Best Buy Pulling Out All the Stops Before Christmas

[Wiley John Wright]

With less than a week to go before Christmas, Best Buy is pulling out all the stops to get shoppers into their stores. Best Buy has a couple of sweet deals that will be especially appealing if you’re still shopping for the perfect gift for the Apple fan on your holiday shopping list.

Verizon was the first retailers to offer customers iPad + MiFi bundles starting at $629.99. Today, 9to5 Mac is reporting that Best Buy is now offering Wi-Fi enabled iPads with free MiFi Mobile Hotspots. A two-year plan with Verizon, AT&T or Sprint is required in order take advantage of this deal. This offer will go on through the end of the year and expire on January 2. Some people may not want to get locked into a contract for the next two years, but this deal is $129.99 less than the Verizon offer.

Best Buy also has a pretty sweet deal if you’re looking for an iTunes gift card this holiday season. Currently, you can get a $50 iTunes gift card for $40 if you order it online. It should arrive in time for Christmas, but an in-store pickup might be a safer bet if you don’t want to take any chances with it arriving on time. Personally, I can never have enough credit at the iTunes store.



If you’ve ever had to return an item and been outraged at Best Buy’s restocking fees, then you’ll be happy to learn that they are history, starting immediately. According to Carolyn Aberman at the Best Buy Blog, “Best Buy continually listens to our customers, and they told us they want to give confidently this holiday season and every other day of the year — and with that comes easier returns. Effective Saturday, December 18, Best Buy is improving its return policy by removing restocking fees for all products except special orders.”

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t plug one store quite this much in one article, but with Christmas only a few days away, I thought some people might still have some holiday shopping to do. Happy Shopping and Merry Returns.

Source: 9to5 Mac

[CaptainChaos]

Nm. Googled it. Pretty sweet deal. I wish AT&T had a mifi unit.

[tim2lman]

Pretty sweet deal. I love workin at BBY. AT&T does have a mifi for iPad, it's called iPad w/ 3G w/ MyWi

[nebo1ss]

I returned an apple cable to best buy last week and there was no restock fee.

[CaptainChaos]

Pretty sweet deal. I love workin at BBY. AT&T does have a mifi for iPad, it's called iPad w/ 3G w/ MyWi

They have a little box I can set on the counter and connect multiple devices to?

[crankz1]

They have a little box I can set on the counter and connect multiple devices to?

They don't, but a bunch of us jailbreakers do...

iPhone with MyWi

I get your point though.
I'm anxious for 4G on ATT. Maybe some year...

[farfromovin]

I'd like to know who the suckers are that buy MiFi cards... No matter which carrier your on, I'm sure they have phones with tether capability (and for free).

[whereswaldo]

Looks like pretty good deals, to bad best buy deals are never good with best buy Canada

[saunupe1911]

BB hasn't had a restocking fees for a while now on most items. I've returned everything from a PS3 to headphones without a restocking fee

[ohthatguyagain]

I don't see the advantage of a wifi iPad + "miwi" over and iPad with 3G. At the same price, and with one less device to carry around, and with jay freeman's MyWi installed, you can easily connect any device to your 3G iPad. With the exception of the sole advantage of different cellular ISPs, the 3G iPad pwns the competition.

Of course, I'm biased - I've got an unlimited 3G sim with AT&T -

[mr117]

I've never had a restocking fee when returning DVDs or even an small (under $200) electronic device.

[gotanmp3]

You'd think Apple would've just designed the iPad with a replaceable cellular modem. No, that would've made too much sense.

[EskimoRuler]

I'm sure verizons not to happy about that, but I think I'd rather have the iPad 3G if I want service because you can pay month to month or not at all if you don't need it that month, but I bought the wifi model because I have MyWi

[Imahottguy]

They don't, but a bunch of us jailbreakers do...

iPhone with MyWi

I get your point though.
I'm anxious for 4G on ATT. Maybe some year...

Actually, AT&T does have a Mifi, didn't you see the picture in the article?

[CaptainChaos]

I just looked it up. It is the Mifi 2372. The only drawback I can see with it right now is that it doesn't support HSPA+ which would mean buying a newer device once it is more readily available.

[AKCHRIS]

I personally like the 3G version. I had the Wi-Fi only Version and Thought it only makes sense to get the 3G since you can get pre-paid data for it.$14.00 for 250mb or $25 for unlimited, but from what I'VE heard you can't use your 4G Sim in it.

[dmbsituation]

Best buys restocking fees applied to certain categories: computers, which includes the iPad as it's considered a tablet, and vacation items (gps, cameras, and camcorders)

[AKCHRIS]

They don't Apply to Me cause I'm a Premier Silver Holder So..the Restocking Fee doesn't Apply to me.

[nightsoarer]

Best buys restocking fees applied to certain categories: computers, which includes the iPad as it's considered a tablet, and vacation items (gps, cameras, and camcorders)

Exactly, this was true. However Best Buy has updated the store policy and there are NO restocking fees on anything in the store anymore. This just started on Saturday Dec. 18.

[steve-z17]

No restocking fees, sweet!