Seagate 200GB IDE hard drive 9.99 or less

[pcman83]

I work at circuit city guys. I can tell you that they are smart. you may get the pricematch, what happens is when circuit city looks at the rebate they will see that it was price adjusted and then deny your rebate. Also if you do a pricematch they usually wont match it if its cheaper after rebates, it only makes sense. Dont try and take advantage of the system you will get whats coming to you.

You guys know why a rebate takes like 8-12 weeks right? Because they are making sure you dont return it or do a price adjustment. They check what is in circuit citys current system about the ticket.

 

[biggiesmallz]

Originally posted by: OrSin
THe prbelm with this whole scheme is that if it works you can make crazy money off this rebate scam. Buy anything with a rebate, copy receipts and return item (PM is just like a return), then send in the receipts for MIR. If this works with PM then it would work with jsut a return and someone would be getting screwed. I'm pretty sure the MIR guys would have some way to verify the receipts. That one reason it take 4-6 weeks at the least to get the money back. They need to make sure it was not returned.

Pricematch is not just like a return.

I paid the pricematch price upfront out the door with a normal reciept that had no signs of the pricematch!

This is the 2nd time in a couple of months that I did this.

I got one rebate from that one and the second rebate is on the way according to their website tracking.

 

[biggiesmallz]

Originally posted by: pcman83
I work at circuit city guys. I can tell you that they are smart. you may get the pricematch, what happens is when circuit city looks at the rebate they will see that it was price adjusted and then deny your rebate. Also if you do a pricematch they usually wont match it if its cheaper after rebates, it only makes sense. Dont try and take advantage of the system you will get whats coming to you.

Well I just did it a hour ago for the second time in a couple of months.

Both rebates from the first one cleared. I got one and the other one is on the way according to thier website tracking.

There's nothing illegal about it. And it is not violating any rebate rules!

edit: Upon further review the CircuitCity rebate does say Limit 1 rebate(s) or other promotional offer(s) per item purchased.
But I don't know if pricemating is considered a promotional offer. It's really just store policy. Right?
F*ck em! I'll take them to court if they ****** with my money! :|

But I got the other rebate from them when I did it a couple of months ago though and I'm sure other people did also so we'll see!

 

[crilleym]

NO where in the rebates does it state that rebate will be invalid if pricematched. They have to give you the rebate. I also did the same PM with a Memorex 1GB USB drive that I already recieved for 5.00 AR. So there Mr Circuit City do some research before you post.

 

[Juno]

it's nice but ide drives are old now.

<~~ in for SATA drives.

 

[biggiesmallz]

Originally posted by: Juno
it's nice but ide drives are old now.

<~~ in for SATA drives.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=30&threadid=1811273&enterthread=y

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: Injury
DEFINATE YMMV.

Most rebate places will not honor rebates if the receipt shows a price match.

Smokin' if they do, but be prepared to get a HD for a pathetic $81.00 + tax if it doesn't work.

Not true. Never had a problem in the last 5 years.

 

[Fanboy]

Hot. This worked for me!

 

[Jinxt]

Worked here too. Cash register spit out the $30 receipt, but I had to download the $50 receipt. Also picked up the MS Wireless Ergonomic 4000 Kybd for $24 after rebate from another thread. Today is a good day to compute.

Jinxt

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: pcman83
I work at circuit city guys. I can tell you that they are smart. you may get the pricematch, what happens is when circuit city looks at the rebate they will see that it was price adjusted and then deny your rebate. Also if you do a pricematch they usually wont match it if its cheaper after rebates, it only makes sense. Dont try and take advantage of the system you will get whats coming to you.

You guys know why a rebate takes like 8-12 weeks right? Because they are making sure you dont return it or do a price adjustment. They check what is in circuit citys current system about the ticket.

At the very least, the rebate from Seagate has nothing to do with the price CC charges you for the item. That is, Seagate is selling the HDs to CC at some price, and CC can charge whatever price it wants for the item. Why should Seagate care what CC's price is? And Seagate should approve the rebate even if there was a price match.

Now, if CC is itself offering a MIR, I can see how they could claim that their "effective price" is the store price minus the CC rebate. So the price match should be applied relative to that effective price. For this current deal, CC's effective price is $119.99, so price-matching against Best Buy's $89.99 should give you a reduction of 110% of the $30 difference, or $33.

Thus, the "fair" net price should be $36.99 (plus whatever the tax is on $149.99).

 

[A1211652]

Yep - I went to my local CC and they refused to uphold the pricematch. This is VERY YMMV.

 

[toneman]

Well I'll find out later on today how much YMMV applies in my case--I'm 1/3 into the 3-step process of getting this deal to work (1st step--order online w/ in-store p/u so you can get a receipt that doesn't show any rebate/PM info; 2nd step--PM Best Buy; 3rd step--mail in rebates and wait to see if you get both). I already have both online printout of receipt that doesn't mention anything about rebates (also got cashier to print duplicate register-generated receipt when I went to p/u--no rebate mentioned on this receipt either), then went to BB to grab their flyer. Since I ran out of time (did it on my lunch break), I'll just wait until after work to see if I can successfully PM.

Crossing my fingers to see if I can get a PM--if they don't PM I'll just return the drive; I don't really NEED this drive...just doing it because of the possibility that it could turn out to be a great deal!

 

[elph]

Doing this is what is known in contract law as fraud. Have fun.

 

[xeemzor]

Originally posted by: elph
Doing this is what is known in contract law as fraud. Have fun.

And how exactly is it fraud? If you are going to make blanket statment, at least provide some support to back yourself up:disgust:

Anyway, tried this in Niles IL and they refused to PM.

 

[toneman]

Originally posted by: elph
Doing this is what is known in contract law as fraud. Have fun.

Is that a fact, or is that just your opinion? If fact...well I've yet to hear anyone get arrested or receive some kind of citation for doing so (trying to pull off something like this Seagate PM deal, not just in general). Yeah, I can see it now--CC siccing their lawyers on every single one of us because we were attempting to pull off contract fraud with this deal...

Anyways...CC denied my pricematch attempt, giving the same lame excuse (our after-rebate price is lower than BB's sale price). This is a bogus excuse which reeks of hypocrisy--CC won't PM against a competitor's after-rebate price, which is fair since this is stated in their PM policy ("It does not apply to special offers or promotions, including rebates, free-with-purchase offers and special financing"). However, CC has no problem factoring in their own after-rebate price when comparing against a competitor's lowest price--and there's nothing in CC's PM policy that states or implies whether they can or can't do this) in attempting to validate a PM. When I pointed this out to a CS phone rep and asked him if anyone on his end could explain this "discrepancy", neither he nor any of his immediate supervisors could adequetely do so--even their answers contradicted each other. One guy told me "We don't PM if any rebates are involved" (if that was indeed true, then why reject my PM attempt because CC after-rebate price turned out to be lower); another told me "We PM against the competitor's pre-rebate price" (fair, although this technically goes against their stated PM policy involving rebates, and is of course contradictory to the policy stated by the first guy); and a third person basically implied "We won't do it (PM our pre-rebate price against competitor's sale price) because that's just the way it is"...which I interpreted to mean "We can reject your PM because we said so". You know what's even more silly? This is just pure speculation on my part, but if CC's after-rebate price was still higher than the competitor's sale price...I betcha CC would still reject the PM attempt, giving another one of their lame contradictory excuses as to why they rejected it.

Note--I'm no lawyer, so my interpretation of CC's PM policy is just that--my interpretation...so if someone more knowledgeable can accurately break down the meaning of their PM policy, I'm all ears...

I don't really expect to get this deal to work; at this point, I just want someone at CC to be able to adequately point out to me exactly how/why CC can get away with using their after-rebate price to invalidate a PM. The fact that apparently no one at their customer service center could give me a straight answer shows (for now) that CC does what it does because it can--even if they can't explain why, and that they don't really care if you don't like it.

 

[AMD K9]

Got some young kid to price match BB's ad. No mention of a pricematch on the sales receipt either. Total price with tax was just over $83. Now to mail in those rebates...

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: toneman
I just want someone at CC to be able to adequately point out to me exactly how/why CC can get away with using their after-rebate price to invalidate a PM.

I used the online purchase/in-store pickup strategy. The online confirmation (as distinct from the email confirmation) said nothing about rebates. It just listed the $149.99 price (plus tax). At the pickup counter, the woman credited $69.30 ($60 difference in advertised price + 10% of the difference + 5% MD sales tax on $66)) back to my CC.

I think CC would be justified in comparing . . .

1) Competitor's price (including the competitor's rebates, but NOT including manufacturer's rebates)

with

2) Circuit City's price (including CC's rebates, but not including manufacturer's rebates).

In this instance CC's legitimate "store price" was $149.99 - $30 = $119.99. And BB's legitimate price was $89.99. So a "fair" price-match would have been to compare those numbers and give purchasers $33 off ($30 + 10%).

As to the whole issue as to whether the strategy described in this thread constitutes fraud: I seriously doubt it. If CC's price-match policy were clearly explained and easy to find, and that policy contradicted what people in this thread are doing, then under those circumstances a charge of fraud might be justified.

But we all know there are MANY people who don't bother to send in rebates. For such people, an item's "price" is the cash-register price, and basing a price-match on the cash-register prices of two stores seems completely legitimate.

 

[toneman]

shira--agreed...however, clearly the friggin' clerk at my local CC wasn't invoking #2 in your reply; she was clearly telling me that CC's AR price is lower than BB's non-rebate instant discount price--therefore no PM. Even after I tried to explain to her that she should at least remove the manufacturer rebate from consideration since that is coming from the manufacturer itself (point #1 in your reply), she still said no dice.

Heck, I even pointed out the same thing you did--namely, my online confirmation receipt does not mention ANYTHING about ANY rebate, so why can't CC PM based on that? Her copout explanation? "Well you can print the rebates online"...maybe I should have asked (and yeah, this would be a complete stretch)--"What if I don't have immediate access to a printer?"--LOL!!!

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: toneman
shira--agreed...however, clearly the friggin' clerk at my local CC wasn't invoking #2 in your reply; she was clearly telling me that CC's AR price is lower than BB's non-rebate instant discount price--therefore no PM. Even after I tried to explain to her that she should at least remove the manufacturer rebate from consideration since that is coming from the manufacturer itself (point #1 in your reply), she still said no dice.

Heck, I even pointed out the same thing you did--namely, my online confirmation receipt does not mention ANYTHING about ANY rebate, so why can't CC PM based on that? Her copout explanation? "Well you can print the rebates online"...maybe I should have asked (and yeah, this would be a complete stretch)--"What if I don't have immediate access to a printer?"--LOL!!!

I may have lucked out. My CC clerk seemed kind of sleepy. I don't think she was aware that there were rebates available on the item.