What happened to the laser toner cartridge that I paid way too much for at Best Buy, you ask?

Needless to say, I was bit peeved when I saw the original equipment HP 15A toner cartridge for sixty five bucks online. But when I saw it for the same price in a local Staples store the next day I was really steamed … I decided, then and there, to return the cartridge for a refund.

Fifteen bucks is fifteen bucks, baby.

Luckily, we were able to squeak by using the shaky-shaky routine with the HP 1200’s old toner cartridge. (To get by, we pulled out the old toner cartridge each time a light streak appeared in a printout, gently shook the cart, and reinserted it in the laser printer.) This routine got us through a few days until I had the chance to return the overpriced cartridge to the big box store where the unfortunate (and uninformed) purchase was made.

This time, I checked out a recent Best Buy circular before I left on my journey:

Price Guarantee: 30 days from purchase (14 days for select items), if a local competitor (excluding Internet) has a lower price on the same available brand/model, we’ll refund the difference plus 10% of the difference. Present lower price verification and original Best Buy receipt for refund. Excludes special, bonus, free, and financing offers and, in CA, cellular phones/pagers. Ask customer service for details.

I went in knowing that I would probably have to ask for a full refund on the HP 15A toner cartridge, as I didn’t have printed price verification from the local Staples. This played out exactly as I surmised. I asked the customer service rep if he could simply refund the price difference without printed proof, and he politely refused.

I handed over the overpriced toner cartridge, the CSR applied a credit to my account, and I happily walked out the door … never to return to purchase as much as a set of batteries from Best Buy without doing my homework beforehand.

And my next toner cartridge? I’ll be buying it online … long before the current one runs low …

[tags]laser toner cartridge[/tags]