Just lie to the customers (They won't notice.)

Best Buy raincheck

Best Buy raincheck (Detail)

Best Buy had a hard drive on sale. I stopped in to buy one. I was told that, despite the half dozen empty boxes on the shelf, there were none in stock.

I was not offered a raincheck, but was given one when I asked. I gave my email address and was told that I would be contacted when the drives arrived.

Last week I stopped in at the store. It had been a couple of weeks and I thought that perhaps more of the drives had arrived in the store.

I learned three things.

1. This Best Buy location only gets shipments of new stock one per week, on Thursdays.
2. The drives had arrived, but the salesperson I spoke to had sold the last one that day.
3. Despite what is says on the raincheck, Best Buy will  not contact customers when new stock arrives.

If you won't contact customers when stock arrives then why make the promise on the raincheck?