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[|DRC| Wartex]

Got my ATI Radeon X800XL, 256 MB GDDR3, ooooooohhhhhh yeah baby I didn't install it yet but I can already smell burned gibs.

It's original ATI, I got retail version for $415 CAD (337 USD). There is a local store that has them at a super low price because they only take cash, do no returns, etc (www.greenlyph.com), but they did not have them in stock (either because it's a bogus offer or it was instantly sold out), anyway, I go to my www.futureshop.ca and they have them for 499.99.


They have a "price protection policy" which is vaguely expressed in "Lowest price guarantee" slogan.

So...

I check my credit card and I don't have enough credit. I call mastercard and ask them to add $500, after a bunch of "are you positive you are not homeless?" questions they agree.

I call futureshop (it's canadian division of BestBuy) and ask them if they can match it. They said competitor has to have it in stock, exact same retail version, and sell in canadian funds.

Now things are going not so well because greenlyph.com doesn't have them any more, but the offer is still on the website. Futureshop will CALL them on the phone to verify it.

I start frantically looking for similar deals on other local store's websites, on tigerdirect.ca but get blowjob deals like $620+.

Normal person would give up here, and either not buy or chip out $500 (+tax = $575 CAD).

But I drive to futureshop, and wait till the last minute, right before greenlyph closes, hoping the sales rep will call them and they will be closed or tell him they have it, or his greed will prevail and he will match even though he did not verify if they have it in stock (we are looking $415 vs $500 difference).

I find a happy sales rep and ask him to match the deal, saying that I called them (and I did) and they agreed to match it. He goes to the website of greenlyph.

Page comes up painfully slow as if it's a 300 BPS dialup over spaghetti:
http://www.greenlyph.com/product_info.php?cPath=198&products_id=977

He goes to the phone and promptly comes back. I look him right in the eyes, smiling, being a happy shopper with no fucking clue he is about to say "because they don't have it in stock/they are closed we can't match it".

Inside his eyeball, I see Honesty and Greed fighting on lightsabers. Honesty is decapitated, and Greed takes a steamy piss on the dead body.

As Pavlov's dog on signal, I pull out a $500 roll of $20 bills, and hand it to him. He punches it in a complete silence. His trained fingers hover over the keyboard of the terminal, and I see how 414.98 comes out. He braks up a silence by asking how much it was, it was 414.88. He explains they use cent portion as a discount code, i.e. *.99 is straight sale, *.96 is open box, *.98 is a price match, so he puches in 414.98.

My armpits are shower heads, producing a stream of sweat that runs down my ribs. We both have evil, post-orgasm smiles.

I'm dying to know how much commission he made. I asked him if price matches take away their commission, but you already know the answer. He made $6.22, and if he sold it at $500, he would have made $1 more.

He walks me to the cashier and kills the antitheft sticker. He even waves the box between the coils to make sure it was disabled.

I thank him, and I run to my car, hugging the box as if it is my newborn baby. I get in the car and hug it again.

Futureshop lost $85 so he could make $6.22. And I don't blame him, because they would have paid him shit anyway, and they paid 70% of what I paid for the card.
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Moral of this story: probability of achieving impossible depends solely on your desire of it.
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[|DRC| Iceman]

Now thats what I call drama! Awesome post! My next upgrade will be a kick ass sound card, then I'll probally look into a better mobo or another HD since mine is almost full...hehe

[|DRC| SLIM]

You're very determined.