Circuit City $59.99 GBA SP = scam, but others honor it!

[stuffedmonkey]

Circuit City has posted a Memorial day ad - showing that you can get a GBA SP for 59.99, and a free Mad Cats starter kit with purchase. I was tipped off to this by dan2357 in another thread. So I checked online and sure enough they are showing that it is 59.99, and you get a free starter kit full of Mad Cats accessories. So I found a paper copy of the ad, and went down to the local CC to see if I could get one.

I thought I was golden when I was there. I got the two items, took it to the register, and a kid who must have been 16 but looked like he was 13 smiled and said "ahh so you are here for the deal. That looked pretty sweet, I think I might get one for my sister." Unfortunately when he rings the two items up, the register shows 80$ total (60 for the GBA, 20 for the kit). He is totally on my side, saying that he'll get the manager to fix it, since the ad shows that it's should be $60.

So after getting an assistant manager - who is clueless, then the main manager arrives. He tires to explain the whole thing by essentially complaining that customer just simply misunderstand the ad. We go around and around on this for a about 20 minutes. I ask him point blank that if we took this ad to someone who had never met either of us, and asked them to tell us what they thought it meant, what their answer would be. He refuses to answer me. Eventually I decide that this is no longer worth my time, ask if if he has the phone number for the district manager, and inform him that I will be complaining about Circuit city to the Better Business Bureau. I make sure he know that over $20, he has lost a customer that buys a lot of electronics, for life.

So the funny thing is the first place I visit after that, Compusa, is more then willing to honor the ad via price matching. I got the gameboy - for 59.99 from them. I didn't try to get a similar accessory kit - they didn't stock the same one, and I'm sure they wouldn't have just thrown in some random one. Plus I was happy at that point to have the gameboy.

I also stopped by cheapassgemer.com once i got home. They have a thread on this sale - saying that CC claims they had essentially made a typo in the ad. What they had meant to show was that if you bought this accessory kit for 20$, they would discount the GBA 20$, so essentially the kit ends up being free compared to the normal price of a GBA. This is however not what they show.

So the upside to this is that if you have a paper copy of the ad - you can get any of the local large electronics companies to sell you a 59.99 GBA SP!

It will be interesting to see what the various district manager types have to say. I hope they get multiple complaints. It's not so much about my $20 - I am 27 years old and have a wife and a job, it's that I'm sure he has punked a ton of kids that had to figure out some way to get a ride over there and have very limited budgets. It's also that I just have this thing about false advertising.....

[joshnickerson]

My circuit city had a ton of notices posted up all over the store saying the price was a typo.

Meh, it happens.

[Lady Jaye]

There's a big difference between a typo and a scam. And if they catch the mistake and post a notice of correction in-store, there's not much the customer can do about it.

[Griking]

I make sure he know that over $20, he has lost a customer that buys a lot of electronics, for life.

I work in retail myself and I can't count the number of times that I've heard customers say this only to see that same person in our store a week or two later. It'll probably be more of an inconvienance to you then a loss to Circuit City but if you're going to say something like this then mean it. Otherwise they WILL be pointing and laughing at you in a few weeks when they see you at their next videogame clearance sale.

[PDorr3]

I myself would be very pissed if I went all the way there only to be told it was a typo, still they should just include the kits anyway as a way of saying they are sorry.

Its cool though that stores price match, heh Imagine a typo for a SP for $6? I would be at every major retail and clean them out of their SP stock :)

[Crazycarl]

i work at a clothing store, and our policy is if the price on the articule of clothing say like 10 when its actuely 50, then we have to sell it at 10. maybe they should take up that policy.

[stuffedmonkey]

Ok. So maybe I got a little high and mighty there for a second, but I was pissed at having driven an hour across town (Traffic in DC was really bad, plus it was the friday before a holiday weekend.), and having them tell me to go bite it. There was no notice at the door, no notice where the games were. I understand that if the ad says that the system is $7.99 instead of 79.99 - that is a typo and I'm not going to expect to get the system at that price. But when the difference is so little, shouldn't the store expect to honor it?

I too worked in electronics retail for a long time - for Apple. I made sure to use my register override to make sure that no one got hosed. They could have easily made a price adjustment. Compusa did - and it wasn't even their ad!

Will I never shop there again? Eh, I doubt it. But I'm sure that they have lost more then $20 worth of profits off of the things I may have bought between now and whenever I shop there again.

[Griking]

Almost every large chain store I know of has a disclaimer on their ads stating that they're not responsible for misprints. As far as a store honoring a misprint I'm sure that it all depends on how big a difference in price it is.

I remember a few months ago Gamestop made a mistake in an online ad about a 8 port system changer that they had up for sale. Turns out its was really a sale on the 4 port version. A lot of people here ordered one expecting to get the 8 port one and only got the 4 port one.

[SoulBlazer]

Well, if other stores are willing to honor the print add, that is a GREAT DEAL for a GBA SP! If you're interested in one and have some major stores around you (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Comp USA, etc.) defentily see if you can get the paper add of the CC one, go in, and say your local one is out of stock.

I still think CC bites for not accepting the error, though. It's only $20.....not like they printed the GBA at $6 or anything. I'd be pissed off also.

[dan2357]

Dude that totaly bites. I was considering going to get one myself. Then again I dont need the starter kit, So I wonder if they ring the GBA up by itself if it will come up for $60 or if the discount showed up automaticaly when they rang the 2 items in.

[Half Japanese]

I read nothing but the initial post, but I will, as an employee, say the following:

It's shady as shit and I don't agree with it, HOWEVER, we were sent an ad correction email that basically said:

"We fucked up bad, we wish we hadn't, but if customers come for the GBA SP, deal with them on a one-on-one basis and honor the misprice in the ad. Try to sell a carrying case and a game to offset our losses on these. Strict limit of one per customer."

So they (store management and associates nationwide) were sent an email saying that they were to honor the price if it became an issue. The manager just got himself some bad PR. I'd ask for a number where you can reach his district manager, I don't know how it is in other districts, but when our DM is around, you can't pull the management's collective heads out of his ass without heavy equipment and a 50 gallon drum of vaseline. If it's a huge issue to anyone here, go to the customer service desk and ask for the DM's number, that should get a manager coming quickly, who will either apologize profusely and make it up to you or set himself up for major chastisement.

I'm not advocating the slimy practices of the CAG forum's members (who have about as much integrity as a US President), but I can tell you for a fact that they are supposed to honor the price and not cause a ruckus over $20 of lost profit. If I fuck up (selling old pennied-out promos or guides) I get my ass chewed out and written up, if they fuck up it seems like they just bury their shit like a dog, and that ain't right. In this case, give 'em hell.

As an sidenote to this post, I should mention that over the past few days I've dealt with this several times and we've always honored the typo and even though we're out of the starter kits, we special ordered them for the customer, as every store should, as per the email we were sent. Were the email nonexistent, it would be null and the ad corrections should be fine, but we were specifically told to honor the mispricing.

[Half Japanese]

Dude that totaly bites. I was considering going to get one myself. Then again I dont need the starter kit, So I wonder if they ring the GBA up by itself if it will come up for $60 or if the discount showed up automaticaly when they rang the 2 items in.

Sorry to post again, I just wanted to clarify that it won't work like this. The items ring up as part of a package, meaning the GBA WILL show up for $60, but without the starter kit attached (at $20), you can't tender the transaction. Just get them to match it or ask for a DM's number to complain. As a sidenote, if they give you shit but give in in the end, you can still bite back via the BizRate surveys (there's a code at the bottom of every receipt), which they DO actually read and get graded on. They really love the good ones and really hate the bad ones, so your input threre actually is used.

[dan2357]

Thank DrJustinRamone.
Im not a complainer at stores, except if its the manager. I worked retail a majority of my life and I know that the people ringing it up have nothing to do with it, But managers thats a different story. Thats what there there for, to deal with the a@@hole pain in the A** customers.I used to tell my employees all the time someone gets in your face get me, Thats what im here for im just a glorified salesperson. I used to love giving them my DM number, "here you go with a nice big smile on my face" let them deal with the problems that corp. causes. I allways feel bad for the people ringing up stuff and the customer gets all up in there sh*t, I usually make fun of them with the employee after they leave.
GOD I HATE RETAIL

[FurinkanianFrood]

having driven an hour across town (Traffic in DC was really bad, plus it was the friday before a holiday weekend.)


Friday; Holiday weekend; DC traffic?!

Damn.

[Half Japanese]

Just so it's absolutely 100% clear:

CORPORATE APPROVED HONORING THE PRICE IF THERE WAS AN ISSUE.

Managers not approving the price are going against corporate. Sure, they're saving some profit, but they've been explicitly told that this is OK.

[FurinkanianFrood]

Sorry DRJR, should have read your post carefully. I was half asleep.

I shouldn't have implied they weren't supposed to honor it in this case. That was something like what would have happened in hellholes where I've worked.

So OK, yeah that manager is a POS.

[FurinkanianFrood]

Accdental double. Crap..

[stuffedmonkey]

And just to clarify - I never fuss at rank and file retail employees unless one is being truly obnoxious. In fact the first cashier was this 16 year old kid who was 100% on my side - he just didn't have any price override powers. I spent too long in retail to be able to be one of those assface customers that chew out the register guys. They don't make enough, and don't deserve the grief.

Managers on the other hand deserve grief. Not only do they make a ton more, they also usually make the store clerk's lives crappy. Plus they are doing this as a profession, so they have more responsibilities. At any rate, I'll call in and complain, but I have no interest in having them honor the ad, since I already bought a SP.

On the positive side, I got a new GBA SP for the price of a used one, and I am really happy with it!

[Moon Patrol]

Look at the brightside of things, you went somewhere else and screwed them out of a GBA SP for much less than it should have been :-)

[yuppicide]

When I worked at Circuit City we had a typo on our website once. It listed a $500 GeForce video card for $150. Some guy was going around to all the stores trying to get them. I think he got maybe 3-4 before we caught the error and got tipped off and posted the signs about the typo.

[aftertheflesh]

The Best Buy by me had a Half-Life Platinum Collection mislabeled for $9.99 (they were still $49.99 at the time) After jumping through a couple of hoops I was able to purchase it for the mistake price. Actually bought my car off a typo in the newpaper, and they honored it LOL. $3800 less than it should have been. CC is managed by a bunch of asshats. Had a run in with them over a Creative Zen Micro recently. Unfortunately I have returned to shop there since. They have no clue whats going on. I wish I could get the GBA SP I want (New Zealand All Blacks :rocker: ) for that price...