I hate it when I see s price for something I’ve decided I’m going to buy and then when I get to the store, it’s not the same price. This was the case last night as my wife and I arrived at our local Best Buy store to purchase an iPod touch for her. But we found a way to save the money and get her iPod touch without any arguments, threats, hassles, or even coupons. Right after paying, I told her I really should share this with my readers in hopes that some of you can save a few bucks.
Buying Online Is Cheaper
My wife had poked around looking at prices and found that Best Buy had a decent price ($354.99) on the 64GB iPod Touch (3rd Generation) she wanted. She called me up and we agreed to head over there before dinner. After work, I picked her up and we went to the Best Buy to find that they had her iPod, but in the store, it was the same price as at the Apple store and other retailers. At $399.99, it was $45 more than we expected. While that’s not going to break the bank, I’m not eager to throw away $45. So I pulled out my iPhone, loaded up the Best Buy web site, and found the same product in the online store for the price she saw earlier in the day. Then I noticed the “Online only price” in red letters near the price. Although I found a way around that at that moment, it wasn’t until today that I noticed that the product listing on the FULL version of the site did not have this “online only price” notice like the mobile version of the site, which seems a little tricky to me, but is likely just a mistake.
(Click either image below to see the full size)
Full Site
Mobile Site
How We Saved Money
Not one to just give up, I asked the employee working the MP3 player section if we could just buy online and then use the in-store pick up option. As I was showing him the price online on my iPhone, he pointed out the “online only” notice and said that he was pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to but we could check with customer service. Of course, we checked with customer service and they said we could. At my request, she was nice enough to check inventory and let us know there were plenty in the store to buy, so we bought one using my iPhone. There’s a 45 minute wait for the order to be completed and brought to the pickup area, so we went to dinner and came back to complete a purchase, having saved the money we had hoped to save.
Knowing what we now know, we would have placed the order from a computer at home just because it’s faster and easier to fill out all the information, but otherwise, it was a pretty painless experience and we never even had to try and convince anyone we should get the online price or have any uncomfortable discussions about why the price is different. And really, I understand the reasoning but was pleased to find a way to have my cake and eat it, too.
What’s The Lesson Here?
Although this is specific to our scenario at Best Buy with this product, the lesson to be learned extends to any consumer activity and could be applied to car purchases easily. Don’t be afraid to look for ways to get the price you want. There’s no reason to not look at your purchase from every angle, compare prices, and ask questions. You never know when it’ll save you a few bucks.
To be fair, he was peeing on the storage shed outside my house. Remember yesterday, when I posted the Archerfish surveillance system review? I included a video showing a guy peeing on my storage shed door, but the lighting out there is no good. The Archerfish system gave me a great first line of defense, providing me with proof that it was a person (not just a large dog), a general build of the guy, and more importantly, a good timeline. Now I just needed a good photo of him to go with it. This morning, at about 3:30 AM, I got my photo.
It’s not the best photo, but I’m working on cleaning it up and his face is burned into my memory. If I see him again, I’ll know. This guy has been peeing on our storage shed door for months, and it’s been happening more lately. About a week ago, I noticed the same thing happening to one of my new neighbors. After such a long time, we finally got the video with the help of Archerfish and filed a police report. Without some way to ID the guy, though, we couldn’t officially do anything. More importantly, he didn’t know he was caught and would surely keep coming back. That’s when my wife and I put together a plan to get the guy’s face on film while also letting him know he was busted. We didn’t know if he was bigger than me or if he’d try to fight my camera away or what. More concerning to me was the idea that he would walk by, do nothing wrong this time, and see me standing there with a camera. I didn’t want to tip him off before getting my photo and my chance to confront him. So we came up with a (hopefully) solid plan.
We took a nap, woke up at 2:30 and headed outside. I armed myself with my Canon Rebel XTi DSLR, a Pure Digital Flip Ultra video camera, my phone, and my LED Lenser flashlight and jumped in the back seat of the car. I rolled the back window half way down so I could get a good photo and stayed low. I was in a pretty uncomfortable position for about 45 minutes, but I was ready to pounce if he came by. Luckily, he dropped by, as expected, and walked toward me, between my wife’s car and the storage shed. For a second, I was certain he saw me because he turned and looked right at me. Then, he proceeded to urinate on my storage shed door as he had done many times. I sat up, pointed the camera out the window, and fired off a shot to get his attention (the flash was on, of course). He turned to face me, and the look on his face as the second picture snapped was priceless. Though it was a split second, it seemed like a long time that he sat there dazed before I said “don’t come back”, which was his cue to take off. I jumped in the front seat, started the car, and followed. I saw a silver truck pull out quickly and as I followed it, it sped up, eventually losing me in the neighborhood when I stopped to grab my phone.
After months of wondering and then worrying that I might never catch this guy, I finally got him! The best part is that he looked ashamed and scared that he got caught. I have a feeling he won’t be coming back. I’ll leave you with this video recap of what Archerfish confirmed was happening regularly outside my home.
I’d love to have a name for this guy, so if you recognize him, email joe@joetech.com.
The more we use technology, the more concerned we have to be about our energy consumption and where all that energy comes from. These days, it seems like every household has at least one computer and a few cell phones and the computers are increasingly in use for more of the day while the cell phones are plugged into the wall, recharging from hours of texting and twittering. The need for energy is met with various proposals for solutions, but there’s one that many of us are very familiar with already that I want to write about. This sponsored post is about the Windpower 2009 Conference & Exhibition in Chicago, the push for the Renewable Electricity Standard and what it means for us.
Like most of you, I was already familiar with the concept of using wind power to generate electricity. It’s what we all take photos of when we drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles for a summer vacation. It’s pretty clear, too, that a lot of people like the idea of this renewable energy source. When I headed to the link above and watched the videos, they brought forward the need for the proposed Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), which would essentially guarantee that a specific percentage of our consumable energy comes from renewable energy such as wind power.
The talk quite a bit about how it will help by not only expressing our commitment as a country to renewable energy, but also by creating jobs and economic hope. From governors to President Obama, a lot of people seem to think the RES is a good idea that needs to be in place soon.
A couple months ago, I posted about how you could win a trip for four to check out SeaWorld’s new Manta ride. It seems they’re not done promoting it because now they’re giving people a chance to win a “Front-of-the-line” pass to Manta at SeaWorld Orlando to celebrate the May 22nd opening.
It looks awesome, and I’d love to check it out myself, so I entered already. All I had to do was visit http://www.ridemanta.com and check out the “Participate and Win” section. In that section, there’s 6 activities you can participate in. You don’t have to do them all, but here’s what participants get:
Upon completing two of the Manta site activities, you will earn ONE complimentary electronic photograph from your Manta ride experience at SeaWorld Orlando. If you complete all six of the activities on this site, you’ll go straight to the front of the line when you earn Manta “Front-of-the-line” pass* at SeaWorld Orlando.
As you can see, you get rewarded for just a couple. I joined in by first following @RealShamu on Twitter and sending out a tweet about the Manta ride. That was an easy one because I was going to anyway. I also created my “I Heart Manta” photo and uploaded it to my Flickr account. I’m about to dive in on the remaining activities. While I do, head over yourself and start participating. And when you ride the Manta, take photos and share them with me. I’d love to see all the fun everyone’s having.
Today, I decided to write about contests, the Top Affiliate Challenge, BlogWorld, and other things on my mind. I realize that I’m a little overdue for a post and I’ll have some more fun tech stuff coming soon.
$100 every month
First, let’s talk about contests. For a few months now, I’ve been assisted by some other great blogs in giving away $100 every month to a lucky winner. While it is certainly fun and I enjoy doing it, I’ve decided to cease involvement in the $100 contests. Managing the contests and selecting a winner has proven to be much more time-consuming and arduous than I had anticipated and I would rather let someone else take over than continue to select a winner late every month. I had been waiting to collect all entrant data for April and May, but will proceed with selecting winners for those months and make sure they get paid soon. Thanks to everyone who participated!
More contests
Coming up, I’ll be reviewing another product of the techie variety that I’ve actually had sitting on my desk for a while now. Watch for that post. I’m going to give it away to one person who links to it, stumbles it, etc. That should be in the next few days.
Jim Kukral convinced me to buy a Pure Digital Flip and he’s giving his away. I got an email from Jim reminding me about it. Here’s how it works:
The deadline to be qualified to win my Flip camera is a week from
tomorrow. Monday the 16th. I’ll choose the winner that day.
You can still enter, just link to or write a blog post about
the www.onlinevideotoolkit.com and then send an email to me at
jim@jimkukral.com letting me know where to look. That’s it.
I am enjoying my Flip a lot. You should enter and try to win Jim’s, because it’s really a fun and useful gadget.
Vote for Ty Hurd
Top Affiliate Challenge is a battle of affiliate marketing prowess, and they’re looking contenders for the TV show. A lot of people have submitted auditions, but only a handful will make it to the show. I’ve been in communication with Ty Hurd in the past and was pleased to see him leading the pack in first place. He’s been helpful to me in the past without asking for anything in return, so I knew right away where my vote would probably go. After viewing other submissions and seeing that his was a parody of one of my favorite shows, Myth Busters, the deal was sealed. Head over and vote for Ty, but remember to vote his audition a “10″. See you on TV, Ty! Good luck!
BlogWorld
I’m still working on the details, but I’m definitely going to BlogWorld this year. Are you going? Let me know. I’d love to meet some of you there and I have all these business cards to hand out. If you are planning on going, let’s talk about meeting up.
Guest authors get paid
OK… Not everyone gets paid, but as promised, I set aside $5 per guest post to go to one of my guest authors. I randomly chose from the three posts that were published and Santousha of Seeking Serenity who wrote Laptop Maintenance for Noobs Like Me gets the $15. Congrats!
Make money with PayPerPost v4.0 like I do.
