Desperate Housewives Best Buy Coupon Not a good deal! (1 Viewer)

[Jared Reich]

That 10.00 off coupon that comes with lost is a waste. It says in small print on the bottom that the markdown is taken from the regular price. So I guess whatever the sale price is you will be paying the same thing as advertised as it won't mark down the on sale price.

Bummer.

 

[ElijahS]

Huh?

 

[Jared Reich]

The on pack Desperate Housewives 10.00 off coupon that comes with lost is not valid on the sale price of the set when it comes out on the 20th. It will markdown the original price of the set.

Or at least that is what the coupon says.

 

[ElijahS]

So the initial price isn't what Desperate Housewives will normally sell for at Best Buy.

 

[Jared Reich]

but regular price does not mean the sale price which is what best buy sells for on release day. They usually have another sticker on the dvd with retail and the sale price on the rack shelf holder thing.

 

[David Lambert]

Okay, what Jared's saying is this:

If the SRP is $59.99 and the regular everyday discounted price is 10% off, then that would be $53.99 everyday price (NOT on sale). The price during the first week of sale might be on sale, though, for $42.99. Since the coupon is for $10 off, then the $53.99-$10=$43.99, a dollar worse than the "first week on-sale price", right Jared?

Okay...all those numbers were made-up, just for example. Now here are the REAL numbers:

The SRP of DH-S1 really is $59.99, so that's the max you could possibly pay except at an unreasonable store. Best Buy's everyday price is already posted at $39.99, a $20 savings over SRP. The coupon is good for $10 off of that, which will make it $29.99 for the coupon-holders. That price is good until 11/19/05...long past the first week of sale.

The coupon in question, by the way, came attached to the Best Buy-exclusive bonus disc for Lost S1. If you didn't buy Lost at Best Buy, you don't have this coupon. If you got it at Best Buy, but didn't get the specially marked package with the "suitcase sticker" that proclaimed that a bonus disc was inside (and you could see it shrinkwrapped on the back side of the box), then you didn't get this coupon. The coupon is printed on a heavy cardboard stock, that you tear off at the perforation from the Lost bonus disc's sleeve, so there's no way a printout from the Internet will fool a remotely marginally intelligent Best Buy employee/drone...it will have to be the original (small print says no copies will be accepted). The small print also indicates that the coupon is only good in stores, not at BestBuy.com.

Anyway, if you DO have this coupon and are buying in-store, then you get the release for $29.99 in most cities (assuming the $39.99 everyday price is in your area; in some less competitive markets, I'm sure Best Buy stores will sell the set everyday for up to $44.99, just to make up a little more money...everyone knows that they do this, right?).

The first-week-of-sale discount price is likely to be no better than $34.99 anyway...possibly better for Reward Zone members or whatever.

In a nutshell: price with coupon is likely to be $29.99 for me, which is half-off the SRP of a 6-DVD set. I don't think I'll complain about that...sounds like a decent deal.

If you did NOT get the coupon, visit Best Buy's listing and notice under the price that the purchase of the set online gets you a $10 digital coupon good for a future purchase at BB.com so it amounts to the same thing.

As the guy who invented the Weekly Roundup, I think you'll find I'm pretty close-to-the-mark.

 

[ElijahS]

Thank you. That's what I thought would happen, but I got a little confused since I don't know anything about how Best Buy prices their products.

 

[Ryan_Guah]

Has anyone gotten the digital coupon yet? It was supposed to arrive "on or about 9/9/05", and I haven't had mine emailed to me yet..

 

[Jared Reich]

Yes. That is what I am getting at. Still a bit mad that it will not be coming off of the sales price. That extra money I could have saved could go toward gas.

 

[AnthonyC]

But David just said that it is coming off the sale price.

 

[ElijahS]

It IS coming off the sale price. The sale price is the regular price for Best Buy (at least for the time being).

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

The coupon doesn't say "$10.00 off the manufacturer's suggested retail price". It say "off the regular price" - meaning Best Buy's "regular" price which is already discounted from the MSRP. Jared didn't realize that distinction between "regular price" and "MSRP", so this whole controversy is based on a misunderstanding of Best Buy's offer.

People are right to think that $10.00 off the MSRP would have been a lousy deal - which should have been the first clue that Best Buy wasn't offering such a deal. The people who run Best Buy aren't morons and they don't assume their customers are, either. Why would they think they would get a significatn increase in sales and bodies in the store by offering $10.00 off a $59.99 DVD set that the Circuit City around the corner was selling for $39.99. There just aren't enough stupid people to make such a scheme worthwhile.

I'm not picking on Jared, but this is a pattern I see a lot on this site (and elsewhere) and we all seem to fall into it from time to time. We misunderstand what someone has said/written/promised, what have you. The misunderstood version does not make any sense under the circumstances. Instead of reading it again and considering tha we might have got something wrong we post an angry message (letter to the editor, call to talk radio, etc.) dennouncing whoever it was for doing something they never did. I think the world would be a much better place if the next time we encountered something that struck us as so outrageously stupid or unfair or evil on someone else's part as to defy common sense we just stop, reconsider the evidence, the sources and our own biases and see if there's a chance that we're the ones who are wrong - before we launch a campaign against the malefactor. (Of course, if on futher reflection we find the malefactor really is doing something stupid and evil, we go after them hammer and tongs.)

If you're not sure about something ask. How hard would it have been to ring up the local Best Buy or their toll free customer service number to clarify the ambiguous language? Why assume the worst and not look beyond that. Even an "Am I reading this offer right?" post might have been better than one announcing as fact that Best Buy was offering a bad deal. (Which the thread title still says, and which some may believe without opening the thread and reading it at all or much past the first post or two.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[David Lambert]

No. It's coming off of the everyday discounted price.

Let's look at the releases this past week at Best Buy. One in particular: Lost - Season 1. Its SRP (suggested retail price, or "list price") is $59.99...that's what Disney says it should go for. Best Buy's everyday sticker price is $49.99 on that item, though...trying to live up to their name, right? But until today you can buy it for $39.99 on sale (let's leave the special Reward Zone pricing out of this; it's too confusing!). That sale ends at close of business today, and it will be up to it's "everyday discounted price" of $49.99 tomorrow.

So, if we had a $10 coupon for Lost (that was only good as a discount against the regular price), and tried to use it today, the end result would be the same $39.99 price you would get today anyway. Tomorrow, anyone without a coupon has to pay $49.99, but tomorrow somebody who has a coupon still gets it for $39.99!

Get it?

 

[Josh_HI]

What the heck! I hope you guys are wrong. I'm going to be pissed if I go for DH the first day and that coupon doesn't work!

 

[Gord Lacey]

Just to further complicate this...


The DH package has a sticker on it that says "Save $10 by mail *with purchase of Desperate Housewives Season 1 and Lost Season 1."

*Offer expires December 31, 2005. Good in USA and Canada only. Void where prohibited. *See complete details inside DVD.

You need to send in:
-Proof of purchase tab from DH season 1
-Proof of purchase tab from Lost Season 1
Cash register receipt from DH Season 1 set purchase imprinted with store name and dated between September 20, 2005 and December 31, 2005 with price circled (photocopies are okay)
-Original, hand-printed, complete certificate (no photocopies!!)

This is something on every DH set, and the mail-in certificate is included inside. I guess people that bought Lost (with bonus disc) and DH at Best Buy will enjoy $20 off the DH set.

Gord

 

[Mike Frezon]

Still living in the past? How sad.

BTW, Dave...I understand your explanation completely.

Nice to see you around!

And, Gord...that is most excellent news!

 

[ravma]

Gord, Seeing as how you MUST have the set, can you please put my mind at ease so I can safely order this thing.
IS IT WIDESCREEN?
I just dont trust Buena Vista / Disney. After all, they did say they'd correct the PR, but I don't recall that ever happening.

 

[Pete Battista]

To ease your mind a little quicker... Gord already stated that it is in animorphic widescreen in his DVD REview Or did you mean Desperate housewives? sorry I may be a bit confused here. :p)

 

[Gord Lacey]

Yes, it's widescreen (enchanced for 16x9 televisions)

Gord

 

[ravma]

Yeah, I meant Desperate Housewives.
Thanks Gord! Glad to hear it.