It’s hard enough to give up part of Thanksgiving and camp in a cold parking lot to get a great deal. But some Best Buy employees allegedly made the experience absolutely miserable by passing over some customers and playing favorites. One family waited in line for 14 hours and didn’t get the coomputer they wanted and watched as a Best Buy employee smuggled a voucher for the same laptop to his girlfriend.

One of the most sought-after Black Friday laptops was the Toshiba A135-S7403, for $229. Each Best Buy store had at least 15 in stock, along with dozens of other Black Friday laptops. To maintain a sense of order, Best Buy managers were supposed to hand out vouchers on a first-come, first-serve basis. But according to one of our readers, the Best Buy managers at the Elmwood Shopping Center Best Buy in New Orleans passed out a handful of vouchers, despite having dozens of notebooks in stock.

Brandi shared her family’s Black Friday ordeal in the below email. She ended up getting a laptop (but not the one she wanted), while her sister and father waited in line for nothing. If ...

I’m still holding onto hope that at least one retailer will bust out a last minute surprise and sell a notebook in the $100-range. It used to be big news when a store would have a $500 laptop for Black Friday, but now that everyone’s got them for around $300 or $400, it’s hard to get all worked up about a junker of a laptop being sold for $229, like the A135-S7403 at Best Buy.

Last year Circuit City had a $99 notebook, but it required users to sign up for a year of Vonage’s VOIP telephone service.
But spending $300 on phone service to fet a $99 isn’t that exciting of a proposition.

I’m not in the market for a $99 laptop and generally try to steer people away from computers that are grossly underpowered. But a $99 will surely spread some holiday cheer to those who absolutely can’t afford to spend a few hundred bucks on a computer. Best Buy, Circuit City and Wal-Mart (especially) all have deep enough pockets to pull this off, and one of them will sooner later. Whoever does this first is going to ...

BestBuy will be offering the Toshiba Satellite A135-S7403 notebook with a Canon PIXMA all-in-one printer for only $229 after instant savings during the Black Friday, November 23rd. According to the retailer, this bundle will be available only in stores. The 15.4-inch Toshiba Satellite A135-S7403 features the Intel Celeron [...]

The Sony VAIO VGN-NR123E / S will be sold as a doorbuster special at Best Buy on Black Friday for $499. There will be at least 20 VAIO VGN-NR123E / S notebooks available at each Best Buy store. The VAIO VGN-NR123E / S comes bundled with an all-in-one printer, carrying case, Trend Micro anti-virus software and a mouse. The VGN-NR123E / S includes a multi-format DVD burner.