Semi-ot: Did you get your GF3 from BB? What was it like?

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Midnight Rambler

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,200
0
0
Cherub:

Not that it will get you a GF3, but you should call BB Corporate (Customer Relations Dept) at 1-800-369-5050, Opt.#5, and complain to them about the shady deal tactics and that you store didn't have the min. stock advertised.
 

gimlids

Member
Aug 20, 2001
125
0
0
It's back on their website now displayed prominently on the Computers Peripherals page, with a subtitle of "not avilable for order or store pickup."

Are they trying to taunt us or what?

Anyway the minimum wascompletely bogus. Someone with lots of money (who wouldn't be reading "Hot Deals") should go after them...this was a real let down.
 

Midnight Rambler

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,200
0
0
Manly:

You're right, questioning morality was not the proper phrase to use. But greed is applicable. People doing this purposely, thereby preventing others from a chance. The ones that are really sad, are people who not only bought early but also hid extra cards in their stores. Either way, their intent is to deny others.
 

COPPER

Member
Dec 29, 1999
77
0
0
I went to the store at 10:00AM. There were 6 or 7 left. Picked up one, no problems. I'm glad I didn't screw up my day waking up in 6AM.
BB, Sioux Falls,SD
 

ashneel

Banned
Jul 10, 2001
446
0
0


<< I went to the store at 10:00AM. There were 6 or 7 left. Picked up one, no problems. I'm glad I didn't screw up my day waking up in 6AM.
BB, Sioux Falls,SD
>>




boy arent you luckly.
i wish i was like you.
hehehe

my store had like 400 people standing in line it formed a U around the best buys store.
fuck**en 10 people go in every 15 mins or even less then 10 people were still comming in to the line.
like i said fuc*k best buys bastards why** the phcuk they cant let everyone in all at once.
90 percent of the people walked out with nothing. and waiting in the fuceke*n big ass line mad my phucken ear hurt because of the cold.:|

i wish they get burned.
 

KamakaziRcr

Senior member
Jan 15, 2000
326
0
0
Just got back from BB. Thought I had picked up the last GF3, but there were like 5 at the endcap of an isle without the sale price marked. Got this just before 12, so there's a bunch more here if anyone lives around KC, MO. This is over at Bannister BB. Good luck.
 

187

Senior member
May 27, 2001
373
0
0
i had quite an intresting day. i shanked two people with an icepick for my geforce3. hahaa. i got the last one. and guess what. i go check out. the cashier is like err the MIR is not printing out. im like let me see your manager. hes like, ill just ring it up at 99.99$ for you. so no MIR i walked out with GeForce3 for $108.00 nice ehh? im just pissed off i didnt get the 60 gig hdd. will these still be on sale tommorow??

hope every1 else had good luck.


oh and btw, i never seen so many nerdy dorky people in an enclosure in my life before!! remember geForce3 is not substitute for a life etc...
 

psycaz

Member
Mar 9, 2001
74
0
66
When I was in Best Buy earlier in the week, I asked when they restock - i was told Monday and Wednesday nights. So they should have received a shipment in the night before and had all day yesterday to put things out. There is NO excuse for not having the minimum available that they list because they should hold back that quantity at the corporate warehouses and delviery on the Wednesday night before the big sale. Its not like they don't know what will be on sale and how many they promised. Its a corporate decision NOT to have procuct availabe. If possible, folks who were at stores, first in line and there was nothing should get together and amybe contact an attorney for fraudulent practices - shouldn't be too hard to find someone to represent or prove - if they can't provide reciept copies of customes buying that day(offseting for the returns),then they are caught in my opinon.

Went to Home Depot to buy a 21-pc drill set. They didn't get their stock and they substituted a $20 22-pc set for $6. That's customer service!
 

pyromaster

Junior Member
Aug 12, 2001
11
0
0
On Wednesday night me and my friends went to BB to scope out the inventory. The only interesting item they had instock were the geforce3's and they had 3 of them. We hid one of them in the back of the store behind a large stack of TV boxes and we hid another on the a shelf behind all of the webcams, I didn't want to be greedy, so I left the other on the shelf. The clerk said the hard drives would be getting in that night and they should have some on friday.

Well this morning me and my little bro left around 5:00, we stopped to get some hot chocolate on the way because it was pretty cold out, and we got there around 5:45. I had heard some horror stories from last year I knew we had to get there early. I get on the road, route 1 in Foxboro towards Attleboro (if you live in MA you probably know where this is), I see this guy coming up behind me pretty fast. My brother tells me to speed up because this guy is probably heading to Best Buy, sure enough he was, and it was a race to get there. Also on route 1 is Walmart, Toy R us, and Target, all of those places were insanely crowded too. At one point in the morning a squad car and a police SUV went screaming into the parking lot with the lights and sirens on.

Anyways, once we got to BB, there were already about 200-300 people waiting in line. At around 6:00 the big rush came. There was actually a family behind me that brought maps and walkie talkies and were plotting their plan! One of my friends came around 6:00 to give me a hand getting the stuff, and he wanted to a get a deal on some RAM. At around 6:50 my little brother said he was going to try and sneak up to the front of the line, he went up and hide near the front, while me and my friend waited about 40 feet back. All of a sudden we hear this huge rush and people started raming us from behind and was saw the doors open. All the people from the back of the line just darted up to the doors and rammed their way through, as did me and my friend. There were employees actaully trying to keep the other doors shut as people tried to push they open.

once we got passed the first door we noticed we were in the first 30 people into the store. Clerks were handing out free DVD samplers and I took as many as I could before I was pushed to the ground by the mob behind me. I bolted for the hard drives as my bro went to recover the hidden vid card behind the web cams and my friend went to get the one behind the TVs. I run up and see someone take the last geforce3 off of the shelf, I bolt for the HDD. I see someone taking what looks like the last one, I quickly scanned all of the boxes. Then I noticed there were still 3 more resting face down on the top shelf. This guy with his arms full of stuff shouts "where are the hard drives, where are the hard drives!" I told him they were all out, as he was running away I grabbed 2 and went to check on my bro.

He said he couldn't find it, so we went towards the TVs to see my friend. He just made it there so we were frantically knocking over these boxes searching for the video card, we found it! We bolt back towards the webcams to look for the last card, I use my arm to knock over the enitre shelf and i found it! Meanwhile there is man running towards me who also saw the hidden card. I grab it run as the man is diving towards me. We head for the register, there is one empty one at the end and the clerk is screaming at us "Over hear quick! Run!", a huge mass of other people also hear him and begin running towards the vacant register. WE MADE IT! We pay for everything in cash and have $1 to spare, phew! We head back into the parking lot and see huge block ups of cars and people. We finally make it out of there, I am lucky to be alive. That was the most fun I have ever had in my entire life! What a blast, and I got some sweet loot!

I'll post the pics that I took later, . Anyways, a good time was had by all.

 

ashneel

Banned
Jul 10, 2001
446
0
0


<< On Wednesday night me and my friends went to BB to scope out the inventory. The only interesting item they had instock were the geforce3's and they had 3 of them. We hid one of them in the back of the store behind a large stack of TV boxes and we hid another on the a shelf behind all of the webcams, I didn't want to be greedy, so I left the other on the shelf. The clerk said the hard drives would be getting in that night and they should have some on friday.

Well this morning me and my little bro left around 5:00, we stopped to get some hot chocolate on the way because it was pretty cold out, and we got there around 5:45. I had heard some horror stories from last year I knew we had to get there early. I get on the road, route 1 in Foxboro towards Attleboro (if you live in MA you probably know where this is), I see this guy coming up behind me pretty fast. My brother tells me to speed up because this guy is probably heading to Best Buy, sure enough he was, and it was a race to get there. Also on route 1 is Walmart, Toy R us, and Target, all of those places were insanely crowded too. At one point in the morning a squad car and a police SUV went screaming into the parking lot with the lights and sirens on.




you had fun didnt you.
lol
Anyways, once we got to BB, there were already about 200-300 people waiting in line. At around 6:00 the big rush came. There was actually a family behind me that brought maps and walkie talkies and were plotting their plan! One of my friends came around 6:00 to give me a hand getting the stuff, and he wanted to a get a deal on some RAM. At around 6:50 my little brother said he was going to try and sneak up to the front of the line, he went up and hide near the front, while me and my friend waited about 40 feet back. All of a sudden we hear this huge rush and people started raming us from behind and was saw the doors open. All the people from the back of the line just darted up to the doors and rammed their way through, as did me and my friend. There were employees actaully trying to keep the other doors shut as people tried to push they open.

once we got passed the first door we noticed we were in the first 30 people into the store. Clerks were handing out free DVD samplers and I took as many as I could before I was pushed to the ground by the mob behind me. I bolted for the hard drives as my bro went to recover the hidden vid card behind the web cams and my friend went to get the one behind the TVs. I run up and see someone take the last geforce3 off of the shelf, I bolt for the HDD. I see someone taking what looks like the last one, I quickly scanned all of the boxes. Then I noticed there were still 3 more resting face down on the top shelf. This guy with his arms full of stuff shouts "where are the hard drives, where are the hard drives!" I told him they were all out, as he was running away I grabbed 2 and went to check on my bro.

He said he couldn't find it, so we went towards the TVs to see my friend. He just made it there so we were frantically knocking over these boxes searching for the video card, we found it! We bolt back towards the webcams to look for the last card, I use my arm to knock over the enitre shelf and i found it! Meanwhile there is man running towards me who also saw the hidden card. I grab it run as the man is diving towards me. We head for the register, there is one empty one at the end and the clerk is screaming at us "Over hear quick! Run!", a huge mass of other people also hear him and begin running towards the vacant register. WE MADE IT! We pay for everything in cash and have $1 to spare, phew! We head back into the parking lot and see huge block ups of cars and people. We finally make it out of there, I am lucky to be alive. That was the most fun I have ever had in my entire life! What a blast, and I got some sweet loot!

I'll post the pics that I took later, . Anyways, a good time was had by all.
>>

 

DumbRedGuy

Member
Oct 22, 2001
58
0
0
I went to the Best Buy in Green Bay around 9:30 and stood in line for the return desk with my already purchased GF3 and HD. After 20 minutes, I had my 100 in cash and 100 in rebates for PM. The place was packed, I'm glad I got mine early.
 

Hulk

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,457
2,376
136
I went to the West Windsor, NJ Best Buy for the hard drive. Here's how it went:

Arrived at 6:30, line was about 200 or so people long.

Mad rush for the hard drives as soon as I entered. Figured no way would I get one since there were so many people ahead of me.

When I arrive at the hard drive section there's about 10 people crowded around trying to figure out which drive was the ONE!

None of them knew that RTL means retail, and AB is the 5400rpm unit.

I took a dive (literally) for the bottom shelf. All the way in the back were TWO of the drives! As I reach for one, the guy next to me took the other one. I literally had to hold onto it like a football after a turnover for a few seconds there.

One guys said to me, "Do you REALLY need that drive?" I really wanted it.

I said, " Sorry, I'm taking it."

He says, "I wanted a faster one anyway."

Man, to quote Charlton Heston in POTA, "A Mad house! A maaaaaaad house!"

 

KatLei

Senior member
Jul 17, 2001
381
0
0
pillage and i went scouting at BB on wednesday and found 12 ti-200.... we got hold of the last two.... no regrets waking up at 5am... this card ROCKS... overclocking capabilities are just so....

anyone want a geforce2 MX now?
 

erub

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2000
5,481
0
0
Got there at 6:45, was around 200th person in line. Got in the store, no graphics cards or HDD remain. I grabbed the last box of blank CDs, and a couple George Forman Grills. Pay quickly, run out to the car, go back and get my pricematch (easily done), grab 2 more grills...damn I had to wait in the checkout line for 15 mins the last time. I wanted those grills though . I get home, put all my stuff on my kitchen counter and come in to check AT for a few minutes. Then I waltz back into the kitchen, and my mom says "If you want me to pay for this, you have to wait until Hanukkah (December 10th)." So rather than spend $100 of my hard earned cash, I'm going to wait...well, I've had a Voodoo3 3000 for about a year, I can wait on this..
 

T2T III

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,899
1
0


<< So you think it is right for them to allow people to do this? >>


No, I'm not saying this is right, nor wrong. Companies of all types will have to deal with "pre-selling" on a weekly basis because that is what happens every week - not just Black Friday. Right now, the sales ads for each Sunday are distributed along with most newspapers in the Saturday edition.

Companies will have to decide on a policy and stick to it. Sure, they could put the "terms" in their sale flyers to include "prior sales excluded", but then this violates their "price matching / price correction policities". Either way you look at it, it's Catch-22.

As long as companies continue to handle price adjustments / returns, I'll side with the folks who purchased the sale items early and then returned for an adjustment. Those were the smart individuals and valued their time and made the best of it - rather than standing in line with 250 other poor souls.

Let's say you're a computer programmer earning $60 per hour. Why stand in line for 1 hour to save $20 on a CD writer? You could do some work, pay regular price for the item - and still come out ahead. Not to mention some sanity that you'd save by not getting worked up while waiting in the crowd wondering if you would even be lucky enough to get the item.

Not trying to put anyone down ... just trying to add a little reality to the mix.
 

christoph83

Senior member
Mar 12, 2001
812
0
0
Had to get there at 5am and was still around the 30th person in line. They gave out some tickets for the video card and I was one of the last ones to be garuntee'd a video card...got lucky.....There had to be atleast 300 people behind me around 6:30am. Got the harddrive they had too. Anyway this is a great little card. Comes 175 core 400 mem. I'm running it right now at 215/490 flawlessly.
 

GtPrOjEcTX

Lifer
Jul 3, 2001
10,784
6
81
Come one come all to hear my crappy day.

I woke up at 1:45, yes that's the AM. I got at the store at 2:15 am, FIRST IN LINE There with my sick girlfriend (she has a stomach bug) and she proceeds to throw-up in 4 large piles in the parking lot, nice.

3 more people show up at 3:30, and a couple of my friends showed up at 4:00am. So yes, I could've waited two hours and been like 5th in line oh well.

Around 6:15 the Sprint Employee starts walking around the line giving out donuts for free (sweet) and a coupon thing for his phone (which was extremely misleading because it had a $20 off coupon for the first 12 customers on it, no *s explaining details so I thought I was gonna get an extra $20 off, nope.

Then around 6:40 the best buy employees start handing out tickets, what do you want they ask, hold on I say I have a list, I want the Geforce 3 TI200, the WD 60Gig harddrive, the Lexmark Z13 printer and 256meg stick of ram.

In response he gives me ticket #1 for the hard drive, didn't have tickets for the other items.

I ask a manager guy (he opened the store around 2:45, I was there before any employees got there) what the tickets were for, how were they used, how do we get the hard drives...in response he says, if you got a ticket you are guarenteed the item, I was like sweet, they must be hiding them behind the counter.

So store opens, I bolt to the GF3's, picked up a TI500 by mistake, luckily found my error and got the TI200, they had about 10-15 it looked like, picked up one for girlfriends brother, and one for a friend. By then a little mob of people (mostly of Indian (India) descent) were there trying to find which one it was. I mistakenly say "this one" and just like that, they were gone...lol. But I had my three.

Next on the agenda, the printer. I go to the printers isle, not there, they were stacked near the front of the store, I got it, next the memory, asked a employee, he says "Uhh, we don't have that out yet, we're bringing it later" I say screw it, didn't need it anyways, and head for the register. First in line!

I hand them my $20 off coupon (from sprint, and they say its for sprint only, I say fine whatever) and hand her my ticket for the hard drive, she has no clue what it was. The majority of the BB employees didn't even know they handed out tickets. She calls a guy over, and get on the intercom, and then tells me I have to go get the hard drive myself, its on a table in the back.

Then I see friend with a hard drive in hand saying they are out of the them in the back, people were just picking them off the tables regardless if they had a ticket or not

So I find the guy that told me I was guarenteed one, he jets back to the table ( an employee was supposed to be manning it, getting the ticket and handing out the hard drive.) So I get back there, told my girl friend to watch my stuff at the checkout counter.

After waiting about 10-15 minutes for the crowd to get huge back there, I was about 3rd in line, he says he's sorry they only have 2 hard drives left, and he'll go in numerical order (sweet, I had #1, got mine. my girlfriend's brother had #2 but he was so far back in that line that he didn't hear so was skipped over.) To the remaining he said they'd give rainchecks with an additional amount off, yeah right.)

I go to checkout, I can't find my girlfriend with my stuff anywhere, lines are huge, wow. I finally find her standing at the front of the store, not in a line. I grab my stuff, head to line 1, I see my friend, and I get in line. I was halfway to the back of the store in this line. I waited about 20-30 minutes to checkout.

I finally do and then goto my car, can't find my keys, after a bit of searching they were in my girlfriends jacket pocket which she had already taken off.

I get in the car and leave with my Geforce3 TI 200, WD 60 gig hard drive, Lexmark Z13 printer, and 110 pny cdrs. That was around 8:30-8:50.


EDIT: To the prick who bought 15 of the hard drives, I hate you, can't you read? It says one per customer. This was in Louisville, KY btw.
 

GtPrOjEcTX

Lifer
Jul 3, 2001
10,784
6
81
Umm, between the 4 piles of puke, the 1 1/2 hours of sleep I'm running on, the frost bitten toes, the long lines, the uninformed employees, the jackoff customers, I forget why it was so crappy.
 

igowerf

Diamond Member
Jun 27, 2000
7,697
1
76
My BB was a mess. There were hundreds of people in line, and some people brought their entire family blocking every single aisle in the store. :| My friends and I left empty handed and angry so we went to staples hoping for some left overs. It turns out, there wasn't a big crowd there. I got a Lite-On 16x10x40 for $50 after MIR and a free pack of 80min CD-R's after MIR. They had a good amount of stuff left over, especially the $10 Memorex scanners. I went to the Porter Ranch BB and the Simi Valley Staples, btw. (SoCal)
 

xKelemvor

Member
Oct 18, 2000
181
0
0
What the stores were SUPPOSED to do was to hold their precious 15 stock items in back and not put them on ths shelf until they stocked Wednesday after closing. That's what at least a couple did around here but I found oen that had them on the shelf and bought mine on Monday so I'll just be pricematching after work today. Then getting my cable modem re-hooked up tomorrow after I moved so this is all perfect timing.
--Kel
 

ACDC

Senior member
Sep 5, 2001
300
0
0
Heh I think it was a smart idea to buy ahead and Price adjust later. I also knew about it several days ago and could have done the same thing( have 2 GF3 already). Its Worst Buy's fault for not setting back the early bird specials and I think they should get sued for it. I work @ Radio Shack and we were not allowed to put our early bird stuff out untill after close on Wed. night. I was happy that we had almost all our stuff left after 12pm and we will run the sale untill close. It takes carefull planning for earlybird specials and hopefully Best Buy learned something from it . I'm sure they lost alot of customers today. I feel for all the peeps that waited in line Anyway alot of the RadioShack stores still have the Sharp Organizer for $5 bucks , makes a good gift and stocking stuffer
 

wasssup

Diamond Member
Nov 28, 2000
3,142
0
0
somebody bought 15 hd's from one store? wtf is wrong with you? yeesh, people will do anything for a few bucks profit (i doubt there's gonna be much profit flooding it onto egay)...

oh well whatever, i don't care...got my drive, and that stupid-ass casio tv (sucks), didn't get the card cuz i didn't want it, so bleh

though, officemax had a cool hands free kit for your cell, sold out of 150 in like 10mins or something...
 
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