T0rn
Premium
join:2001-05-11
USA
|  BestBuy Coupon (is a FRAUD)
For those who cannot view the PDF, here is a screenshot. |
Here is the link (PDF Format): »images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/en···ombo.pdf
He kept going on and on about how I should print out the coupon and get "free" memory, by purchasing a memory stick at or below 90 dollars. I already know that's bogus, because no store would let you walk in, grab a 90-dollar item for free, and then walk out.
So to prove him wrong, I called BestBuy and asked about the coupon in question. (I figured, they'll probably explain how there's a minimal purchase you must make in order to use the coupon.) The answer I got was not expected. Immediately she knew exactly what I was referring to and told me that the coupon is not legit, that it is fraudulent. She explain how BestBuy was baffled as to how the coupon was made and linked to their website (although, I cannot find a way to navigate through BestBuy's site to find the coupon. The only way I was able to view it is through the direct link.)
In other words, she revealed to me that it is a fake and the person who pulled this prank is unknown. (I'm thinking it could be an employee with access to the site? Not sure.) |
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Jabbu
Premium
join:2002-03-06 | If they know about it why is it still on their site? It isn't hard to find it and delete it for them... idiots.
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Boomerang86
Got FUD?
Premium
join:2002-10-18
VampireState
clubs: | reply to T0rn
I interpret that to read that you get $90 off memory, installed in your PC by their in-store upgrade staff.
Still, $90 is a LOT to take off when many upgrades are half that price. |
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T0rn
Premium
join:2001-05-11
USA
3 edits | The managers in BestBuy are getting the message to "NOT honor these coupons."
Take a look at the [H]ard|Forum, page 11 of their thread:
»www.hardforum.com/showthread.php···11&pp=20
Seems like some people actually got away with free backpacks and such, before BestBuy caught on. ( Hence the whole "OWNED!!!" and "ROFL!!111" photos on [H]ard|Forum. I guess they're proud for getting away with it.  )
EDIT: Now some people are saying that it's a misprint and that it should say "With a purchase of a PC or laptop" in order to get the discounts. However, some states say you must honor a coupon, even if misprinted. The question is, why have they not pulled it off their site yet? |
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Kip patterson
Premium
join:2000-10-23
Columbus, OH
1 edit | I guess I don't understand. The coupon offers a discount on certain purchases. It says nothing about free memory, free backpacks, or anything else.
Looks legitimate to me.
It is pretty clear that it was intended to mean accessories purchased with a computer. If folks have really gotten away with using it seperately, then it looks like the cash registers were set up wrong in addition to everything else. The instructions on the coupon even talk about "qualifying product." |
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johndw
@65.209.x.x | I received a coupon from Best Buy similar to this in the mail within the last couple of weeks. I don't if the one posted in this thread has been altered in any way, but they both look very similar. |
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rockerfelerz
join:2005-08-25
Dartmouth, NS
| reply to T0rn
Looks to me that Best Buy screwed up, and now they don't want to honor their coupon so they call it a fraud. It would have to be a damn good scam and probably be an inside job for the upc to scan and be accepted by their registers. It looks like their bad to me. |
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T0rn
Premium
join:2001-05-11
USA
1 edit | reply to johndw
said by johndw :
I don't if the one posted in this thread has been altered in any way, but they both look very similar. The image in this thread is simply a screenshot from the actual link to the "coupon" itself. You can view the BestBuy PDF link if you wish.
said by rockerfelerz  :Looks to me that Best Buy screwed up, and now they don't want to honor their coupon so they call it a fraud. It would have to be a damn good scam and probably be an inside job for the upc to scan and be accepted by their registers. It looks like their bad to me. That's what I've come to understand now. Looks like they don't want to take the heat for their own mistakes, yet people have already exploited the flaw in this coupon before.
Now I'm assuming that the person that I was on the phone with was given instructions to claim that the coupon on their site is a "fraud", etc...
EDIT: I provided links throughout my posts. Don't forget to check them out. |
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pcdebb
RIP dadkins
Premium
join:2000-12-03
Tampa, FL
clubs:
2 edits | reply to T0rn
hmm, maybe someone created a subdomain (canconical?) to the bestbuy domain and cheated? i dont know how to check from the two
hmmmm.......could this be a big whoops or have i missed the mark by miles?
C:\Documents and Settings\PCDEBB>ping images.bestbuy.com
Pinging a1102.gc.akamai.net [205.188.221.38] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 205.188.221.38: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=51
Server Used: [ whois.arin.net ]
205.188.221.38 = [ a205-188-221-38.deploy.akamaitechnologies.net ]
OrgName: America Online Inc
OrgID: AMERIC-59
Address: 22080 Pacific Blvd
City: Sterling
StateProv: VA
PostalCode: 20166
Country: US
NetRange: 205.188.0.0 - 205.188.255.255
CIDR: 205.188.0.0/16
NetName: AOL-DTC
NetHandle: NET-205-188-0-0-1
Parent: NET-205-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: DNS-01.NS.AOL.COM
NameServer: DNS-02.NS.AOL.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 1998-04-18
Updated: 1998-04-27
TechHandle: AOL-NOC-ARIN
TechName: America Online Inc.
TechPhone: 1-703-265-4670
TechEmail: domains@aol.net
ARIN WHOIS database last updated 2005-08-30 19: 10
Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
C:\Documents and Settings\PCDEBB>ping bestbuy.com
Pinging bestbuy.com [64.158.176.231] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 64.158.176.231: bytes=32 time=48ms TTL=57
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bobrk
You kids get offa my lawn
Premium
join:2000-02-02
San Jose, CA
 ·SONIC.NET
| You missed the mark. Akaimai supplies server horsepower to big companies to supply graphics files. Evidently Best Buy uses them like everyone else.
»www.akamai.com/
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pcdebb
RIP dadkins
Premium
join:2000-12-03
Tampa, FL
clubs:
| reply to T0rn
ok. where does the AOL reference come from? clearly they arent partnered with best buy? (pardon my ignorance, i'm learning)
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whoeverheis
@npgco.com
| reply to T0rn
AOL uses Akamai, Akamai uses Aol, etc. The internet is one huge conglomeration of ISP's, servers, etc. At any given time they may all interact when you visit a certain site. That site may deliver to you info through many servers owned by many companies. |
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whoeverheis
@npgco.com | reply to T0rn
I forgot to add. Yes AOL and Best Buy are partnered. Best Buy sells AOL.:D |
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bobrk
You kids get offa my lawn
Premium
join:2000-02-02
San Jose, CA
·SONIC.NET
| reply to pcdebb
Shrug. Could be that Akamai and AOL use the same servers, although that seems a bit odd. Maybe Akamai and AOL have some kind of arrangement for sharing IP numbers. Or AOL sold them a few.
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Gbcue
E.I.T.
Premium
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs:
 ·T-Mobile US
 ·Skype
 ·Dreamhost
 ·Comcast
 ·AT&T U-Verse
1 edit | reply to T0rn
I've used the coupon. They *said* it was a fraud, but for some reason, it rang up on the computer as a valid discount. So it's best buy's mistake and they're trying to blame the consumers.
»www.gbcue.com/backpack.html
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pcdebb
RIP dadkins
Premium
join:2000-12-03
Tampa, FL
clubs:
| reply to T0rn
well the way my virgin eye sees it, it says that images.bestybuy.com hosts their images on an AOL server, which really doesnt make sense to me
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Kip patterson
Premium
join:2000-10-23
Columbus, OH | Akamai hosts data for many companies on servers that are colocated at various ISP's - including Time Warner/RR, Comcast, and AOL. Not surprising that it would have an AOL IP. |
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MGD
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-31
Fort Lauderdale, FL
1 edit | reply to pcdebb
said by pcdebb :well the way my virgin eye sees it, it says that images.bestybuy.com hosts their images on an AOL server, which really doesnt make sense to me I will try and explain what you are seeing, without deviating from the topic too much. You were on the right track, however you need to dig a little further. There is nothing nefarious going on. As others have posted Akamai manages the Bestbuy.com front end, as they do for many other large companies.
Akamai has hundreds of servers strategically located throughout the net. Their servers store full and partial pages and images of their customers websites in multiple locations. This allows for faster loading and load balancing. Depending on where you make the request from, Akamai then feeds the webpage and images from the most efficient path back to you. The process occurs dynamically and each page is created on the fly with data coming from multiple servers.
The reason you are seeing images from an AOL ip, is that Akami has servers on both AOl's, and many other networks to feed data faster. The IP belongs to AOL, Akamai just has servers located there. In fact if I ping images.bestbuy.com I get a different response: 64.21.49.53. This whole process is dynamic and is dependant on your location and internet loads. You can get some idea of this by looking at the DNS traversal records to see some of the possible IP's that may feed you, In this case it is 16, and that also changes dynamically, try pinging every few minutes and you may get a different response each time:
Looking up at the 8 bestbuy.com. parent servers:
Server Response Time
ns1-118.akam.net [193.108.91.118] 80.67.72.200 80.67.72.201 10ms
ns1-119.akam.net [193.108.91.119] 80.67.72.200 80.67.72.201 10ms
asia3.akam.net [63.241.73.214] 63.214.191.233 63.214.191.238 108ms
eur1.akam.net [212.187.244.39] 193.108.93.133 193.108.93.138 108ms
eur2.akam.net [195.219.3.170] 193.45.1.111 193.45.1.113 108ms
usc2.akam.net [81.52.250.132] 146.82.218.136 146.82.218.137 108ms
use1.akam.net [63.209.170.136] 146.82.218.136 146.82.218.137 108ms
usw2.akam.net [63.241.73.214] 63.214.191.233 63.214.191.238 108ms
Status: Records DO NOT all match: Results from use1.akam.net do not match results from usw2.akam.net.
For further info on Akami's Edgesuite system relative to BestBuy see:
»www.internetnews.com/infra/artic···p/781831
Hope that helps explain what is going on!
MGD
edit: formatting |
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pcdebb
RIP dadkins
Premium
join:2000-12-03
Tampa, FL
clubs:
| reply to T0rn
oh i was pretty certain i probably didnt dig far enough. doing just a ping on a domain name isnt the final answer, but yes, i do understand the explanation 
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YourMomSucks69
@BestBuy.com
| reply to T0rn
hello, you should really check you details before you just go a head and assume you are corret. Now wether or not individuals stores will or will not accept it is another question. THEY can and it DOES work. We have here at the geek squad have gotten lots of ram! :P |
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