Saturday, March 12, 2011

Misadventures in Bargain-Shopping: Dragon Age: Origins: Ultimate Edition: Colons


So, as some of you might know, down here in the States, Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition on Consoles was 50% off.  Which is a pretty sweet deal and all.  The only thing that's a shame is that the K-mart in my area is...well, first off, it's not -in- my area, it's a 40-minute drive away.  It is also in a less-than-safe location, and the store is in fairly massive disrepair and unmaintained.  It is, for all intents and purposes, a Shithole.

But I loves me some deals, so I was thinking "If only there were another store that I could buy the game for that price in."  And then I thought, "Hrm, who does Price-Matching?  Oh!  Best Buy does price-matching!  And I just happen to have Best Buy funbux right here!"  So, that was it, then.  Best Buy is only slightly less of a terrible drive than K-Mart, and as I said, I had currency that needed to go there.  I called ahead and asked about their Price-Matching, and he said as long as it was a local competitor's ad, it would be gravy.  This is a key fact.

So.  I went there, grabbed DA:O:UE:C and a shiny, shiny new Dualshock 3 controller (Red~), went to the customer service desk and presented the ad.  And....suddenly the guy picks up the phone and calls K-Mart to inquire whether K-Mart had it in stock.  Was.....he going to tell me to go there if I wanted that price?  What, what the hell was this.  After finding out that they apparently did not have it in stock (Mind you, this is today.  I saw 3 copies of the game in K-Mart's shelves -yesterday-.), he went on to explain to me that if the competitor doesn't have the item in stock, then Best Buy won't honor the price.


I was dumb-founded.  "But I was just there.", I explained.  "They had it!"  "Well, the person I talked to said they don't, so there's nothing I can do."  After telling me this, he went, "Do, uh....you want me to keep this, then?"  And I assured him with a notable amount of snark that I was not going to buy it, so that would be the wisest course, yes.  Burned and seething, I took solace in the fact that with just the controller, since my gift cards would cover that and then some, they would not actually be getting any of my money.  Actually, at first, I almost refused to go through with my purchase of the controller on principle, but realized there wasn't much of a moral victory in refusing to use store credit.

Something really bothered me about what he said, though, and it didn't really click until I was almost home.  "She said they only had the regular version.", he said.  "Wait a minute.  The Regular Version?  Of what?  There's no other Origins/Awakening pack-i-Oh balls.  Dragon Age 2."

Shitshitshitshitshit.

So when I got home, I called K-Mart and spoke with the lovely-sounding Erin after about, uh, 20 minutes of being on hold, and after convincing her that she was looking for the wrong game, she looked where I instructed her and said, "Oh, no you're right, I've got a copy right here."  Damnit!  She had mentioned that someone else had called about it earlier and this was the point where I explained the circumstances, which, I must say, did nothing short of mortify her.  I could tell that she felt really, genuinely bad about being an unwitting cog in the machine of Stupid that kept me from getting my Dragon-Slaying simulator.

And with another call to Best Buy, they informed me that, since I had been right three hours prior, I was definitely deserving of the game....provided I went all the way back there right that minute and bought it.  "I...really can't get out again today," I explained.  "Best Buy is a terrible drive from here and, in all honesty, it was your screw-up."  Of course, I was speaking to the same Customer Service rep that I had spoken to on the phone the first time and in the store.  Of course I was.  "Well....let me talk to my manager and see if the deal could be extended."  After a few more minutes of holding, he informed me that, nope, that was the deal.  I waste gas that apparently becomes more precious by the second, time, and patience that I simply don't have, to pick up a game I could have had three hours prior because Timmy McFucknugget couldn't be assed to get an assurance on the status of K-Mart's stock.

"Well, I might be in, but if not, then the lost sale is kind of your fault, y'know."  "Have a nice day Sir."

And that is the story of how I almost got Dragon Age:  Origins:  Ultimate Edition.

Almost.

...

Goddamnit.

5 comments:

  1. Should I counter this with my -awesome- tale of finding Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army, Mogs?

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  2. Sure! Having a misadventure and a real adventure would make a nice contrast~

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  3. Okay, so. This tale begins in January, 2008. Wandering around the local EB Games, I see a game on the shelf:
    "SMT: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army".
    At this point I'd played through Persona 3 and was pretty much into SMT, but eeeh, I'd save my money.

    So one day in March, I start reading an LP on said game. About 10 updates into the LP I realise I -want this game so bad-. So I go to EB Games. It's not there.

    I decide that that just doesn't do. So I hit up every other EB Games I can think of (about 6 other stores), over the course of a week. No dice.

    Finally, I pay a bunch of money to an online retailer. Only to find that they were advertising it, despite the fact that they'd just gotten their last shipment- and I had somehow managed to purchase a copy in between 'still advertising' and 'all gone'. Dejection. So I kill my desire for the game and time passes.

    It's now August 2008. I'm idly cruising EB Games's preordered section. ... THEY HAVE A COPY YESSSS

    It's three hours out by train and bus NOOOOOO

    I have the time and money YESSSS

    So I go. It's a -long- journey. I spend most of it asleep, or in a fugue state.

    I get there. It's a pretty quiet shopping centre, and I find my way to this EB Games. Now. You know how some game stores have stacks of preowned games, piled up on the front? Well this one had them stacked vertically, so you could only see the top one. And each stack was 10-20 games high. There were about 20 stacks.

    HAPLO IS NEVER DETERRED. I start demolishing the stacks methodically, one at a time. I'm about 100 games in when the plucky store clerk comes over.

    "You looking for something, mate?" He asks in a friendly manner.

    "Yeah. Do you have Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army?"

    "Shin what now?"

    Okay. That really was to be expected. The name is like, massive, and it's half Japanese. I -could- repeat it, but I'm feeling uncharacteristically plucky today.

    "Do you want me to type it into your computer?" I ask.

    "That'd be a big help." He says.

    So at this point I, a customer, have commandeered the store's computer. I search for it.

    "It doesn't look like we have it in stock." He says, pointing at one of the results.

    "Oh no, wait, you guys do." I point at one of the other results. "Preowned, in that stack over there?" "Yeah."

    So we both get to that stack and we SEARCH. We search our goddamn hearts out and we find it.

    SWEET SWEET VICTORY.

    He grins at me, we share a manly hug and kiss (or not) and he gives me the disc. I give him his money, and we go our own separate ways. I am -victorious-.

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  4. Pretty buried. I think we had to shift about 150 games.

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