Elphaba

I never knew what this thread was about until now... Saw the application for the Shutterfly HouseParty SOMEWHERE - not here, though - applied, got selected, had the party (and a great time), just completed the follow-up survey, and finally put it together that House Party does other parties as well. (OK, so I'm slow... )

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I'm glad you got *something* extra for that amount!

Yikes! Don't most banks have a limit of how many times they'll allow a bounce? I'm pretty sure my bank's bounce charge is in the $20 range, too... I'd seriously consider switching banks! At the VERY least, call your bank and see if they can credit at least a few of those charges - $350 is a ridiculous charge!

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Excellent! Thanks!

Excellent post, JohnnyLaRue. What, exactly, is "third party security"? Is that the guy in the hat that walks the mall? Come on. When there's a couple thousand people standing outside the doors, you need REAL security. You'd have cops around for any other gathering of that size. But go ahead, blame Walmart . Next year they will have less deals because they feel the need to have more and more security and less and less deals. That's all totally fine with me if it means one less needless death is prevented. And yes, I totally admit to being a Walmart hater. If they disappeared from earth forever, I would celebrate. Other, more community-conscious stores would open in their place. How awesome THAT would be!

Walmart is responsible for what happens within their doors. When they see a huge crowd of people standing outside those doors, it's a pretty easy guess that as soon as those doors open, there's going to be a lot of pushing and shoving to get in. Past experience alone should have taught them that. I am by no means absolving the people who blindly stepped over or around the fallen man, but when you're in the middle of a pushing and shoving crowd, there's not a whole lot one person can do to get out of the way. Stopping means injury. Walmart is responsible for the safety of their employees and customers. Period.

Walmart is a bigger store than most, and draws a bigger crowd than most. They KNOW there will be hundreds upon hundreds of people standing outside their doors on Black Friday. To not have developed a method of controlling that crowd by now is not just stupid, it's criminal. All it takes is a couple of people to start pushing from the back, then those getting pushed forward push those in front of them, and those people push those in front of them, until people can't NOT push, because they are being crushed themselves. The people who started it are just plain rude, but I still blame Walmart for not having adequate crowd control. I hope the family of the man who died presses charges, and I hope Walmart loses.

Here's another link to a story about this. They don't mention a miscarriage (the NY Daily News is a rag, but most of the story is true). http://blogs.wsj.com/holidaysales/2008/11/28/man-killed-in-wal-mart-stampede/ Walmart is responsible for making sure their stores are safe. When the crowd got bigger than they could handle with their own staff, they should have called in the police immediately - BEFORE someone got killed.

tinkit - I have 5 day passes, and just sent you one.

Kohl's was my 3rd stop this morning, and I got pretty much everything I was looking for, plus a million other things. At my first pass by the registers, there were long lines. By the time I was really ready to check out, there was literally no one in line ahead of me - that was maybe 8:00 AM.

Me, too. I didn't even attempt CC this year, even though I did other shopping in that plaza - 2 minute walking distance from CC. Just not worth it. I was in and out of Staples in 10 minutes (my first stop - I got there just before the 6 AM opening), at CompUSA 4 hours after it opened (and STILL got everything I wanted), and made stops at 4 other stores (including Kohl's), and was still home by 10 AM. Had CC been on that agenda, I'd never had gotten anything else done.

I am so totally fed up with Circuit City. Did Black Friday shopping online with Circuit City, everything had MIRs. I sent in the rebates the following Monday. Yesterday (January 12), I get 4 letters in the mail from Circuit City Rebates, telling me that my rebates were missing various information (3 said I was missing the purchase date and/or price, 1 said it was an ineligible product). I keep all paperwork, and had sent in every bit of information they needed. There's a phone number at the bottom of the letters, so I called today (after some deep breathing). Thankfully got a very nice customer service rep, and in less than 10 minutes, he'd "fixed" whatever the problems were. All he did was pull up the record, make a click or two, and told me it was fixed. Rebates should be mailed in 7-10 days. Now, why couldn't they have been processed correctly the first time? I included the rebate form, completely filled out, the UPC codes, and the receipts, with purchase price circled. What more do they need?? I'm guessing they hope that people are either too disorganized, or too tired to care, and just let the rebate go. That's disgusting.

I guess I don't see it as inconsiderate when someone who waited in line overnight takes tickets they're entitled to, and chooses to give them to someone else. They didn't cut in line, they didn't hold a space. They didn't sell the tickets to the highest bidder. They simply chose to give their ticket away. Not everyone has the ability to camp out overnight in front of a store in order to buy an item. I just saw someone on another thread post that they had their 11-month-old baby with them in line all night. I sure as heck wouldn't have wanted to be the people in line next to a crying baby for over 12 hours. And I know of people who let their children skip school to wait in line for 2 days to buy the latest Playstation (or whatever it was that went on sale last week). Someone else posted on another thread (or this one, I don't remember) they they PAID for a ticket for a laptop - an no one here said a word about the person who sold it. BF is fun for me, too, but I can't camp out overnight. By the time I got to Circuit City, the line was so long I knew there was no point. I would sure as heck have been grateful for someone who chose to give up their ticket to me. In fact, I'd have found that person exactly the opposite of your "inconsiderate" label.

Check carefully - some of the rebates state 11/23-11/25 for online purchases. My guess is if the rebate form clearly states 11/24-1/25, and your purchase was made on 11/23, then it wouldn't be honored. I'd call the local store and ask - they might be able to get a manager to override it if necessary. Some of the rebates had phone numbers on them, too - you might want to call and ask directly.

I had trouble printing them out, too, but I think it may be because I told my printer to only print page 1 (it looked like there was nothing important on page 2, but I guess I was wrong). I'll go back and print again later. Does anyone know how the rebates work for multiples of the same item? I bought 1 SD card and 1 flash drive online Thursday, then noticed the ad in the paper said 6 per person. There were none available online or in store on Friday, but when I checked back on Saturday, they were available online again, so I bought 5 more. AFTER purchase, when I'm able to print the rebate, it says one per person. WTH?? Will I be able to redeem 6 rebates, or am I going to be taking a trip to the store to return these (and will they take them at the store if I purchased online?)? Every year I say I'm not going to buy from CC again, and every year they have a deal that sucks me in...

They were in line and got the tickets. They chose not to use them, but to give them to someone who wanted the item. Frankly, I'd much rather see that, than what I saw at Circuit City - people with arms loaded with 6 of each of the items I wanted. Last week, I had 2 coupons to use at a store that only allowed one at a time. The coupons expired that day. So I turned to the person in line behind me and gave him one. Should I have gone to the front of the line to hand it out instead?

Best: Staples. Both in-store and online. I only tried one other store today, Circuit City, and that was a HORRIBLE experience, but I guess it's not fair to do a best and worst with only 2 stores. Interestingly, no one has mentioned that CompUSA's flyer advertised Thursday night 9 PM - midnight sales, but Massachusetts doesn't allow most stores to be open on a legal holiday. I believe 2 stores in this part of the state opened, but the rest did not. Haven't heard anyone complaining about going and not getting in yet...

Nice. :)

Another vote for Staples - ANYTIME! They're organized, helpful, and friendly. I should have known better than to try Circuit City, but I must have lost my head for a moment, and went anyway. At 4:45 AM, the line had over 300 people. I left, tried the website, still couldn't get what I wanted, so I went back, figuring the line would have gone down enough. There were still about 100 people standing outside. Again, lost my head, and decided to wait. The place was insane. Lines everywhere, no end in sight, nothing that I wanted available... So I left empty-handed. Drove to Staples. It's now 6:30 - 1/2 hour after opening. I wanted the flash drive. There were none on the table, but one of the associates said one had just been returned, and she retrieved it for me. No line at the register. Went to another Staples. Now it's 6:45. This Staples, too, had stuff left on the table, but not the flash drive. I asked, they went in back, found one last one back there. I've always been a fan - should have known better than to go anywhere else. Not worth the hassle.

I just drove to Circuit City, saw a line of about 300 people, got back in the car, and am home by 5 AM. The things I wanted aren't THAT important, and they wouldn't be there by the time I got in the store anyway. I checked online at 4:30 before I left the house, and they let me add to the cart, but then said the prices were being updated, and to check back in a few minutes. At 5:00 exactly, it says they're not available online. *sigh*