watch the sales on that TV (you bought the Panasonic TH-42PX60U, didn't you? Lucky son of a gun.). Best Buy just announced that they've increased their price matching guarantee from 30 to 60 days on all flat-screen TVs. Any time someone has the TV for less in the next two months, you can get the price matched to that price. You won't likely get it for $999, but you can get it for less. Circuit City just had that TV for $1188 this weekend (though I think that sale price is over), and I'd bet money you can come close to that again before Christmas is over.

 

[Bill V]

joycie, I take back what I said about you initiating it, if it happened as you said in your most recent post. I've seen enough times where people have heard about a sale ahead of time, and purchased the item at a higher price before the sale, intending to use the price match guarantee afterwards--thereby assuring that they get one before they sell out. Which is a perfectly acceptable practice, provided that the purchase falls within the store's price match guidelines. I mistakenly thought you had done that. Even so, regardless of what some sales know-nothing might have told you, Best Buy's price match guarantee is, in my experience, pretty widely posted in the store, and is also easy to find on their website.



Also, I've seen too many occurances (not necessarily at BB) where a salesperson has told a customer something, stated it correctly, and the customer either misunderstood/misinterpretted what he said, or lied about what he said to try to gain an advantage, to say that this sales person in your situation even did anything wrong. I still feel there's just as much chance of this being a misunderstanding as it being an incorrect statement by the salesman.



And FYI, the "math lesson", as you put it, wasn't meant as a dig. I was just making sure you were aware of the total price difference, in case you were considering keeping it at the elevated price. The " :angry: " at the end was meant to say, "Man, this sucks even more with the corrected math", rather than being a comment on your math itself.



Whatever you decide to do, good luck! And I second Bahb advice--regardless of whether you keep this one, watch the sales on this item.