Of iPod's and why I now love Best Buy - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

brandon11983 · 09-17-2004, 09:16 PM

Gather 'round children, uncle Brandon is about to tell a story. I am going to tell you briefly about the goings on of today and how I acquired a 4G 20GB iPod at an obscene price... It was a normal day like any other, I had just got back to the apartment after class and my roommate and I were hanging out in the kitchen. We had a bit of an accident, some expensive and sentimental valued tequila took a spill (crash more like) out of the freezer and onto the kitchen floor. Danny asks if I want to go to the liquor store with him, I say sure and that I would also like to hit up Best Buy since we'll be in the area. I wanted to look for a new alarm clock at BB, so we went there first. We walk in, and just start wandering around as usual with no set destination in mind. Danny mentions the iPod, wanting to see if they had any in stock (didn't have them last time). We ask a guy where the iPod's were, and he points us to them, being by the wireless accessories (??). We trot over to the case and look at them. And then I see it. An "open box" 20GB iPod sitting on top of the case, with the open box price label facing me. I stare at it in disbelief. I look at Danny. He looks at me. I pick it up and give it a shake to make sure I wasn't imagining it. I remain perfectly calm, and pick the box up. He looks at me. "You gonna do it?" he asks. "Goddamn right I'm gonna." Ok ok, I need to be on my A game if I'm going to pull this off I say to myself. I need to come up with something infallible. "Find me a flyer" I say to Danny. "I need to see about their price match policy." Nothing helpful there. "I need to find something concrete that says they have to honor the price as marked, regardless of the obvious error." We walk around looking for such documentation for a few minutes to no avail. It was now about 1:45, and I had to be back at school to meet up with a girl to work on a project together at 2:15, so time was of the essence. Still nothing hardcore and incontestible, so I just say "fuck it, I'm just gonna wing it." I go up to the register, hand the nice lady my iPod, she rings it up and asks for $299. I kindly ask her to check the price tag. She looks at the tag, and looks at me. She looks at the tag again. And looks at me. "Oh man," she says. "Yeah," I reply. She calls in for reinforcements. Another BB employee comes up wanting to make an employee purchase, she fills him in on the situation, and he says "make 'em stick to it man!" Manager shows up, takes the shroud off the iPod box and goes away for about 10 minutes. She tells me to step over so she can check out other customers while I wait. All the while I remain perfectly calm, not wanting to risk losing the deal if I look like I know what I'm doing to them. Manager comes back, puts the shroud back on, and gives her a price discrepancy slip to fill out. She does her thing and I fill out my info. And we're done. No fights, no arguing, no hassle. And that, my friends, is how I got a new 20 GB iPod for twenty seven dollars and ninety nine cents. Thank you, and good night.

I'll put up a picture of the happy couple as soon as the batteries for Danny's digicam are charged.

bltzkriegmcanon · 09-17-2004, 09:30 PM

Oh man. That's the biggest blunder I've heard in a while! Man, somebody definitely got fired.

Latch · 09-17-2004, 10:30 PM

That's fucking awesome. Well done.

blahblah454 · 09-17-2004, 10:49 PM

wow!!! i really liked the way you wrote that huge thing and then didnt say the price till the end, every suspensful!!! And ive been looking into getting an iPod... wanna get me one for that price as well?

brandon11983 · 09-17-2004, 11:11 PM

I'm glad you liked it. I went back, with nice new iPod in hand, to BB later tonight to get the alarm clock I originally set out to get. No other mistakes were found.

Flyguy · 09-17-2004, 11:22 PM

WTF!?!?!?!?!?!

You lucky bastard!!!!!!!

Chingal0 · 09-18-2004, 01:23 AM

Congratulations haha, BestBuy is the worst when it come to shit like this, and I love every minute of it. I am a former employee of the BestBuy corporation, and shit like this happens quite a bit. 27.99 tho, it sounds like someone forgot to check the decimal.

Altho when someone returns an item, it goes to open box status and 10% is automatically knocked off the normal retail price.. each week that the item remains open box, an additional 10% is taken off and so on.. Hiding open box items from the general public and having your supervisor keep marking them down was fairly common practice at the store I was at, this could have been that or just a mistake. Regardless, you definetly win.

welshbyte · 09-18-2004, 05:13 AM

In the words of Michael Palin in Monty Python's Life of Brian (prison scene).... "You lucky bastard. You lucky, lucky bastard."

Should've gone to find another store with a "If you can find this item at a lower price anywhere else, we'll beat it" policy

Averett · 09-18-2004, 05:28 AM

Wow that's awesome....

I still fucking hate Best Buy though. Bastards screwed me over something fierce a few years back. Grumble.

Cynthetiq · 09-18-2004, 05:32 AM

nice!

Soda_BoB · 09-18-2004, 06:42 AM

Woah, good thinking there. Open Ipod box, I thought you were gonna steal it, thats what I would of probably came up with. Ipod for 28$ though, thats a good story to tell the grandkids.

powerclown · 09-18-2004, 06:52 AM

The open box price tag said 27.99??
That's just stupid on BB's part, plus after the manager double checking it, they said fine??
Ok, you just used up about 10 years worth of good luck on that one...

brandon11983 · 09-18-2004, 09:51 AM

Yes, the open box tag said $27.99! The only thing I did on my part was point out that it said $294 in the original price listed in the upper right corner. I almost did cartwheels when we got out of the store.

As promised, a dufus with his new $27.99 iPod:

Willravel · 09-18-2004, 10:05 AM

*Jelousy* I can't believe your amazing luck. Who are you gonna bet on for the next superbowl?!

punx1325 · 09-18-2004, 10:47 AM

Shit, that is like winning the lottery

sadistikdreams · 09-18-2004, 11:40 AM

Goddamnit. I hate you.

I really don't, I just dislike your luck.

But good eye. I wish I could've caught that.

crony · 09-18-2004, 01:29 PM

Holy fuck! Are you sure there were no blowjobs involved in getting this deal?

Johnny Rotten · 09-18-2004, 01:36 PM

That's awesome, man. I've been avoiding my local BB lately because I hate the long lines and pushy salespeople, but it might be worth it to take a peek this weekend

Destrox · 09-18-2004, 02:12 PM

Man, i'd so sell that on ebay for like 220$.

Then again I assume you allready wanted one of these.

Either way, I hate you.

oblar · 09-18-2004, 03:08 PM

wow.. congrats.. yeah, that would have been an impulse buy for myself as well.. Heck, even if i didnt need one that would make an excellent gift to a loved one

great grab!

fhqwhgads · 09-18-2004, 08:49 PM

Ahhhh...sticking it to best buy. Congrats!

Shizukana · 09-18-2004, 09:31 PM

That's awesome! Way to find the deal.

SecretMethod70 · 09-18-2004, 10:12 PM

dude....which Best Buy was this? Near the LPC? If so I'll have to start keeping my eyes out!

brandon11983 · 09-19-2004, 07:37 AM

it was the store at North and Sheffield.

Redjake · 09-19-2004, 09:10 AM

I tried something similar at wal-mart, and they basically told me to fuck off and there was nothing I could do about it. I looked up some info, and they were right. Just because they have it marked on the shelf as a certain price <b>does not</b> mean they have to sell it to you at that price. You got lucky

I envy you.

SecretMethod70 · 09-19-2004, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brandon11983

it was the store at North and Sheffield.

Sweet. That's precisely the one I go to

Not surprising that that store had such a major screw-up though

Pyke · 09-19-2004, 02:50 PM

That's my favorite "sport" when I am not in classes. Picked up in the last year a Sony Minidisc Player for 130.00 Canadian, Sony HiFi headphones mispriced as earbuds, and a minisystem for my bedroom at 49.99 regularly over 200.00.
Good find!

R3d · 09-19-2004, 05:56 PM

man thats fuckin crazy.. i wish i had that kinda luck

absorbentishe · 09-20-2004, 05:15 AM

That's like finding gold. You are one lucky dude.

MontanaXVI · 09-20-2004, 04:36 PM

can I chime in and say I got ya beat?

Similar story of lore incoming...

So I build new PC and not having anything but my old Compaq quick restore disks to use from my old box I promptly start scouring for a warez copy of Windows XP. Being a dual proc rig I know I need to find XP Pro this will be a task for the ages. Well after a while I find the one online entity (whom we all know has every app OS etc sitting there on CD-R just to say he has it) well he sends me over an iso I burn to disk and get to installing, but on the old computer....WHAT??!!! Why the old box you ask, to be honest I have no freaking clue, if it did not work on the new system so what I wipe it and start new. Well you can probably imagine where I am going with this, the iso did not work about halfway through the install it canks out on me. Here I sit with an old Compaq which no longer has a bootable 98 on it, and a partial non booting XP on it as well. I trudge out to the local BB to see what is on shelves and am amazed still to this day. They use them little proprietary tags on things with the description etc well this one has an open box hand written price tag on it (but it is not open box still totally seled in the MS security packaging) I almost drop and immediately head up front to pay for my prize, same scenario as above the cashier shits all over herself the manager cleans it up and promptly drops his own load next to her and I walk out the door with my BRAND NEW RETAIL FULL INSTALL (not an upgrade) copy of Windows XP Pro for $29.99....

Talk about missing the decimal, shoulda been $299.99

gotta love human error

sixate · 09-21-2004, 11:47 AM

As much as I hate iPods, even I woulda bought it, only to sell it to get something that I really want.

Good job on the great deal.

spec1alk · 09-21-2004, 01:40 PM

i dont mind ipods I just would never buy one because of the price tag. I think creative has pretty much the best bang for the buck these days.

09-17-2004, 09:16 PM	#1 (permalink)
brandon11983 Stereophonic Location: Chitown!!	Of iPod's and why I now love Best Buy Gather 'round children, uncle Brandon is about to tell a story. I am going to tell you briefly about the goings on of today and how I acquired a 4G 20GB iPod at an obscene price... It was a normal day like any other, I had just got back to the apartment after class and my roommate and I were hanging out in the kitchen. We had a bit of an accident, some expensive and sentimental valued tequila took a spill (crash more like) out of the freezer and onto the kitchen floor. Danny asks if I want to go to the liquor store with him, I say sure and that I would also like to hit up Best Buy since we'll be in the area. I wanted to look for a new alarm clock at BB, so we went there first. We walk in, and just start wandering around as usual with no set destination in mind. Danny mentions the iPod, wanting to see if they had any in stock (didn't have them last time). We ask a guy where the iPod's were, and he points us to them, being by the wireless accessories (??). We trot over to the case and look at them. And then I see it. An "open box" 20GB iPod sitting on top of the case, with the open box price label facing me. I stare at it in disbelief. I look at Danny. He looks at me. I pick it up and give it a shake to make sure I wasn't imagining it. I remain perfectly calm, and pick the box up. He looks at me. "You gonna do it?" he asks. "Goddamn right I'm gonna." Ok ok, I need to be on my A game if I'm going to pull this off I say to myself. I need to come up with something infallible. "Find me a flyer" I say to Danny. "I need to see about their price match policy." Nothing helpful there. "I need to find something concrete that says they have to honor the price as marked, regardless of the obvious error." We walk around looking for such documentation for a few minutes to no avail. It was now about 1:45, and I had to be back at school to meet up with a girl to work on a project together at 2:15, so time was of the essence. Still nothing hardcore and incontestible, so I just say "fuck it, I'm just gonna wing it." I go up to the register, hand the nice lady my iPod, she rings it up and asks for $299. I kindly ask her to check the price tag. She looks at the tag, and looks at me. She looks at the tag again. And looks at me. "Oh man," she says. "Yeah," I reply. She calls in for reinforcements. Another BB employee comes up wanting to make an employee purchase, she fills him in on the situation, and he says "make 'em stick to it man!" Manager shows up, takes the shroud off the iPod box and goes away for about 10 minutes. She tells me to step over so she can check out other customers while I wait. All the while I remain perfectly calm, not wanting to risk losing the deal if I look like I know what I'm doing to them. Manager comes back, puts the shroud back on, and gives her a price discrepancy slip to fill out. She does her thing and I fill out my info. And we're done. No fights, no arguing, no hassle. And that, my friends, is how I got a new 20 GB iPod for twenty seven dollars and ninety nine cents. Thank you, and good night. I'll put up a picture of the happy couple as soon as the batteries for Danny's digicam are charged. __________________ Well behaved women rarely make history. Last edited by brandon11983; 09-17-2004 at 09:23 PM..

09-17-2004, 09:30 PM	#2 (permalink)
bltzkriegmcanon Holy Knight of The Alliance Location: Stormwind, The Eastern Kingdoms, Azeroth	Oh man. That's the biggest blunder I've heard in a while! Man, somebody definitely got fired. __________________ What do you say to one last showdown? - Ocelot, Metal Gear Solid 3 The password is "Who are the Patriots?" and "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo." "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo." Gotcha. - The Colonel and Snake, Metal Gear Solid 3

09-17-2004, 11:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
brandon11983 Stereophonic Location: Chitown!!	I'm glad you liked it. I went back, with nice new iPod in hand, to BB later tonight to get the alarm clock I originally set out to get. No other mistakes were found. __________________ Well behaved women rarely make history.

09-18-2004, 01:23 AM	#7 (permalink)
Chingal0 Something like that.. Location: Oreygun.	Congratulations haha, BestBuy is the worst when it come to shit like this, and I love every minute of it. I am a former employee of the BestBuy corporation, and shit like this happens quite a bit. 27.99 tho, it sounds like someone forgot to check the decimal. Altho when someone returns an item, it goes to open box status and 10% is automatically knocked off the normal retail price.. each week that the item remains open box, an additional 10% is taken off and so on.. Hiding open box items from the general public and having your supervisor keep marking them down was fairly common practice at the store I was at, this could have been that or just a mistake. Regardless, you definetly win. __________________ "Eventually I became too sexy for my gym membership fee."

09-18-2004, 05:13 AM	#8 (permalink)
welshbyte Insane Location: Wales, UK, Europe, Earth, Milky Way, Universe	In the words of Michael Palin in Monty Python's Life of Brian (prison scene).... "You lucky bastard. You lucky, lucky bastard." Should've gone to find another store with a "If you can find this item at a lower price anywhere else, we'll beat it" policy __________________ There are only two industries that refer to their customers as "users". - Edward Tufte

09-17-2004, 10:30 PM	#3 (permalink)
Latch In Your Dreams Location: City of Lights	That's fucking awesome. Well done.

09-17-2004, 10:49 PM	#4 (permalink)
blahblah454 Let's put a smile on that face Location: On the road...	wow!!! i really liked the way you wrote that huge thing and then didnt say the price till the end, every suspensful!!! And ive been looking into getting an iPod... wanna get me one for that price as well?

09-17-2004, 11:22 PM	#6 (permalink)
Flyguy Banned Location: Swooping down on you from above....	WTF!?!?!?!?!?! You lucky bastard!!!!!!!

09-18-2004, 05:28 AM	#9 (permalink)
Averett Is In Love Location: I'm workin' on it	Wow that's awesome.... I still fucking hate Best Buy though. Bastards screwed me over something fierce a few years back. Grumble. __________________ Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

09-18-2004, 05:32 AM	#10 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	nice! __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!

09-18-2004, 06:42 AM	#11 (permalink)
Soda_BoB Psycho	Woah, good thinking there. Open Ipod box, I thought you were gonna steal it, thats what I would of probably came up with. Ipod for 28$ though, thats a good story to tell the grandkids.

09-18-2004, 06:52 AM	#12 (permalink)
powerclown Junkie Location: Detroit, MI	The open box price tag said 27.99?? That's just stupid on BB's part, plus after the manager double checking it, they said fine?? Ok, you just used up about 10 years worth of good luck on that one...

09-18-2004, 09:51 AM	#13 (permalink)
brandon11983 Stereophonic Location: Chitown!!	Yes, the open box tag said $27.99! The only thing I did on my part was point out that it said $294 in the original price listed in the upper right corner. I almost did cartwheels when we got out of the store. As promised, a dufus with his new $27.99 iPod: __________________ Well behaved women rarely make history.

09-18-2004, 10:05 AM	#14 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	Jelousy I can't believe your amazing luck. Who are you gonna bet on for the next superbowl?!

09-18-2004, 10:47 AM	#15 (permalink)
punx1325 Junkie Location: San Diego	Shit, that is like winning the lottery __________________ If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is....

09-18-2004, 09:31 PM	#22 (permalink)
Shizukana Insane Location: Plano, TX	That's awesome! Way to find the deal. __________________ "The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - George Bernard Shaw

09-18-2004, 11:40 AM	#16 (permalink)
sadistikdreams lonely rolling star Location: Seattle.	Goddamnit. I hate you. I really don't, I just dislike your luck. But good eye. I wish I could've caught that. __________________ "Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." -Lin Yutang hearts, by d.a.

09-18-2004, 01:29 PM	#17 (permalink)
crony Crazy Location: Clifton Park, NY	Holy fuck! Are you sure there were no blowjobs involved in getting this deal?

09-18-2004, 01:36 PM	#18 (permalink)
Johnny Rotten lost and found Location: Berkeley	That's awesome, man. I've been avoiding my local BB lately because I hate the long lines and pushy salespeople, but it might be worth it to take a peek this weekend

09-18-2004, 02:12 PM	#19 (permalink)
Destrox Metal and Rock 4 Life Location: Phoenix	Man, i'd so sell that on ebay for like 220$. Then again I assume you allready wanted one of these. Either way, I hate you. __________________ You bore me.... next.

09-18-2004, 03:08 PM	#20 (permalink)
oblar Über-Rookie Location: No longer, D.C	wow.. congrats.. yeah, that would have been an impulse buy for myself as well.. Heck, even if i didnt need one that would make an excellent gift to a loved one great grab!

09-18-2004, 08:49 PM	#21 (permalink)
fhqwhgads Junkie	Ahhhh...sticking it to best buy. Congrats!

09-18-2004, 10:12 PM	#23 (permalink)
SecretMethod70 Human Administrator Location: Chicago	dude....which Best Buy was this? Near the LPC? If so I'll have to start keeping my eyes out! __________________ Le temps détruit tout "Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

09-19-2004, 07:37 AM	#24 (permalink)
brandon11983 Stereophonic Location: Chitown!!	it was the store at North and Sheffield. __________________ Well behaved women rarely make history.

09-19-2004, 09:10 AM	#25 (permalink)
Redjake I'm a family man - I run a family business. Location: Wilson, NC	I tried something similar at wal-mart, and they basically told me to fuck off and there was nothing I could do about it. I looked up some info, and they were right. Just because they have it marked on the shelf as a certain price <b>does not</b> mean they have to sell it to you at that price. You got lucky I envy you. __________________ Off the record, on the q.t., and very hush-hush.

09-19-2004, 02:50 PM	#27 (permalink)
Pyke Upright	That's my favorite "sport" when I am not in classes. Picked up in the last year a Sony Minidisc Player for 130.00 Canadian, Sony HiFi headphones mispriced as earbuds, and a minisystem for my bedroom at 49.99 regularly over 200.00. Good find!

09-19-2004, 05:56 PM	#28 (permalink)
R3d Insane Location: Sask, Canada	man thats fuckin crazy.. i wish i had that kinda luck

09-20-2004, 05:15 AM	#29 (permalink)
absorbentishe Boy am I horny today Location: T O L E D O, Toledo!!	That's like finding gold. You are one lucky dude.

09-20-2004, 04:36 PM	#30 (permalink)
MontanaXVI Junkie Location: Go A's!!!!	can I chime in and say I got ya beat? Similar story of lore incoming... So I build new PC and not having anything but my old Compaq quick restore disks to use from my old box I promptly start scouring for a warez copy of Windows XP. Being a dual proc rig I know I need to find XP Pro this will be a task for the ages. Well after a while I find the one online entity (whom we all know has every app OS etc sitting there on CD-R just to say he has it) well he sends me over an iso I burn to disk and get to installing, but on the old computer....WHAT??!!! Why the old box you ask, to be honest I have no freaking clue, if it did not work on the new system so what I wipe it and start new. Well you can probably imagine where I am going with this, the iso did not work about halfway through the install it canks out on me. Here I sit with an old Compaq which no longer has a bootable 98 on it, and a partial non booting XP on it as well. I trudge out to the local BB to see what is on shelves and am amazed still to this day. They use them little proprietary tags on things with the description etc well this one has an open box hand written price tag on it (but it is not open box still totally seled in the MS security packaging) I almost drop and immediately head up front to pay for my prize, same scenario as above the cashier shits all over herself the manager cleans it up and promptly drops his own load next to her and I walk out the door with my BRAND NEW RETAIL FULL INSTALL (not an upgrade) copy of Windows XP Pro for $29.99.... Talk about missing the decimal, shoulda been $299.99 gotta love human error __________________ Spank you very much

09-21-2004, 11:47 AM	#31 (permalink)
sixate Registered User Location: Somewhere in Ohio	As much as I hate iPods, even I woulda bought it, only to sell it to get something that I really want. Good job on the great deal.

09-21-2004, 01:40 PM	#32 (permalink)
spec1alk Upright Location: Montana	i dont mind ipods I just would never buy one because of the price tag. I think creative has pretty much the best bang for the buck these days.