After a crazy long day, and some help along the way plus last moment research, I made a decision! It wasn't easy, but the sale price I saw online was too good to pass up. Before I say which system I bought, I want to vent a bit about how poor Beast Buy's business practices are. Right off the bat, I used Apple's new "in store pick up" service with which to compare that of Best Buy's similarly named service. This was my first mistake. I know for a fact that when Apple sets expectations for its customers, they go above and beyond to try and make good on their goals. This has never been a credo assosiated with many other, if any other big chain electronics retailer, and especially not for BB.
So the online deal was for the console, two free games and something else I won't name as that would give away what I got. Cost of the package? $200. Straight up new, no refurbs. I put my credit card info in and am told that I'll get an email confirmation when it's ready to pick up in store. 5 minutes later I get said email. Cool, so far so good. I get to bait and switch Buy, go to the in store pick up counter and confirm who I am. A few minutes later, out comes my Order, or so I thought. The guy helping me (whom was very nice) looks at the thing as he's typing and says " oh cr@ p... This isn't the holiday bundle!".
Long atory short (for now), he runs around like a chicken without a head for a while, coming back each time stating they're nowhere to be found and he's confused because the system shows 25 units in stock. Well...the reason it's showing this? Because the SKU's are supposedly the same for the bundle and for the stand alone unit. Personally speaking, that sounds fishy to me, but still possible of course. he then tries to pass me along to another BB, while saying that there's nothing guaranteeing they'll have it either. Heck, he couldn't just call another store and get someone to personally check ? I know that I'd do that.
Then he says that maybe I want to just get the console only, but it's the same price minus the extras. Um....no? What's the point then? Granted, it's still a $100 discount alone, but I want what I ordered and was told to pick up! After trying to find a supervisor for 20 minutes (seriously) and having several of his co workers just look on with contempt, as if to say "supervisor? What's that?". He comes back with an look of defeat and doesn't know what else to say or do. I'm exhausted and not thrilled now and was about to walk, when he spotted the ever elusive supervisor!
Longer story shorter, the manager authorizes giving me half off of any two games I want, so long as they're $60 each. I'm thinking not great, but better than the alternatives. I look at the games and don't see any for more than $30 because of the sale.. Picked two and went back to get rung up. Turns out one of them was actually $60 but the other was indeed $30. He gave me half of on both anyway. So $45 for two games is ok I suppose, especially considering they weren't the games which were supposed to come with the package.
And now for the answer as to which I bought: the other item included in the box is a headset, and it was also SUPPOSED TO come with a free three month Xbox Live Gold subscription.
. As for why I chose the Xxbox? That will have to wait until tomorrow. I did get the 3 month gold membership btw, but it was 7 bucks.
Thanks again to everybody who contributed in this thread, your helP really did matter. Oh...I bought Battlefield 3 and Call Of Duty. I'm considering exchanging Battlefield though...the sales guy told me that the game has lag issues non related to online play. Going to investigate before I open it.
Doug.
