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| posts about #horrorstories more → |
Black Friday Horror Stories |
Brooklyn Hospitality Angers Bay Area Camera Buyer OR A Canon Christmas Story |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Gizmodo 
11/29/08
11/29/08
Radio Shack continues the downward spiral, but I'll be dipped if I'm not gonna hang out to see what happens!!!
If the world is going to hell, I'd like to be the one holding the handle. ;)
11/29/08
11/29/08
But someone offered a substantial discount on something I wanted to get for a family member, coupon good till noon Friday only. So out we went.
Holiday shopping hint of the day: If you can manage to take public transit to the busiest malls in town, it is well worth it. No parking hassles, no fighting traffic, just sit back and be chauffeured around. I got everything I wanted, had a nice lunch out (a short bus ride from downtown) and got home by early afternoon. So, no horror stories to tell!
Well, there was one amusing incident. I was shopping in a store where some of the items have to be dispensed by employees, and there were way too few employees doing that job. The lady in front of me was picking up something like a dozen items. The lady behind me was fuming (audibly) about the time it was taking. Front Lady said (politely, even under duress) "If you were my friend, I would have let you get your one item ahead of me." Back Lady said "If you were my friend, you wouldn't be picking a dozen items!" Front Lady said "If you were my friend, some of this would be for you." End of discussion.
11/29/08
It was around 3 in the afternoon, and a surprisingly nice day for southern Minnesota in November...Sunny skies, around 40 degrees, no snow. A nice day for a walk, right? I live very near my local mall, so I thought I'd venture out and see if the crowds had died down enough to find a deal or two left.
Well, as it turns out, I never actually made it inside the mall. Crossed the street from my house, and went to cross the parking lot intersection immediately thereafter. Not being a complete idiot (I hope) I looked both ways, saw traffic slowing for the stop sign, so I foolishly ventured across the road. And was promptly, and rather painfully, hit by a late 90's Dodge Ram.
So while I sat on the curb waiting for the police to arrive, I remembered why exactly it was that I lock myself in the house on the day after thanksgiving, but also that other people should do the same. The woman that hit me (other than apologizing profusely) said she was "Too busy looking at Ads" to notice me. Nice. So as I sit here with my arm in a sling, PLEASE, people...One simple request...there is more to life than saving a few bucks. Pull your heads out of your asses, and when you're driving...just drive.
Leftover Turkey Sandwich: $0.00
Black Friday Savings: $0.00
Being hit by a truck, and having a story like this: Priceless.
Now, excuse me while I slip into a pain medication induced nap.
11/29/08
Haha. FUCK YOU. It's exactly the same, and you got precisely what you deserved for somehow believing that you were special.
11/29/08
That people act entitled to deals, on gear that was donated from manufacturers to raise money for breast cancer research. IT WAS A CHARITY EVENT!
I tried to buy a few items, and also couldn't get through, but I'm also not on here whining about their technical difficulties either. Instead, I went on and purchased other items.
11/29/08
11/29/08
You did what you had ta.
11/29/08
1) Not user friendly, couldn't even find the unlock button
2) The whole interface was laggy, some buttons didnt even work when pressed.
3) Internet browser sucked, gizmodo didnt work. Maybe i just got used to being spoiled by the iphone browser for the last 2 years, but wow. It was like a toy browser, like for people who weren't serious about browsing the web. Thats a deal breaker right there for me. I thought these other companies were catching up to the iphone by now, guess not.
4) Typing. Wow. The phone requires you press down when typing. Real annoying, not to mention how hard it is to type, it doesn't even recognize the right letter your pressing.
So in conclusion: The storm is a horror story. When all the blog sites said it sucked i thought they had exaggerated. But they were right, and all these problems arent just software, so they cant be updated.
11/29/08
11/29/08
11/29/08
11/29/08
Not so much a horror story I suppose, but it did make me chuckle.
11/29/08
That's right - Circuit City was unwilling to do an 8% price match for a customer in store ready to buy. In fact, I didn't even get a counteroffer. At least a "I can't do $610 but how about $630?" Is it any wonder they're going out of business.
Ritz Camera had a $200 videocamera. It was the "floor" model, meaning that they had taken it out of the box, but it in a glass case on Wednesday afternoon, and never plugged it in or shown it to any customer. It also meant that the salesman knocked $40 off the $240 price tag and gave me a pack of MiniDV tapes and matching camera bag. I gave him a sale.
None of Staples' web specials were in stock. Instead, I bought a refurb HP Pavilion desktop and a 22" Lenovo 1920x1080 LCD monitor for the price of a laptop from J&R off the web.
11/29/08
8% is alot if its already at or under cost..... dunno if thats the case and im not a big CC defender. but yeah, i dont expect many retailers to offer to jump on swords like that.
11/29/08
The camera was at $650 and had been marked down from $850. According to Save Benjis, CompUSA had it for $610 - a 40% difference. What I found irksome was not that they wouldn't price match but that they wouldn't try. Truth is, if he had countered with $630, I may have made the sale. That's about a 4% markdown.
Put it in perspective. I came in to buy a $200 camcorder. With a little effort, I could have been sold a $630 camcorder. Instead, I took my sale elsewhere and probably won't buy anything from Circuit City again.
I went to a smaller chain - Ritz - where the employees get paid a commission and have a vested interest in trying to make a sale. I have no problem with that. The salesman asked what I wanted and when I told him sold me just what I was looking for.
The camera I bought was advertised at $240 but the salesman offered to sell me the floor model which was completely unused (not even powered on) and kept behind the counter in a glass case for $40 less - nearly 20% off. I got a camera bag and tapes to boot as well.
In return, Ritz (and the salesman) got a happy customer. It wasn't that I was able to get the best of them or anything like that; it's that they sold me what I wanted with ease and courtesy.
Given my druthers, I would choose Ritz' clean, quiet small store inside the mall that Circuit City's cluttered, crowded, noisy box store attached to the mall. Ritz has been around for decades, Circuit City is in bankruptcy.
11/30/08
Why would you expect them to pricematch? Almost none of the big stores pricematch on BF. Your fault for being ignorant.
11/30/08
Here is a negotiation tip: If you want $20 off, ask for $50. Negotiating is a process that involves offers and counteroffers.
At Circuit City, instead of making a sale which would help justify the store's existence, the department manager did not even take the time to make a counteroffer. If you have a customer in the store who has waited by a product, s/he wants to buy it. Give him/her the chance. Don't give him/her a reason to walk away from the sale.
Realistically, there's not much difference between $650 for a camcorder and $610 for a camcorder. It's about 8%. Psychologically, the manager gave me a reason to walk away. And I did.
Ritz, on the other hand, bargained with me. You should try bargaining with salespeople. Even places like Best Buy and Fry's can bargain. And best of all, it's free to ask.
What happens if you ask to negotiate at Best Buy? Do they arrest you? Do you get fined? Do they charge you extra? Do you get taken out into a back alley and beaten? Nothing happens. You can either negotiate a better price (on appliances and the like) or they stand firm on price. It's a no-lose scenario.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained" are words to live by. It's your fault for not being adventurous and accepting that the tag price is the price you have to pay.
11/30/08
Are you actually serious? In the first 6 hours stores are told not to price match or return anything as it is total anarchy in the store. Also, a store doesn't care if you are "ready to buy!" because that makes them NO MONEY AT ALL. The only way stores make money off of you buying a video camera is if you buy the service plan and accessories, but you were most likely the person who came into the store thinking you were doing them a favor by buying the item there. I have news for you, if you aren't buying a service plan or lots of accessories THEY DON'T CARE WHAT YOU WANT. I work retail and I see people like you all the time who come in and ask for discounts and when I say we can't you just come back with "Listen buddy, you can make or break this sale, which is it going to be?!?!?!" and I just tell them to walk cause they are too fucking cheap to buy anything else and will be the first to bitch when THEY break the product 2 years down the road and come back to our store claiming we are responsible. I have a suggestion, get a job where you can actually afford to pay full price!
12/01/08
Congratulations. You've outlined why I don't shop at Best Buy.
When I bought my HDTV four years ago, I didn't go there. I went to J&R. And bought a $1400 for $1100. Without an extended warranty. Because I know that at J&R, I can bargain. And, they have the same selection as Best Buy.
You say you work retail? Do you work at a big-box store? Possibly at a fine establishment involving a blue polo shirt and some natty chinos. Because Circuit City was a big-box store. And they're doing wonderfully. Maybe it was because their polo shirts were red.
Check out this link. [www.belmonttv.com] It's a store near my folks house in Maryland called Belmont TV. It's a small store with a limited selection in the store but they'll order anything for you. Like J&Rt's also been around for over 60 years. It's because the salemen in there have a much better attitude towards their customers than you. Because they make a commission and the customer represents a paycheck. You don't make a commission - which is why you tell your customers to take a hike.
Then again, non-union retail pays about $9 an hour, so, if you work full-time, you're making $360 a week. That's about $18,000 a year. On the upside, you're in the lowest tax bracket, so hey, you've got that working for you. And you can just roll out of bed and pull on your blue polyester polo shirt and natty khakis so you're probably never late for work. Plus, I'm sure you guys get 25 tardies a year before you're fired. And, if you're a part-timer, you probably don't even make enough to pay taxes. So cheers to you.
Perhaps, if you find yourself in NYC, you should spend an hour at J&R and watch the salesmen there. They're the gentlemen wearing slacks, pressed shirts and ties who help the customers buy large appliances.
And yes, I do complain about products that don't last two years. Like my two year-old MacBook which no longer recognizes being plugged in. I'm one of those stodgy old guys who believes that a $1200 computer should last more than two years whom you seem to hate. Maybe I'm just a cheap bastard but I think that if I've paid good money for something, it should last. If Dell can build a computer that lasts more than 8 years, Apple can build one that lasts more than two.
Don't worry though. I won't bother you in your prestigious position as a Best Buy sales associate.
11/29/08
11/29/08
Now, I see people above angry/whining about it but they completely missed the point of the CompUSA webcast. It was to raise money for CHARITY. If you got a great deal out of it, that's great. If not, oh well. They made NO MONEY on yesterday's webcast. It was completely for charity.
People are acting cheated because of some technical issues. I tried calling in on a few items too, and didn't get through. Oh well, nothing quite like people having a sense of entitlement about a charity event.
Me? Yesterday I picked up a Quad Core intel system, 4 gig ram, hard drive, etc... Plus a 4870 Radeon w/ 1 Gig of DDR5 ram for $600 using the normal deals that popped up after the Black Friday telecast.
11/29/08
11/29/08
I was able to receive 3 free DVDs because a foolish worker removed the security tags, but forgot to charge them for me.
I was quite satisfied at the end of the day.
11/29/08
"I was quite satisfied at the end of the day."
Satisfied that despite the "foolish worker" making a mistake you are nonetheless a common thief? A mistake on the part of the store doesn't relieve you of your obligation to pay for goods received. Tis the season. Jesus is proud of you.
11/29/08
The lady forgot to ring it up, he went home. OH WELL. I would have done the same thing. It's not thievery, it's forgetfulness on the part of the cashier. I would never go back into a store to give them money that they didn't charge me for.
11/29/08
It's theft. He took items from the store which had been on display for sale without paying for them. Regardless of HOW they didn't get paid for, they didn't get paid for. Your ethical compass is on crooked...