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Best Buy?
- Thread starter n8sco
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It's an unadvertised promo, entirely based on the discretion of the manager, so there's no way to get it online. I'm surprised they wouldn't let you order one in-store or place a hold on a computer from one of the next shipments. The $100 promo goes on all summer but the discounted prices at Best Buy will presumably end this weekend.
Calling Best Buy is usually pointless. I won't ask anything anymore unless I have the SKU because almost all their employees are absolutely useless. I believe they had the Airs here since possibly Friday or earlier but because I wasn't providing a SKU they were clueless. On Sunday I finally walked in with a SKU and sure enough they had three stored in the back.
Just to report some luck I did have with a Best Buy. I called in and asked for a Geek Squad member to talk to because they are normally techy guys and willing to answer questions more then the salesmen. I told him about the SSD model differences and he actually took it upon himself to ask the manager and open a few to find an answer. I'm happy to report that my local Best Buy has dual Samsung models! He also read up about the speed differences online.
Results may vary. See your local store for details.
Results may vary. See your local store for details.
I purchased at BB an got Samsung for both the display and SSD.
Got the 13 with the 256 SSD.
And I got one with the toshiba 256gb ssd and the lg screen from Best Buy.
The SSD, I can live with, but the LG screen is inferior to the Samsung screen. (I bought two 2011 versions). Here's why:
The LG screen has a moire pattern/oscillations on videos and certain background colors (green), whereas the Samsung screen does not have this. An inverter issue? Also, my LG screen mba fan has been louder (it'll seemingly turn on randomly) compared to my Samsung MBA.
I'm not saying that mba with LG screens are related to fan noise. I'm just saying that the two 2011 mba that I have seem to behave differently.
As far as the screen differences, my LG has worse contrast but better white colors. Colors are slightly less intense than the Samsung screen. Samsung screen has higher peak brightness (not by much--half a bar at most). Viewing angles seem similar to me. Overall I prefer the Samsung screen, but if my LG screen didn't have this moire/oscillation thing I would not switch b/c the difference is not a big deal to me.
Best buy's return policy--will I get charged a restocking fee? What should I say? B/c they may think that I'm kind of nuts--how do I describe the moire/oscillation problem and demonstrate fan noise issues?
No restocking fees. I had mine opened when I returned it.
Also, I got my second one with both Samsungs. My first one was however, Toshiba and LG...
Well, I was in the sub-forums and was bitten by the Samsung better than Toshiba/LG bug - so had to return it
. I just said that I probably need a i7, knowing sure enough that they would not have one.Funny enough, the guy helping me said he did have a i7 back in the store and asked me to wait while the GeekLords verified the MBA is ok.
After a while, someone came up to the front desk with a MacbookPro i7!!!
Anyways, I went to another BB (Where i had already requested a phone hold) to try my luck and lucky indeed I was to get both SSD and Display from Samsung.I made up my mind however to try only twice and was ready to accept a Toshiba this time.
That said, I did not notice any difference in performance or otherwise having used both of these in normal browsing,downloading files and installing applications.
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I bought my base 13" model from a Best Buy outside of Philadelphia last Saturday. The gentleman in the computer department gave me the $1234.99 price. When asked if BB participates in Apple's education discount program, he mentioned that they usually put models "on sale" to compete, which sounds like BS -- I just happened to buy the MBA when it was on sale; otherwise, I would not have gotten a $50 education discount.
I had to ask for the $100 gift card promotion. A couple Geek Squad people knew of it and the salesman managed to get his manager's approval for the deal. They ended up lowering the price of the MBA to $1234.99 and then adding on a $100 iTunes (not Best Buy!) gift card. Altogether I basically got the machine for about $1300, which is sort of like getting it "tax free" in PA.
I'd be interested to know if anyone attempted to buy a MBA at any of the Delaware Best Buys last weekend. When I went to the Apple Store in Christiana Mall Saturday morning, they were all sold out, but Cherry Hill Mall and other Apple Stores in PA had plenty (along with the Best Buy I went to). I'm assuming droves of people from PA, NJ, and maybe MD all flocked to Delaware to buy the Airs tax-free.
I had to ask for the $100 gift card promotion. A couple Geek Squad people knew of it and the salesman managed to get his manager's approval for the deal. They ended up lowering the price of the MBA to $1234.99 and then adding on a $100 iTunes (not Best Buy!) gift card. Altogether I basically got the machine for about $1300, which is sort of like getting it "tax free" in PA.
I'd be interested to know if anyone attempted to buy a MBA at any of the Delaware Best Buys last weekend. When I went to the Apple Store in Christiana Mall Saturday morning, they were all sold out, but Cherry Hill Mall and other Apple Stores in PA had plenty (along with the Best Buy I went to). I'm assuming droves of people from PA, NJ, and maybe MD all flocked to Delaware to buy the Airs tax-free.
I'm from Philly and drove down to the BB in Wilmington. I bought the same model as you did. I also asked about them honoring Apple's gift card and the salesman said they did. I also signed up for their rewards zone card. So I'm getting around $125 in gift card money and paid $1234.99 with no tax. I think they have one more left of that model. Was a pretty painless experience.
I was told that they get 'stock' when the old ones are all sold out. It makes sense...
Find a friend who can help get the new ones there by buying an old one at the 'sale' price...
Find a friend who can help get the new ones there by buying an old one at the 'sale' price...
Sweet deal! I was going to go back to the BB by Naaman's Road but I wasn't thinking clearly after being quite pissed that the Apple Store was fresh out. By the time I got back home to Delco I just wanted an Air and it wasn't worth taking another three hours out of my day to save a couple bucks in DE.
Later this week I'm going to pick up a 27" iMac... you can bet that I'll be going back to Christiana Mall to get that tax-free!
For those of you that have ordered online from Best Buy, is your order still on backorder? My friend ordered hers on the 25th, and its still on backorder She is tempted to cancel but I need to convince her not to!
She is tempted to cancel but I need to convince her not to!I am in NYC i bought at one best buy store and they were closing so i didn't have time to keep arguing over the $100 student match. This was at a more "ghetto" store in brooklyn atlantic center. They suggested to goto the bigger store in manhattan to basically blow me off and throw me out of the store. I then went to SoHo in Manhattan who also denied a promotion, then i argued f0r 30 minutes with managers, got corp on the phone who also knew nothing about the promotion, then proceeded to tell me it was a promotion then ended saturday (and i bought sunday during triple points). Basically i gave up I may try the best buy close to me, i never went there in the first place because they didn't have any in stock.
My reward zone account shows the sale and pending points but only regular points. I will wait the 30 days they say it takes to show because corporate did say i got triple points, if no gift card i at least want my points for $60 in certificates.
My reward zone account shows the sale and pending points but only regular points. I will wait the 30 days they say it takes to show because corporate did say i got triple points, if no gift card i at least want my points for $60 in certificates.
I went to the Bestbuy near my house on Sunday after finding out that the sale price for the new MBA's were still going on (the interesting part was that I had gone to that bb on Saturday also but they had up the MSRP prices up).
I talked to a few people there and finally came to a guy that said they were sold out of all the models of the MBA. He told me he could check the stores close by to see if they still had any and I could pick one up from there.
While waiting on hold with the other stores (for more than an hour in total for only two stores) - I asked about the giftcard and was pretty much blown off saying that only the previous model of the MBA was eligible and that the system wouldn't accept the new ones. When I brought up others were able to get a gc - I was told multiple excuses such as that must have been at the managers discretion (they knew the manager) or that it was a previous sale week so the promotions were different.
After pretty much wasting my time - I decided go back home and call a couple of stores myself. After my first call and about a minute later the guy on the phone told me they did indeed have a couple left. I told him to hold one for me (he got off the phone for a minute or so to go grab one) and after a 30 minute drive I was there.
Unfortunately this BB wasn't any better than the previous one I had gone to. I mentioned the back to school promotion match again and this time they made up a few ridiculous claims. First - the promotion was only for Macbook pros, imacs, etc and the MBA was not part of the promotion. After arguing that Apple did include the MBA - he ended up calling a manager who didn't even bother coming up to the register. He said somewhere from the back that if the promotion was still up the register would automatically add the giftcard when the computer was scanned
Anyway I had enough - I was tired of BB wasting all my time and really wanted to get a MBA already. So for better or worse I ended up getting it without the giftcard.
Fast forward two days later - I had emailed Best Buy to make sure that this promotion was actually being offered by them and to have written proof in my hand. To my surprise that morning I got back a response -
So 10 minutes after reading the e-mail I was back out the door and headed to Best Buy. Went over to customer service who understood nothing and pointed me over to someone else.
I explained that I had bought a MBA from them and that both an employee and a manager had pretty much blown me off about the eligibility of the MBA with the promotion.
It didn't seem like anything was going to change from last time until I handed over the e-mail. He asked if I was a student and had an ID - which I did. Afterwards he walked me over to the customer service department again and told one of the employees about everything.
After about 40 minutes figuring out how to do an exchange for the same MBA and adding the promotion (I only had the receipt with me). I was out the door with my giftcard this time.
Hopefully this helps some people in getting their giftcards. I ended up getting a Samsung SSD and a LG display (I went to an Apple store in hopes of comparing but the 10+ computers they had were all LG displays). But I won't be bother taking it back, unless I find some issue with it.
I talked to a few people there and finally came to a guy that said they were sold out of all the models of the MBA. He told me he could check the stores close by to see if they still had any and I could pick one up from there.
While waiting on hold with the other stores (for more than an hour in total for only two stores) - I asked about the giftcard and was pretty much blown off saying that only the previous model of the MBA was eligible and that the system wouldn't accept the new ones. When I brought up others were able to get a gc - I was told multiple excuses such as that must have been at the managers discretion (they knew the manager) or that it was a previous sale week so the promotions were different.
After pretty much wasting my time - I decided go back home and call a couple of stores myself. After my first call and about a minute later the guy on the phone told me they did indeed have a couple left. I told him to hold one for me (he got off the phone for a minute or so to go grab one) and after a 30 minute drive I was there.
Unfortunately this BB wasn't any better than the previous one I had gone to. I mentioned the back to school promotion match again and this time they made up a few ridiculous claims. First - the promotion was only for Macbook pros, imacs, etc and the MBA was not part of the promotion. After arguing that Apple did include the MBA - he ended up calling a manager who didn't even bother coming up to the register. He said somewhere from the back that if the promotion was still up the register would automatically add the giftcard when the computer was scanned
Anyway I had enough - I was tired of BB wasting all my time and really wanted to get a MBA already. So for better or worse I ended up getting it without the giftcard.
Fast forward two days later - I had emailed Best Buy to make sure that this promotion was actually being offered by them and to have written proof in my hand. To my surprise that morning I got back a response -
So 10 minutes after reading the e-mail I was back out the door and headed to Best Buy. Went over to customer service who understood nothing and pointed me over to someone else.
I explained that I had bought a MBA from them and that both an employee and a manager had pretty much blown me off about the eligibility of the MBA with the promotion.
It didn't seem like anything was going to change from last time until I handed over the e-mail. He asked if I was a student and had an ID - which I did. Afterwards he walked me over to the customer service department again and told one of the employees about everything.
After about 40 minutes figuring out how to do an exchange for the same MBA and adding the promotion (I only had the receipt with me). I was out the door with my giftcard this time.
Hopefully this helps some people in getting their giftcards. I ended up getting a Samsung SSD and a LG display (I went to an Apple store in hopes of comparing but the 10+ computers they had were all LG displays). But I won't be bother taking it back, unless I find some issue with it.
I am sorry i had to ask ....
i read some post here , but couldn't figure out what the deal is ..... i am planing to go down to best buy tonight to check if they have any Airs in stock...
how are people getting $1234.99 price? for MBA 13 which is $1599 ?
when i walk in best buy what do i need to ask / look for ?
if some one can clarify this for me... sorry i never bought a apple computer at best buy before...
i read some post here , but couldn't figure out what the deal is ..... i am planing to go down to best buy tonight to check if they have any Airs in stock...
how are people getting $1234.99 price? for MBA 13 which is $1599 ?
when i walk in best buy what do i need to ask / look for ?
if some one can clarify this for me... sorry i never bought a apple computer at best buy before...
If the sale price is still good, the mba 13" i5 128gb is $1234.99
The 13" i5 256gb is $1499.99
You get a $100 gift card with each. You also should get around $25 in reward zone points, which is basically another $25 gift card. You do pay tax.
The 256 gb, if that's what you were going to buy anyway, is a better deal b/c it's $100 off list price, where as the 128gb model is "only" $65 off list. Either way, still cheaper than the Apple store, and the gift card is actually more useful from Best Buy. I reckon that the 256gb model won't be this cheap again until the next mba refresh.
thank you for quick reply .! yes i am looking at 256Gb model ... if they have in stock ... $100 gift card is student discount or every one ? i can carry my student id with me thats not a problem..
so basically if they have it in stock i am only looking for the $100 gift card ... ill need a sku number for the gift card just in case they dont know it ?
I was about to do the same thing...Is BB and Apple store both sold out?
I live in delco and I wanna hit up the springfield BB in hopes that they will throw in the 100$ card. Anyone have any luck?
But the $100 Gift card is for the "education" promotion only, correct? So not being someone who is currently (or imminently) enrolled in school, I wouldn't have been eligible...correct? I didn't ask about it when I was there since I thought it was only for students, but seems like there are a ton of people doing it.
Yes, but they often don't bother asking for an ID if you look like you are the same age as a person who might be a student. I had my ID on me and would have been happy to show it but they never asked for it.
Also just got a nice email from BB today notifying me that I did obtain the triple points on my account ($75). It feels really good getting what amounts to a $240 discount on a brand new Mac.
The deal is legit. The problem is, it seems like many Best Buys do not know about it. It's a highly your mileage may vary. They never bothered asking for a student id from me.
It may seem like you're trying to pull a fast one on the system, but you're not. You're definitely better off calling on the phone first. It will save you alot of hassles.
In my case, they could not ring up the gift card with the sale price; the gift card should have rang up as a packaged deal. So a manager or experienced employee who was focused on being pragmatic just took off $100 from the price ($1399) and then sold me a $100 gift card. I mean, that's what you need. The manager shows me, and even prints me the internal memo saying that I get a $100 gift card. Then she lets COMMON SENSE prevail and just takes off $100 and charges me a $100 for the gift card. It was shocking to see.
In some respects, you're better off finding an employee or manager who is just there to get the task at hand done. That's whether buying or returning. When I returned mine once, they just knew the policy, didn't ask questions, processed it and handed me a new mba (and it was a Samsung Samsung this time). It was efficient and no-nonsense. I appreciated that. None of this creative lying about what's the reason for the return. Or for the gift card, no creatively ignorant lying about the back to school promo, etc. I was actually told that the $100 gift card only occurs if you sign up with for broadband service. And then PCs only. And then yes macs, but only the old macbook air. And then yes, all macs, including the new macbook air, but that isn't in their system yet--though they had the new ones in stock. It's ridiculous and in all honesty, the time that you spend haggling over this will be well over 2 hours when it's all said and done. If not longer. If you can afford a macbook air, your time is worth more than the hassles. I won't be doing it again next time. There comes a day and age when the "pursuit of the deal" is just a zero-sum game. I wasted alot of time, time that was worth more than the money that I saved.