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Best Buy's response to Xbox 360 bundling complaints
blogs.mercurynews.com — A lot of gamers at best buy got screwed due to scams by the managers to exploit buyers who were eager to get thier hands on a 360. Looks like best buy is comming clean...
digitalgopher- 1647 diggs
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- diggthiscrap, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This Price Gouging is simply ridiculous -- it's funny too because the retailers get hosed when it comes to making a profit -- and they didn't have enough 360's to even make a neat little bundle for themselves. It's very easy to fight back against price gouging -- the people in line should have protested and simply went back home. Trust me, taking your money back with you is the most frightening thing for a retailer to witness. Keeping your money in your wallet is the best form of protest against corporate/retail greed.
- digitalgopher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1agreed. this and the pricerightphoto fiasco goes to show that consumers can have a lot of power against exploiting retailers.
- phil.busch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"Keeping your money in your wallet is the best form of protest against corporate/retail greed."
Yeah, it is frightening to the higher ups. But to the guy working for $7 /hr behind the counter... he doesn't give two *****. How do I know? Because I am one. As long as I get paid, I don't care where people do their buying... - scott2342, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1A friend of mine was forced into one of those packages from Best Buy. The worse part was that he was basically getting duplicate pieces, (e.g. a $30 Cat-5 cable in addition to the one that came with the Xbox and other stupid stuff like that) or useless crap like alternative face plates for the Xbox.
- gamabunta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0more ***** from another ***** company. with companies like pricerightphoto it was easy to hurt business but with best buy something along the lines of not buying from them for a set timeframe should be done. it's the only way corporate assholes learn. i mean, they release all these apoligies for price gouging but they all go home to their upscale dwellings at night. more importantly, should this even happen with companies like best buy to begin with? you would think they'd be smart enough to have some kind of quality control program/hotline established for this kind of problem. if not they should have a number set up for the next launch in case some pimply faced ***** manager decides he wants to up the price by $200.00+ more, otherwise they shouldn't be surprised when the local news comes on reporting a story about the store manager getting the crapped kicked out of him by an enraged mob.
of course that's just my opinion, i could be wrong. - jbwillia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"...In addition, we have taken appropriate measures to ensure this situation will not occur with future Xbox 360 promotions...." - from the Best Buy response
Well then, we get screwed again when the PS3 hits shelves!!! - fatkid, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5No one is forced into anything you dumb *****. It's an Xbox not food, water or medicine.
- SubZ3r0, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2whats with you people no one forces you to buy anything. Xbox360 was said to have a low ammount of availbility at launch if you bought an xbox360 for 700$ and got accessories you actually got a deal cause there going on ebay for 1000$'s of dollars some people have paid 700$ just for information to buy one all because your wallet is small dont call it price gouging there are more gamers then there are units have to find a way to cut the demand down somehow. Besides if you dont get one for xmas im sure they will have mountins of them come febuary. I dont like xbox360 personally but i will defend its intrests if I feel noobs just cross the line like all these posts,
PS3 All the way and no im not a fanboy I like all systems :) - SlappyMc, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Emails the apology to one person and stating it to the mass public are two completely different things.
This isnt enough.
No digg. - jbwillia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"No one is forced into anything you dumb fu(k5. It's an Xbox not food, water or medicine."
I agree; You won't see me in any line waiting to purchase a brand new console system. I like to wait a year or so until the prices drop significantly, and then it's only slightly likely I'll get it. The only systems I've owned in the past few years are the PS2 and the N64. Furthermore, you can probably tell from my pic that you'll never see me buy any Xbox, seeing as I hate everything Microsoft :-D - snorcup, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I cant agree more. Best buy saw an opportunity, so they went for it, and I cant blame them. Personally I am a bestbuy fan, I think they offer fair prices, the staff is usually pretty straight forward with me, and they always have a decent selection.
These whiney little bastard kids don't need these things. You can call me jealous, because to be honest with you, I am a bit jealous.
Not that I want an Xbox, but a powerbook would be nice, or enough extra money every month to afford a car loan, but evidently 60+ hours a week doesn't qualify as enough hard work to afford that sort of life style.
If these kids HAD to have this thing during the initial release, and their parents were gullible enough to buy into this craze, the phuck em, they should have paid three grand a pop for these things, and gotten a core setup to boot.
Merry Christmas - eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0^^^Another good reason to wait -- you won't have to hang it up with string to get it too work.
- eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Best buy saw an opportunity, so they went for it, and I cant blame them."
Gee, I can. Switch and baitin' is fraud where I live - scutter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Read the comments below the article. According to one, there is an article that claims there was a memo sent from Best Buy headquarters to store managers telling them to force the bundles. If so, it really puts a different light on this thing.
- Groo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Chuckle, giggle.... Bwahahahaha!!!!
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28056
Just wait a bit, there are more memos to come. Not pretty either.
-Charlie - pondster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Here's the thing. All Retail is Evil. Take it from me, a 15 year veteran of retail management. I fortunatly got out and now I'm working as a sys admin, but Retail is evil plain and simple. Back in the 90's things were good, I was managing for Software Etc. (b4 they became gamestop) All Home Office cared about was getting numbers. Sales are key as in retail. But I found out if you do your own thing and keep the sales then upper management leaves you alone. I had tons of room to play with store setup and how I ran things, but we were in the top 10 in the country.
My experiance showed me that if you were honest with the customers, knew what you were talking about and never really pushed them to anything but suggested add ons then not only did you get the sales but the respect of the consumer. We grew an amazing amount of return customers, it also helps to remember their names (Which I taught my employees).
Like Life, Everything comes to respect. You need to respect people and they will respect you - unforunatly Best Buy has lost the respect because they have none for their bread and butter, the consumer. - fabri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Based on my experiences as a former employee and as a customer, in my opinion, Best Buy engages in some very shady and less than ethical sales tactics. The corporation will publicly say one thing, but tell their sales managers something different with the internal email system. It makes me wonder if the average consumer just doesn't care anymore about being treated fairly and honestly or has just given up any hope of big companies changing their practices.
- sabarsky, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1"Yeah, it is frightening to the higher ups. But to the guy working for $7 /hr behind the counter... he doesn't give two *****. How do I know? Because I am one. As long as I get paid, I don't care where people do their buying..."
have you heard the term "***** rolls downhill?" guess which part of the hill you're at? - jedinate, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0The bottom line is, yes this is a despicable practice, but not a single person that left a store, with a bundle was forced to buy it. As a consumer it is your right to say "No thanks I'll take my money elsewhere." If you walked out of the store having spent more than you wanted, maybe you need to wait. It is the whole "I gotta have one the day of the launch" mentality that makes retailers think they can get away with this crap.
Retail is evil, margin is everything, and when they only make 7 bucks on a $400 system they are gonna figure out a way to add on a $15 faceplate that you also make $7 on.
I've said this before, the biggest fear any retail manager has, is that you'll want to call corporate or his District Manager and complain, never walk out of a store mad without those phone numbers in hand (9 times out of 10 the manager will cave to your demands before letting yoo call his DM). - pondster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Retail is evil, margin is everything, and when they only make 7 bucks on a $400 system they are gonna figure out a way to add on a $15 faceplate that you also make $7 on."
This brings me back to my point, if they focused on treating their customers right then they wouldn't have to worry about that customer leaving with just the system (Which they make NO money on) and work on finding out how to get that customer back in the door - It's like the old addage - Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach him how to fish he eats for a lifetime - the same can be brought to retail - Force a sell on a customer you get a sale today, Create customer loyalty you get sales for a lifetime (well atleast a few years lol) - adml_shake, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1What the hell is wrong with you people? "well they wern't forced to buy it" thats not even the point! The fact that BB did this because they thought they could get away with screwing over their customer base. You think this is the only thing they have done this with? Hell no. I used to work there I read the internal E-mail, they ARE some of the most unethicle people I've ever seen. And to the ***** stick who was going on about how Best Buy is a Great comapany and prices their stuff fair, you obviously work for them or did at some point at time. You have saturday morning "training" writting all over you. I feel sorry for you if you bought into those brain washing session and didn't have enough will power to hang on to your soul. Open your eyes. Read some of your T-owe(i know it's not spelled right I but thats how is sounds)mail, and then you ***** tell me Best Buy is a fair and just company. They are the next Enron of the retail world.
- evanfrey, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I love how people says that they were "forced" in to buying the bundle. No one "forced" anyone. You could have been sane and told best buy to ***** off and waited a month or so. The problem is people want everything to be pro them. Thats not the real world. I am not in ANY way saying that best buy did right by thier customers, they obviously suck ass, I am saying that the choice to walk away, money in tow was YOURS. I know, I know "But I waited in line ALL NIGHT!" well, sucks for you. Welcome to the real world. I am waiting for 3 things to happen before I buy the 360. 1) for the price to drop and 2) for the bugs to be worked out and 3) for more games to come out. If you cant wait to get it so badly that you let some company ***** you up the ass and make you ask for more, then you shouldnt complain. Write a letter to the company. Take out an ad in a newspaper. Stop buying from best buy. But stop saying ANYone forced you to pay high prices. That was your choice when you pulled out your wallet and handed those assholes your hard earned money. Did they at least use lube?
- bob68k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0companies often times use this as a scam and knowingly can't afford paying back the rebates they themselves offer.
- hanicus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I find it hard to believe that people are on here defending Best Buy. People who waited in line for hours with the understanding that they would have a 1 in 40 to 1 in 50 chance of getting a 300 or 400 dollar system. After allowing these customers to wait for hours you then either half the odds, or double the cost? That is clearly a bait and switch tactic, and I am disappointed a big retailer like Best Buy would condone it. Among other reasons, this is a great example of why companies set fixed prices for consoles. If I were Microsoft selling these things a loss I would look into taking legal action against any companies that participated in this practice!!
- runner91786, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0No, I have always gotten my Best Buy rebates, even when I sent them late.
I have also worked for Best Buy before though, and they are very corrupt. Went to Comp Usa, and honestly its better but its still electronics retail, which sucks. Wouldnt want to do that for a living... - supafuzz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"It took me a while to get a response from a Best Buy corporate spokesman, but the company acknowledges that some stores acted inappropriately. It won't confirm the specific stores at which problems occurred. Draw your own conclusions about whether that's good customer PR."
If some stores acted inappropriatley by selling bundles only, why then are they advertising bundles only on their website? - Detour, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I absolutely loath Best Buy, not only are they on level of Wal-Mart when it comes to dishonesty and unfair controversial business practices, they are a huge GOP contributor. *uck Best Buy with a capital "F."
- DogHumpsMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0For those of you defending Best Buy's right to act in such a reprehensible manner, keep in mind that in many states, what they did is actually illegal. Yes, you have the right to turn around and walk away, but Best Buy or any other retailer doesn't have the right to misrepresent themselves in their advertising. People queued up to buy a product that was advertised at a certain price. Then they were told they couldn't have it at that price, but instead they had to buy bundled packages. When pressed, they said it was just a recommendation, even though people were actually turned away if they didn't want to shell out for accessories they didn't want or need. You can defend that tactic all you want, but I call ***** on it. If I'd waited in line, circular in hand to buy a $400 unit, only to be told I had to upgrade to some stupid package I don't want or need or I can go ***** myself, my first call when I got home would be to the NYS Attorney General's Office.
- mntpng, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It sounds like they are trying to shift blame to store managers. I thought store managers were simply doing what corporate execs' memo from higher up were telling them to do?
- Haroludo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I can see where both sides are coming from. The retailers are barely making $10-$15 on a console. So they are trying to recoup their low gross-margin with high margin items (cables, controllers, face plates ect.). Forcing people to buy the bundle is wrong, but it is even more wrong to tell people to protest by not buying what they want. Why? Because if someone stamps off refusing to buy the system, then SOMEONE ELSE WILL!
Best Buy can live without that person's money, there will always be someone else to buy the product, especially for the Xbox 360.
You wanna bitch and fight someone? Fight the opportunistic bastards who bought multiple systems so they could hawk it on eBay. I know that is they way capitalism works, but rather than hating BB, hate those greedy eBaying bastards! I respect those that waited in line to to get one. They practically earned it. When I finally get *ONE*, I will proudly flip off those ebay sellers thinking that they have gold mines! - samdu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0>Detour...
I think you'll find that most big, successful companies contribute money to both parties. It's called "covering your bases." - digital_ron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I have always hated Best Buy. This just gives me even more reason to hate them.
- digitalgopher, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0BB is totally ghetto. I've mostly always had horrible experiences with them. I'll give you an example that's somewhat unrelated to this particular story:
About three years ago I was in the san francisco best buy store and was on my way of purchasing almost $3500 worth of electronic equipment (this is before i learned how much they sucked so i was actually willing to spend my money there). I was buying a 51" hdtv, a sony receiver, speakers, cables, etc... all in one go. The sales man i was dealing with was 1) a complete moron and 2) a jack ass. At one point i was carrying several boxes in my hand (an av receiver, speaker boxes, and cables). the sales rep was just following me around the store to make sure he can get the credit on my $3500 sale. When i arrived at another product i wanted to purchase and asked for his assitance in either helping me carry some stuff to the counter or to help me get a cart, the sales man just said "you can do that yourself. it's not my job" as he pulled out his cell phone... I lost it. of course i know its not his job, but here i am - about to spend a lot of money in the store and am only asking him to help me take stuff to the counter or help me get a cart so that i don't have to make multiple trips from the checkout counter to the various aisles and he totally didn't care. it pissed me off because 1) he's adding no value as a sales rep (since most of them don't know jack *****) and 2) it's not like he's doing anything anyway - he's just following me around the store while i carry my boxes around.
moral of the story: many of the people that work at these places (and many times the retailers themselves) don't give a ***** about consumers.
before this incident, i had spent a lot of my money in BB. now i almost never go there and prefer to give my money to circuit city or some online retailer like... pricerightphoto (ha! just kidding). - autobahn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Best Buy = Evil.
There's nothing else that needs to be said. - Guy0510, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0We should boycott them like we are Sony!
- rmccs0x, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1cant people just wait a few weeks? good lord.
- dbxz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0my local bestbuy did this with the PSP here in canada... i was forced to buy a ***** hockey game just cause i wanted a PSP... (I hate hockey!) It was only 50 bux more but still it pissed me off soo much that i couldnt get the PSP without a stupid bundle that i returned it and waited untill they offered a non-bundle version...
- breakneckridge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0bust buy. digg
- CronicusX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Best. Buy. Sucks.
- 5blocksfree, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0subz3r0 wrote: dont call it price gouging there are more gamers then there are units have to find a way to cut the demand down somehow.
It is ABSOLUTELY price gouging. There is no other name for it. It wasn't done to remedy the high demand, it was done to maximize revenue, pure and simple. If Best Buy wanted to take the high road (something that seems rather elusive these days), they should have sold the stuff at the advertised price, by means of a lottery or some other method that would provide everyone interested with an equal chance to get one. - vonskippy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You've heard the saying "dumbass beware?", pretty much applies here. Show me someone that was forced to buy one of those bundles with a gun to their head and I'll have a bit of sympathy. For the rest of them, to f*cking bad - don't be so f*cking stupid next time.
- locojones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1HYPOCRITE ALERT!
Here are (1) consumers, (2) who purchased an electronics product from a retailer, (3) said retailer misrepresented the ultimate price of the item, and (4) attempted a bait & switch on the buyer.
This story is virtually indistinguishable on its facts than the Pricerite story, where only one customer was affected and everyone here went *****. Where are the calls for action to take down the retailer for their reprehensible sales tactics in this situation? Where are the Skype calls? Where are the DDoS attacks against BestBuy.com? Where are the faxes, and spam e-mails, and vampire bandwidth leeching sites? What happened to the holier than thou "we are the internet, we vindicate consumer rights" attitude?
All I see is a bunch of bitching. - MasterDwarf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Maybe Sony and Best Buy have some of the same board members? heheh
- timberfish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Could this be any more of a canned response? Who else is beginning to tire of the typical corporation methods of commit the crime and apologize later? Ugh!
- nogami, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What they should be doing is allowing people to return unwanted bundeled accessories for a full refund, but still keep the parts of the system they want...
- DrEbola, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Guys, bundling is not illegal and it's not cheating and it's not "stupid," it's a part of life. BB is doing what thousands and thousands of other companies do every day, which is charging a higher price to those who will pay a higher price to have the console early. If you don't want to pay up, then wait. You get to buy at the lower price, and the kids who are still addicted to playing video games will buy it at the higher price--that's what bundling is for.
- DrEbola, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1People are willing to pay different prices for the same product, many higher than the price at which the product actually sells. If you think "big corporations" are "screwing their customers" by forcing you to pay the price you're willing to pay, you're just disappointed that you didn't get away with getting a good deal out of them. Cry.
- 16x9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0My favorite line is in the apology...
> "In addition, we have taken appropriate measures
> to ensure this situation will not occur with future
> Xbox 360 promotions."
Note that this promise is specific to the 360 and won't prevent them from doing exactly the same thing with any other popular product they sale. - spikebuddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0People that bought that crap deserve what they get. No one forced anyone to stand in line and pay an ungodly price for a GAME MACHINE for God's sake. It's not like they aren't going to be making this thing in six months to a year. If people believed and wanted to buy in to the hype, that's what they get. I don't feel sorry for any of them. Like someone posted earlier, it's not like it's food and water for pity sakes. If people would quit the whole buying into the hype thing it would teach these corporate idiots a lesson. It's all about supply and demand.
- suMMx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0sure but what about the people that were left empty handed because they didnt have $600-900 they were demanding for the bundles? they still dont get a console and are sol
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