Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Tale of the Home Router

This tale of consumerism was inspired by Michael James on Money and his posting about Broken Merchandise.

Last week I had reached my wits end with my home router (a very old 802.11 G Linksys product), so I went out and bought a new Linksys 150N 802.11N wireless router at our local Staples, and it has been working very nicely since (no I am not endorsing this product, but it is part of this post).

Friday as I longingly rummaged through the circulars from Best Buy and the Future Shop I suddenly came upon an interesting page about home networking. On that page I saw that the Future shop was selling the exact same router (I got out my magnifying glass to make sure) for $30 less than what I had paid not a week earlier (at Staples).

Saturday I went into Staples with my bill, the box to the router and a copy of the Future Shop circular and with no argument and kind of a smile, Staples not only rebated to me the difference in price they used their “110 % price guarantee” and I got the item in question for even less than that! I was very happy to see no questions were asked and no grief.

Moral of the story is, if you have bought a large item, watch for sales within a month or two of your purchase and you might be able to get even more money back on your purchase (just be polite but stand up for your rights as well).

Completely Off Topic: Congratulations G-men

Congratulations to the New York Football Giants for their Super Bowl victory. Having been a fan of the G-Men since Fran Tarkenton and Spider Lockhart played for them, I was glad to see them take home the victory.

The Week Ahead

Pancake Tuesday and the beginning of a Lenten financial regimen, and attempting to get back on my “no spending money at work” regimen as well.