Starcraft 2 Best Buy gift card price match question

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Thorgouge

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I know this probably isn't the most relevant thing to post here but I don't know where else to put this question.

Anyway, I bought SC2 at Best Buy today because I had a ton of rewards points that I wouldn't otherwise spend before their expiration. I showed them a print out of their price match policy and the Kmart ad showing the $20 gift card with purchase. They denied it at first showing an incorrect paragraph as the reason why and after 40 minutes of talking to the manager and having him walk away to personally look up the offer on Kmart's website, he denied me saying well in my time here I've never price matched a gift card because it is a free item offer and we don't do that here ever.

I know this is clear bullshit because most of us have price matched at BB for other gift card offers with games such as Dragon Quest IX and they do it no problem for a lot of us. I even told him I just got a price match with a gift card there recently but it didn't change his mind. What can I say if I go back to this BB and speak to another manager or go to another store with my receipt and the ad and discuss it further with a brand new manager in a brand new store? Is this guy correct in that they aren't supposed to give out gift card price matches despite the CRYSTAL CLEAR price match policy on their website? What the fuck?
 
you should probably go on bestbuy.com, click contact us, and email this question to people that work at corporate. we can't help.. they can (and usually do, they're nice.. if you are)
 
Some stores are really flaky with their policies. I've had one manager tell me he has full discretion over price matches, but another one price matches everything I throw at them. Their policy is on their site, and is something I print up every time I go. They cannot refuse a price match if you shove their policy in their face.

This is why people are suing them. I bet you'll have success at another store.
 
Yea, that's what I figured would happen but 45 minutes later both douche bag managers refuse to do it. Here are the three paragraphs that I think could be viewed as applicable to my gift card price match situation; these are also the ones they tried to cite to prevent me from getting the match.

"How do you handle a price match if the Best Buy price includes a promotional offer such as a free gift card or rebate?
The Best Buy net purchase price is calculated by deducting the value of all instant and mail-in discounts such as rebates, free offers and promotional gift cards. Existing rebates and free offers associated with a product purchased at Best Buy will not apply if a price match is executed."

That was the first thing they told me was the reason they cannot price match. If I understand that paragraph correctly, it means that if Best Buy was offering a promotion for an item that you had price matched to get a lower price another store was advertising, you would forfeit the promotion that Best Buy had active, basically making it so you can't take advantage of both a price match and a current BB promotion. I explained that to them and then they pointed me to this paragraph.

"How do you handle a price match if the competitor's price includes a rebate or other promotional offer?
The competitor's net purchase price is calculated by deducting instant discounts taken at the register such as instant rebates. Mail-in rebates and other deferred savings are not deducted from the competitor's purchase price."

Okay, this looks like it would work, right? The value of the instant discount (the instant gift card) is deducted from the price of the item or I suppose they could even just match the gift card with one of their own. At least that's what I would assume this means. According to them, gift cards don't fall under this because it is "other deferred savings." Finally, this was shown to me and is the final portion of the policy that they showed me before ultimately refusing no matter what I show them to price match.

"How do you handle a price match if an instant gift card is included with a purchase?
The value of an instant gift card with purchase will be considered when calculating a price match. If the combined value of a competitor's product and instant gift card is lower than the combined value of Best Buy's product price and instant gift card, Best Buy will match either the price or the instant gift card value, depending on the offer."

Okay, here I guess I can see that the store is only supposed to price match the gift card value of another store if Best Buy is also giving a gift card as a promotion, albeit at a smaller value. I was told that because they weren't doing a gift card offer for the game at their store, they couldn't match the one at Kmart. I'm a little confused about that though seeing as how most people get away with that.

Again, in the end he told me they don't price match "free items" such as gift cards at all in his time working for Best Buy. Someone please explain this shit to me and what section of the price match policy is applicable to this situation so that I may more effectively argue my point at another Best Buy. I really don't want to drive that far out to one for nothing.
 
[quote name='Thorgouge']"How do you handle a price match if the competitor's price includes a rebate or other promotional offer?
The competitor's net purchase price is calculated by deducting instant discounts taken at the register such as instant rebates. Mail-in rebates and other deferred savings are not deducted from the competitor's purchase price."

Okay, this looks like it would work, right? The value of the instant discount (the instant gift card) is deducted from the price of the item or I suppose they could even just match the gift card with one of their own. At least that's what I would assume this means. According to them, gift cards don't fall under this because it is "other deferred savings." Finally, this was shown to me and is the final portion of the policy that they showed me before ultimately refusing no matter what I show them to price match.[/QUOTE] Nope, you're misinterpreting it. Instant discounts on your purchase doesn't mean gift card as its not applied toward the ACTUAL purchase but a FUTURE purchase(towards something else but the actual item you're purchasing).As far as I can tell a gift card is more akin to a mail in rebate(again,future savings) than an instant discount.

Those people who were able to get away with this, were lucky imo as their policy protects them from price matches such as these.

What that is aimed at is stuff like 20% off/$5 off/instant rebate/etc.
 
I'd just go pick it up at K-Mart. Save all the trouble. But thats cause i'm not too into the whole Best Buy Rewards deal.
 
Why do you want to be an asshole and confront the manager over a price check of kmart sc2 deal at bestbuy? Chill out and buy the game for full retail and stop being a dick at launch for games like this
 
You're probably running into trouble because you don't get a giftcard with the Kmart deal, it's a "gaming coupon".
 
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