As you probably already know, CompUSA announced last week that over the next couple of months, it will close 126 (or 50%) of its stores. I asked readers of PC Magazine to weigh in their thoughts, and one reader's comment piqued my interest. "rkinslow" wrote in, explaining that he went to his local CompUSA store in Dallas to purchase a Maxtor 160GB external hard drive, which was advertised in the Sunday paper for $59.99 after rebates. When he asked a sales person to get him one, the reply was, "We are not honoring that ad." Of course, "rkinslow" asked why and was told that the store is closing and they are not honoring any ads, even though the print ad did not make that distinction.

I did some digging of my own by going to CompUSA.com and looking at this week's circular. No where on the circular (and I had to zoom in and squint my eyes at the fine print) does it say that rebates aren't taken at closing stores. Going even further, I went to Shop.com and searched for "Maxtor 160GB external hard drive". I then clicked on "$50.00 CompUSA Rebate" in which the PDF stated: "This offer is valid in the US only. Excludes Puerto Rico and any closing stores." (See image above.)

Shame on CompUSA! You are hiding vital information from your customers, or shall we call it in legal terms: unfair competition! You'd think that if you were closing half of your stores that you'd want to give customers these discounts. I don't know, maybe I'm just a reasonable person?

Update 3/8 4:30pm: I spoke with a CompUSA rep who told me two things: (1) CompUSA will be pulling out printed circulars in the markets where the closing stores are located and (2) The closing stores will have "clearance liquidations", in which most items will be on sale. All of the rebate and store closing info is available here. So, disregard the rebates if you live in any of the areas where stores are closing. Still, I feel the retailer should have made this more clear to customers.