Band Of Brothers at BB (1 Viewer)

[Dave Scarpa]

At the BestBuy.com site they'll give you a $25 digital Coupon if you Preorder Band of Brothers for $89.00. That's the best deal I've seen efectively making it a $65 retail.
I placed an order right away... especially with the free shipping still on.

 

[Patrick_S]

I saw this last night and also placed an order.

I just felt with the $25 digital coupon it was worth it to preorder instead of waiting to see if a B&M would have a better price.

 

[Don_Houle]

I just went to www.bestbuy.com to pre-order. I don't see anything about a $25 coupon. Is this an advertised special? Was it for a limited time?
thanks,

 

[Patrick_S]

Follow the link:
Band of Brothers $25 dollar couponThe offer is good until Nov 3, 2002.

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

Just note, you only have 2 weeks to redeem the coupon.

 

[todbnla]

a) do they charge you at shipment or right away?
b) the coupon is only good online, correct?
c) any tax savings this way? I think not...

 

[Don_Houle]

a) do they charge you at shipment or right away?

Interesting that you should ask!

I pre-ordered my copy yesterday after MAKING SURE that Best Buy's policy is not to charge your credit card until the order is shipped (My only credit card is my VISA check card and I get paid monthly, so my bank account is a little low towards the end of the month!). I checked ALL of BBs pre-order policies to make sure this is the case and then I placed the order. So, I get home last night and my wife and I decide to do some grocery shopping. Luckily, I checked my account balance online before we went. My account's available balance was NEGATIVE! I figured out how much was held and it's exactly the amount for the BoB DVD set that I pre-ordered. I was rather upset because now I'll get charged a fee for dipping into my overdraft, etc!

I immediately called BB customer service to cancel my pre-order and to complain. The customer service rep stated that their policy is to put a hold on the funds until the card is actually charged. This is not what the website says at all! I read to her what the website states and asked to speak to a supervisor. I got the usual "there's no supervisor available" line. I noticed that there's a number for BB corporate offices on their page, so I told her I would be contacting them tomorrow (that's today!). I'll let you all know how that works out!

That annoys me because I've pre-ordered MANY items from Amazon and they never charge the CC until the item is shipped. I would have expected the same from Best Buy.

 

[Tommy G]

I didn't know you could use the $25 digital coupon on the BoB order. I thought you had to use it on a future order within 2 weeks. How does this work?

 

[Todd Phillips]

The customer service rep stated that their policy is to put a hold on the funds until the card is actually charged.

Don,
I work for a e-business company doing transaction-oriented websites. Credit cards have a 2-step transaction process: the Authorization, which asks the credit bank if there is sufficient credit to cover an amount and if there is, then reserve the funds, and the Settlement, where the merchant tells the credit bank that the transaction is complete.
When an amount is Authorized, those funds are reserved for a couple days while the bank waits for the Settlement. If no settlement is received, the funds are released. This is no problem for a credit card.
But for a debit card, there is no way for the funds to be temporarily "locked", so the actual amount is withdrawn from the bank account. The amount is returned to your account if there is no settlement for that transaction, but it could be a couple days. This means whenever a merchant checks to see if a debit card has sufficient funds, the account is actually withdrawn from your account.
Amazon obviously doesn't pre-authorize, but many companies do. It's not actually a credit card charge (and they don't see it as one), but for debit cards, it can be dangerous.
If you weren't already aware of this, it's a good thing to know.
I do find it strange that you were allowed to overdraw your account, instead of being rejected for insufficient funds. (But that was your bank's responsibility, not Best Buy's).
(Debit cards are a tough problem for financial applications. Because of the automatic withdrawl upon authorization, an e-business website that is having problems can easily deplete a debit card's bank account by re-authorizing a sale over and over, even though none of the sales are actually completed.)

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I Found out the Same thing yesterday. Now I think they only hold the funds that day, Do they hold it for months? I Would'nt think so.

 

[Don_Houle]

Todd,

Thanks. That's really good to know. I do web development work as well - no e-commerce sites yet, but I'm sure this issue with debit cards will come up in the future.

I think that Best Buy (and other online retailers) should be aware of this and update their policies accordingly.

Dave, I cancelled my order so I can't tell you how long the hold would have been. I can tell you that the order was cancelled last evening and the my available balance is still down by $95.

I'm calling BB to complain in a few minutes.

 

[Todd Phillips]

I Found out the Same thing yesterday. Now I think they only hold the funds that day, Do they hold it for months? I Would'nt think so.

No, they wouldn't.
The authorization process isn't just to put a hold on the funds...it's also to verify that the account number is valid and active. Those merchants that don't authorize when accepting a pre-order are accepting more risk than those that do.
Amazon has customer info on file and they track their users' every movement , so they have probably mitigated their risk through other means.

 

[Don_Houle]

Well, I called the BB corporate customer service number.

First off, they wanted to pawn me off on the BestBuy.com folks because they only handle policies for BB stores, not the "online version"! This makes me nuts! If a brick and mortar store has an online presence, they should have ONE customer service center to handle the whole deal. Present a united front! Jeez!

Anyway, I demanded that if I needed to speak with a BB.com rep, they could conference one in. They did so and they explained the situation and why I saw the transaction on my debit card - which was exactly as Todd said. They said that they would request to have the hold removed immediately although it would drop within a few days anyway.

I got the usual "We're sorry for your inconvenience...." line, but they were unwilling to do anything about the overdraft fee that I incurred (which I later had the bank remove anyway!) - they did not even offer a gift card or anything! Oh well, live and learn, I guess.

 

[Michael*K]

I won't hijack this thread by going into a tirade about Best Buy, but needless to say, I think their customer service sucks.

 

[MikeAlletto]

Don I don't mean to sound mean, but how is what happened to you Best Buy's fault? All they did was try and authorize your card, how the bank handles it is up to them. Best Buy has no say in what your bank is going to do with that authorization command.

I've never had any problems with best buy, returning stuff or buying stuff.

I cancelled by dvdempire preorder and got it from best buy instead. It was 2 bucks more expensive, but best buy has free shipping also.

 

[Don_Houle]

I never said that this was Best Buy's FAULT. I understand now that they're doing whatever they need to do to ensure that they get paid for merchandise that has been ordered.

Oh wait, you're referring to covering the overdraft charge? I understand where they're coming from with that as well. If I were running a business, I probably wouldn't refund them either. I thought it was worth a try - especially since a lot of retailers will give incentives (gift card, etc) to dissatisfied customers just to keep them coming back.

I did state that if they're aware of this issue with debit/check cards (they seemed to be aware of the problem both times I called them), that they should make it known in the description of their pre-order policies - especially since other major retailers (Amazon) do not perform this pre-authorization.

I've never had any problems with Best Buy in the past, either. I certainly don't mean to bash the company! I just think they should accurately post their policies and what those policies mean for their customers.

Will I order from BB.com again? Probably. I'll probably place my order for the BoB set closer to the release date.

I'll definitely buy from their stores again - usually can't beat their prices on new DVDs!

 

[Joe Reed]

Don, that was my same problem, I wanted to order the BoB set also with my debit card, (already maxed out the credit card) but then my mom, who is the Vice President of a bank here in NY, told that they ould hold the funds for a day or so, and I was going dvd shopping that night, so what I am doing is making sure I have an extra $100 in my bank acount on November 1st and then preodering the set.

 

[Adrian_S]

Hey all, you can pre-order Band of Brother's is for $68.72 at playcentric.com. Which I think is a great deal. Be aware that they do charge your CC when you place the order. Here is the link:
http://www.playcentric.com/DVD/produ...TTD8DSCA8E97K6
I have order most of my Box Sets (STNG, Nightmare Box Set, Buffy, X-Files, etc..) from this e-tailer and I think they have good prices. Though they do tend to go up in afew weeks. You should at least check it out before buying at Best Buy. Don't get me wrong, but Best Buy and Bestbuy.com seem to go high on their Box Sets...
Just my two cents...
BTW, I have the same problem with Bestbuy.Com where they charged my credit card and for Sleepaway Camp, LOTR Ext, and another movie. They put a hold on the funds, but since I did not have enough to cover it, they canceled part of my order and I lost my digital coupons, even though some of the movies I ordered were not gonna ship until December. I called them and emailed them, I talked to Sup's, Etc and they would not reinstate my order. I even offered them another CC, they said NO.
Just my 2cents.
Adrian

 

[Andrea W]

Edited: ignore this post, I had BoB confused with Stargate SG1 Season 2...

Use playcentric coupon code NLFREESHIP to get free shipping and a buck off.

 

[ChrisMatson]

DELETED to reflect the above edited post.