NightNinja7
CAGiversary!
Well, I had a jolly good time attempting to find Rogue Galaxy below MSRP – well technically I’m still on the lookout. To start things off, I just finished my finals a few days ago – Dec 16 (a Friday) to be exact. Going home from college on Saturday morning, I remember reading on CAG that Rogue Galaxy was 19.99 at Circuit City. Trying to relieve the memories of organic chemistry, I thought a game at a good price would be a nice consolation for the last two weeks of hell.
Reaching home around five (traffic was horrendous), I decided to go to Circuit City and check out if they had the game at the sale’s price. Entering the store, I noticed that the entire games section was rather… unorganized. At first, it seemed to be in alphabetical order, but that was a rather large mistake. Different games were randomly found through the aisle. Well, in vain and trying to avoid looking through each and every individual case, I decided to ask the employee. The first guy that I approached looked seemingly lackluster and bored, so I hoped that my task would send him into an active frenzied search (I was mistaken…). Alright, so he couldn’t really remember what the game looked like, no problem… I had the advertisement. Well, as I quote, “All the games should be in the section, have you looked?” So I stated that there was no real ordering and was wondering if he could check the computer.
Little did I know, the computer system at Circuit City was ineffective (or so I presume). They cannot search through the store inventory by name, only by the SKU or UPC number. Well… I asked if they could look in the back while I look through the shelves – five minutes later… all he could see was old madden games. Well, dinnertime was approaching so I left the store grabbing an ad to pricematch.
Returning from dinner, I headed towards a nearby Best Buy in hopes to get a pricematch. Hey, the good part is, they had the game … unfortunately at a 40 dollar price range. I went towards the customer service with game an advertisement in hand hoping the female cashier would just ring the game and let me leave in peace. Ultimately, she placed me on hold and decided to call the nearby Circuit City… Great. I’m standing there with a credit card ready to purchase for around fifteen minutes. Being slightly dejected at the wait and my hopes fading, the young female returned. Huzzah? Well… no. According to her, the Circuit City did not pick up, and therefore there is no way they can verify – so much for matching the ad on the spot. Being a bit cynical, I was wondering if she called the other Circuit City’s around the area. With a curt reply, “They are not local competitors,” I was undeniably a bit frustrated and annoyed since “local” can constitute as any nearby stores. In curiosity, I asked what “local” meant. With a slightly confused look on her face, she replied the “nearby” stores. Slightly amused at this comment, (since the nearby CC could also be located along San Francisco or San Mateo County region), I asked about the other stores. Apparently no matter how far the store, it has to be the closest within vicinity (that’s my theory at least… Best Buy used to price match with the nearest Fry’s Electronics, around a 45min drive on the freeway… :/).
Well, apparently pricematching didn’t work, so I decided to check back at CC one last time. Came in, found an employee. Ah excellent, he’s next to the computer, I’ll ask him to search! Apparently he just looks on CC’s website and claims its out of stock, but it could be in the shelves! Slightly annoyed at the response, I asked him if he could check the store inventory system. Well, the SKU/UPC argument came up again, but have no fear, the website that he looked for showed it. Delighted at this prospect, and the employee bending towards my will; another C.C. employee came up, and said that the game’s out of stock. Sigh…
The next day, I decided, hey maybe Target has it for around 20 dollars, I saw it on another CAG topic. Arriving at target, I asked the employee if he could check if the game is in stock through the computers… Well, I assume that the computer system is the same as the pathetic CC system, since he didn’t even bother, saying look at the shelf, and claiming they had the game previously. I’m not sure about you guys, but is checking through the computer system that big of a deal? There’s no one around when I asked and he wasn’t even doing anything.
Bah one last shot, CompUSA’s website has Rouge Galaxy in stock for 26.99, but hey they’re getting liquidated so I’ll still have it slightly less than the retail 40. Arriving at the store, I was first disappointed by the game selection, nothing really promising for the systems that I had. As I headed out towards the store, to my delight, I found another cart of games. And Rouge Galaxy was there! Buwhahaha… I can finally get the game! Alas, the “manager’s special” was at $39.98! Well… I’m confused, the website was claiming it was 26.99… Heading over to customer’s service, the guy started to explain that the store pricing was it. Being slightly annoyed and a bit cynical through my adventures, I questioned why the CompUSA website was claiming the price at 26.99 while the CompUSA store is 39.98. As I heard from this great reply, “the online section is different from the stores…” As it drew on, I replied with “So the CompUSA website, which is the website of the CompUSA stores, are different from the retail pricing of CompUSA, which in the end is still CompUSA (well… technically not for long)?” Well, apparently the store is no longer CompUSA, but a liquidation store… even with CompUSA logos flying around everywhere.
In the end, after searching through a bunch of stores… I have ended with… well… nothing but wasted gas. I suppose my last ditch effort might be walking through a Walmart as I have heard other people have bought the game for 19.92 or something. Unfortunately, it’s a rather lengthy distance… Anyone else have such fun holiday shopping experiences? Or find any deals on this game?
Reaching home around five (traffic was horrendous), I decided to go to Circuit City and check out if they had the game at the sale’s price. Entering the store, I noticed that the entire games section was rather… unorganized. At first, it seemed to be in alphabetical order, but that was a rather large mistake. Different games were randomly found through the aisle. Well, in vain and trying to avoid looking through each and every individual case, I decided to ask the employee. The first guy that I approached looked seemingly lackluster and bored, so I hoped that my task would send him into an active frenzied search (I was mistaken…). Alright, so he couldn’t really remember what the game looked like, no problem… I had the advertisement. Well, as I quote, “All the games should be in the section, have you looked?” So I stated that there was no real ordering and was wondering if he could check the computer.
Little did I know, the computer system at Circuit City was ineffective (or so I presume). They cannot search through the store inventory by name, only by the SKU or UPC number. Well… I asked if they could look in the back while I look through the shelves – five minutes later… all he could see was old madden games. Well, dinnertime was approaching so I left the store grabbing an ad to pricematch.
Returning from dinner, I headed towards a nearby Best Buy in hopes to get a pricematch. Hey, the good part is, they had the game … unfortunately at a 40 dollar price range. I went towards the customer service with game an advertisement in hand hoping the female cashier would just ring the game and let me leave in peace. Ultimately, she placed me on hold and decided to call the nearby Circuit City… Great. I’m standing there with a credit card ready to purchase for around fifteen minutes. Being slightly dejected at the wait and my hopes fading, the young female returned. Huzzah? Well… no. According to her, the Circuit City did not pick up, and therefore there is no way they can verify – so much for matching the ad on the spot. Being a bit cynical, I was wondering if she called the other Circuit City’s around the area. With a curt reply, “They are not local competitors,” I was undeniably a bit frustrated and annoyed since “local” can constitute as any nearby stores. In curiosity, I asked what “local” meant. With a slightly confused look on her face, she replied the “nearby” stores. Slightly amused at this comment, (since the nearby CC could also be located along San Francisco or San Mateo County region), I asked about the other stores. Apparently no matter how far the store, it has to be the closest within vicinity (that’s my theory at least… Best Buy used to price match with the nearest Fry’s Electronics, around a 45min drive on the freeway… :/).
Well, apparently pricematching didn’t work, so I decided to check back at CC one last time. Came in, found an employee. Ah excellent, he’s next to the computer, I’ll ask him to search! Apparently he just looks on CC’s website and claims its out of stock, but it could be in the shelves! Slightly annoyed at the response, I asked him if he could check the store inventory system. Well, the SKU/UPC argument came up again, but have no fear, the website that he looked for showed it. Delighted at this prospect, and the employee bending towards my will; another C.C. employee came up, and said that the game’s out of stock. Sigh…
The next day, I decided, hey maybe Target has it for around 20 dollars, I saw it on another CAG topic. Arriving at target, I asked the employee if he could check if the game is in stock through the computers… Well, I assume that the computer system is the same as the pathetic CC system, since he didn’t even bother, saying look at the shelf, and claiming they had the game previously. I’m not sure about you guys, but is checking through the computer system that big of a deal? There’s no one around when I asked and he wasn’t even doing anything.
Bah one last shot, CompUSA’s website has Rouge Galaxy in stock for 26.99, but hey they’re getting liquidated so I’ll still have it slightly less than the retail 40. Arriving at the store, I was first disappointed by the game selection, nothing really promising for the systems that I had. As I headed out towards the store, to my delight, I found another cart of games. And Rouge Galaxy was there! Buwhahaha… I can finally get the game! Alas, the “manager’s special” was at $39.98! Well… I’m confused, the website was claiming it was 26.99… Heading over to customer’s service, the guy started to explain that the store pricing was it. Being slightly annoyed and a bit cynical through my adventures, I questioned why the CompUSA website was claiming the price at 26.99 while the CompUSA store is 39.98. As I heard from this great reply, “the online section is different from the stores…” As it drew on, I replied with “So the CompUSA website, which is the website of the CompUSA stores, are different from the retail pricing of CompUSA, which in the end is still CompUSA (well… technically not for long)?” Well, apparently the store is no longer CompUSA, but a liquidation store… even with CompUSA logos flying around everywhere.
In the end, after searching through a bunch of stores… I have ended with… well… nothing but wasted gas. I suppose my last ditch effort might be walking through a Walmart as I have heard other people have bought the game for 19.92 or something. Unfortunately, it’s a rather lengthy distance… Anyone else have such fun holiday shopping experiences? Or find any deals on this game?