BestBuy.com PS3 pre-order cancellation/no refund

[xylene]

Anyone else have anything to add?

Stop wasting your time by calling or emailing.

Write (IE on paper) a letter to Worst Buy expla. Do it more than once, as needed.

It is your only hope of getting satisfaction, but don't hold your breath.

Try shopping at circuit city or even better still a local independent retailer of electronics.

 

[Merlin2000]

Try shopping at circuit city or even better still a local independent retailer of electronics.

- I only shop at BestBuy for items that nobody else has.

What would happen if I tried to sue them in small claims for the coupons? Would they have to spend their time and show up to court?

 

[moburkes]

From their website:
Errors on Our Site
Prices and availability of products and services are subject to change without notice. Errors will be corrected where discovered, and Best Buy reserves the right to revoke any stated offer and to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions including after an order has been submitted and whether or not the order has been confirmed and your credit card charged. If your credit card has already been charged for the purchase and your order is cancelled, Best Buy will issue a credit to your credit card account in the amount of the charge. Individual bank policies will dictate when this amount is credited to your account. If you are not fully satisfied with your purchase, you may return it in accordance with Best Buy's Return Policy.

Using Digital Coupons
Digital Coupons, unlike credit or debit cards, are debited at the time an order is placed. Digital Coupons will automatically be redeemed to purchase totals, up to the total purchase amount. Digital Coupons must be used prior to their noted expiration date and within a single transaction. Coupon cannot be replaced if it is lost, stolen, deleted, or if you cancel or return your purchase. In the event of a reduction in price below the coupon value, the excess value of the coupon will not be refunded. For more information, see Digital Coupons in our Help section and review details of each respective Digital Coupon offer.

Best Buy Bucks™ are valid for one-time use only and must be used only during normal hours of operation in Best Buy™ stores located in the U.S. between 10/3/06 and 12/2/06 OR at BestBuy.com® between 12:00:01 a.m. (CT) 10/3/06 and 11:59:59 p.m. (CT) 12/2/06. Best Buy Bucks™ may be combined and the cumulative total will be subtracted from total purchase amount of merchandise before the calculation of sales and similar taxes. To complete the transaction, you will be responsible for paying any amount owed after the redemption of Best Buy Bucks™. If the transaction is cancelled or merchandise is returned for any reason, all Best Buy Bucks™ redeemed during such transaction will be forfeited and deducted from the total purchase amount of the merchandise, and you will receive refund or credit for the balance only, if any (subject to Best Buy's standard return policy). If merchandise is returned for exchange, all Best Buy Bucks™ redeemed during such transaction will be applied to the exchange transaction (subject to Best Buy's standard return policy). Value of Best Buy Bucks™ may be enhanced for the purchase of select products or services featured in special Best Buy promotions (subject to these Terms & Conditions).
**************Sure, sue them*****************

 

[averad]

I want to mention that the link for pre-orders was not openly posted on the bestbuy.com site.

 

[Merlin2000]

Using Digital Coupons
Digital Coupons, unlike credit or debit cards, are debited at the time an order is placed. Digital Coupons will automatically be redeemed to purchase totals, up to the total purchase amount. Digital Coupons must be used prior to their noted expiration date and within a single transaction. Coupon cannot be replaced if it is lost, stolen, deleted, or if you cancel or return your purchase. In the event of a reduction in price below the coupon value, the excess value of the coupon will not be refunded. For more information, see Digital Coupons in our Help section and review details of each respective Digital Coupon offer.

- I never cancelled the order.

In order to enter the coupon, I clicked the "promotional codes" link, which is also referred to as "digital coupons". I looked at the terms that are listed on that page, it states:

To apply money-saving offers such as Digital Coupons to your order, enter promotional codes below. A valid credit card is required. Each promotional code can be used one time only, with a limit of 40 codes per order. Learn more.

Which means nothing to me, so I clicked the "Learn more" link and hoped for more information relating to a cancelled order and the digital coupons.

This page states:

Using Digital Coupons for your online purchases is easy. Enter up to 40 promotional codes per order during the checkout process.

A BestBuy.com account is not required to redeem Digital Coupons. However, you must use a valid credit card, which will be charged only if the total amount of your purchase exceeds the total value of your Digital Coupons.

Digital Coupons are good for one-time use only; any remaining balance will not be saved for future use. For more information, please see our Conditions of Use under Policies in our Help section.

- Also appears to be meaningless to my issue.

So I go to "Conditions of Use under Policies in our Help section" which shows:

Digital Coupons, unlike credit or debit cards, are debited at the time an order is placed. Digital Coupons will automatically be redeemed to purchase totals, up to the total purchase amount. Digital Coupons must be used prior to their noted expiration date and within a single transaction. Coupon cannot be replaced if it is lost, stolen, deleted, or if you cancel or return your purchase. In the event of a reduction in price below the coupon value, the excess value of the coupon will not be refunded. For more information, see Digital Coupons in our Help section and review details of each respective Digital Coupon offer.

- Which also is meaningless to my issue. So I continue on and go to the "Digital Coupons in our Help section and review details of each respective Digital Coupon offer"


Then it takes me back to this page, which just continues to loop:

Digital Coupons

Digital Coupons are one of many great money-saving offers available on BestBuy.com. Periodically, we provide Digital Coupons as special promotions or as a bonus for purchasing select items. These promotional offers are for one-time use only, and can only be used toward online purchases.

To redeem a Digital Coupon promotional code, simply enter it when prompted during checkout.

Using Digital Coupons
A BestBuy.com account is not required to redeem Digital Coupons. However, you must use a valid credit card, which will be charged only if the total amount of your purchase exceeds the total value of your Digital Coupons.

You can enter up to 40 promotional codes per order during the checkout process. Digital Coupons are debited at the time your order is placed, and will be divided proportionally among items in the order.

Digital Coupons are good for one-time use only; any remaining balance will not be saved for future use. For more information, please see our Conditions of Use.

Return Policy
You may return items for which you used Digital Coupons, in accordance with our standard Return Policy. The coupon amount applied to the returned item will be subtracted from the purchase price, and you will be refunded the difference. See the Return Policy for more information.

Price Reductions
In the event of a price reduction, the value of the promotional offer (such as a Digital Coupon) will be reduced accordingly. Tax is recalculated on the lower amount, and credits will be adjusted accordingly. See our Conditions of Use to learn more.

So, on the BestBuy website, during the order process, NONE of the links state that the coupon is invalid when BestBuy cancels the order. The coupon does say additional rules apply, I would assume these rules would be visible during the order process. In the palce that allowed me to enter a coupon, the rules clearly do not state that BB can void your coupon if they cancel the order. It does say that if I cancel the order, the coupon is no longer valid.

If I knew that the coupons would be void if the order was cancelled, then I would not have used them for a pre-order, which I suspected would have a few cancellations. If BB had made this information available during the order process, I wouldn't have used the coupons.

 

[moburkes]

Were your coupon codes Best Buy Bucks?

 

[Merlin2000]

Were your coupon codes Best Buy Bucks?

- Yes. And they do state additional rules apply. On BB's website, the additional rules that are next to the place where you enter the BB buck coupon, never mention anything about BB cancelling the order and having the coupons entered set to void.

The BB bucks are also called promotion codes, and digital coupons (according to the termonology used on their website).

 

[moburkes]

I will quote myself again:
Best Buy Bucks™ are valid for one-time use only and must be used only during normal hours of operation in Best Buy™ stores located in the U.S. between 10/3/06 and 12/2/06 OR at BestBuy.com® between 12:00:01 a.m. (CT) 10/3/06 and 11:59:59 p.m. (CT) 12/2/06. Best Buy Bucks™ may be combined and the cumulative total will be subtracted from total purchase amount of merchandise before the calculation of sales and similar taxes. To complete the transaction, you will be responsible for paying any amount owed after the redemption of Best Buy Bucks™. If the transaction is cancelled or merchandise is returned for any reason, all Best Buy Bucks™ redeemed during such transaction will be forfeited and deducted from the total purchase amount of the merchandise, and you will receive refund or credit for the balance only, if any (subject to Best Buy's standard return policy). If merchandise is returned for exchange, all Best Buy Bucks™ redeemed during such transaction will be applied to the exchange transaction (subject to Best Buy's standard return policy). Value of Best Buy Bucks™ may be enhanced for the purchase of select products or services featured in special Best Buy promotions (subject to these Terms & Conditions).

 

[moburkes]

Why don't you try compromising on an exchange?

 

[Merlin2000]

I will quote myself again:

- That information still doesn't appear during the order process. The terms that I apparently "accept" when I click submit order, do not contain that information. This assume that by clicking submit order, that I am supposed to agree to their terms, despite the fact that the message that says you agree to the terms, are BELOW the submit order button, and in small text.

There is a large button that says Submit Order and then below it in much smaller text, it says you agree to the terms by clicking submit order. If you only scrolled down on the page just enough to see the submit order button, then the phrase that says "u must agree to ...." would never be visible.

Why don't you try compromising on an exchange?

- Unless I get back the full value of the coupons (in the form of another coupon, gift card, money order, check, cash, whatever..), then it isn't fair/right.

 

[moburkes]

Not fair/not right does NOT mean NOT legal.

If you only scrolled down on the page just enough to see the submit order button, then the phrase that says "u must agree to ...." would never be visible.

Buy a larger monitor.

 

[Merlin2000]

I'll leave the discussion about the submition of the order and stuff in the other thread I made.

Let's just assume that I did see the terms and I agreed with them.

Where in the order process does BB state the additional information that you replied with earlier? Arent they required to put them information inside their terms page or somewhere during the order process, or on the page where you enter the coupons, or on the page that describes the terms directly relating to the page where you enter the coupons?

 

[moburkes]

Keep all of your posts in one thread. Its easier.

They are required to put that information on their website, which they did, in their terms and conditions. I easily found it, and I didn't make a purchase. When you saw that additional requirements apply (or, whatever it was that you saw) YOU were responsible for finding out what those terms were.

 

[Merlin2000]

Keep all of your posts in one thread. Its easier.

- The other thread's question is unreleated to this thread because I said "Let's just assume that I did see the terms and I agreed with them." I didn't want to clutter this thread with a discussion on the position of the terms in relation to the order button.

They are required to put that information on their website, which they did, in their terms and conditions. I easily found it, and I didn't make a purchase. When you saw that additional requirements apply (or, whatever it was that you saw) YOU were responsible for finding out what those terms were

- I quoted the terms directly from their website, as you can see, the terms do NOT say what you said.

 

[moburkes]

What you quoted was the digital coupon policy. When I looked futher

www.bestbuy.com scroll to the bottom
click conditions of use
then I clicked on the "most relevant" topic which was "digital coupons" which stated

Coupon cannot be replaced if it is lost, stolen, deleted, or if you cancel or return your purchase.

then I clicked on the link called "digital coupons" to clarify exactly what that is. It read:

Digital Coupons are good for one-time use only; any remaining balance will not be saved for future use. For more information, please see our Conditions of Use.

. Hmm. That's not really what I'm looking for. So, I used the help screen, typed "coupon", looked at the 2nd page, and found best buy bucks. I quoted already what I found.

However, at that time, I didn't know that you used BBB. However, all YOU needed to do was START with the help screen. It takes you DIRECTLY to the section that I quoted.

As soon as YOU saw on your BBB coupon that additional restrictions apply, you should have looked them up.

Be an informed consumer.

What do you think I did? "Manufacture" those rules that I quoted? Do you think that I WORK for BB?