Report from Emeryville, CA: Purchased online for in-store pickup. Tried to price match to in-store deal, but got stuck because their staff is incompetent.
I tried 3x to get CC's phone sales to match the price of the flyer. They were basically powerless to do anything beyond filling out a web order form for me over the phone, or were unwilling to accommodate. I called the retail store 4x to determine if it was in stock, every time, their sales rep found "no entry" for Crysis within their system, which is to say the game didn't exist. Since I wasn't goign to get a straight answer from CC, I went ahead and bought the game for in-store pickup, since a simple web query could confirm that the game was in stock.
I figured that I'd buy the game online for in-store pickup, then price match the deal to themselves afterwards via the flyer. After I arrived, and asked for the price match, I got stonewalled by a very ignorant shift leader/manager person because the transaction information showed that I paid 39.99 for the game, which is what it's supposed to cost. I kept informing them that I was also paying $10 for a gift card, which brings my total to $53.xx, but the guy came up with numerous excuses for why he wouldn't do anything for me:
1) The deal was for Wednesday. The CC flyer stated that the deal would be available from 'Wednesday' onward, which coincided with the rlease date. I had to explain to him that the flyer I had was for LAST sunday, and that I hadn't brought NEXT sunday's flyer (from the future) into the store with me.
2) The printed price is $49.99. I had to explain to him about 3x that this was the Collector's Edition price. Even though the std. ed. box art had the $39.99 price below it, he thought that a small blurb next to it with some other product priced at $49.99 would make it ok for me to pay that much.
3) Even though the website charged me $53.xx, and my credit card showed a temporary authorization for $53.xx, the charge would be "corrected" in the future to the lower amount. I showed him both my email receipt and an upto the minute charge record from my credi card's website (via iPhone). Even though this suggestion is ludicrous, I could not discount it because it hinged upon events that had yet not happened. I couldn't really tell him that CC wouldn't adjust the price in the future, and he was quite assured that it would. I told him that I would take it on faith that this would autocorrect, even though I have no reason to, and that if it didn't, I would be back for a correction, and he agreed to that. The high light of our conversation was when he said "Circuit City is a billion dollar company, we're not going to try and short you $10". INDEED! As if CC didn't basically pull this illegal bait and switch tactic every other week.
Absurdedly enough, the core of his misunderstanding was that I had paid for TWO items, and when he scanned the receipt, it only accounted for ONE item, the game, which had the correct pricing. He totally agreed with me that I SHOULD get the game and the gift card for $39.99, but I couldn't get it through his thick skull that this wasn't actually the case. This is partly because he did not understand how multiple item online ordered in-store pickup transactions worked.
The result is that I WILL get the game and gift card for $39.99 +tax, but it will be an enormous hassle, multiple trips to CC (which is thankfully on my way home, and doesn't add appreciably to my commute). I'll probably perform an email bomb across circuit city's top management just to voice my discontent over their useless retail staff.