So I have blogged about the 1 minute guarantee at Best Buy before. I was wondering if it was worth ordering online and doing an in-store pickup. The answer is YES! I have saved $40 dollars since the guarantee was implemented.
Is it worth it (part 1)?
Store Pickup?
With so much available on the Internet today, I rarely buy from a retail store unless there is a great deal to be had. In order to be sure I get the item before going to the store I will place my order online, check store availability and pick up the items if possible. Sounds easy right?
January Pickup 1 @ Best Buy D.C.
I mentioned that I just got an HD-DVD player..so I need HD movies! I placed an order for 3 movies because a buy 2 get 1 free offer was in effect at Best Buy. I placed the order and in the morning get the confirmation messages that my order is ready for pickup. Great! I had verified that the items were in stock and now they are being held for me behind the counter at customerr service.
On my way from volunteering to Word Market, my part-time job, I stopped to pick up my order. I get to customer service and am assisted right away! Great start. Oh, the employee did not know how to do a store pickup and every one else was busy…hmm…10 minutes later it seemed he comes back with 2 of the 3 movies. After checking for the other one and not finding it, I decided to go to the shelf myself since I did not want to wait for someone to get it, brought it back and my order was delivered to me. Before I left the customer service desk, I asked…since I had noticed on a previous pickup that there was a "1 minute pickup or $10 off." pickup policy in effect. I was told that that policy was no longer in effect. Too bad.
Since I was here and had a few minutes left before needing to get back on the Metro, I decided to ask the specialists in the HD TV area why some DVDs appear to by "static-y." The mentioned that my tv was fine and that unless th DVD was shot in HD, it would exist. No biggie, I just back up from the TV and it is not as noticible. Mind you, this is the reason why I had waited to buy an HD TV and HD DVD player…looking close, I was not impressed by the quality which was usually dismissed as being the fault of the split cable signal used in the store.
Anyway..back on track…they were like, the dvds you have in your hand will be upconverted to near HD quality. I am thinking…why would that happen, they are HD DVDs? Wrong…the 2 that were at the counter were regular DVDs! UGH! They not only forgot to pick the entire large 3 item order, they picked the wrong format. I should give them a little credit..they got the right titles! So..since I paid for them…I went over and swapped out the 2 incorrect ones for the HD ones which were thankfully available for purchase.
On the way out the door..I decided to let the "inventory control specialist…the yellow shirt door staff" know that my movies will likely set the inventory sensor off…I don't know why I did…he wanted me to go to customer service. I should have not said a thing..I was just pissed off at that point and wanted someone to know.
I read my confirmation messages when I got home and noticed that the 1 minute guarantee was still in effect….perhaps this is a permanent thing? I called customer service and explained my situation and was given $10 credit…well a coupon that has still not come yet. Giving them a little time to comply.
January Pickup 2 @ Best Buy D.C.
Okay…SeaQuest DSV Season 2 finally arrives to DVD! Bestbuy is $10 less than retail and is the best price out there. I will fast track this one…..Get to the store after getting the "Order Ready" email message….and hmm….item could not be found? What is up? I go to the shelf and bring it back to her and she had still not found it. She gave me $10 off instantly. She said it was picked…but it was no where to be found.
Summary
I use store pickup just to be sure the item I want is in stock to not waste a trip so I will likely still use it, but man, what a headache…..I am wondering if I should just pick them up when I get to the store before going over to the pickup counter?
Mind you….I have NEVER had a problem with store pickup and I have probably used it 50 times…so I am still going to give it a try 🙂
The Best and Worst v1.0
Down with Fedex!
After having a delightful time missing delivery attempts that were made virtually (aka without attempting), I have come to the conclusion that both Fedex Ground and Fedex Home Delivery are together the worst delivery company!Besides having no way to change the delivery address for a “Home Delivery” package other than having the shipper do it, there is also no way to have “Ground” take over delivery in the event that a shipper thinks your address is residential. It was great having the possibility of getting my package delivered on a Saturday as it was to be, but only to find out after talking with a number of nice, and apparently not so knowledgeable reps, having the delivery driver not even attempt delivery, rather just scan the package and enter ” Business Closed” as the reason for not delivering.I waited outside for a no show! If the driver came by I would have seen him, but alas, he probably was taking a break in a parking lot somewhere. It would not have been so bad if it was for me, but it was a gift and I had done my best to not reveal the present…but as you will see, the additional time it took to deliver got to me and I spilled the beans Saturday :(To make things worse, Monday was Memorial Day and since “Home Delivery” works Tues – Sat, they were given Tuesday off. So Wednesday comes along and …what? No delivery? This time I check status and it says “No one available, business closed at 6:15 PM.” First of all, having already identified, without driving by that it was a business, don’t you think you would come before 5 PM on a business day? Hmmmm. Guess Not. In any case, I was again waiting outside as the status at 5 PM was “Out for delivery” and would you believe it…..the invisible truck came and went!Thursday – After being escalated to a “Customer Advocate,” nice name for supervisor, and being told that the station would call me and let me know which door the driver attempted delivery the day before, I heard nothing. Again, 5 PM rolls around and no package in sight. You can probably imagine I am a bit perterbed.Friday – I receive a call from Fedex at the Station in MD, “I have your package in my hand and am giving it to the driver now.” Yeah, perhaps today will be my day..almost a week after the first “phantom” truck came to deliver. All along I was told that “Fedex drivers do not have cell phones, if they do they are personal.” So needless to say, it would be nice if they did like UPS so I could have not waited for a package that was not coming. Finally the package arrives at 4 PM, I was getting concerned that late in the day on a Friday, and the driver was talking on his cell phone!This was the better of the 2 stories to share..but the other one I will mention briefly was with “Ground” and my package sat in a transport trailer for more than a day and was not delivered on Friday as it was to be and I did not get it until the middle of the next week with many calls to customer service and a shipping charge refund.With that said…how are your experiences? Good and Bad. In the polls below, vote for the worst and best based on your personal experiences.
The Best and Worst v2.0
Best Movie Rental Subscription
Blockbuster Video
So, I don’t normally rent videos, I own more than 500 and let others borrow them. I live at 17th and P NW in the nations capital and there is a Blockbuster Video about half a block from me, so when Blockbuster started renting online, I had to check it out.
Here is the deal, there are many different plans, but I have the cheapest unlimited plan. Here are the details of my plan $10 a month.
- One movie out at a time (Takes 2-3 days to get it in the mail)
- Exchange for a FREE in store rental
- Get next movie on my online Q
- Return in store rental (up to a week late w/o penalty)
In other words, as soon as I am done with the online rental…I take it back to the store to not hold up my next movie and watch the in store rental at my leisure. With the FREE monthly movie or game rental, I had 3 movies at times!
My first month, I was a totally glued to the tube and watched a movie almost every night. I watched more than 24 movies in the month. That works out to about $.41, less than 50 cents a rental! Compare that to the $4.69 per in store rental! So if you rent 3 movies a month, sign yourself up! Okay, so I don’t get any kickback, just want you to get a good deal on movie rentals 🙂 I would think that Blockbuster would go under with such a deal, but I went from $0 to $10 a month, so they are making money on me. On the other hand, by renting movies so cheap, I tend to watch them before I buy them previewed. This should help me keep my collection of crappy movies I should have never bought, and wish I could take back become nonexistant 🙂
Sales on Previewed Movies and Games
This brings me to the next reason I like Blockbuster so much…. If you miss the first week when a new movie comes out, when it is below $20, Blockbuster eventually reduces their stockpile and they go on sale previewed around $15. That seems a bit steep, but they move down to $10, and then to $6 if they sit there for a long time. I think I bought “The Talented Mr. Ripley” on VHS back in the day for $1. I thought, if the movie was that bad, I could just cover the protection hole and tape a TV show 🙂
Okay, so the movie you want is $15….unless you have to have it right now, wait for a sale. They tend to occur monthy. Currently the deal is “Buy 2, get 2 of equal or lesser value Free.” So, I picked up 4 movies marked $14.99 each. Movies of the same value are the best deal 🙂 So instead of $30 for 2, I got 4 for $30, $7.50 each!
Thankfully I am a sucker for sales and unless I see the huge banner on the window, resist the previewed movie section.
So there you go, I have not tried Netflix, but since they don’t have a free in store rental for every online, I don’t think it is worth it for me. If you live in the middle of nowhere and Netflix delivers faster than Blockbuster…that probably makes the most sense to you. Vote and tell me if you have used them, which you prefer, or if you don’t watch tv at all.
Save $$, borrow a movie from Me 🙂
My movie list is at http://clockj.googlepages.com if you work at Georgetown U, the National Zoo, or National Air and Space Museum, I can deliver. I don’t charge anything, just ask that you return them promptly so others can borrow them.