Thunderbolt - Best Buy Availability/Pricing/Ordering Discussion

[green77]

Due to the lead time necessary to design, print, and distribute these ads, my guess it that they were destined for this upcoming Sunday's newspaper when 2/14 was still the expected release date. Which may explain why there is no "Coming Soon" mentioned.

So you mean that will be in this weeks paper or next week?

 

[RichardClark]

So you mean that will be in this weeks paper or next week?

Droid Life is saying the ad is for this upcoming Sunday, 2/13.

Correction: It turns out it's really the ad for 2/20.

 

[green77]

Droid Life is saying the ad is for this upcoming Sunday, 2/13.

I saw that on their XOOM page of the AD but wasn't sure if that was from the same flyer.

Thanks Richard!

 

[jd10984]

Best Buy AD Scan (2/13 - 2/19) - Slickdeals.net

Thats for this upcoming week and it is not in there. I believe the scan that person posted it for the following week which would mean 2-24 for the launch date.

 

[project.in.process]

Having worked at Best Buy in the past, there are occasions when certain stores get up to 2 weeks of ads at a time and most of the time at least the GM gets an ad 2 sometimes 3 weeks in advance depending on big releases so the GM could schedule people accordingly.

same here. worked for a Target store (over Electronics & adjacent areas) that's the bigboy for the District and we would get Ads a few weeks in advance just to know how to merchandise accordingly and what to expect as far as inventory (ie Wii sales & seasonal merchandise)

here's hoping it's at least w/i 2 circulars

 

[green77]

That's what was confusing me jd.

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

Best Buy AD Scan (2/13 - 2/19) - Slickdeals.net

Thats for this upcoming week and it is not in there. I believe the scan that person posted it for the following week which would mean 2-24 for the launch date.

And as I said, it's not uncommon for at least the GM to get an ad 2 weeks in advance. There are at least 2 weeks of ads in the office. This is why sometimes if the Best Buy employee feels nice they will let people know about something that may be on sale the next week.

I know I did that quite a bit when I worked at Best Buy.

 

[zog1977]

we still need data pricing.

that will be the deciding factor. We all know the phone will be expensive

 

[rookie83]

etf on smart phones

Not a problem. Tell you what I am going to do.

1. Just add a line or upgrade to the family plan first.
2. Ask them to switch the device and make your primary line to use the new HTC thunderbolt.
3. Cancel the other no-use line and pay the ETF.

Then you will pay much less for the phone than the retail price.

The ETF on smart phones is $350 so are you still getting the bargin you thought you were.

 

[Mustang7303]

The ad makes me feel like they expect to have the phone available on publication if there is not clause of when it is available or last week's coming soon.

 

[Joelist]

According to a BB employee on these forums yesterday BB does not do price matching on mobile phones.

Well they did it for me twice, once on a BB Storm 2 and once on my Droid X. I showed them the VZW pricing and they adjusted to match it.

 

[DolfanCole]

The ETF on smart phones is $350 so are you still getting the bargin you thought you were.

That's why I posted what I did. At $10/mo for the other line, that's $240 for two years. Looks to be cheaper to just keep the line and possibly put a dumbphone on it to use if needed rather than cancel and pay the ETF.

 

[green77]

joelist....Until we know VZW pricing it isn't going to help.

 

[sandoff]

Well they did it for me twice, once on a BB Storm 2 and once on my Droid X. I showed them the VZW pricing and they adjusted to match it.

They dont price match phones, they are a 3rd party retailer and verizon would be dumb to allow them to do that. Verizon already pays BB loads of money per smartphone activation (over $200 bottom line profit) they wouldnt let them steal VZW store customers by price matching

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

They dont price match phones, they are a 3rd party retailer and verizon would be dumb to allow them to do that. Verizon already pays BB loads of money per smartphone activation (over $200 bottom line profit) they wouldnt let them steal VZW store customers by price matching

This is true. This is why we always liked selling phones even if the phone was free. Although when I worked at Best Buy it was only $175 per activation, but I left Best Buy in September of 2007, so that was a little while ago.

 

[paulmike3]

Best Buy AD Scan (2/13 - 2/19) - Slickdeals.net

Thats for this upcoming week and it is not in there. I believe the scan that person posted it for the following week which would mean 2-24 for the launch date.

I had Droid Life update their post to reflect that it's not this coming week, but next week's ad.

 

[funguy123us]

Best Buy AD Scan (2/13 - 2/19) - Slickdeals.net

Thats for this upcoming week and it is not in there. I believe the scan that person posted it for the following week which would mean 2-24 for the launch date.

Assuming this is a full ad, it's not there means 2/24 it is boys.

Although Droid-life says it's for next week 2/13 so not sure..

 

[paulmike3]

Although Droid-life says it's for next week 2/13 so not sure..

Check again.

 

[funguy123us]

I had Droid Life update their post to reflect that it's not this coming week, but next week's ad.

Even if it's week after, wouldn't that mean the launch date is 2/20 and not 2/24? Best Buy's ad starts every Sunday.

 

[project.in.process]

Even if it's week after, wouldn't that mean the launch date is 2/20 and not 2/24? Best Buy's ad starts every Sunday.

but cell phones don't necessarily get released on sale on Sundays (just like movies/music/books are Streed Dated for Tuesdays--but still featured in the Sunday Ad)

i wish, though.