Consumerist reader Jon saw that Best Buy was offering what appeared to be a pretty decent deal: Bring in any old printer for recycling and get a coupon for $50 off a Kodak ESP printer. And when he got to the store and saw the printer price had been dropped from $99 to $49, he thought he’d truly won a small victory. And then he got to the checkout line…

Writes Jon:

When we got to the customer service counter to redeem this deal, they rang up the printer up as $99.99. I immediately brought over the price tag from the display [see photo above] and showed it to the manager.

She said she would honor the price of $49.99, but not the coupon. I asked why not, she stated that the coupon is only good for printers $50 and up. Nowhere on the fine print did it state a minimum value must be purchased [see full coupon below].

I brought to her attention that the coupon’s fine print specifically stated, “This offer MAY be used in conjunction with other stand-alone savings.” (I didn’t bold the ‘may,’ it was written on the coupon that way.) So the manager was basically refusing to honor a deal that clearly stated in the fine print of the coupon that it should be redeemable with any other offers.

I contacted Best Buy customer service over the phone and spoke with a CSR who was also unable to help. She tried contacting the store manager and they both decided not to honor the deal.

Meanwhile, Jon showed us a receipt from another Best Buy customer who was able to redeem the coupon at a different Best Buy — for the same $49.99 retail price — later that day. This would imply that one of these stores is mistaken. Given the fact that the coupon explicitly states that the discount MAY be combined with other offers, we’re thinking that the first Best Buy manager — and the CSR with whom Jon spoke on the phone — is the one who goofed.

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