It took me over an hour to walk out with the Xoom, but I managed to do it without having to pay an activation fee and I got the Future-Proof Buy Back contract, where they give you 50% back free if you upgrade within a year (it starts prorating after that.)
Here's what I did. First, I started out by asking if I could get a gift receipt for this since it wasn't for me. They of course said, no problem. I acted a bit worried and asked if they were sure, and they said yes. This set me up for later when we got to the activation part. I told them that this was a gift for my boss, that a bunch of us had pooled our money together as a going away present since he was leaving the company. (This was all made up, the tablet is for me.)
When we got to activation, I asked if they could just hold off on that part because I didn't want the account to be under my name, I wanted it to be under my boss'. They suggested a gift card for the amount of the tablet, but I said, who wants to open a gift card as a present? I said that he would be definitely be in today right after work since he's a gadget freak and will want to use it immediately, so it's just a matter of a few hours. That sounded logical to them, so they bypassed that and went on with ringing it up. One down, one to go.
I then mentioned that I had read that the Buy Back program free promotion had been extended to Feb 26 and that it not only applied to smartphones, but tablets as well. But the machine rang it up at the regular price of $69.99. The problem is that their website only specifies the smartphone and not the tablet exception. I then pulled out a copy of the Best Buy press release from the 14th where the president of Best Buy Mobile states that tablets are included, too. The manager had to call the regional manager who ruled that the press release was valid, but it only applied to Best Buy Mobile stores, not the regular ones. The nearest one for me is like 150 miles away. So, he apologized but then said there was nothing he could do.
Just before the guy finished ringing me up, I took another look at the press release. In it, it said that the promotion applies to all 'Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile' stores. I got the manager to come back and read it. He then brought in the overall store manager who showed him that he could pull up the official press release by going to any stock site that lists Best Buy (I think the letters are BBY). He read the same thing and told the first manager to give the Buy Back contract to me for free.
Here's what I did. First, I started out by asking if I could get a gift receipt for this since it wasn't for me. They of course said, no problem. I acted a bit worried and asked if they were sure, and they said yes. This set me up for later when we got to the activation part. I told them that this was a gift for my boss, that a bunch of us had pooled our money together as a going away present since he was leaving the company. (This was all made up, the tablet is for me.)
When we got to activation, I asked if they could just hold off on that part because I didn't want the account to be under my name, I wanted it to be under my boss'. They suggested a gift card for the amount of the tablet, but I said, who wants to open a gift card as a present? I said that he would be definitely be in today right after work since he's a gadget freak and will want to use it immediately, so it's just a matter of a few hours. That sounded logical to them, so they bypassed that and went on with ringing it up. One down, one to go.
I then mentioned that I had read that the Buy Back program free promotion had been extended to Feb 26 and that it not only applied to smartphones, but tablets as well. But the machine rang it up at the regular price of $69.99. The problem is that their website only specifies the smartphone and not the tablet exception. I then pulled out a copy of the Best Buy press release from the 14th where the president of Best Buy Mobile states that tablets are included, too. The manager had to call the regional manager who ruled that the press release was valid, but it only applied to Best Buy Mobile stores, not the regular ones. The nearest one for me is like 150 miles away. So, he apologized but then said there was nothing he could do.
Just before the guy finished ringing me up, I took another look at the press release. In it, it said that the promotion applies to all 'Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile' stores. I got the manager to come back and read it. He then brought in the overall store manager who showed him that he could pull up the official press release by going to any stock site that lists Best Buy (I think the letters are BBY). He read the same thing and told the first manager to give the Buy Back contract to me for free.
