The Joys of Store Credit (continued)...

This is a semi-update to my first blog entry/complaint on the joys of having store credit at Circuit City. As I said, I was in the market for a Playstation 3, and with the cheaper 40GB model arriving on November 2, I decided to take the plunge.

I had $400+ of store credit to use up and CC, so I was going to get it there. As always, I wanted to get the best deal that I could, so I looked around at other brick-and-mortar stores to see what they had to offer. Nobody had any special deals on the 40GB model (didn't expect that they would), but a lot were offering packages with the 60GB one. Walmart had the best one - a free game and the Blu-ray remote for no additional cost ($499 total).

On November 2, Walmart was also doing a Friday sale where they were selling the Toshiba A2 HD-DVD player for $99. I had no plans to dig into HD-DVD, but I figured for that price I'd consider it. Since I was at CC, I figured they'd price match it and I could use my store credit for it and use the rest on a Playstation 3 (I have a Sony credit card, so it's more beneficial for me to use my card for Sony products).

So I walked in with a mindset that I may be buying a 60GB PS3 and an HD-DVD player. I asked about the HD-DVD player first - the associate tells me that they won't price match one day sales, even though the local Walmart still had players in stock. I wasn't really surprised, just disappointed. The funny thing, though, is that the associate says to me, "We're usually really good about price-matching; we just can't do this". I held back a fit of laughter and just gave him a sarcastic smirk.

Onto the PS3. They have the 60GB model in-stock, and they are offering a free game with it too - including Folklore, which is supposedly a great game. So I find another associate, and ask if they'll throw in the Blu-ray remote too (like Walmart is). She thinks they will, but has to check. This is after she tries to get me to buy into their gamer discount program - for $20, you get an automatic 10% games and accessories for a year, and she says it works on consoles too (I knew it wasn't supposed to, but if she take it off the price, I'd do it). Of course, after she checked on it, she found out consoles don't apply. No kidding.

Back to the remote - after checking, they wouldn't include it with the 60GB PS3. Something about having to take the cost of the remote off the console price, which they couldn't do. Bullshit, I say, but whatever. So in the end, I walked out with the 40GB PS3 (I was a penny short with my gift card balance too - just thought it was kind of amusing) and will likely never walk into a CC store again.

Now I realize that CC (or Best Buy) don't have to price match anything; but this is just a good example of how I was willing to spend over $200 more than what I did. They lost out on a little business on that day, but by not working with me at all, they lost out on a lot more in the future.