Best Buy offered a coupon for 10% off any item that was not already "on sale" through Saturday. They advertised Futurama for $29.99. However, the price that's marked on the DVD is $33.99. The difference is taken off at the register. This makes the item "on sale" even though their ads don't reflect this fact. Is this bait and switch?
I should have known something was up when the cashier tried to "scare" a couple of older folks into buying the maintenance option for the PS2 they were getting. "PS2 have weak fans that can burn out. This can cause the unit to overheat. If you buy insurance and this happens, you can bring it here to get fixed for free. Otherwise, you only have the 30 day manufacturer's warranty to protect you!" Fortunately, they didn't buy the spiel or the protection.
Things can be on sale if they aren't in the ad. They don't even have to print an ad. And seeing as they marked $4.00 off the regular price, are you saying you'd rather have taken the 10% discount off the $33.99? Meaning you'd pay $30.59? No, that is definitely not bait and switch, as they gave you more than 10% off.
Now, as about the PRPs (Product Replacement Plans) and PSPs (Performance Service Plans), yes, Best Buy sucks in that regard. I worked for almost 2 years in a computer department. I definitely had the worst sales in the department, since I'd actually tell people they didn't need the in-home service plan if they lived a mile away and tell them that other stores, including ones in the same plaza that we were, sold printer cables for less than $40. The managers hated my sales numbers, but seeing as our SOP guide didn't include any Nazi sales tactics that our management would yell at us about, they had no reason to fire me.
Granted, PSP's and PRP's are nice in some situations. I've used almost half of the ones I had, but I don't know if I would have bought any if I didn't have my employee discount. I've gotten a brand new digital camera, cd-rw drive, and printer when mine broke. I would have got a new monitor too, if I had remembered when my plan expired and brought it back in before then.
Visit http://www.bestbuysux.org if you really want to read a lot of bitching about Best Buy. Though, most customers end up complaining about something that's really not Best Buy's fault, and most of the employee complaints seem like they were written by monkeys with keyboards (Best Buy has a practice of hiring any high school idiot, as they're more easily suggestible). However, one out of every ten complaints or so is valid and well written, and will make you think twice about going back to Best Buy.
After I thought about it, I realized that the advertised price was the price the item was being sold for and thus is not bait and switch. If they had tried to sell it for the 33.99 instead of 29.99, then it'd have been bait and switch. That's why you should think before you type.
Well, that would be more just "bait and lie", if they just didn't honor a sale or coupon. "Bait and switch", in this example, would be like getting you in the store with a coupon or sale on the dvd set, then when you show, telling you it's out of stock, but that you should buy the even better $50 set, since it's got more bonus features. Obviously there isn't a more expensive Futurama DVD set (at least, as of now), but just as an example.
And, yeah, I feel your pain over that coupon. I only hope for the sake of everyone that Best Buy's changed their 10% Perferred Customer Weekend coupons in the past couple of years. Back when I worked there, the coupons weren't valid on anything in our department, with a few small exceptions. But rather than listing everything that you couldn't use the coupon on (our dept and a few other small sections), the coupon listed the other 40-some odd things the coupon was valid on. Needless to say, I pissed off quite a few customers by telling them that the coupon wasn't valid on what they were looking at. I guess it's better I told them there rather than letting them find out when their at the register.
In Best Buy stores, there is a difference between something being on sale (at a reduced price), and the price reduction typically applied to items (like DVDs, CDs, computer software, and general electronics) upon their initial release. When in doubt, check their printed circular (also available on line as a PDF).
So, Futurama's MSRP was listed at $33.99. Best Buy's "low price" was $29.99. Then they knocked another $2.99 off with the 10% coupon. I can personally attest to this because that is how I bought my Futurama Volume One.