You don’t become the number one retailer of electronics to American consumers without getting a few things right awesome, as Daniel shows us in this letter of compliment he sent The Conglomerist about a recent experience at Best Buy:
I stopped in the other night because my old HD DVD player died so I went in hoping to get a deal. On the shelf I found 2 open box Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD players. Looking around I found the department head Derrik and we went back over to the DVD player aisle.He tells me that since they’re open box he’ll sell one for $99 which, IMO, isn’t bad it was $30 off their normal price and $20 off Amazon’s price…
So I bit. He headed off to find the remote and power cable, but he came back empty empty handed and expected me not to be interested. I told him I’d still buy one if he could go any lower since I had plenty of power cables and I’ve had a Logitech Harmony remote. So he took it down to $50.
Still missing an HDMI cable he was quick to recommend me one, but I told him no thanks and I’d just grab one off monoprice.com, which he said he was well aware of since he read about them on Consumerist.
I know Best Buy gets a pretty bad rap around here, but I’ve always had good experiences with my local store. So I just wanted to pass this along.
Thanks!
Daniel
That’s great to hear, Daniel! I hope you also bought the extended warranty to show your appreciation to the Derrik. The one part where you fall down is the HDMI cable. I’m going to go out on a limb and figure that Derrik probably recommended you buy a Monster Cable. Shame on you for buying one of those cheap knockoff cables on Monoprice.com. There’s two reasons why Monster Cables are awesome for your home theater system:
1) The ends are covered in gold. Gold makes everything better. You should see what it does for bricks.
2) The price. The higher an item’s price, the higher its quality.
Irregardless of your blunder, congrats on your successful purchase and the excellent customer service provided by the Best Buy associate who, by giving you the discount, might just as well have cut out his heart and given it to you on a golden platter. Don’t be alarmed by the macabre imagery, BBY employees undergo special training that allows them to regrow their hearts overnight. That’s how they’re able to care so much.
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April Fools, right?
This was a better April Fool’s joke than the Conglomerist.
Whatever, Consumerist is useless today. I’m out.
Nice photo.
HD-DVD? They on the back shelf with the laserdisc and betamax machines? I’ll have to ask the Derrik about that.
“Irregardless”
Daniel was too willing to give in to obsolete technology. Now he just needs to run out to Wal-Mart and pick up some half price HD DVD’s.
BTW, I have a BetaMax that I am willing to part with.
I think the OP sounds genuine, but I would imagine the comment by Conglomerist isn’t.
On a side note
“Irregardless? That’s not even a real word. You’re affixing the negative prefix ‘ir-’ to ‘regardless’, but, as ‘regardless’ is already negative, it’s a logical absurdity!” – Steve
@Chris Vee: Irregardless is my second favorite non-word, the first (of course) is “alot.”
The horse has been beaten, liquified, and the container that it was stored in has been recycled. Give it a rest already.
@missdona: It is one of my favorite non-words/phrases as well…I love to say it to people and see how they react…
The girl in that picture is getting very up close and personal with the boy on the left.
Come on guys, if you hate it that much then check back tomorrow. Let the guys have their fun, and I thought this one personally was the best yet.
On a side note, isnt that the guy from high school musical?
As an aside, I received my message a few days ago from Best Buy about the $50 gift card for buying the Xbox HD DVD drive.
@HannerHearse: Someone is a grumpy gus. Jesus christ, man.
@EmperorOfCanada: Are these joke posts being deleted tomorrow? Seems like clutter to me. Though Kotaku has been the worst by far. I checked once today an the entire first page was littered with cake stories. It might be fun for the bloggers but the novelty wears quickly.
lol there are some really boring people who read this blog.
@EmperorOfCanada: It’s actually Walter Emanuel Jones, Black Ranger of Power Rangers fame.
I guess.
ï¼ everyone
Irregardless actually is a word. It is a synonym for regardless and is considered non-standard but acceptable.
@mgy: Haha. Petsmart for the win!
@Chris Vee: irregardless is a perfectly cromulent word.
Stop thumbing my genitalia lady…
What has two thumbs and likes to rock out at Best Buy?
i really, really, REALLY hate reading articles that use the word ‘irregardless’
@HannerHearse:
I’m with you on that one.
I love Best Buy, they always say Hello when you walk in!
BS
What a cheap customer. I’m really outraged by his choice to not buy those monster cables. Another reason, Monster cables cause your equipment to either grow to monstrous size or turn into were-cars.
Under what circumstances was that photo taken? Those multicultural people love Best Buy! They’re even trying to dance.
@Chris Vee: OK I’ve been trying to figure this out on my own since I started coming to this blog, but I admit defeat…
What in thee hell does OP stand for?
Anyone?
OP = original poster
@ManPurse: Original Poster.
@HannerHearse: Wow, lighten up already. It’s been going on all day, and yet you keep commenting on the fact. Three different articles in fact. If you won’t want to read all of the April’s fools articles today, then don’t read the site today, as it’s pretty obvious it’s going to continue.
And @ Cris Vee. OP stands for Original Poster, so the person in this case would be the one who sent in the Best Buy article. Although, since this is a fake article, it’s probably not really true.
This post raises an interesting question. Lets say you do buy a hd-dvd player and get the service plan and your player breaks. Best Buy is suppose to replace the player but what happens when in 4 months they have none?
Will they replace it with a blu-ray player or just refund your money? How do they handle dead tech? Will they even sell a plan on the item?
@friendlynerd: the thumb pointing means… “Yeah, I did ‘em”
@parad0x360: They would credit the price of the HD-DVD player you bought towards the purchase of a blu ray player. If you chose not to buy a blu ray, you could probably get a gift card for the purchase price.
Meh. Should have called off the gags at 10am like Kotaku did.
@alphafemale:
Or maybe it’s some kind of Lynndie England-style mocking of that boy’s genitals.
@gskelding: I’ve seen it in every post today…. thinkin’ maybe it’s part of the jokiness.
My favorite nonwords are
‘supposively or supposably’ instead of supposedly
@alphafemale: @ChadSteelgate: Thank you! All I could come up with was Opressive Person a la Tom Cruise and Scientology…
Irregardless is like “flammable” and “inflammable” — they mean the same thing. Like Dr Nick says, “What a country!”
ILU Chad Steelgate … with a name like that I bet you get all the conglomeration loving chicks
@parad0x360: Same thoughts have crossed my mind. I assume they probably give you credit up to the amount of the purchase, which may or may not be a good thing depending on the price of the product.
CC has a no lemon policy and I used that thing to death. It was basically like pre-purchasing the ability to upgrade yearly.
If you can’t stand the April Fools jokes, go into a 24 hour coma?
Due to the positivist nature of defining the right and wrongs of language, if people keep using “irregardless,” it’ll actually become a word in a couple of generations. Sort of like “Octopi.” Drives me crazy, but what can ya do?
This must be an april fools joke, a GOOD customer service story, with the words Best Buy in it? Has hell frozen over?
@B: This post should embiggen the smallest man.
@B: Hearing you say that embiggens my soul.
@spinachdip: Darn you and your being half a second faster!
I agree, either a april fools joke or hell HAS frozen over.