With the cards you have, there should be no other option than to get it from Best Buy. The Apple guy in the Best Buy I go to is very knowledgeable, knows his products, and was very good in advising me in my iMac, Macbook, and Airport Extreme Base Station purchases, more so than the Apple store I shopped at.
You gave me a great idea, bobioden. There are several Best Buys in the area...I will go to a few and find the one that has the most knowledgeable Apple guy; then work with him/her so that I can go in in the future with any problems.
Thanks! I agree that not all the salespeople in the Apple Stores are up-to-speed either.
Thanks again!
to o.p.
Just curious are you going to wait to purchase after macworld in Jan? They might have some new upgrades or even an ultra portable.
I considered waiting for the ultraportable, but it sounds to me like any ultraportable will be missing a few bells-and-whistles I need, based on my reading of these boards.
I don't mind waiting for Macworld if I knew that there were some upgrades on the horizon, but, truth be told, they already did an upgrade in November with the Santa Rosa chipset, and I cannot imagine that there would be another upgrade so soon. I may be wrong, though...
I was in the same situation. I had $1100 in BB gift cards and didn't have a choice. The Mac guy at BB was completely useless and only seemed interested in selling a membership to .mac or Applecare. He even tried to sell me the old (not SR ) Macbook. I had to ask him twice to check for the new MB. The Geek Squad guy overheard me getting a tad witchy and came over to help. He went back and found the right computer. He was also the one that told me that I could purchase Apple Care after the purchase date.
You should be fine as long as you know exactly what you want ahead of time.
LOVE the new Mac, BTW
BW
Funny that you should say that. The third week of November, I went to a new Best Buy close to work, and asked a guy in the computer department if he knew whether the Macbooks they had on hand were SR Macbooks. I got a blank look. He responded simply that they had "it" in stock. I asked to see the box. I was tired and hungry after work, and was in no mood to fight. He would not take down the box. He would only check the computer. We started to get into it because I was telling him that the website does not always reflect accurately what is in store.
I told him that the new SR Macbooks are 2.2, not 2.16. He responded, "Big deal. What's the difference?" I really was in no mood, so I left to get something to eat. I called 888-BestBuy and the guy in Consumer Relations was very nice and took my complaint. I told him that if I am going to plunk down 1300 plus on a new computer, I should be able to see the box first. He agreed, was most apologetic. I told him I would call the store back and talk to the manager.
The manager was unable to come to the phone, and the person answering the phone said he would call me. He did not. I called back, and was told the manager was too busy to answer calls, and then I was hung up on.
I called 888-BestBuy again, and got a REALLY nice guy. He called the store himself; and frankly, he experienced the same casual attitude I did. He told me that an official report would be going in, and he offered me a $50 gift card. I vowed not to go to that Best Buy again, but truth be told, I have gone to other Best Buys were I have found pretty knowledgeable, cooperative computer people, so I realize that I must investigate which store to buy from. Some stores/employees are better than others, obviously. I bought two Sony Vaio desktops from Best Buy and got great advice when I did.
So, I guess the moral of the story is to check out a variety of Best Buy stores until you find one with Apple guys who know what they are talking about. But, again, I have run into clueless ones at the Apple Stores themselves.
I do appreciate the way Best Buy has handled this, and other complaints in the past.
So, you can run AOL on a Mac. That does not surprise me. Any PC comes loaded with every tool available to get you to try AOL. Not so on a Mac.
Exactly. Every PC I have ever bought came pre-loaded with that crappy AOL BLOATWARE.
Although I'd rather support a dedicated Mac store, the fact is that returning a laptop with a few bad pixels (or even one bad pixel!) would be a lot tougher at a place that uses Apple's guidelines and where you have to convince someone of the need for a return because of a "large enough" defect. 
