Orlando CAG's, I'm up in Jax right now with the folks, but according to SD people I've read, it's been hit or miss in Central Florida. Most recent reports indicate the Winter Garden location is a "go." Maybe you'll see the Cowardly Lion girl from American Idol, since she relocated there from Waterford.
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Got to the Best Buy in Orange Park, FL, around 9pm, gathered my things (PS3 80gb, Wii Classic Controller, Ratchet & Clank Future) and waited until the Customer Service line was short, then hopped in. (80gb PS3's were hidden away in a PS3 demo fort in home theater away from the rest of the video game stuff, and there were less than 4 that I could find.)
I got a young 20-something girl, and I didn't even have to do any innocent lying. She rang up the items before the coupon, I agreed to an $80 service plan as a sort of compromise so they'd think they'd make up the profit that way, and she stared at the screen when it didn't do anything automatically. I thought I might have to step in, but I played dumb and just peered around. She eventually started humming to herself and after futile attempts at calculating the discount in her head, she grabbed a calculator.
She wound up entering it as a manufacturers coupon manually adjusted to $144 (yeah, yeah, a dollar off), and all the items show their regular prices, no adjustments. I'll be returning the service plan, of course.
Here's my tips, and some that I gathered when reading over the SD guys' shenanigans:
1. Offer upfront to get the service plan. It's pure profit for them, so at least it doesn't come off like they're completely losing money on this transaction. You can return it, anyway.
2. Speaking of profit, pad your purchase with accessories instead of games. It helps their attachment rate as well as profit. From what I've read, many places will go ahead and give you the 25% off on games with entirely less fuss at regular cashiers (though your mileage will still vary).
3. Make your purchase at Customer Service instead of the regular cashiers, since they have at least some level of override power, though they might still need to get a supervisor or manager depending on the amount.
4. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A REWARD ZONE MEMBERSHIP. This is an RZ coupon, so at least you can say you got it in an RZ email, instead of vaguely mumbling something about teh intarwebs. It's free to join, and you can sign up online at
http://www.myrewardzone.com, where you can print out a temporary card. You don't even have to have the card on you since they can look it up at time of checkout using your phone number.
5. Make a print out of what results when you type in "toy" (no S) on their website. You'll have to click on the thing that says "see all 2### items" to get to the good stuff. This might be able to help your case that a games and systems should qualify.
6. Don't be retarded. This is NOT supposed to work. You definitely are "pulling a fast one." Toys are a legitimate, specific category of items Best Buy sells, and they include things like iDogs, board games, and those Tiger Electronics-type games. Though the website says Games AND Toys, that conjunction means they are two seperate categories. Games are NOT under an umbrella Toy category. Some jackasses on SD ask to be pointed to a Toy department of the store; just because there aren't enough products for a specific area does not mean that that category of product is not being offered for sale Also, stores make NO profit on consoles, or iPods/Zunes for that matter. This is why they are always excluded on coupons. Why aren't they excluded on this coupon? Because this coupon is specifically for Toys, which DOES NOT INCLUDE video games or consoles..
7. Some people have had success in going above the manager when speaking with 1-800-BEST-BUY. Some have not. Make no mistake, a retail store is not public property, and they hold the right to refuse sales for any reason. That in mind, if you don't get satisfaction in the store, you can make your case to corporate at the aforementioned number. Many times, though, the phone rep may take your side but still say that it is still ultimately up to store management.
