My personal odyssey to get on the list for BestBuy Preferred Customer coupons. (2 Viewers)

[Qui-Gon John]

When we were getting them regularly, we were getting 2 sets. One for me one for my wife. I think because I got the BB card when I bought the RPTV and my wife got a BB card when she bought a laptop about 8 months later. Now, this latest round, just me. Go figure!

 

[Carlos V III]

Ran into a new wrinkle about the coupons today. Got my first ever coupons for this weekend's sale, so at lunch today I went down and picked up 5 DVD's.
Friday the 13th 1
Friday the 13th 2
Halloween
Farscape Season 2 2.3
Pat Benatar Live in New Haven
(Mmmmm, Pat Benatar :b )
Go to checkout and:
Clerk: I need your Best Buy credit card.
Me: Huh?!
Clerk: You can only use this coupon with your BB Credit Card.
Me: Sorry, it doesn't say that anywhere on the coupon and didn't say anything like that in what they mailed me. When did this start up?
Clerk: You can sign up for one right now and use the coupon.
Me: I've already got enough credit cards and besides, show me where it says on here that I have to use a BB credit card to use this coupon.
Clerk: Let me check with the manager.
(She goes and talks to the manager and returns.)
Clerk: If you pick these up in the store you have to use a BB credit card. If you received these in the mail then you don't have to use the BB credit card.
Me: I'm not going to argue, but that's not what the coupon says. You need to straighten this out. OK, whatever. Ring me up, I've got to get back to work.
She rings everything up, takes off 10%, I give her my check and leave.
Funny thing, no one ever said anything about the coupon only applying to regular price only! They took the 10% both the F13th movies and the Halloween movie without a second thought about them being sale priced.
I get the impression that you don't need to receive these in the mail at all. Just go in and make a pest of yourself until they give you some coupons. Wish I'd known that earlier.
Carlos

 

[Mike Frezon]

I get the impression that you don't need to receive these in the mail at all. Just go in and make a pest of yourself until they give you some coupons.

Are you kidding me?!?!?! If anybody who is NOT getting coupons wants to try this and report back to me, I would greatly appreciate it!
Well, like Carlos, I had my first-ever Preferred Customer coupons in my paws today (okay, okay, actually they were my wife's:rolleyes) and couldn't wait to use them!
I got:
Oklahoma $14.99 ($13.49)
South Pacific $14.99 ($13.49)
The Music Man $16.99 ($15.29)
Guys & Dolls $14.99 ($13.49)
Love Scene - Diana Krall (DTS DVD-A) $19.99 ($17.99)
These are all discs I've been wanting to upgrade from VHS/CD for quite awhile. The two Rogers & Hammerstein musicals FINALLY reflected the price drop which was announced several weeks ago. I was psyched! And, the Krall DVD-A was among the recent BB price hikes. They were all marked $24.99 except for one! And the clerk very dutifully noted the price difference between the sticker and how it scanned. No problem! They probably have been having numerous problems with their recent spate of price hikes!
There were certainly many price increases at BestBuy. I noticed that all the Disney titles which had been $19.99 at BB had all been bumped to $22.99. I felt very pleased to use the coupon on lower-priced titles (even though lower price = lower discount). It allowed me to afford these titles which I really wanted to upgrade in my collection!

 

[Carlos V III]

Yeah Mike, it kind of caught me by surprise. If I'd known all I had to do was ask for the coupons I would have done it a long time ago.
Funny thing, I don't know if it's just me or what, but damn near every time they have some kind of sale my receipt is screwed up and I have to go to Customer Service and get it corrected. I just make it a point to have the flyer with me and insist they show me where I'm wrong. I don't raise my voice or get nasty, but I insist that they prove me wrong and every single time I've won.
Carlos

 

[Malcolm R]

Well, I inadvertently picked one DVD that was on-sale ("Near Dark")...and they gave me an extra 10% off anyway even though the coupon says "regular priced" only! And the cashier cheerfully fixed the pricing error on the "Blue Planet" box set which rang up as $79.99 despite a price sticker that said $59.99. Not a bad day at BB!
If only they hadn't repriced that $49.99 Herzog/Kinski box set I saw last week. Shouldn't have waited. :frowning:

 

[Mike Frezon]

Well, I inadvertently picked one DVD that was on-sale ("Near Dark")...and they gave me an extra 10% off anyway even though the coupon says "regular priced" only!

Yeah. I noticed that, too! BB clerks seem to manually adjust all DVDs purchased with the coupon by the 10% decrease.
That is just the opposite of what they do at FYE. See my post in the 10/15 Roundup which describes how they couldn't make that mistake.
Has anyone tried to simply ask at their store for the "Preferred Customer" coupons?

 

[David Lambert]

I got 6 DVDs at BB yesterday using the prefered customer coupons: Naked Gun Box set (marked $39.99; rang up $42.99), Evil Dead: Book of the Dead Limited Edition (marked $29.99; on sale for $27.99), Hollywood Knights (marked $19.99; rang up $22.99), Big ($14.99...yeah, couldn't wait for an SE any more), Magic School Bus: Creepy, Crawly Fun (marked $14.99, rang up $17.99), and Little House on the Prarie: Remember Me ($4.99).

The lady rang in everything, correcting prices to the sticker price as she went on the three marked-up items. Then she took 10% off the 5 highest-priced items (including the sale-priced Book of the Dead LE!).

Total before tax: $111.14. That averages to 8 features for $13.89 each, including the funky foam-rubber case. Not bad for a day's work. :wink:

 

[Mike Frezon]

...and Little House on the Prarie: Remember Me ($4.99).

Aw, Dave! Should've waited till you found Little House: Double Feature (I think its sometimes called Little House: The Collection). This DVD, which I got at BestBuy a while ago, has both "The Premiere Movie" AND "Remember Me" on it! I paid $5.99.
I would have expected my Roundup guy to get a better deal!
Sounds like you did mighty good though!
That's cool that she took the discount off the five highest-priced DVDs. I could see some stores trying to take it off the five LOWEST priced DVDs (along the lines of "buy one get 1/2 off a second"--where the second needs to be of equal or lesser value than the first one).

 

[David Lambert]

Mike, Mike Mike...
Have FAITH in me!
I *already own* "The Premiere Movie"! I got it on May 22, 2001 from Costco...in a box set along with "The Lord Is My Shepard", "The Collection" (this is episode 301, BTW...*not* the name of the box set or anything else DVD-related!), and "Laura Ingalls Wilder". Total cost? $17.99...which breaks down to $4.50 each! :p)
I also own both Christmas Double-Feature LHotP discs that have been put out. $6.99 and $7.19, respectively. So now I once again own every LHotP DVD that is available in R1.
As far as the lady ringing up the 5 highest-price items, I directed her to do that. The instructions were along the lines of, "if you cannot comply, then I will simply buy one less item, the cheapest one...and then get my wife to ring it up as a separate sale; if this isn't good enough, then you've lost the whole sale". It's amazing what clear instructions will do to help your cause!

 

[Mike Frezon]

As far as the lady ringing up the 5 highest-price items, I directed her to do that..........It's amazing what clear instructions will do to help your cause!

Ha ha! It figures you'd have all those angles worked out ahead of time!

 

[Malcolm R]

Silly me. Looking over my weekend DVD purchases, it just dawned on me that I only purchased 4 titles with my Best Buy coupon that allowed up to 5 titles. There are all kinds of titles I could have used for that fifth purchase. Sigh. :b

 

[Mike Frezon]

Malcolm, I feel your pain. I'm not the kind of guy that goes out and buys five titles at the drop of a hat.
Who do I look like, Dave Lambert?!?! :rolleyes
But I figured I found five titles I've been fondling in-store for a long time so I might just as well take advantage of the situation and the low prices (while I could)!

 

[David Lambert]

Ha ha! It figures you'd have all those angles worked out ahead of time!

Well, yes and no. For THAT situation, it was more like "What is your plan, Indy? I dunno; I'm making this up as I go along."
OTOH, before we left the house we pulled up the ol' DVD wishlist and located our oldest items on it we each most strongly wanted and printed out a list of them to take with us. We didn't exactly find the majority of those (examples: no Sinbad films, no Stalag 17, no Saturday the 14th, no Copycat or Sommersby, no Caine Mutiny, no Let It Ride...I know where to get each one of these, but the goal was to get them CHEAP!). We all got something we liked, though. The plan was "1 title 'just' for each of the three of us, 1 for two or more of us, and the last one we'd play by ear". I finally got Hollywood Knights, the missus finally got Big, the kiddo got Magic School Bus. The 2-or-more was Evil Dead (if you think my son got stiffed on that one, well he had got Scooby-Doo the night before!). The play-by-ear ended up being Naked Gun. Little House was just a happy extra for under $5!
As far as "buying 5 titles at the drop of a hat", we were charging up the ol' credit cards again...this time with the goal of putting at least SOME stuff away for Christmas. But, at least I know I got some Naked Gun under the tree!!! And we can use the list we printed up to help draw up our Christmas wishlists...I think some of that stuff is gonna be darn near impossible to find pretty soon here!

 

[Bolivar G]

I used my coupon to pick up some Disney DVD 2 disc sets.

Dinosaur, Emperor's new groove, and Atlantis: The lost Empire all marked at 29.99 but they rang up for 37.99 for some reason. The clerk had to manually change the price back to 29.99 then got 10% off that for each.

Also back in July they sent me this Reward Zone Card without me even asking for it, for one free year of usage which normally costs 9.99 a year i belive. Being getting 5.00 coupons of that to use also and a 10% off coupon on anything that dont expire till december. Anyone else get this card sent for free??

 

[Mike Frezon]

I used my coupon to pick up some Disney DVD 2 disc sets....all marked at 29.99 but they rang up for 37.99 for some reason. The clerk had to manually change the price back to 29.99 then got 10% off that for each.

Yes, Bolivar, that was another price change I noticed this weekend, too. All the Disney 2-disc sets were up to 37.99! That's quite a hike! You did well to find some still marked at $29.99!

If you factor in BB's "real" price of $37.99 and figure you got each set for $26.99--you got almost 30% off for Dinosaur and Atlantis!

 

[Bolivar G]

They are crazy if they think people are going to pay 37.99 . Is there a reason for all these price increases?? Are DVD's becoming more expensive to make or something?

I think Circuit City has lower prices now on DVD's.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Monday I got a letter back from Best Buy Corporate, regarding my return dispute. Yesterday I took the letter to my local store and got the refund on the Ink Jet Cartridge. Hoping to get more Preferred Customer Coupons soon.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Well, John...since one theory here is that when you return stuff or have problems with BestBuy about a purchase, they make a record of it and make you a "preferred customer"!
Therefore you, already having achieved "preferred customer" status, could soon be doubly blessed!
If that becomes true, we'll all have to "storm the castle" in order to get DVD coupons!

 

[Chazz_S]

I get more coupons than I know what to do with from Best Buy. I've gotten the Preferred coupons for ages.
A few months ago, they sent me a coupon for a free "Reward Zone" card ($10 normally). This thing is AWESOME! It's a card you flash everytime you buy movies/cds/games and you get points for every cent spent. They are only testing this program on the west coast. For every 12,500 points ($125) you spend you get a $5.00 coupon to spend on anything.
While this may seem like alot to spend for just a $5 coupon consider this:
-I would be spending this money anyways why not get $5 for it?
-There are special programs, for example currently you get double points on everything. Sweet. And there are always special deals like that (double pts on E.T. etc)
-Best Buys opened 9:30 here today only for reward zone members. I walked right pass the spiderman crowd outside
-You get a 10% off anything in the store for signing up
-Every activity in your account you can check at the website, so you aren't 'blind'. Amazingly accurate too.
I've already got $20, actually $25 after they add in today's Spiderman purchase, in coupons just for shopping as I normally do. Considering the fact that I didn't pay a cent for the reward zone card, and that I get the preferred weekend coupons. I've got more than I know what to do with.
On the whole "theory" on how to get on BB's lists, well I can't add much on that since I used to work for them
-C

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Just got Preferred Customer Coupons for next weekend Nov. 8-11.