So I got a $50 gift card from Best Buy in the mail because I spent like $5,000 (or something like that) this year at their store. I figured, “hey, fifty bucks oughta about cover a new video game for my Nintendo Wii,” and rightly so, because most Wii games are $49.99. I also thought I’d pick up Dane Cook’s DVD, but they happened to be out of them, and all the Best Buy CSRs were unhelpful in locating any copies that their computers claimed were in the store. So I picked out a game and decided to go pay for it.
Yes, going to Best Buy the day after Christmas and waiting in line is my fault. I knew the line would be 20 minutes long. But I was not prepared for the cashier scanning my game and then scanning the gift card, and the computer saying “insufficient funds” or something like that. You see, it is because the gift cards they send out with your reward zone membership for spending a billion dollars at Best Buy over the year are not actually gift cards, but rather coupons or something. and my $50 coupon doesn’t cover $49.99 of pre-taxed merchandise. Ignoring the fact that post tax, its well over $50, and also ignoring the fact that they could have just mailed me ten $5 coupons or five $10 coupons or any other denomination, I now have to go back and make enough purchases at one time at Best Buy to total over $50 before the coupon expires in order to not lose it!
Thanks Best Buy. I was feeling good about the free game I was about to buy. Instead, I paid full price for it and didn’t even get the DVD I wanted (which ironically, would have put me over the $50 pre-tax requisite…)