My story:
Went to BB. None of the shelf. Instead of asking the geek that worked in the dept (he would probably be in on their hiding-item-in-the-stockroom technique), I asked the girl up at the CS desk to see how many of them (I read the SKU to her) they have in stock. She said 12! [So here again is Best Buy hiding their stock when it goes on sale somewhere else. Just like the Black Friday hard drive and GF3 Ti200 deals.] I went to the adjacent camera dept and told him the PC guys were busy (they were) and asked if could he go in the back and get me a drive since they have 12 in stock. Brings me a drive, talks about how great of a drive it is, that it burns in 4 mins (me: Really? Ha.), asks if I want to ring it up at the PC dept register (I think not). Make my way to the front register.
Another geek (Encyclopedia Britannica (I'll call him EB guy from here) TV commerical guy from a few years ago...similar to John Carmack, but making Carmack look pretty cool) rings it up, goes through the spiel about the extended warranty, I finally find a chance to jump in and stop him, "No, thank you." Rang up $129, I showed him printed $59 BB tag, he looked at it for awhile, checked the register for rebates, he says "that price was after rebates", I say "it didn't say that on the tag". Guy behind me in line to pay happens to work there too, gets nosey, asks EB guy where the tag came from, etc., but he does confirm where the text usually is on the tag that says after $ rebate and it's not here, but also adding "unless it was digitally erased.". Both team up saying how great of a drive it is and how much I like it. I tell employee in line to go ahead and pay, jump out of line, see gen mgr sneaks in room to do an 'interview' (though I never saw anyone else go in there). Employee in line pays. I tell EB guy I want to speak to (I named gen mgr by name) that just went in the room. Instead, EB guy gets another store mgr that was a couple registers down (who's been an a-hole in the past). I explain. He quickly spurts out (not even knowing!) that it was last weeks price. I show him the date (Sunday) on the tag. He looks up price on register, prints rebates. He explains their price was before rebates. I show him tag again and that a friend got it for that price at another store. He goes way over to CS desk to look on computer for 5-10 mins w/ someone else.
Comes back and says he's not allowed to override the price (bull) to that, so I would have to wait on the manager in the interview to do it since he's the gen mgr (meaning he didnt want to). He does some more babbling about how the .97 at the end of the $ is a competitor markdown thing, probably to CC, asks where my friend lived, tells me different markets have different prices. I confirm its CC's add for $59. Tells me he would match add, I say its after rebates. Tells me he can't. Blah Blah. Finally says he'll match $59 after $20 BB MIR rebate (so pay $79). EB guy asks again if I want ext. warranty. Only $20 rebate prints but doesn't require UPC. Had already printed $50 from website. Final after MIR's = $9 + tax. Did I mention I had $81 in store credit from Xmas gift card and returns? Paid cashier $5 from my wallet.
Then went to CC to try to get the TDK there, out stock, then went to Office Depot and got the Pacific Digital (Lite On) 24x PM to Staples/Sams receipt
deal (thread is staples PM to Staples/Sams receipt though).
BTW, you should have heard EB guy try to sell the extended warranty to someone in front of me. Literally wining/begging him "But sir..." (in winey voice). I almost vomited.
Can anyone confirm the TDK they got is a Lite On?
Disclaimer - I'm not saying all BB employees are geeks.