Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Ridata 16GB Compact Flash

I saw a deal at Fry's Electronics online for a compact flash card at a capacity of 16 gigabytes for $69.99.

"Holy hell, Batman!" "No shit, Robin!"

I look at so many ads to price compare that I thought it was their in-store flyer and not the online store. I went yesterday to my local Fry's and bought an 8GB Ridata CF card that was on sale for $34.99 and asked about the 16GB one.

The sales associate was such a dumb ass that he said he thought the ad had expired since it was the 4th of July sale. I said, "Oh really, because the ad said the prices were good until close of business Tuesday." He looked up the 16GB card by typing just that, "16GB," and it pulled up one for $69.99 like I thought. He punched in the order for me and gave me my claim print outs so I could pick it up at the register and "cage" up front.

I get there and the give me my 8GB and 16GB CF cards...yes, I know, why get an 8GB when I am getting a 16GB but I had different plans for each of them and the deal was a good deal. I start walking towards the exit where they check your receipt with the goods in the bag which I think is extremely retarded.

...[going on a tangent]...Why check the goods if you have security measures in place to make sure the goods can't be swiped and if they can be swiped, then you need to fix your security measures...[back on track]...

I looked at my 16GB package to see what it looked like. It should look like the 8GB card because they are the same brand but it didn't. It was a brand called A-data. I was a little skeptical about it but it was the same price although I could have sworn it was Ridata that I wanted.

I passed through the "checkpoint" and walked to my vehicle. I looked at the print out of the compact flash that I printed and it was Ridata. I hadn't found any reviews on A-data for other items like the USB drives and such so I didn't feel like taking a chance since I knew Ridata was supposed to be a good brand.

I walked right back into the store and returned the item. The customer service guy kept trying to ask me if I wanted to at least give the brand a try and I repeatedly said, "NO!" I had him credit back to my card instead of a store credit because I didn't know if I'd be buying anything again there any time soon.

I drove home and checked the web site and found that the Ridata CF for $69.99 was through the online store only. The next day at work, I purchased it online and tried the in-store pickup. I say tried because before about a month or so ago you could only get in-store pickup in California. Uh, how stupid is that? Anyway, the in-store pickup option worked for my store.

I went to pick it up during my lunch hour. It took forever for them to get it from the "cage." I'm thinking that they were wondering how I was buying this for $69.99 when the in-store price was $99.99. That's the beauty of the online store with in-store pickup. Prices vary between the two mediums but you still can get it at the store if purchased at the cheaper online price.

Anyway, too long of a story shorter, I got a Ridata 16GB CF card for cheap! I was toying with the idea of using it for my MP3 collection. I store the music on it and use a USB adapter to plug it into my USB port on my vehicle stereo to play through the vehicle's speakers. I tested it later in the day and it worked. So, I'm stoked.

I'm done rambling.

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