Staples B&M CD-RW Deals

[Bandito]

Sirsolo,

We have never had to take back a product because we didn't have a use for it or because we couldn't find someone that could use it. Don't presume that your steps apply to everyone.

McCall,

You are wrong about the price match depending on a clueless CSR. Our price match on the Yamaha came from a very clued in person.

Staples is a store that will price match clearance. Read their website very carefully. Staples can and will tell you all kinds of things. That doesn't mean what they tell you is correct and that you can't get around whatever they are telling you.

 

[sirsolo]

I wasn't directing the comment to you, Bandito, but I guess you are that kind of person.

 

[worm]

I just went out to check a store in the Dallas area. We just got our Staples a couple months ago. They were out of the Sony, but had the Yamaha and the ACER. They were marked $179 and $172. They scanned them both, but rang up as marked. Not sure why the difference, but I will wait for the next deal.

 

[mccall]

Bandito:

If I read your post correctly you tried for a pricematch with a CSR and you were turned down. You asked for a supervisor and you were turned down again. Your girlfriend tried for a PM with a CSR and she was turned down. She asked for a supervisor and she was turned down again. The PM came only after a call to corporate.

I think that proves my point about a PM being "iffy".

 

[Bandito]

Mccall,

Read my post again. I didn't say it wasn't "iffy". All deals at Staples are subject to "iffiness" if you are doing anything other than walking in a store, paying retail at the register, and walking out of the door with your bag. Anyone who has done a few Staples deals knows that fact.

What I said was that it didn't depend on a clueless CSR. The Supervisor admitted she was confused about the price matching policy and told us she would do it if she could find any in stock in my location. This is because my GF went over the PM policy on the website with her. They called in my location and couldn't find any . My GF called corporate because the Supervisor said she should talk to the Supervisor of the Supervisors but that they were in a meeting. After my GF placed the order online as she was told to do by Corporate she called into a CSR and had no problem with them doing the price match.

Once again, you may not have ever come across any stores that will PM clearance but Staples will if you can buy it ..meaning it is in stock. I have never been ultimately refused a PM on clearance if it is in stock.

The question here is the issue of what will they do with their own price if your local area is out of stock. We got the price match and it didn't depend on a clueless CSR as you indicated must be a requirement to do the deal.

I would say the people who have posted here who had various problems with their store managers in getting any of these drives can easily get a price match by simply calling Corporate-especially the person who was fed the line of bull by the manager about the new register system showing the REAL price.

 

[mccall]

I've followed this thread here and at F*t Wallet and you are the only one who's posted about getting a pricematch over the phone, if I remember correctly. Maybe it's because you pushed and called corporate, I don't know. What I do know is it's not "cut and dried", especially since it was not in stock in your area. I tried it and was turned down, various times. Others have posted they were turned down too, one specifically saying he was told by a supervisor they wouldn't PM clearance items with B&M stores. I don't think anyone calling about pricematching, especially if it is out of stock in their B&M, is going to get this deal. I'll give it a try tomorrow though, it can't hurt.

I am familiar with the nature of Staples' deals. When Sam's had the $49.90 Voodoo 3 video cards they were out of stock in my area. I called Staples and did a pricematch and added a $20 off $50 coupon. The CSR never asked for proof and never even put me on hold. The order was processed and shipped. After rebate I'll get that card for about $2. I know that was an aberration. I was lucky to get that deal. I passed it on to some people who posted that their Sam's were out of stock also and none of them got a PM. I think your situation is similar.

 

[Bandito]

McCall,
You remember incorrectly. I called because someone else here posted today that he did a price match via the phone. I had asked about that same CD writer over the weekend and was told ALL Yamahas were out of stock. I figured it was BS because of the way the conversation took place.

Also, I said that the Supervisor was willing to price match CLEARANCE after discussing with my GF that contents of their Price Match website. The problem came in because it was out of stock in our area...as it will be in most areas at this point. That is when she became confused as to what to do and suggested talking with the Supervisor of the Supervisors.

The interesting point is this. My GF did not give her name when talking with Corporate. The individual told her to do the order online and call her back with the order number. My GF had to call up the CSR to get the order number and explained why she needed it. A different Supervisor came on the phone and gave the price match with no problems.

And one again, you will never see me claim that any of the deals that we do with Staples are cut and dried. Anyone who has done a number of Staples deals knows just how wide and varied results can and will be at any given time. I think alot depends on the luck of the draw with the initial CSR and from there it depends on negotiating skills.

I might call that exact same person at Staples Corporate and get shot down. That is why when it comes to negotiation at Staples I turn the phone over to my GF. She gets her deal every time if it is a legitimate deal. The funky deals with 80 off 180 product specific codes that are not suppose to be used for anything else are another matter. But if it is this kind of legitimate deal she can negotiate right through the wording of the website and the Staples Policy and Procedure Manual.

She said she owes it all to the guy who posted that Manual. It is her Deal Hunting Bible ;-)

 

[attention]

OK, to get back to the basic thing.......

As of 18:00 the Staples at Bundy/Olympic in Los Angeles has still 2 ACER (129$), one IOMAGIC (89$) and one Yamaha (99$) left.
Some other drives are on hold but will be released if they are not claimed by tomorrow.

I am still looking to trade my Yamaha 8x4x24 for a Sony 4x4x6 USB. Anybody interested?

-or-

Does anybody know if it is possible to turn off the small fan of the Yamaha during non operation? Like a sleep mode or s.th.?

Thanks

 

[Bandito]

Best Buy sells that Yamaha. I don't know what their policy is on this type of deal but you might want to see if they do the 110% on it if you have a receipt in hand.

They had them on sale this week so there may be no stock available at your Best Buy.

 

[sheba]

Best Buy is terrible to pricematch with. I remember trying 2 different stores trying to pricematch the Kingson Value Ram at officemax. All they could say was" we are the same price after rebate" which was not where you pricematch.. and were very rude on top of it. I would be curious to see how they are with this deal.

 

[jacobnero6918]

I have the ACER 8x/4x/32x with 8MB buffer and it ROCKS. I'm sure it is at least equal to the Yamaha model. I've owned it for 8 months and have burned 100 or so cd's. I use Nero 5.24 and EZ CD CREATOR 4.02 with it and have had no problems with it. I'm not sure about Clone CD but I have made copies of CD-ROM's with no problem with NERO on the fly and they came out perfect. At 129 it is a deal because when it first came out it was 249 !!!!

 

[mccall]

I think we're talking about 2 diff scenarios.

I think the post here you referred to was about a PM at the local store, when the item was in stock. The manager refused to sell at the lower price and they called corporate while in the store. Forgive me if I'm wrong as this thread has become too long for me to page through to find it, but I think that was it.

I was talking about a PM when ordering from the online store when the item was not in stock locally.

I know that you posted you received your PM when ordering from the online store when the item was not in stock locally. I was not able to do that. Not after repeated calls on Monday and Today. CSRs, Supervisors, Corporate. I tried. No dice.

I'm glad you received yours. I think it was an aberration, a fluke. I don't think anyone else was able to do that. I know I wasn't. I know my friends and family weren't. I haven't seen anyone post that they were either. I was given various reasons, at various times, by various people, as to why they could not do this, as is the Staples way.

I agree there is nothing in the PM policy on the website that specifically states no PM with "clearance" or "closeout" (I was repeatedly told closeout and never did they use the word clearance) but I was given the "no PM with closeout at B&M stores" reason more than once, even by corporate. I was also repeatedly reminded the item was not in stock at my local B&M stores. I pointed out the discrepancy between what they were telling me was their PM policy and what their written policy was on the website, but it got me nowhere. I also pointed out the various reasons, some of them contradictory, that I was given regarding why they couldn't do a PM. I was given an apology for the misunderstanding and that was it. They held firm and refused to grant the PM with an order at the online store. I was firm and polite. I thought I made a good argument. It didn't faze them one bit.

Maybe it has something to do with you (or your GF) and how you negotiate with them. I know you said you received a PM with Circuit City on the Sonys. I wasn't able to achieve that either. Maybe I should just pay your GF a contingency fee and have her phone in all my orders that require a PM from now on ;-)

I'm glad you received your drives. I found 1 Sony local here. I had three other people (friends and fam) who wanted one. If I could have replicated your PM deal we might have been able to get the other three but my kung fu was not strong enough.

See ya.

Oh - one more thing - Thanks to Kenmitch for a great find and for taking the time to post it.


EDIT: Spelling errors and to thank KenMitch

 

[Gunslinger]

Killeen Texas has several Yamaha's and a few Acers, no Sony.
The Yamaha's are maked at $99 and very visable so they are going fast.

 

[attention]

AndrewR:
The Yamaha IS compatible with Mac AND PC's and thus portable between systems without any problem.

 

[Atrac]

You're kidding!?!?!? A store in the Los Angeles area had *something* in stock after being posted in this forum? I thought all of the deal whores lived here.

Hell must be freezing over soon.

 

[BANDITAENMASQUERADA]

Sheba,

Your experience doesn't surprise. Circuit City tried the same thing on me. I can understand the rationale behind the thought if it is THEIR rebate. However, CC tried to include Tivo's rebate with a straight face ....

Sirsolo,

I may be a Deal Whore but I don't ever need to return my goods. I guarantee you that if I get my Palms from the Sharper Image deal that I ordered last night... they will find a home.

 

[freeman]

I'm not a Deal Whore, but I just got the last Acer from Staples at Bundy/Olympic in Los Angeles. Maybe someday I'll be a Deal Bastard.

 

[Bandito]

I received my Yamaha Drive today from Staples. I remembered some of the posts here so I decided to check what was inside the box.

What a screwed up deal. I am not a technical person and can't even tell what product I received.

The Box has the "EZ" proof of purchase imprinted on it for E-IDE. The stickers promote the "SZ" (for SCSI) model number.

The specifications imprinted on the side of the box have specs for EZ and SZ.

The drive itself says SCSI interface connector on the back and has a 50 pin connector

What kind of drive did they send me ??? I presume it is SCSI.

 

[alvy]

If any of you are in the Washington, DC/suburban MD area, er, don't bother. I tried Silver Spring, all three Rockville stores, and they called Gaithersburg as well, and everything is gone.

One store had a Ricoh CDRW out on their clearance table. Hey, might be super-cheap, I thought. Well, not only was it a 6000 series burner, which is like 1 to 2 years old (and maybe 4x2x6 or something), but it was marked down from $279 to the sooper-Stapes-deep-discount-clearance price of...$200. yah friggin hoo.

 

[attention]

I finally could get two of the Sony Spressa's! They were "undeliverable/rejected returns" (one has to know where to look for!) and are not open boxes.
They have 25 returned ones (which should be good as the rep told me) in the central warehouse.
And 8 damaged or broken ones which will be sent back to Sony.

As I wrote above, I favored the Yamaha I bought some days ago much more, as it is faster and has better spec's and is not so clumsy, but it has a tiny fan that makes some tiny noise.

So if somebody is interested in that Yamaha drive in the Los Angeles area, let me know.

I would return it else.

My email again: teacher at ucsd.com .
Please direct your questions to that email, as I don't want to get on the nerv of my dear board colleagues with that more than neccessary.

 

[tillius]

attention: Yes, I'm interested in one of the sony's (maybe 2).. but your email addy isn't given - email me at tillman.stevens@usa.net

thanks

 

[mccall]

Bandito - you received the SCSI model.

Mac

 

[attention]

I was out just an hour and received 23 emails on that!

Most of you asked where you could locate the 25 returned Sony's, so I decided to make a final post here in this regard to answer your questions.

I got that info from a store and don't even know where that warehouse is. So call your local store and ask them. Try to get a patient and knowledged CSR.

I also learned that those Staples which still have some drives are sending the drives back to the manufacturer beginning this weekend (total clearance).

The Yamaha is the same drive that is sold on ibay, it is the Yamaha crw8424ez internal and as the CSR on the phone tolde me, he could see still some of them in several locations. But again, I don't know where.

The drive I had to sell was the Yamaha, not the Sony, but that is gone probably, as I got many who wanted it.

Good luck.

 

[cmv]

If anyone has an extra Yamaha they want to sell off I'd be interested. Let me know at cvig@raw-io.com. I'd be willing to toss in a little extra of course. Can do PayPal or any of the other services.

 

[Bandito]

Mccall,

Thanks. After looking at the prices on MySimon for this SCSI drive I can make the determination that I got quite a deal. My GF screwed up the deal and I have been laughing all day long at her. The Supervisor told her they would do the price match after it was shipped and she would keep an eye on it.

She called in to check to see that the price match was done after it was delivered. They did do the price match as promised. However, the CSR spotted the 40 off coupon and took it off. She then applied a 25 off coupon. I told her sometimes it is better to just be patient and see what develops... ;-)

Now if only my 65% off Palm Pilots from Sharper Image would ship I would be a happy deal hunter.