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Problems with CHILDREN OF MEN Sale at Best Buy - Suggestions? (1 Viewer)

Jake Lipson

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This week, as noted in the Roundup, Best Buy has a selection of Universal DVDs on sale for $6.99 which include a movie ticket to see the new Hulk movie, including Chiildren of Men. That title had been on my "to-buy list" for a while, and $6.99 + tax is more or less what I would end up paying for a ticket to see Hulk in theaters anyway (which I was already planning on doing.) So I was happy to get it. I might not have gotten it now if not for the Hulk promotion but I did

My mother was kind enough to pick it up for me yesterday, and there was a sticker on the front promoting the Hulk ticket. She asked an employee to find it for her, and he picked out the full screen version, which she took without remembering to check which one it was.

I politely refused to open that and asked for it to be exchanged, which Dad did this afternoon. He came back with a widescreen copy but announced that it was $3.21 more expensive, including tax, than the $7.xx I had already paid for the fullscreen version. He says he questioned it at the store but they would not give him the lower price. Also, this one did not have a Hulk ticket sticker on it.

He asked me before opening it wheather I wanted him to go back and return it, and I thought about that. It is not my fault, but I feel kind of bad asking my parents to run back and forth to Best Buy multiple times for something like this with gas prices being what they are these day. The local one is not redicliously far from where we live, but it is a drive nonetheless, and the only reason they went there is to handle this DVD issue. Therefore, if I asked him to return it again, it would be a third trip to and from there, which is probably more in gas money than the actual DVD is worth.

Plus, I reasoned - I have seen DVDs where stickers did not end up on the front but the item being promoted as inside is there regardless. Just a shrinkwrapping mistake.

Not in this case. I open it up and there's nothing inside the case at all except for the disc.

And THEN one of the side snaps on the case broke off. I'm not particularly fond of them anyway, but the point is that it should have been more...durable. (I pulled out the other snap when the first one came out for the sake of uniformity but still.)

So what can I do now? I'm left with an open movie which I want, but one which I paid too much for AND which does not contain the item I really made the purchase for.

Is there any way that any of you know of that I can make this situation better? I'm upset enough to consider a return trip to Best Buy with my parents and myself, but in addition to asking them to do a third trip out there and back with gas as it is...I don't quite know what to expect. Since Dad challenged them about the incorrect widescreen upcharge before and they would not relent, I have no reason to think that they would be more cooperative now giving me either a Hulk ticket or a refund with an open disc.
 

Ken Seeber

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I don't mean this in a rude way, but is there a reason you can't take care of this yourself without your parents' help? Your profile says you're 19.

Opening the DVD was a mistake, and you knew better. But you might get lucky and find someone at the customer service counter who is sympathetic. But rather than recount the whole story, streamline things simply tell the person the DVD did not contain the ticket as advertised.

Edited to add: Best Buy's Web site shows only the fullscreen version of "Children of Men" being part of this deal --- meaning the $6.99 sale price and the movie ticket deal.
 

Malcolm R

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Yep, I wrote about this in the Weekly Round-Up thread, that it seemed to be only the Full Screen version of COM that was included in the MovieCash deal. I almost bought it myself, but noticed before I checked out. None of the Widescreen COM's had the promo sticker, and BB's sale signs seem to confirm it's a full-screen only offer (there is no "WS" notation after the title on the sign as there is with most of the other titles).

Sounds like the best you can hope for is an exchange for the Widescreen version without ticket. If it was on your "to buy" list anyway, $6.99 is a good deal even without the bonus ticket.

Are there any other titles in the offer you might want so you can still get a free ticket, plus another cheap DVD? I ended up just getting buying a different (widescreen) title.
 

Ken Seeber

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~$10 is not too much to pay for "Children of Men," especially considering it was hand-delivered to you.
 

Jake Lipson

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Thanks for the replies everyone.

My parents happened to handle this one for me. I still live with them during the summer. However, I doubt it would have been much different had I gotten it myself, except for the fact that I would have gotten widescreen to begin with. If indeed the widescreen version is not included in the deal, then I won't fight this anymore. It bothers me more in principle that the correct version is pricier, though you're right that $10 isn't a bad price. It's just that the two discs are identical except for the aspect ratio of the film, so in principle they should be identically priced. I argued this once when I was out myself and saw Circuit City had marked the widescreen edition of Grease a few dollars more than the P&S one and got them to admit the error even without my intending to purchase the disc. Then I did because it was on my to-buy-eventually list anyway and it would have looked really wierd if I had complained about it and then not bought it. But...point being, the price difference annoys me.

There are no other titles in the deal which particularly intrest me, so it would probably be cheaper/more sensible to just buy a ticket to Hulk normally at the theater at this point. I'll just keep my exchanged widescreen disc and call it a day.
 

Rhoq

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COM is a great movie and well worth the $10 - free ticket or not. I wonder if this promo being Fullscreen-only was Universal's way of clearing overstock?
 

Chris Lockwood

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> Edited to add: Best Buy's Web site shows only the fullscreen version of "Children of Men" being part of this deal --- meaning the $6.99 sale price and the movie ticket deal.

How bizarre is that? Wouldn't someone who wants to go to the theatre be the same type who would want the WS version?

I saw an ad for one of these deals where the "free" movie ticket voucher was only good for up to $7, which is not enough to cover a ticket in most places now.
 

Phil Tomaskovic

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In other cases where there wasn't a movie ticket involved, I've usually just bought it at another store and have them price match it. They usually don't bother to see if the ad says full or widescreen. Target also sells only the full on some $9.99 sales, you go to the rack and the sale sign is on the full and the WS is regular price. I usually play dumb and when the WS doesn't ring up the sale price, I ask them to check the ad and they usually override the price, but I've only done that at Target.
 

Jimmy M

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Why should these things be more durable? They're meant to be broken off once purchesed, as they are only another form of theft deterrent.

Jimmy!
 

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