Re: Opinions/Experience re: Maxtor Onetough II external drive?


Doc wrote:

> Best Buy but nevermind, it's turned into a Bait 'n Switch, false advertising
> scam. I went back tonight figuring I'd pick one up, but the tag is now
> mysteriously gone from the shelf.

Best Buy is famous for short-fuse rebates. I often buy disk drives for
my Mackie HDR there and if I don't remember to go to the store the
first couple of days after the ad comes out (Sunday, usually) the
rebate period is over. If you need it when you see it, buy it right
then because it might not be there later.

I'll have to admit that $69 for a 300 GB drive in a case is too good of
a deal and it could have been a mistake. I went into Micro Center
yesterday to look at a ThinkPad computer that was in their current
flyer. It seemed like a mighty good deal for $1099. They had the model
(R52) on display at the $1099 price, but I started poking around with
the control panel and device manager and saw that the model on display
had:

256 MB RAM rather than 512 MB
A 40 MB hard drive rather than 80 MB
XP Home rather than XP Professional
LCD with 1024x768 max resolution rather than 1400x1050
On-board Intel graphics rather than Radeon X300 with 64 MB memory
Intel 740 CPU rather than 750
and maybe a few other "small" differences

When a clerk came over to ask if I needed help, I pulled the ad out of
my pocket, pointed to the tag on the shelf and asked if I'd be getting
the computer in the ad rather than the one on display. He said that the
ad was incorrect, and that what I saw was what I'd get. No "we're
sorry, we'll give you what we advertised, just see the manager"
apoIogy, just an explanation.

I don't think there was an attempt to bait-and-switch (because he
didn't try to switch me to something else or convince me to buy the
lesser computer), Sometimes print ads are prepared months in advance
of publication, and deals they thought they had nailed down don't
happen. There are many configurations of the R52 listed on the ThinkPad
web site (though I couldn't find the exact one in the ad) and I figured
that this might have been a special model that they were putting
together for Micro Center but just couldn't make it happen for the
price.

Large retailers sometimes get special packaging of more or less
standard products that you can't buy other places - like for instance
some of the MXL mics that Guitar Center sells. They're the same mics as
models that are available elsewhere, but with different packaging or
bundling, and different model numbers, so you can't compare prices. And
have you ever been shopping for a mattress? Or an airline ticket?

The retail business sucks sometimes. You just have to live with it.

.

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