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...
Dec 2, 2005View in Crawl 4
subz3r0 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.
zerolaw wrote:"and to anyone who says what they did is illegal it really isn't at all. what they did sucks and is totally unfair to at least let the people who camped out over night know but it was totally within their right to do so. in the back of their add all the fine print covered their ass to do whatever they wanted. and even so right on the page with the 360s im pretty sure it said bundles may apply. im not 100% sure but i thought i remembered reading that when this whole issue started."What Best Buy did is ILLEGAL. It does not matter that people can walk away, or the fact that it is "unfair". Let's break this down. Best Buy printed an ad saying how much the XBox was going to cost. People showed up at the store to pay the advertised price. Next, Best Buy charged over the advertised price. This is where it became illegal. Now, if Best Buy chose to print an ad saying that the XBox was going to cost $500 and that was without anything because they felt they could sell the equipment at that price and make a profit, that's good for them. Nothing illegal. They can charge whatever they want to a consumer for a product, and the consumer has a choice whether or not to go to that company to purchase the product. That is perfectly fair-market economics. The illegal step in all this is advertising one price and charging a higher price.
Let me ask you this if Best buy did nothign wrong why are they trying so hard to make everything right. If they really didn't do anything wrong i dont see them trying so hard rectify the sitution. I mean i m not goign to stop shopping at best buy but that is messed up.
BestBuy should be force to give gift cards to everyone who who bought the bundles. And to the guy complaining about the ebayers: They are capitalizing on the demand of the consumers. It's not their fault people are willing to spend thousands on a stupid thing like a console. You can harp on them all you want, but in the end they made a $500-600 profit just for waiting in line. You gotta seize the opportunity if its there.*I'm not an ebayer, but I don't condemn their grasp of supply and demand*
If you stand in line for hours to buy something at a given price, it is actually proves that the item is priced too low. the fact that these systems are going for even more on ebay (the worlds best pricing service) substantiates that. If this truly is a case of bait-and-switch, BB could get in trouble in some jurisdictions, but I'll be really surprised to see it.
i don't really care about all the 360 stuff, but wanted to say what i hate about best buy is the way the always push warranty's on you no matter what you buy! i bought a mad catz 12 dollar controller once and they tryed to sell me a 7 dollar warranty!! I mean come on, whats next? Would you like to buy a .80 cent warranty on that 1.79 , 20 ounce Pepsi?? DUMB!!!!!
I am a manager for Best Buy, to clear a few things up ( or to try to )1) it was not a company plan to force bundles at all. In the big picture ( 750 stores ) only around 30ish were reported to have done anything like this. I know for a fact that only one store in my area ( DC baltimore ) did. 2) The reason the company is saying they won't do it again is not because they are afraid of anything , it's because they didn't want it to happen. Those few stores make us look bad, and make the people who visited those stores think that they were all like that. They also are trying to mend things with microsoft because we were a large part of the Xbox release. We don't want a few ( moron managers at select locations ) to ruin our image.3) "i don't really care about all the 360 stuff, but wanted to say what i hate about best buy is the way the always push warranty's on you no matter what you buy! i bought a mad catz 12 dollar controller once and they tryed to sell me a 7 dollar warranty!! I mean come on, whats next? " bro.. just say no thanks, it's that easy.. in that circumstance I wouldn't buy it either.4)"If you stand in line for hours to buy something at a given price, it is actually proves that the item is priced too low. the fact that these systems are going for even more on ebay (the worlds best pricing service) substantiates that.If this truly is a case of bait-and-switch, BB could get in trouble in some jurisdictions, but I'll be really surprised to see it." Agreed... if I owned my own business and got the xbox in , hell i'd have sold it for 1000$ and not let the ebay freaks make the profit... I'd take it for myself. But obviously the big retailers can't do that because of contracts and reputation... to bad.5)"BestBuy should be force to give gift cards to everyone who who bought the bundles. " Why? you can return the stuff you don't want.... ?6)"i work at best buy and just another example of how much management sucks there. their first f up was the manager who closed decided she would go outside and take down the names of everyone in line (we only had 50 here was more then that outside at the time) she told them to go home and come back in the morning and just show they are on the list. store closed everyone working there left and a new line formed. she decided to not put up a sold out notice a screwed over a whole new group of people who actually waited overnight (including 2 employees)" Holy cow... your manager is not a smart cookie... when i'm vice president remind me to fire her, LOL7) "Forced or not, the Best Buy commited FRAUD and did an ILLEGAL act under FEDERAL Law. Wheres the FTC in all of this?" Hmmm those select locations may have, but if corporate holds those stores accountable and shows attempts of this, and also can prove it was not the plan to do things this way, AND allows customers to come back and fix it ( by returning the items ) I think this shows they have done everything they can to make these few bad eggs right again. Not sure what else they can do...? 8)"Notice how they say that tey have taken measures to make sure that this type of thing won't happen "in future Xbox 360 promotions". What other 360 promotions? The major promotion is over, because if they tried this later when 360's are pleantiful they wouldn't sell a one. But in other words they still have left themselves the option to do it in other circumstance such as... say the PS3, or Revolution releases? I despise double talk, but I live in the USA where double talk is used everyday in every way, and morons fall for it all in droves. This is an empty promise/appology. It is simply a way to SOUND like they are sincerely sorry, when in fact all it means is that they actually won't promise not to do it again. Any thinking person should take this as a "screw you" from Best Buy, not an appology, or atonement of any kind." Wow, you really figured us out... I'm sure it's in the plan to do it again and again... * sigh * grow up friend.9) Most of the negative comments are just from random readers reading about the situation, a select few were actually part of this unfortunate incident. hopefully i've helped clear the truth a little... you can move along now , along to the next hate forum... get your hate out .. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
5blocksfreeDec 3, 2005
subz3r0 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.
chompyDec 4, 2005
The only people who shop at Best Buy anymore are the people who don't know any better.
kidgeniusDec 4, 2005
zerolaw wrote:"and to anyone who says what they did is illegal it really isn't at all. what they did sucks and is totally unfair to at least let the people who camped out over night know but it was totally within their right to do so. in the back of their add all the fine print covered their ass to do whatever they wanted. and even so right on the page with the 360s im pretty sure it said bundles may apply. im not 100% sure but i thought i remembered reading that when this whole issue started."What Best Buy did is ILLEGAL. It does not matter that people can walk away, or the fact that it is "unfair". Let's break this down. Best Buy printed an ad saying how much the XBox was going to cost. People showed up at the store to pay the advertised price. Next, Best Buy charged over the advertised price. This is where it became illegal. Now, if Best Buy chose to print an ad saying that the XBox was going to cost $500 and that was without anything because they felt they could sell the equipment at that price and make a profit, that's good for them. Nothing illegal. They can charge whatever they want to a consumer for a product, and the consumer has a choice whether or not to go to that company to purchase the product. That is perfectly fair-market economics. The illegal step in all this is advertising one price and charging a higher price.
chicomdkDec 5, 2005
Let me ask you this if Best buy did nothign wrong why are they trying so hard to make everything right. If they really didn't do anything wrong i dont see them trying so hard rectify the sitution. I mean i m not goign to stop shopping at best buy but that is messed up.
glidedonDec 5, 2005
oops<a class="user" href="http://donon.blogspot.com/2005/09/why-ill-never-shop-at-best-buy-again.html">http://donon.blogspot.com/2005/09/why-ill-never-shop-at-best-buy-again.html</a>
rohckyDec 5, 2005
BestBuy should be force to give gift cards to everyone who who bought the bundles. And to the guy complaining about the ebayers: They are capitalizing on the demand of the consumers. It's not their fault people are willing to spend thousands on a stupid thing like a console. You can harp on them all you want, but in the end they made a $500-600 profit just for waiting in line. You gotta seize the opportunity if its there.*I'm not an ebayer, but I don't condemn their grasp of supply and demand*
orangetikiDec 5, 2005
I always hated best buy, and I always will
drebolaDec 5, 2005
Two words:Atlas Shrugged.Think about that one, crybabies.
Closed AccountDec 6, 2005
If you stand in line for hours to buy something at a given price, it is actually proves that the item is priced too low. the fact that these systems are going for even more on ebay (the worlds best pricing service) substantiates that. If this truly is a case of bait-and-switch, BB could get in trouble in some jurisdictions, but I'll be really surprised to see it.
lucas05Dec 7, 2005
i don't really care about all the 360 stuff, but wanted to say what i hate about best buy is the way the always push warranty's on you no matter what you buy! i bought a mad catz 12 dollar controller once and they tryed to sell me a 7 dollar warranty!! I mean come on, whats next? Would you like to buy a .80 cent warranty on that 1.79 , 20 ounce Pepsi?? DUMB!!!!!
bbymgrDec 19, 2005
I am a manager for Best Buy, to clear a few things up ( or to try to )1) it was not a company plan to force bundles at all. In the big picture ( 750 stores ) only around 30ish were reported to have done anything like this. I know for a fact that only one store in my area ( DC baltimore ) did. 2) The reason the company is saying they won't do it again is not because they are afraid of anything , it's because they didn't want it to happen. Those few stores make us look bad, and make the people who visited those stores think that they were all like that. They also are trying to mend things with microsoft because we were a large part of the Xbox release. We don't want a few ( moron managers at select locations ) to ruin our image.3) "i don't really care about all the 360 stuff, but wanted to say what i hate about best buy is the way the always push warranty's on you no matter what you buy! i bought a mad catz 12 dollar controller once and they tryed to sell me a 7 dollar warranty!! I mean come on, whats next? " bro.. just say no thanks, it's that easy.. in that circumstance I wouldn't buy it either.4)"If you stand in line for hours to buy something at a given price, it is actually proves that the item is priced too low. the fact that these systems are going for even more on ebay (the worlds best pricing service) substantiates that.If this truly is a case of bait-and-switch, BB could get in trouble in some jurisdictions, but I'll be really surprised to see it." Agreed... if I owned my own business and got the xbox in , hell i'd have sold it for 1000$ and not let the ebay freaks make the profit... I'd take it for myself. But obviously the big retailers can't do that because of contracts and reputation... to bad.5)"BestBuy should be force to give gift cards to everyone who who bought the bundles. " Why? you can return the stuff you don't want.... ?6)"i work at best buy and just another example of how much management sucks there. their first f up was the manager who closed decided she would go outside and take down the names of everyone in line (we only had 50 here was more then that outside at the time) she told them to go home and come back in the morning and just show they are on the list. store closed everyone working there left and a new line formed. she decided to not put up a sold out notice a screwed over a whole new group of people who actually waited overnight (including 2 employees)" Holy cow... your manager is not a smart cookie... when i'm vice president remind me to fire her, LOL7) "Forced or not, the Best Buy commited FRAUD and did an ILLEGAL act under FEDERAL Law. Wheres the FTC in all of this?" Hmmm those select locations may have, but if corporate holds those stores accountable and shows attempts of this, and also can prove it was not the plan to do things this way, AND allows customers to come back and fix it ( by returning the items ) I think this shows they have done everything they can to make these few bad eggs right again. Not sure what else they can do...? 8)"Notice how they say that tey have taken measures to make sure that this type of thing won't happen "in future Xbox 360 promotions". What other 360 promotions? The major promotion is over, because if they tried this later when 360's are pleantiful they wouldn't sell a one. But in other words they still have left themselves the option to do it in other circumstance such as... say the PS3, or Revolution releases? I despise double talk, but I live in the USA where double talk is used everyday in every way, and morons fall for it all in droves. This is an empty promise/appology. It is simply a way to SOUND like they are sincerely sorry, when in fact all it means is that they actually won't promise not to do it again. Any thinking person should take this as a "screw you" from Best Buy, not an appology, or atonement of any kind." Wow, you really figured us out... I'm sure it's in the plan to do it again and again... * sigh * grow up friend.9) Most of the negative comments are just from random readers reading about the situation, a select few were actually part of this unfortunate incident. hopefully i've helped clear the truth a little... you can move along now , along to the next hate forum... get your hate out .. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.