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Razer honoring unauthorized 90% off coupon code

Peripheral maker CEO says company will not cancel orders placed using the code, even though company stands to lose "insane amount" of money.

216 Comments

Computer peripheral maker Razer will honor an unauthorized coupon code it discovered this week that granted United Kingdom shoppers 90 percent off their orders. Writing on Facebook (via Polygon), Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan explained that Razer could legally cancel orders placed using the code, but won't because of its longstanding consumer-first policy.

No Caption Provided

"While we have the option of cancelling the orders legally, we’ve always had a customer-comes-first policy at Razer and in respect of this incident, we have decided to honor the orders that were placed using the unauthorized code by Razer fans buying single products for their own use," Tan wrote.

Honoring the 90 percent off code will result in Razer seeing an "insane amount of losses" due to products being sold significantly below costs, Tan said. Despite this, he explained that Razer wants to "do right by the community" and so will honor the codes.

"Our focus is on doing the right thing for our fans, the gamers and the community, not for resellers or users to profit from this," Tan said. "That’s not gaming, that’s not our deal."

Tan explained that it will take weeks--and months in some cases--to processes and ship all orders. This is due to the high volume of orders and the fact that many of the items users purchased were backordered to begin with.

"We appreciate everyone’s patience, and we thank all of our customers for their support. Game on," he wrote.

Razer recently launched its own gaming tablet, the Razer Edge. For more, check out GameSpot's extended coverage of the device.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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LordChen2

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Edited By LordChen2

With products failing quickly after their warranty expires, I sure as shit don't think it'll take them to long to earn back what they lost, poor dears.

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Kravyn81

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Edited By Kravyn81

@LordChen2 I'm still using my Razer Copperhead mouse I bought eight years ago.

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kargion

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@LordChen2 I have 5 razor products for over 2 years none have broken.

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LordChen2

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Edited By LordChen2

@kargion @LordChen2 As others have said - You're very lucky.


I bought the Lachesis mouse and Lycosa keyboard when they were new on the market.

Mouse laser died after 2 to 3 years.

Keyboard 'touch' buttons died a couple of years after purchase.


Moreover, I lost faith in Razer, mainly, because if you check Newegg, their mice have the highest 1 star percentage compared to other popular brands. Almost unanimously complaining about dead laser heads.

That was the last nail in their coffin, for me.

I enjoy other brands now.

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blackace

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Edited By blackace

@kargion @LordChen2 You're one of the lucky few then. No one is saying that every one of their products are going to break in less then 2 yrs. The fact that a large % of them do break over time is the main concern. There are people who still have their original XBox 360 and it has never RROD.

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Oozyrat

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Edited By Oozyrat

@blackace @kargion @LordChen2 I got my Razer Naga about a month ago. Works good for me and I know it's been a really short amount of time but I'm happy with it. I got it on sale at Best Buy and got a $12 warranty for 2 years that covers absolutely everything, can't really go wrong with that lol

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rice2555

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@LordChen2 People like to say things and not back up claims. Am I the only one that reads stuff like that post and thinks... "hmm, maybe he's just a disgruntaled customer in the minority opinion?"

Its perception bias, btw, since people are more likely to speak out when stuff goes wrong rather than when it works like it should.

Like kargion said, I've never had a problem with the gaming keyboard and mouse that I got from them, and those are not recent purchases.

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Avatar image for jakesnakeel
jakesnakeel

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The second Razer PR stunt this year disguised as a news story. The other was basically the same thing, ridiculously low prices on their products, but nothing in stock, and with severe restrictions.

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Fernin-Ker

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Fernin-Ker  Online

Most people's opinion of Razer is love or hate, but, say what you will, this is a straight up good guy move. Nice to see a company doing right by their community in any sense now a days.

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blackace

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@Fernin-Ker True, but I'm still curious as to how many people actually used that code.

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Goemons

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Edited By Goemons

I have a voucher :)

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deathblow3

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cant be that many or of course the would cancel this. 90% is a $900 discount

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rice2555

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@deathblow3 uh 90% discount, in $'s, is a function of how much you spent. So if you only spent, say, $20, you'd get a $16 discount. That is typically how discounts work.

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starcrafthenry

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@rice2555 @deathblow3 Maybe it's just me, but last time I checked, 90% of $20 is $18.

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shadowhunter0

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Edited By shadowhunter0

man I wish I had known about this

damn and it was in uk side

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System4Ever

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Hmm, nice move

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michyeosseo

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But let's admit it, the PR they get out of this is worth so much more than the money they lost.

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kamikazeespleen

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*checks date is not April 1st*


o_O

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cryingdevil63

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Well,considering how overpriced most Razer products are to begin with,things should even out with this for a bit.

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2bitSmOkEy

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Did this work for their Razer Edge product? D:

I'd buy one of those for like 30 percent off or something, but 90......

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blackrunie

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you know, there's consumer friendly and self-destructive.

i'd just:

decrease the percentage off to 20% and also offer an option to just cancel your offer.


being consumer friendly is great, but this is bending over too much.

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larsinii

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Edited By larsinii

@blackrunie You know they're not losing that much, if they were they would cancel everything. Probably a loss of like 10 bucks on average unless every single one of those orders was their new tablet or something....

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blackrunie

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@larsinii @blackrunie

do you even know what razor sells? 90% off their cheapest product is still around 50 bucks.

if i got a coupon for 90% off, i'd immediately, and many people with me, choose the highest end product they have.


so yes, i believe they did lose a lot of money over this.

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Prometheus

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That sounds crazy. First time as a consumer that I think a company is too consumer-friendly.

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purutrehan

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Edited By purutrehan

Well Razer is a company only for pure blood gamers and i am supporting it for this... Keep on Razer we are on your side...

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svaargod

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Ehm..not sure if...or if...

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Poison-tooth

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Edited By Poison-tooth

I use the same Razer Lachesis since 2008. Never had any problem with it. Game on!

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rrhammer

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Edited By rrhammer

"Our focus is on doing the right thing for our fans, the gamers and the community" You reading this EA/Activision/Sony/Microsoft? Send some corporate boys down to Razer HQ and have 'em take some notes.

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barrybarryk

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"honor the orders that were placed using the unauthorized code by Razer fans buying single products for their own use"

Yeah and how many of the people that used that code ordered one product lol

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laser00

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This seems a bit dodgy...

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PixelAddict

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Being "consumer first" is great when you are also "in control of coupon code generation".

Seriously, having been the marketing guy who generated coupon codes before, I just have to ask... how did this coupon fail happen?

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SecularSage

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Edited By SecularSage

This is why it's never a good idea to get into the coupons business if you're not a retailer. Retailers can generally afford to sell their items below cost as loss leaders because they make up the margins on other products.

Product manufacturers should never take such a silly risk. And they should definitely not feel obligated to honor coupons that they didn't authorize and that are being abused by people on Slickdeals or elsewhere. (It's common knowledge that a lot of the folks who take advantage of said deals do so so they can resell product -- in other words, so they can gouge Razer and then profit off it later while competing with Razer for sales!)

Were I part of Razer's management, I would have done the following:

1) Sent out an apology that explained that the coupon was in error and that coupon orders are being immediately cancelled and refunded, explaining that the coupon was offering products below cost and that it was being used to order products that were on backorder, etc.
2) Offered a settlement that cost me less to provide (60% off coupon on current product or a $5 Amazon gift card or something like that)

That sort of reaction would have appeased the real customers and silenced the whargarbl from SlickDeals folks. It would have been a win-win for a lot less money and headaches.

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deathblow3

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@SecularSage and you dont think makers have a mark up??? how would they make money if they didn't???

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PixelAddict

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Edited By PixelAddict

@SecularSage Don't need coupons if you can track sales through different retail outlets, but even then they are great tools to track sales traffic and help understand spikes in sales. (specific to source of sale)

Just have to be careful with them, that's all. If it shows as a legit coupon code, any business really has to feel like they must honor it or face a whole lot of negative PR.

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VBVCSHARP

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I'm typing this on a Razer keyboard. <3

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jinzo9988

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Meh, I'm not a Razer person. I bought a Diamondback a long time ago and wasn't impressed. Quite horrified actually. I don't know if their products have gotten better since then. I've got a Corsair mouse and keyboard that I'm loving.

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dalua360

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How is this possible ? I mean, how can someone create 90% coupon codes by mistake ? Something smells here...... smells like "leaked trailers" coming out all the time ! Think about it, if it's a leak or mistake, why is it so well done and produced ?

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snova9308

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wow...

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cogadh

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I think almost anyone who used this code would have completely understood their order being cancelled once it was known that they were unauthorized, but for Razer to actually honor it... that's class. Add Razer to that woefully short list of gaming-related companies that actually respect consumers.

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valium88

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This must be a marketing-stunt of some kind.

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Saketume

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@valium88 Most definitely a PR stunt.

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blakedaking

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Edited By blakedaking

@valium88 agree

@combs - it isnt confirmed how many they have sold at that coupon price so we cant assume how much they will lose. it could've been 10 before they figured it out for all we know


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comb5

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@blakedaking @valium88 They said that so many orders were made that it stalled their website and put most items into backorder. That sounds like a pretty big loss to me.

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