I went yesterday to my CC and was very methodical in the way I attempted to make my purchase of Hitman 2 for the PS2.
First I went to get the game, it was marked $19.99. I asked the gentleman working in the games section to price check the title for me. He did, and it rang up $7.99. Then, I asked if CC honored competitor's coupons. He said they did, but that I would have to go to the customer service desk rather than the regular cash registers.
I went to the customer service desk and the manager was there. So I handed him my game, I handed him the coupon. He read the coupon, threw it out, scanned the game, and told me it was $8.xx. I said to him, how in the hell is the game going to cost more than $7.99 with a $5 off coupon? He said the coupon doesn't work on clearance items, which is clearly marked on the coupon. I asked why he threw the coupon away then. He didn't say anything, went into the trash, took it out and handed it back to me.
I then started to dispute whether the title was on CLEARANCE or on SALE. I made it very clear that there is a difference. A sale price is merely a promotional special to attract customers, clearance items are promotional as well, but the primary purpose is to clear the stock of that item. He said the game was on clearance, and I asked him by what means he is identifying the title as clearance. He says to me, "The game is marked $19.99, but it scans $7.99, that means its on clearance." I started laughing and I said "So, even games that are incorrectly marked as $49.99 when they're actually $45.99 are on clearance? You're telling me that $45.99 is your clearance price?" He says "well...no, but.." and then I interrupted him and said "look, how am I able to distinguish between what is clearance and what is on sale. There is a clearance box, which I imagine is intended to do just that, distinguish between the clearance items and the sale items, and this title was NOT in the box." The freaking idiot then says to me, "the box was full." I say to the guy, "the box is half empty, what are you talking about?" He tried nearly every argument that I was able to see through. So I said to him, "bottom line, if this title were on sale, you would have accepted the coupon. But because the item is on clearance, you can't accept the coupon." He says to me, "right."
I go back to the guys working at the games section. I ask them if they can tell me whether the game is on clearance or on sale. They ask me what the game was, I told them, and they tell me it's on sale. They pull out a frigging 4th of July Sale advertisement that clearly indicates that the item is on SALE and not CLEARANCE. So I walk back to customer service with the flyer in hand and I tell the guy that first of all, he either lied to me about the status of the game as clearance or he was simply just didn't know whether it was on clearance or sale and decided it was on clearance to deny me use of the coupon. Then I said to him, now this advertisement clearly indicates the title as being a SALE item, and earlier I asked you very clearly that had the item been on sale and not on clearance, you would have accepted the coupon. At this point the guy doesn't know what to say, so he starts talking about the price matching policy. I say to the guy, I'm not asking you to ****ing price match the game, that wouldn't make any ****ing sense because it's more expensive over at other stores. I'm asking you to honor the coupon. The guy then starts making up some crap about how if the game is already cheaper at CC, then they can't accept the competitor's coupon.
Bottom line, he didn't want to give the game to me for $2.99 and it was clearly evident.