Mark writes:
Saw a great deal at Circuit City in yesterday’s Sunday ad. Not crazy, but great. $5 for a Sony 1G Microvault Flash drive… The ad said, “Save $25. Reg. 29.95.”I went in today [10/08, to the store in Santa, Monica CA] and they said it was a “misprint.” It was supposed to read, “14.99″ instead of “4.99,” they said they left out a “1.”
That’s a heck of a misprint, because then not only is it missing a “1″, it’s got an extra “2.” Obviously Circuit City’s ad-making division messed up, that happens, but just give it to us straight.
RELATED: SlickDeal forum chatter about people’s varying degrees of success and failure getting this deal.
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usually you see a price correction listed in a print-out next to the item; if its after mail-in-rebate it’s posted (here in Connecticut at least). If it’s straight up $4.99 out the door (OTD) than its a good thing. If it’s $4.99 after rebates, it’s still decent. If $4.99 is completely false, You’re f*cking dead. Straight up
So the regular price is $39.99? (39.99-25=14.99)
That is a hell of a misprint, considering its still mathematically correct…..
What a crappy deal, 2 months ago I bought 4 4GB microdrives for around $30 each at staples.. I would look at that and think it sounded about right..
sorry, forgot to mention that they were the Sony Microvault, same as this one in the article, not some generic.
The site has a 4GB version for only $35 w/ free shipping. For anyone interested:
[www.circuitcity.com]
@QuantumRiff: Do you actually think the Sony uses better chips?
And Sandisk is not generic, those were the ones on sale at Staples.
Big problem right now with thumb drives is that Vista has broken (most) U3 drives.
It’s a misprint, but their explanation is idiotic. It looks like the ad department reversed to top and bottom numbers — save $4.99 on a $29.99 item and it’s price is $25.00. The numbers are right, the order is wrong, and everyone involved is a freakin’ moron.
@TKWarrior: Oh yeah! I was just thinking as I was reading this post and all these comments about Circuit City being complete idiots that I should order me some stuff from that place.
Even at $5 it’s a little pricey.
I got a 4GB Sandisk Cruzer titanium for $16 AR.
I got the really small Sony microdrive 1 gb for about $5 after a $5 rebate from staples about 6 months ago. At $15 this isn’t even a decent deal. I’ve got a small pile of 2 gb USB sticks that cost between $15-25 depending on the deal. should have just let people have them for the advertised price, with flash ram getting cheaper every day it won’t be long before they’re worthless anyway.
I know a guy who saw a really great price for a big-screen TV in a Best Buy ad in the paper. It was over $1000 off. So he takes the ad and heads in to the store.
There was a sign up at the store entrance, saying the ad was an obvious misprint, and they wouldn’t honor it.
So he did what anyone would do. He went to Circuit City and got them to price match. They didn’t call to confirm the ad, and he got the TV at the massively-discounted price.
@Pasketti: i kind of wonder if some ads aren’t purposely misprinted to have competitors lose money on price matching.
@INconsumer: If they are its completely and totally illegal.
@doctor_cos: “Big problem right now with thumb drives is that Vista has broken (most) U3 drives.”
Whaat..??
i have heard of furniture row stores selling furniture at a loss just to put their competitors out of business. of course, it was in a small town where there was only 2 other people to compete with though. however, i heard this from an ex-GM, so who knows how true it is.
If that’s the ad up there, how is that a misprint? It would have to be TWO misprints, because it give the price as $4.99 and it also says “Regular 29.99″ and “Save $25″
And as mentioned above – $14.99 for a 1GB flash drive – that sucks.
I have a bit of experience with the ad creation process. My guess is that one of the numbers was wrong, but at the proofing stage someone changed the other number (the wrong number) so the pricing would add up. They obviously changed it without checking what was correct.