92 replies to this topic

[Brad]

CONTEST OVER - ENTRIES NO LONGER BEING ACCEPTED!

It's contest time again! Your chance to win a limited edition Black Friday @ GottaDeal.com t-shirt!

Reply to this thread with a story about your worst Black Friday experience from a previous year. Whether it was your fault, someone else's or just something you saw happened, give us the details.

And if you are a BF newbie and this is going to be your first Black Friday, then let us know what you hope it's going to be like for you this year.

Entries will be accepted until Tuesday night at 11pm ET. At that point I'll randomly select 2 winners who will each receive their own Black Friday t-shirt.

Good luck to all!

[wx4svr]

Oh no.. I knew this one was going to come up. I had a bad experience once at a Best Buy. It was around 4:00 and they were handing out the tickets. Well.... this little old "lady" came up to me and offered to buy my TV ticket. I stood in line for over 10 hours to get that ticket, and I wasn't near to let it go. But, "she" drove up a hard bargain... the price of the 42" LCD was $599. "She" offered me $700 for it. "She" told me that "her" son just had a baby and that "she" wanted to get them something for their living room. Now, $700 wasn't a bad deal... So, being the nice person I was.. I said yes. Gave "her" my ticket, and "she" gave me $700 in cash. (I didn't get out of line because I still had many other tickets in my hand). I go on, not thinking about it, and I got all I wanted. As I was leaving the store, I see this little old "woman" picking up this 42" LCD by "her" self. I ended up parking right next to "her".... I come to find out as soon as I got to "her" car.......... "she" wasn't a "she"... and "she" wasn't old. It ended up being a 24 year old guy dressed up as a little old lady who really wanted this TV to show his buddies. I was soooooo P/O'ed. It wasn't even funny. But, I made a bit of a profit, and I ended up not even caring. I ended up getting a better TV for cheaper the next weekend. So, thats my HORRIBLE story. And I promise.... this is a true story.

Edited by wx4svr, Oct 12, 2008 - 9:19 am.

[steph3306]

My first year I waited in line for an hour inside best buy waiting to get a camera. Well we waited and waited and I started noticing that people had tickets to give the salesmen. Well I didn't have a ticket. Didn't know you needed a ticket so I stood in line for an hour for no reason.

[ungerm]

My first year of Black Friday shopping was back in 1999. My mother & I wanted to purchase scooters for my kids, my 2 nieces & my brother (he is 16 years younger than I so my mother, my sister & I were raising families at the same time). My mother had RH arthritis & was crippled up really bad so there was no way I was allowing her to go into Walmart on Black Friday and try to get anything! So I went all by myself to get 5 scooters...they were a major hot item at that time. So I went into Walmart around midnight I scoped the store & peeped under the black tarps & found the pile of scooters...I stood there beside of the pile with my cart for the next 6 hours with more & more people surrounding me. When they pulled the black tarp off I grabed my 5 scooters & threw them into my cart but the crowd that was surrounding me was pushing me into the pile so they could get them also & the pile was falling ontop of me. Some older gentleman saw me & pulled me out of the crowd & pulled my cart out also. I was in shock at how these people were acting & was so glad I had not brought my mother out in that mess - she would have diffinitely gotten hurt pretty bad. I went to the front to go through the register I turned to look at something & some woman came over eye balling my cart -I think she was considering trying to take one - cause when I turned around & looked at her she said ohh is this your cart?...Duh I'm standing here in line to pay for them. I paid for them & rushed to my car...afraid I was going to be jumped in the parking lot by someone who didn't get one. Even though that was was my first experience that hasn't detered me from going every year. My family thinks I'm crazy but I continue to go every year. Another year I went looking to get one of the tickle me Elmo's for my son at Walmart & I went to JCPennys first to get something for my mom (I wanted to make sure she got what she wanted since she isn't able to shop herself & get the deals) & by the time I got to Walmart...there was 1 left on the shelf & two ladies were fighting over who got there first to get it & I was not about to get involved in that situation...I just stood & watched...after a few punches were thrown security steped in & ushered Elmo & the 2 ladies to the front... not sure who won Elmo but needless to say my son didn't get a tickle me Elmo that year. Michelle

[Illinoismom]

Most of my Black Friday experiance have been great, I can not complain much. There was this one year when my oldest started to go with me that always comes to mind. We had gone to Walmart to only get a few things and one of them was the BOB the builder dolls for 5.00. My littlest one loved BIB. So She got him one and placed it in her cart, she was on toy duty, Turned her back to get the easy bake oven that was also in sale and some took BOB out of her cart. She was livid, and when she went to see if there was an other one they were all gone. Needles to say she learned you don't turn your back, I just couldnt understand why some one would take it from a child well she was 13 but still she was a child. Now from that she has become an aggesive Black friday shopper and no one gets in her way. The following year was the year of the DVD players and TV she had had knee surgery and we brought a friend with her, Well lets just say she conqured and got what she was after and several people who tried to push her got black and blue from crutches. I thought of another one, this one has nothing to do with shopping, After I spent all night at Walmart for the lap top I got one, my son at target and my husband at menards, we came home to find that we had no heat. As I was waiting for the repair guy my sister called to tell me my brother had passed that morning. So the holiday's have been stressed as it has been several years prior and after that have had some family emergeny that make you at times want to rethink the whole holiday tradition.

Edited by Illinoismom, Oct 12, 2008 - 6:31 pm.

[elena_398]

Several years ago I was in line at KB toys. I was 2nd in line and my sister was first. It was when the furreal cats were all the rage and hard to find. Anyway, KB advertised them for a really super price and of course it was a must have for my daughter. We get in line by midnight. By 2am there was over 150 people in line. (they open at 5am). It was a few minutes to opening, a car pulls up to the curb by the front of the line and a lady comes out and helps another lady in a wheel chair. Big showing of how she couldn't barely walk, etc. The one lady pushes up to the front of the line by the cement post (right by door) and we all in the front look at each other. She tells us that it doesn't matter where they are in line as she can't walk very well and the other lady with them will get in line in the back once she parks the car. Of course we all say thats fine... ( the lady in the wheelchair did look pathetic lol). Anyway, doors open and wouldn't you know that the lady in the wheel chair JUMPS up and runs into the store. The other lady pushes and shoves her way past me. Little did they know... security guard who opened the door saw the whole thing and grabbed them out of the store. They were kicked out. I look back on it now and laugh, but I was so mad at the time for being fooled like that.

[ribbit1072]

Last year I was at Nebraska Furniture Mart. If any of you have ever been to a NFM you know what I'm talking about when I say it's huge, for those of you haven't, trust me it's BIG. Anyway, they had digital picture frames for 20.00 and I went to get one. There was absolutely no organization, no one directing people, it was absolute pure chaos. I was stuck in the same spot after getting my picture frame for 45 minutes. We couldn't move at all. These two guys came barreling through the aisle with a cart, just running into people and pushing people out of the way. There was a lady pushing a stroller directly in front of me and I was so afraid they were going to run over her baby!! Some really big tall guy grabbed their cart so we could move and I was so thankful. I have never been so scared in all my life, (except that one time when I was driving and it started hailing softball size hail, but that's another story). Anyway, I will NEVER and I mean NEVER go back to that store on Black Friday. FYI, it's over 1 million square feet and you couldn't have gotten another person in there.

[gzc721]

My first BF experience was when those crazy Furbee (hope it's spelled right) thingies were hot. My sister (of all people) has asked for one for Christmas. Wal-Mart had them on sale that year so I went and waited inside Wal-Mart from around 1:00 a.m. until the "sale" started. I grabbed one, put it in my cart, and was hotfooting to the next thing on my list. Got stopped in a crowd and this lady saw my Furbee and she actually took it out of my cart. As she was running away she turned around and yelled "I've got your Furbee" and laughed like a maniac. I was so mad that I could hardly stand it. I never did get my sister that silly thing and that experience sure hasn't stopped me from going out every year, I just watch everything much, much closer now.

[mysticmage]

My friend was wanting to get a MacBook, and Apple discounts them a little on Black Friday so we went in in the afternoon to go grab one. I told a Specialist that I wanted to buy a MacBook and an Apple Remote but was told they were out of MacBooks and to come back another day (with a pretty rude tone), but grabbed a remote for me off of the shelf. After we left the store, I got an awesome idea. I called the store using the phone number on the receipt, and asked to see if they have any MacBooks left and if they could put one on hold for me if so. After holding for about a minute, she said they have a bunch left and held one for me. We went back into the store, and I asked for my MacBook they were holding Anyway, to make a long story short, I got an addition 15% off of the $1059 which about $870. Still was mad, but at least it was discounted

[StephanieD]

My worst one was my first one. It was my first black friday and I was about 19 years old. My cousin had to work on black friday and he asked me if I would go to Wal-Mart and get him a TV. I agreed to go. Now, at that time I had no idea that Black Friday was that popular. I knew there were good sales...but c'mon. lol Well, mother agreed to go with me and she told me that I would want to get there before Wal-Mart opens. I thought she was exaggerating and I arrived at Wal-Mart 15 minutes before the store opened thinking that would be plenty of time. When I pulled into that packed parking lot, I realized I should have listened to my mother. I was at the back of the line (of course). When the doors opened, there was this surge towards the door. I have to admit that it was fun. I got separated from my mother but I pressed on towards the TVs. I managed to get one and I looked around for mother and I still couldn't find her. I had the money so I went ahead and checked out. The line was surprisingly short b/c most people were buying multiple items and were still shopping. So, I bought the TV and put it in my car and then I went back in to find mother. I found her sitting on bench with a TV in shopping cart. She had gotten one just in case I wasn't able to get one. I told her that I'd already bought the TV and she gave the TV she had to a very grateful lady (she had missed out). As you can see, the shopping experience itself wasn't bad. What makes it the worst for me was that I must have caught something that day b/c I was sick as a dog late that night. I woke up that night sick and I spent Saturday throwing up.

[jenesparza]

I would say really i'm a newbie because this year i'm going to multiple stores and usually I only go to a few or one who has something i really want. So i hope that for me that i can at least not have to deal with any disgruntal customers or people who steal out of others baskets. i really don't want to get in any fights. I hope the stores have at least an good amount of stock so i can at least get what i need maybe a thing of two of things i just plain want. I can imagine i'm gonna need an energy drink or need to start drinking coffee for the event so i can be quick. Well see i've got my fingers crossed

[lilac100]

My first year I went to KB toys. It was awful. You couldn't walk through the store and I couldn't find the only toy my ds had asked for for christmas. It was some kit to make creepy crawlies. Would have ruined my whole holiday season if my mother hadn't found it when she was shopping. I actually went home with bruises from these people pushing me around trying to get furbies. Anyway, I have since toughened up and when someone pushes me they wind up with bruises

[NCBeachBaby]

My worst BF experience is not all that bad compared to others! I was in JCP & my local store had gotten a TON of these Arizona "puffy" winter coats for kids. They were regular around $60 but they had sooo many of them they marked them that BF for $15! By the time I found out about them I ran over there & there were none left. Right then an employee came over & told me & another lady she actually had a few more. She brought them out & all of them got snatched in front of me but one blue/periwinkle one. There I was standing there next to an older woman (70+/- yrs.) when the employee walked up to me & whispered in my ear that she sees a pink/purple one over on another rack that got sat down by a customer. The employee kindly walked and picked up it up, I followed her. As the employee was handing it to me she had 1 hand on 1 side of hanger I had my hand on other side of hanger. The older woman came up & snatched it from us by the hook of the hanger & actually said "I seen this 1st! Its for my grandbaby!" When I turned around & seen she had both that were left!!! I never got one that day. I ended up getting for for $1.20 something after they had put all that stuff on clearance back in March. So...HA! Take that - older woman snatch & grab everything!

[tbarry1974]

My worst experience on BF was at Wal-Mart. Waiting in line for 2 hours plus, I finally get inside. I want one thing and one thing only, a game boy advance for my DS5. They had a huge lot of of them, so no worries on not getting one. At that time I really didn't have any other door busters I needed to attend so I shopped. Silly me, I left my cart beside the rounder I was looking at and a man snagged my game boy from the cart. He didn't run, he didn't laugh.... it was kinda scary. I yelled "HEY". He stopped turned and said "what are you gonna do about it?" So being a skiddish 20something, I did nothing. My son did get his game boy, but I didn't get it at a good price. Lesson learned, beware of EVERYONE, and be AWARE of EVERYTHING!!

[bugglebum]

Mine was 2 years ago. DH, DD and I stood outside Sears for the $10 GC they were giving out. It was a nice quiet line, we were maybe around the 25th in line so guarunteed the GC's. Behind us were two young women, college age maybe. One of them asked to see my Target Ad. As I was talking to her, comparing shopping strategies, her friend started coughing. Then gagging. Then bending over holding her stomach. Then, throwing up. All. Over. Me. It was on my shoes, jeans, spattered on my jacket, my handbag, ads, etc etc etc. This was a Linda Blair/Exorcist spew. It smelled, it had chunks and it just kept coming. Her friend quickly moved her so I was no longer in the line of fire, but it was too late. There was more on me than on the pavement. Others attempted to help me and her clean up. Luckily I live in Florida, so could shed my jacket and not freeze plus I had some gym shorts in the car along with some flip flops. After changing I got back in line with a now very amused family, shivering (still chilly) looking very out of place in my "summer" clothes while everyone else was dressed for "fall". The girls got themselves cleaned up also and we all got our GC's. Afterward, I did manage to make my trip to Target before having to rush home and shower.

[arci122]

Target, about 5 years ago. My two sisters and I had the job of 'running' to the back of the store for polly pockets. My mother's job was to get a cart and meet us back there so we could have a place to put our bargains. We concord the isle (fast runners) and started looking around a little. My mother shows up all out of breath and red faced. Asked what was wrong, all you had to do was get a cart and meet us here. Well, she got in a fight with some lady who kept trying to run her over with her cart and my poor old mother finally turned to her and said she was going to deck her if she did it again. Oh the best part, when we were checking out, my mother spots this person that was trying to run her over, and yells, there she is!!!!! Now when my mom has cart duty, we ask her not to get into a fight over it.

[JohnnyLaRue]

Well I have mentioned this story before on here but here goes.... I was fairly young and needed a few extra bucks for the holidays. I got a job at TRU. Overlooking the fact that was I treated poorly working there prior to BF. On BF I was being a helpful employee to all the BF customers. (it was my first BF experience!) Well about 10am or so rolls around and this lady demanded a Furby. I told her we are sold out and had been hours ago. She refused to believe me and cursed at me and called me a #@$*ing liar. I told her that yes the ad stated we have Furbys but they were sold out within the first 30 minutes. She went on at great length about how I have ruined X-mas and that the ad said "We HAVE Furbies" and NOT "We HAD Furbies" therefore we should HAVE Furbies! She refused to understand that we were sold out and took a board game (monopoly) and threw it at me. Bounced off the back of my shoulder (my back was turned to her) so I grabbed the game and threw it right back at her! It was more instinct than anything else! The manager tried to get me to apologize to her and she kept shouting and cursing. I walked away and promptly quit.

[guilliam]

My worst BF experience was in 2002. It was the first year my mom, my sister and I decided to go to Belden Village to shop on BF. NEVER again!! We were stuck in the Target parking lot for over 1 & 1/2 hours because the cops had traffic bocked with their cruisers while they chased a criminal on foot!! To top it all off, later that day, dh calls and my ds3months at the time was running a fever of 104!! And I was 2 hours away!!! Needless to say, we drove home FAST and my mom dropped me off at the ER to meet dh & ds and she took my car home packed with all my stuff. DS was taken to Children's Hospital with pneumonia. Was there only 3 days though cause we caught it early enough. I also remember 1 year a friend of mine was 8 months pregnant and also had her 3 yo in the cart and someone took something out of her cart (can't remember what right now) and we all just stood there cause we weren't sure what to do!! You couldn't even move it was so crowded!!

[mum2luke]

Mine happend at Best Buy and it turned out well about a week later. I went to Best Buy to get dh a dvd player then my plan was to go to Walmart then Target then home. Well, I went to Best Buy and parked almost forever and a day away. I only needed the dvd player so I went back to look for them and a sales guy turned around without looking and bashed me in the face with a box. He hit me so hard that it broke my glasses and sent them flying, had a cut beside my eye due to the glasses breaking. It was an accident, I understand that but the idiot didn't even say "I'm sorry can I help you find your glasses". He just took off. A few other customers came over and asked if I was okay. One found my glasses and the lenses and the broken ear piece. One customer got a manager and he wanted me to fill out an accident report. I wouldn't have done anything except I was madder than a hornet that the sales associate didn't even apologize or ask if I was okay. So I spent over an hour in the office filling out a report, getting a band-aid for the side of my eye. The manager asked me what I was looking for and then he went to find one. They didn't have anymore of the dvd players that I was looking for so they sold me a 5-disc changer one which was a lot more expensive for the same price. He then told me to inform him of the charge to fix my glasses. I had to drive 30 miles to my eye doctor to get them fixed. I sent the info to Best Buy manager and he asked me what other sales I had missed because of the accident and the company gave me a check for the amount to fix my glasses and $200 for the items on my list that I didn't get. I thought that was really great since all I told him I wanted was an apology and for my glasses to be fixed. If the sales associate would have apologized I probably would have went on my way without the glasses being fixed. I haven't been back to Best Buy on BF since.

[siczlo]

I shared this before, so here's the cliffnotes....Two years ago at Wal-Mart I got power drived into and inbetween the two glass doorways, over a 50 inch big screen TV for $500. I got banged up pretty good, floor burns and bump on my head from hitting the glass doorway. In the end tho, I got a better 50 inch LCD HDTV, Phillips brand, for the same price! (Manager felt sorry for me) So it was both the worst, and best BF ever.

[len_mullen]

Well, there was the year my wife called me from an emergency room while I was shopping. Maybe that doesn't count -- I was going through the checkout.

[mgmckny]

Ok, I feel bad, my worst BF experience was nothing like any of yours. It was one of the few years that I wasn't going out and about at the crack of dawn (you didn't have to camp out 17 years ago). My husband of 3 months woke up in agony and doubled over on the floor in pain. I don't know if he's having appendicitis, heart attack or what. I end up calling 911 and they climb the stairs to our 3rd floor apt and are debating over how they will get this 6'5" man down 3 flights of stairs (he's 250+) when he lets out the biggest fart you have ever heard. They howl with laughter, I burst into tears. They refer us to his doctor and leave. I end up going to work (I was in retail at the time) and was already stressed out. The day is a blur after that!

[skytrain]

It's funny my best black friday expericence and worst black friday experience is from the same store. My worst experience was at Circuit City. We hardly got anything we wanted and waited in a long line for like two or three hours. Thank god my niece was going to some of the same stores I wanted to go to so i was calling her from the line to pick up things that I wanted from the other stores. It took so long at the checkout because they were ringing up rebate items one at a time so they were on seperate reciepts. Didn't make sense to me. It said right on the reciept a limit of 6 rebates for one address, so I don't know why they thought they needed to ring them up seperately. I vowed never to go to Circuit City on Black Friday again unless there is a really good deal. I will stil order online from them on black friday though. Same deals no hassel. So cool.

Edited by skytrain, Oct 12, 2008 - 5:32 pm.
typos

[zoemariesmamma]

My worst black friday experience has always been the day after..no sleep, all the excitement..I always ended up with a horrible migraine. Now I have a new tradition..I take medicine before I go to sleep and when I first wake up!! I spend pretty much the whole day drugged, but at least I can still function!

[Mursilis]

This story isn't as bad as some others here, but anyway . . . a few years back Staples had a great digital camera door-buster special, and I really wanted one, so I got there about 1 hr. early and waited in line (back then, the line didn't get bad until ~15 minutes to opening). So when the doors open, a swarm of people, including myself, are running around looking for the camera. Turns out it's being given out at Customer Service, so the mob races over there. The clerks are just frantically passing out cameras to the people mobbing the counter, and a clerk gives a camera to an older gentleman next to me. The clerk's about to give the next camera to me when the old guy says he needs two, so the clerk gives him another - the last one! And it was supposed to be one per customer! I was so mad!! Grrrr...

[harrispizza4]

My worst BF was 2 years ago when I worked at Kohl's. It was the first BF I ever had to work and the last BF I will ever work again! I was working a 5am-2pm shift and I rang up customers from 5:01am until 2pm......I did get my breaks but when I left at 2pm the line was still wrapped around the back of the store. My family even made sure to check out in my line which made things worse cuz I wanted to be shopping with all of them! Nothing is better about the holidays than having great memories of time you spend with your family. That was the only year in the last 10 that I didn't get to meet the girls at the mall for the santa pic. I'll never miss it again!

[elicia423126]

5 years ago my husband was working night shift and wouldn't get home until 6am, at the time our oldest son was 5. I had my 18yr old brother spend the night with me so I could leave at 3am with my friend. My son would be asleep and my dh would be home not too long after I left. Before I went to bed I counted my money, I had $300. Before I left to shop I counted it again, that time I only had $250. Yes, my brother stole $50 from me. It really hurt me at the time because that $ was for my ds, and I was also 8 months pregnant. Kind of low. Luckily, my parent's lived next door, so they came over to help with the "situation". Mom watched my son until my dh came home and my dad gave $50, because they felt so bad for me. We kind of have an idea why brother stole, makes it even worse! Anyway, all is forgiven, but by far the worst BF for me!

[oldandintheway]

I've never had any Black Friday experiences that have been all that bad. Nearly every year I get hit by a cart, pushed down, or pushed into a shelf (or display), but that also happens nearly every time I go shopping, not just on Black Friday. I've been ran over so many times by people in stores that I've kind of gotten used to it. Granted, it is a little weird , I'm a fairly large woman, and most times when someone hits me with their cart, they say "Sorry, I didn't see you"... yeah, unless I've became invisible, I highly doubt that. Other than incidents like that, the only thing I can think of is 3-4 years ago, I woke up around 2:30 am feeling sick as a dog. I figured it was just lack of sleep, so my husband and I went on out and did our shopping. I had to stop in the bathroom at a couple of stores to puke, but I kept going. After we had finished shopping, my husband took me to the doctor. After the checkup and the normal blood and urine tests, the doctor told me that I had food poisoning. But I still consider that a fairly good year because we got everything on our list and still had a bit of fun.

[diane175]

My worst was about 6 or 7 years ago, when scooters were the hot thing. My sister and I went to Target to get one for each of our kids. After standing in line for hours outside in the cold(altho they gave us hot chocolate and danish) we got inside to utter chaos! We run to the back of the store to find a HUGE crowd around an endcap. We ask a woman next to us if this was where the scooters were, and she said yes, but they were all sold out. So we hunt down an employee and ask of there were any more in the back. He tells us yes and they will be bringing them out soon. So we wait at the endcap for 15-20 minutes and finally we get anxious and ask yet another employee if there are more to be brought out? She tells us they had ALREADY brought them out to another part of the store and were over by the sporting goods area. So we sprint back there to find that they were all gone AGAIN! We never got the scooters that day, but we did eventually get them for Christmas. It really spoiled our day and our "schedule" of planned stops. Now we split up just in case we have to be in 2 places at one time!

[dcofsc]

Probably my worst BF was last year. My daughter and I left home at 11pm on Thanksgiving night. We had spent a couple of hours Thanksgiving Day making a list of stores we were hitting, items to be purchased and the time the stores opened. We knew we could be out of some stores before others opened. We stopped at a convenience store for coffee and some light snacks before heading to Best Buy. We got to the BB parking lot and the line was already extremely long so we went to Sears. We were the only people there so we sat in the car. When another car pulled up around 4am, we decided to get in line. My daughter decided to count her cash prior to leaving the car. Now mind you, I asked her twice before leaving home if she had her wallet and her cash. She assured me that she did. Well, all of a sudden, she was in utter panic mode because her wallet was gone and she had over $700 in there. We called home and asked DH to look in her room for her wallet. He told us that the wallet was not there. We left Sears and went back to the convenience store and asked the clerk if he had found a wallet. Nope! We ended up driving back home (about 20 miles) to find her wallet right in her room where we had asked DH (that does not stand for "dear" either lol) to look. Of course, we were both relieved but mad because we were going to be late for everything. Anyway, we left home again and went to K-Mart (it was closer) and got everything I had on my list. We then went to Sears and yep, we got everything there on our list. We left Sears and went to BB and figured we were wasting time but we got a 22 inch monitor and an external hard drive which were our two main items. We did miss some things like our Radio Shack purchases and our Target purchases but I guess it wasn't a bad ending to a horrible start.