jtolli

I went in this morning and bought the Panasonic 56" LIFI TV. I notice they had signs everywhere advertising their 60 day price protection policy, so before I bought it I asked the salesman if the 60 day policy applied to their sale prices for BF, he said what 60 day policy, it's only 30 days. I told him their were signs everywhere saying it was 60 days, he said he would have to take those down, because it has never been 60 days for electronics. I said, well anyways I don't care if it's 30 or 60, does it apply to BF? He said they would do a price adjutment on BF, his boss was there standing by him and didn't dispute what he said. So I told him I would take it. He rung me up, and said I could pick up the TV on Monday. I again asked him if he was sure that I could do the price adjustment, and again he said I could as long as I show up on Friday during the sale hours. I got his name, so we will see what happens on Friday. If for some reason they refuse to do it, I will just take the TV back for a refund. Hopefully they don't have a re-stocking fee.

Well, I think a point has been proven, that being that they either don't have a standard policy, or if they do it is porrly communicated. I can see "ask your local store" being an accurate answer in that case. I just hope you get the name of the person, hopefully a manager, who gives you the answer. I also hope that person remembers on BF in case someone else says they won't offer price protection when you actually go in on that day. I think I am going to go to my local Sears this weekend and ask the question also. If I get a positive answer, then I will be picking up my HD TV this weekend; one less item to worry about on BF.

That's the whole purpose of the door busters. Have you ever heard of "loss leaders"? That's when you sell some items so cheap it causes you to lose money on them, but you use them as a lure to get people into the store to sell other things that you make a profit on. That's not "bait and switch". Bait and switch is when you advertise one thing, then when people get there you say you don't have that, but have something similar but more expensive. If they came out at midnight and said, "we only have 3 of these", then most people would leave, and they would never get them into the door. That wouldn't be smart business, and whether you like it or not captialism is about making money. To make money you have to be smart. As for the person who said most people leave when they find out the items they came for are gone, I would venture to say statistics would show otherwise. If not then stores would not employ these loss leader sales. I do agree if people find out early that the items they want won't be there, then they will leave. That only makes sense, if you find out at midnight that you can't get the item you want, of course you're not going to stand there for 5 more hours. But if you find out at 4 AM that you're not going to get the item you want, then most people will stay to go into the store because they have already invested several hours (all night?) in line, so they would feel like they just wasted a night if they don't at least go inside the store. Once inside many will feel the need to buy something just because they invested all that time in line. Why spend several hours in line, go into the store, and walk away with nothing? See how it works? And yes, it does work.

I think it depends on the deals they have from year-to-year, so I don't know if you can really compare the lines from previous years. Last year we were in line at BB, and CC is in the same shopping area a few stores down. The BB line was over 100 people by 9 or 10 PM, and the CC line was probably just starting at that time. In my opinion CC has better deals this year, so I would expect the CC line to start earlier this year. Our plan is to do both stores this year, so we will get there by late afternoon on Thursday.

That's the same contact I used, but my answer didn't come back from Sears Holding Company. It would seem that there is no central location for where the e-mails are routed to. Maybe we can get their response, if positive, scaned and posted on the internet somewhere? Like someone else said, you may get a manager who sees things differently, but if you can provide something in writing from the corporate office, it will be kind of hard for them to dispute it. We can already see that the corporate office isn't even clear on what their policy is.

Kind of figures they are disorganized. What e-mail address did you use to mail the question to? Was it on the main Sears web page? Seems strange it says Sears Holding Corporation. I would love to send an e-mail to that same address, and get the same answer so I can go pick up my TV this weekend. I would just like to have this in writing before I take the chance.

It's certainly not a sure thing. I e-mailed them with this question, and their response is below. You might get lucky and the local store may not be aware of the local policy. As for me, it's unfortunate for them that they won't price adjust because there are several things in their store on BF that I want. But since I can't get the TV I want before hand, and have them adjust the price on BF, then I won't be going to Sears on BF. That's not out of anger, just a fact that I can get more big ticket items I want at Circuit City, even though Sears has the TV I really want. Here's their response: "We appreciate your interest in products from Sears. Sears does offer a thirty day price guarantee on purchases. If an item that you purchase goes on sale for a lower price within thirty days after the purchase date, you may contact us to request an adjustment to your account for the purchase. Unfortunately, Black Friday is considered a promotion. Promotions are not available for sales adjustments under the price protection offer. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Actually three types. The third one is the ones who has a family member or friends, perhaps just someone they paid, to save them a place in line. It would be somewhat tolerable if they replaced the person who was holding the spot, but instead they get in line with the person holding the spot. Sometimes it could be 2 or 3 people who show up and get in line because someone will let them.\ As far as what you can do? Nothing really, other than yell at them and call them names. If you want to get physical with them you can start a fight, but not many people really want to do that, despite what some would say. Besides, you start a fight and you could go to jail, or the person can sue you for hurting them. The best part is some stores will call out the police before hand in anticipation of these types of problems. Last year at our Best Buy they had 3 or 4 cop cars cruising up and down the line looking for problems. While they were doing this they were announcing over their PA system that everyone needs to remain civil, and they would arrest anyone causing problems.

Well, you can't really say you are lucky until Black Friday when you actually get the difference refunded. You could go in on BF and have them tell you they recevied guidance from the corporate office not to offer price protection at the BF sale prices. What you could do at that point is just return the merchandise and get your money back. I would really like to pick up one of the TV's that Sears has on sale for BF. It would be nice if I could just go buy it now, and go in on BF and get the difference refunded. But unless I have something in writing from someone at Sears saying they will do that, then I don't want to take a chance. I'll probably just go to Circuit City and get one of their TVs on BF. By the way, I e-mailed Circuit City the same question as I asked Sears, I'm still waiting for the reply from Circuit City however.

Agree with jaymacfla, 12 AM probably won't gain you anything. As far as being "allowed" to leave the line, it sounds like you are asking as if there are rules, or as if someone monitors the line. No one from Best Buy is in charge of, or monitors, the line. What will happen when it gets close to time for them to hand out tickets for the merchandise is they may take actions to try to prevent a riot, for example they may call the police to have them there as a "show of force". The only people who can say whether you are "allowed" to leave the line will be those standing in line with you. Most people are nice, they are going through the same experience as you are. They will also have a need to leave the line from time to time. As long as you hold their spot for them at those times, they will hold yours when you need it. But don't abuse this. If you are planning on going home for 3 or 4 hours and taking a nap, then expect there will be someone behind you in line who will complain.

If your Sears store is saying they will credit the difference between what you pay now and what they sell something for on Black Friday, then feel fortunate. Better yet, ask them to tell you that in writing. I -e-mailed them with that question, and here is the corporate policy. "We appreciate your interest in products from Sears. Sears does offer a thirty day price guarantee on purchases. If an item that you purchase goes on sale for a lower price within thirty days after the purchase date, you may contact us to request an adjustment to your account for the purchase. Unfortunately, Black Friday is considered a promotion. Promotions are not available for sales adjustments under the price protection offer. We apologize for the inconvenience."

It would make sense to have a $100 deal if you wanted to draw the people to your store. It would be hard for any other store to beat a deal like this. Isn't that the name of the game, have the best deal? If it's true, we'll be in line this weekend!