Weekly RoundUp 8-3-2010 - Page 2

Today's Ultimate Electronics horror story:

After work, I shoot over to Crossgates Commons to pick up Kick-Ass. I see 40 or so copies in the Blu-Ray new release rack, marked $17.99 to my surprise rather than the $21.95 on their website. I grab a copy, take it to the cashier, cash out. Swing by Best Buy to pick up Unforgiven on Blu for $7.99. Head home. My dad wanted to see Kick-Ass but had to wait for a call from the mechanic to see if he'd have to bring my mother's car in. We twiddle our thumbs until ~8:00 PM, and then finally decide to watch the movie anyway. I take it out of the slipcase, and discover it's the DVD not the Blu-Ray! Thinking I'd just goofed up, I hopped in the car and shot back over to Ultimate Electronics. Turns out that when they ran out of the BD copies, they just padded the new release shelf with more of the SD-DVDs to fill the space. Since the price was cheaper than I'd expected anyway, I didn't notice that it was even cheaper than it was supposed to be. So I can't exchange it for the BD, but at least I can return it. But guess what? The cash register they do returns on doesn't have any cash in it. So I have to stand around waiting for a customer to make a cash purchase of $14 or more so I can get my money back. Finally a guy comes in with a wad of fifties, and I stand there while he counts out bills for a ~$700 piece of electronics. Roughly a half hour after I went into the store, I walk out with my change. They had a pile of the fliers in the lobby, so I grabbed one on my way out, shot over to Best Buy (more or less across the street in the mall) and made the poor girl at the register do a price check five minutes before the store was about to close. I finally get home around 9 PM, and it's too late for my dad to start a movie.

Thanks for ruining my evening, Ultimate Electronics! Now that I know they keep a stack of fliers in the doors, I'm just going to swing by and grab one to price check at Best Buy when their listed price is less. UE isn't getting my business in the near future.

Added a link to Piranha and Kick Ass to the OP

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/302803/htf-blu-ray-review-piranha#post_3716816

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/302793/htf-blu-ray-review-kickass-combo-pack

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon 

Adam:  I was thisclose to making a wisecrack when you posted this earlier...

 

I was going to say: "you really think it's worth the buck to make the extra trip?" 

 

I guess we know the answer now... 

Definitely not making that mistake again anytime soon. If UE weren't a 30-second drive from the Crossgates Best Buy, I wouldn't have bothered in the first place.

At least it turned out to be $5 that I put myself through all of that for, and not $1!

FYI, DeepDiscount has the Charlie's Angels BD for $10.37.

_Man_

offer dead

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt 

Thanks for ruining my evening, Ultimate Electronics! Now that I know they keep a stack of fliers in the doors, I'm just going to swing by and grab one to price check at Best Buy when their listed price is less. UE isn't getting my business in the near future.

Um, look, I don't like the vibe of the place either, but you grabbed the DVD instead of the BluRay. A horror story would be that they refused to take the return, or something else that made you not get your money back.

That there wasn't cash in their register is unfortunate and weird, but not exactly a policy. Just bad timing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt 

I finally get home around 9 PM, and it's too late for my dad to start a movie.

 

Those bastards!

EDIT: Instead of a defensive rant, I'll leave it at this: It was a bad end to a bad day. I needed to let off some steam, and this thread was the outlet. No, it wasn't UE's fault that I wasn't paying enough attention. But when things go awry, even when it's the customers fault, good businesses make the correction as easy and painless as possible. Bad businesses don't. UE's business choices from how they display the merchandise to how they handled my return, made my purchasing experience more difficult rather than less difficult, from the way they displayed the merchandise to the way they handled the return. My experience was negative enough that I will be taking my future business elsewhere when possible.