~~~~ Brag & Moan ~~~~

[AnandTech Moderator]

Continued from the previous thread.

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This thread is for posting your off topic raves and rants, such as "X-company did this to me", and "Did you get?, I got mine".

Requests for deals on specific items should be posted in the ~~~~IWANNA~~~~ thread,

How-To questions in the ~~~~ How-Do-I? ~~~~ thread.

Thank you. Please enjoy yourselves here while lending a hand to your fellow forum members.

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~~~~ Brag & Moan ~~~~ continued here.

 

[gwlam12]

Rebate company screwed up in sending me rebate. They didn't include my apartment number and now I have to wait 60 days to get it. They're supposed to receive the check back as undeliverable before they send a new one out. Anything I can do about it? It's $30 dollars worth.

 

[pxc]

MOOOOAAAAANNN

If you get an unexpected charge from some place called "NSS" on your credit card statement, that's from a shady company called "The Magazine Subscription Company" (as seen very often on ripoffreport.com, badbusinessbureau.com and many other sites). I can can thank Tiger Direct in my case. You can get that fraudulent charge whether or not you signed up for any magazines. It's an inflated magazine subscription price that is charged without authorization. You can see what company scammed you when you call NSS to complain (the 800 # is included with the charge).

If you also have TD to thank, a person at Tiger Direct who you can complain to about this scam is named "Rich Wallet". If you want to contact him, type his name and "tiger direct" in google. I won't post his email address here to spare him the lazy whiners and/or any undue harassment.

I know this is an old problem, but they're still at it even today. And this is the first time I've been stung by the scam.

 

[BZ]

pxc - did you get an actual magazine? or just a bill? Now I feel like I have to go through all my credit card bills which i really don't want to do. high tech life sucks!

 

[soundforbjt]

I just got my deal of the year! I'm not going into details because the post would be several pages long. I just recieved a 19" Samsung 192N LCD monitor for $238.00 including tax. Now here's the kicker! $50 rebate and a $50 gift certificate!!! Needless to say, this un-named store will recieve all my business from now on!

 

[airmax]

just call Dell for the free camera and printer deal. I get my 1100 laptop on the 17th. However, the CSR keep saying the pricematch policy, only for price, not for offer. However, I keep pushing for the supervisor. So finally, he offer me the best he can do, either camera or printer, but not both. So, I choose the camera since I don't need another cheap printer anyway. but thanks for people in this forum to mention about this

 

[tarmon]

Another warning about TigerDirect. If you're trying to get something delivered on a certain day, DO NOT USE PAYPAL.

They actually wait for PayPal to transfer the money to their bank account before shipping the order, which can take up to 5 days to happen. Of course, they don't say that on their site. Beware.

 

[pxc]

BZ: both the magazine and the charge. I never received a bill. It will show up on your statement as NSS/... with a 800 number.

 

[peterpro]

got the western digs 250 for 109 at cc

wow great price

threw it into an enclosure for 50% off what it would cost to get a firewire 250
=0

 

[VirtualLarry]

I hope this is the right place to brag & moan about "Black Friday" deals.

I just got back, didn't get any really high-ticket items, didn't have too much spare cash to play with. But I did score what I think is a decent deal at CompUSSR. They had an advertised in-store special of three (3) 30-packs of CD-Rs, for approx. $8, and best of all, NO REBATE CRAP to deal with.

My local store had an assortment of Memorex 30-pack spindles that they had put out on display, the stickered price was $9.99 each, but with the sale discount, they rang up as $2.65 each. So $8, for 90 CD-Rs, NO REBATE, that seemed like a deal.

So much so, in fact, that I went back in the store several times, went to a few other stores, and then went back, silently hoping that they would have run out of the Memorex discs, and that I could perhaps sweet-talk them into substituing the 30-pack spindles of ("Made in Japan") Fujis. (Especially since the shelf tag, although mentioning a SKU, didn't mention any brands, and the Fujis were pretty-much right next to the Memorex discs.) Sadly, they had plenty of stock, and didn't run out during the morning sale hours.

In the end, I went back into the store 6 times, at 90 CDs a bundle, that's 540 CD-Rs, for something around $50. Not nearly as good as free, but half-decent CD-Rs, for a half-decent price, and not having to deal with any rebates being a major plus for me.

Also picked up a "Stomp CD-labeler" device, for $5, with a $5 MIR, and a clearanced N64/Gamecube official Nintendo-made RF adaptor for $2.

I wonder if the door reciept-checker fellow started to wonder about me, maybe I was a dealer or something, but he didn't say anything. Most of the discs are for personal use, I can finally afford to "waste" enough discs to back-up my HD, and some of the spindles will be used for cheap holiday presents. Actually, that reminds me, I was over at a friend's house a few days ago, and we burned his last CD. Time to drop off some more. All in all, not a bad day.

(In fact, the last time that CompUSA had a ridiculously low non-rebate price on CD-Rs, I stocked up so much, that they lasted me for nearly three years. In fact, I just ran out of that stock about a week ago. Good timing for another sale, I say. I was actually a bit surprised that they were selling name-brand CD-Rs, instead of the generic house-brand spindles that they did last time, and were pictured in the ad.)

 

[Frykun]

well, the black friday is pretty much over...
i must say it was quite awesome this year (actually, my first BF time ). Got pretty much everything i wanted at Fry's (160G HD for $60AR, 2x panasonic phones (one for a relative), entermax case for $10AR (woot!) and UV case lights for another $10AR... and some other crap); then went to Ratshack and got the $20 IR headphones (yay, fun in my dad's van!); microcenter gave me a free mousepad and FAR wireless NIC and prolly the best deal is that i scored a Radeon 9800!!!!! ($200). There were only 5 in the store (whole NorCal pretty much ). Unfortunately, some assholes took all the dvd players right from under my nose, so i didn't get one
*******************
if you have one of those dvd players from microcenter and really want the Radeon 9800 instead, i'm thinking of trading 9800 for its full price ($200 plux tax) plus the dvd player. PM with thoughts/suggestions/deals
*******************
and the people that i delegated to go to other stores didn't let me down much either... got the OM free ram and a $10 wireless router from CC (yay! i have wireless now!!)


anyway, hope most of you also got what you wanted
and happy belated turkey day!!

^_^ peace ^_^

 

[JasonH]

Either this year's Black Friday deals weren't as good as in previous years or I just don't need as much stuff anymore. I tend to think it's a combination of both. In years past I went at KBToys at 5am to get some unbeatable deals, if only just to eBay 'em. Honestly, the sales this year just didn't excite me.

 

[riceknight]

Blehh.... ordered a pair of inspire speakers from newegg, got altec lansings that were worth half the price... Newegg never screwed up my order before, but i think their New Jersey branch is far worse... Not only that, the shipping takes about the same amount of time to reach New york from either Cali or Jersey. Makes no sense.

Ahh well.. at least NewEgg support is still good, they're refundin my shippin up to 15 bucks and overnighting the correct item once they receive the crappy altec lansings.

 

[skyeclad]

I got Call of Duty for $25 at BB by going to the Black Friday $29 sale and using my Maxim coupon. The register at first didn't take the coupon, probably because CoD was on sale but some front end manager over-rode the register. I guess the line was too long to argue.

-Happy Man

 

[atac]

any one try to do any pm'ing with bb on bf? i went to do the toysrus lion king dvd for $9.99. i had already purchased it at bb for $11.99, then later went thru the ads and saw the toysrus price. so went back to bb later in the day. they said that they weren't doing any pm's for bf. i asked to speak to the manager. i tried to argue that they had a huge posting that clearly shows their pm policy, with no exceptions listed. i even asked if they had the bf exception printed somewhere and the manager said that they didn't, however he still couldn't make any exceptions. what kind of bull is that?

anyone else have a similar experience?

 

[BillyBatson]

-

 

[phpm0nkey]

Originally posted by: atac
any one try to do any pm'ing with bb on bf? i went to do the toysrus lion king dvd for $9.99. i had already purchased it at bb for $11.99, then later went thru the ads and saw the toysrus price. so went back to bb later in the day. they said that they weren't doing any pm's for bf. i asked to speak to the manager. i tried to argue that they had a huge posting that clearly shows their pm policy, with no exceptions listed. i even asked if they had the bf exception printed somewhere and the manager said that they didn't, however he still couldn't make any exceptions. what kind of bull is that?

anyone else have a similar experience?

I had almost the same experience there in regards to a Sony HDTV. Magnolia Audio/Video had a 46" HDTV advertised for $1199.99 Friday Only. I went to Best Buy in Hawthorne Friday at Noon and the place was an absolute zoo. I found a guy in TV's to talk to and asked him about matching it. He called the manager over and said the difference was to great and he couldn't do it. They had the TV for $1599. I asked to talk to a manager and the guy got all proud of himself and said "you're talking to him". Neat.

I left and went to Circuit City where they honored the PM policy and threw in free shipping.

 

[bradolson]

nm

 

[atac]

Originally posted by: phpm0nkey
I left and went to Circuit City where they honored the PM policy and threw in free shipping.

glad you got what u wanted...

 

[Maetryx]

Okay, my local OfficeMax officially sucks. I won't *even* go on about the miserable Black Friday event itself (advertised items nowhere in sight, the apparently mentally retarded cashier, the sense that the OfficeMax personnel were completely surpised about the demand for FREE after rebate products...).

I bought 4 items, three of which are supposed to be free after rebate (FAR). I also picked up the Holiday 2003 Rebate Guide.

1) Khypermedia blank DVD+R 10-pack. Claims on the glossy Black Friday advertisement to be FAR. I can't find either rebate mentioned in the ad. One is for $5.00 (manufacturer's) and the other for $8.00 (OfficeMax). They simply don't exist.

2) Khypermedia blank 32x CD-R 100-pack. Same as above. There are rebates for the 50-pak, and for some CD-R/W drives, but not the 100-pak of blank CD-Rs, which are *pictured* and *featured* in the "Everything on this Page FREE! After Rebates" black friday advertisement.

3) Western Digital 120GB Hard Drive. This one *almost* works. It was $20 off in the store. And I did find the Western Digital $50 manufacturer's rebate. But the $30 OfficeMax rebate is nowhere to be found. There is a $20 rebate, but not the $30 rebate mentioned in the ad. So I could make this deal happen and it would only cost $10 more than I thought, right? Wrong. The $20 rebate only works if the drive is purchased between 12/14/2003 and 12/20/2003 (i.e. the future, when the other rebates are expired).

4) Micro Advantage 64MB USB QuickiDrive. This is a little cigarette lighter-sized device that is essentially a solid state "hard drive" with flash memory in it. You can put files on it and take them to work or whatever. I *finally* tracked down the $20 rebate online and it does appear valid. However, the rebate cannot be found in the "Holiday 2003 Mail-In Rebate Directory" handed out at the store on Black Friday. I just found it myself online. Screw OfficeMax.

So I'm not keeping any of it, even #4 which I know I could make work and it would be free after rebate. I don't care anymore. All of this is going back to OfficeMax and I hope it goes obsolete on their shelves.

 

[Scrounger]

Can we please get a new banner for the hot deals forum? Maybe just some variety? Nothing against the company, but I am tired of seeing the "Kingston Albino Transvestite" every time I stop by to see what's going on.

 

[dabuddha]

Got my Sony 27" Wega today for pretty cheap. Original price is $549.99, I got it for $427.49. It was the best price I could find.

 

[Maetryx]

allisolm gave me links to all the OfficeMax black friday rebates... but I returned the goods (see my rant a few posts above) yesterday for a refund. A special thanks to allisolm for spending the time to PM me all the information that OfficeMax should have given me on black friday (they handed out the incorrect rebate booklets).

 

[chaseru]

Newegg New Jersey Warehouse

I live in the West and I usually buy my computer goods at Newegg. I have always counted on shipping times to be 2 days with their warehouse in So Cal. I saw the threads from you giddy Easterners that they had opened a warehouse in NJ, but that product would be shipped from the warehouse nearest the customer.

It seems that they will ship from whatever warehouse has the goods. I ordered two CD drives and noticed that they were sourced from NJ and that it would take 5 days to get here. Now 5 days isn't bad and those drives I ordered weren't critical, but the next time I need some thing quick I will likely look elsewhere since now I have to play warehouse roulette with Newegg.

 

[beatle]

I just got off the phone about FOUR different rebates:

$15 from Viking
$20 from OD
$18 from Fuji
$15 from Fuji

The Viking rep was extremely rude when I told her it had been 12 weeks since I submitted my rebate (I'm always polite, however). She told me that it went out 12/1. When I told her that it is now 12/10 and my rebate still hasn't arrived she said I have to wait 60 days for them to send me a new rebate check. WTF is that? Just cancel the bloody check and send a new one.

The OD rep was polite and courteous. I at least appreciate this, but I don't appreciate waiting 12+ weeks for my check. It also went out 12/1, but went out "bulk mail" which means I should allow 15 business days for delivery (what the hell could take so long?)

Fuji has "lost" BOTH of my rebates, submitted at different times for different offers. I faxed them copies of my rebate form, receipt, and UPC over 3 weeks ago. When I called this time, they said they had spelled my name wrong and that it will go out this week or next week. I have a feeling I'll be calling again. They also "lost" my second rebate submission (different offer, mind you) which I'll have to fax in today. The rep online said it would be a couple weeks after he approved it, but couldn't give me a clear date. I'll be calling in another 2-3 weeks, no doubt. What a nightmare! I'd had nothing but good luck with rebates prior to these.

Moral of the story: keep a record of EVERYTHING and stick to your guns! I'm going after the manager next time I call these places.