Best Buy-100: Me-0

May 21, 2008 · Filed Under Geek Fun, Ranting · Comments 

Well, once again Best Buy has defeated me. Last night after I left there I thought it was me who won this round… But alas, I was mistaken. Here’s what happened.

A few weeks ago one of my video cards decided it was time to die. On the way home from work I decided I had lived long enough with only 2 monitors and headed on over to Best Buy to pick up a new video card. In my mind I was 100% certain that the card that died was an AGP card. When I arrived at the video card isle I found that they had only 1 AGP card. I don’t mean 1 “type” of card, I mean they had one lonesome AGP card TOTAL. It was more than I wanted to spend ($139.99), but I caved to the pressure of not wanting to drive around town to find a cheaper one. I bit the bullet, picked up the box and headed out.

When I went through the check-out line I was very pleasantly surprised when the card rang up at $45.99. No, I didn’t bother to tell the girl with multi-colored nail polish that it was supposed to be nearly 3 times that amount. Instead I gleefully sprinted from the store before they could realize their mistake. Bwhahahaha! I won!

Or so I thought.

When I got home I took apart the machine and before I could do remove the old card I needed to use an air blower to remove the half inch of dust that was caked on every flat service in the case. I then removed the dead card and set it aside. I unwrapped the new card and that’s when it hit me. The slot is not AGP. It’s PCI Express. I’m fairly certain I heard Best Buy laughing at my right then. I checked my back to see if they had stuck a “Gotcha” sign to me on my way out the door.

This afternoon I went to return the wrong card and purchase the right one. When I entered the store nobody pointed or stared, but I know they wanted to! I went to the return counter and the nice girl behind the counter asked if anything was wrong. I thought about explaining how Best Buy always wins and this was just another case of me being the victim, but instead I just told her I was a bonehead and got the wrong card. I went back to the video card isle and found that the least expensive PCI Express card they carry is $79.99. My only hope is that it rings up incorrectly, too. I returned to the counter and sure enough I was hit with the news that I owed an additional $36 bucks. I paid the balance and slunk away in defeat.

As I exited the store, the guy who removed the security chip from the box said, “Nice try sir, maybe next time.”

At least that’s what I heard.

Tags: , ,