My take on BestBuy's mistake

If they cancel these orders, it would damage company image. That's why they gave people gift cards before.

But SC2 is just a $55 order, and $50(55-5) price difference for the mistake. Giving away $20 gift cards is quite close to $50 (not thousands compared to HDTV).

So they probably (not surely) would honor the order, but only one copy per order. That way everyone's happy.

If they cancel these orders, it would damage company image. That's why they gave people gift cards before.

But SC2 is just a $55 order, and $50(55-5) price difference for the mistake. Giving away $20 gift cards is quite close to $50 (not thousands compared to HDTV).

So they probably (not surely) would honor the order, but only one copy per order. That way everyone's happy.

My take is that I better get the 50 copies of this crap game I paid for so I can resell them on ebay.

Bioshock called the rep before I could order :(

Considering all the other things they sell and how many consumers aren't gamers, it wouldn't hurt their image in the slightest.

If they cancel these orders, it would damage company image. That's why they gave people gift cards before.

But SC2 is just a $55 order, and $50(55-5) price difference for the mistake. Giving away $20 gift cards is quite close to $50 (not thousands compared to HDTV).

So they probably (not surely) would honor the order, but only one copy per order. That way everyone's happy.

My take is that I better get the 50 copies of this crap game I paid for so I can resell them on ebay.

2-10-08

I can't believe people expect Best Buy to honor this. Now if it was say marking something as $45 instead of $55, yeah that is only a $10 loss per item sold, and people would more than likely only order one, but when the price mistake is $50 per unit and some people ordered upward of six copies that is $300 for one person. Best Buy, Blizzard, and Activision would lose to much money to honor the purchases.

They can't be sued you're all wrong too bad so sad end of story.

They have a policy that covers incidents like this. They don't have to and they won't honor the orders.

they could be sued then if they put something up for a price and people buy it then they say you have to pay 50 more dollarsKevinButlerVP

Nope.

The only way Best Buy can be "sued" is if they charge your credit card for the full $60 when they posted a price of $5. If they cancel your order, or update the pricing saying "you need to pay the other $55 or we will refund your $5" they are fully within their rights. It's like if I give you an estimate for a car repair of $100, and when I inspect the car I find out you have $1000 worth of damage. If I do the repair without consulting you, yes, I'm in trouble, if I call you and say "listen, I can refund your $100, or you can pay another $900", I haven't done anything wrong.

Do some people really expect them to honor this.:|

It was such an obvious glitch that people knowingly took advantage of.

It would be funny though if they send special emails to the people that tried to order 50+ copies that more or less said ****** you.

they do it, because it attracts people to there site, which could get them to buy other things

Do some people really expect them to honor this.:|

It was such an obvious glitch that people knowingly took advantage of.

It would be funny though if they send special emails to the people that tried to order 50+ copies that more or less said ****** you.

dercoo

It always amazes me that people commit fraud then expect they should be compensated, or able to sue, when a company stops them. People are on here posting about their plans to abuse a glitch in an automated system to purchase 50+ copies of a game, then fence the fraudulently obtained goods on eBay. Guys, you're discussing a felony. Things like returns, price matching, etc... are customer services offered in order to attract shoppers, they're not guaranteed by law, and they're certainly NOT required to help you steal from them.

It can certainly damage the store's image but there is no grounds on which to sue them or bring some kind of lawsuit up.

I know in Canada, FutureShop(a division of Best Buy) made a very large error on the price of xbox's once. They were having a promotion where the first 5 people to buy an Xbox Elite get it for $150 however because of some error, the price didn't end after 5 ppl bought it. I immediately snapped up a large number but in the end my card was charged nothing and they apologized for it as an error. However, they didn't just offer an apology for me, they also gave me a coupon code good for 50% off in the online store.

In the end if the store wants to offer some kind of giftcard or something its up to them though.

[QUOTE="dercoo"]

Do some people really expect them to honor this.:|

It was such an obvious glitch that people knowingly took advantage of.

It would be funny though if they send special emails to the people that tried to order 50+ copies that more or less said ****** you.

subrosian

It always amazes me that people commit fraud then expect they should be compensated, or able to sue, when a company stops them. People are on here posting about their plans to abuse a glitch in an automated system to purchase 50+ copies of a game, then fence the fraudulently obtained goods on eBay. Guys, you're discussing a felony. Things like returns, price matching, etc... are customer services offered in order to attract shoppers, they're not guaranteed by law, and they're certainly NOT required to help you steal from them.

[QUOTE="dercoo"]

Do some people really expect them to honor this.:|

It was such an obvious glitch that people knowingly took advantage of.

It would be funny though if they send special emails to the people that tried to order 50+ copies that more or less said ****** you.

It always amazes me that people commit fraud then expect they should be compensated, or able to sue, when a company stops them. People are on here posting about their plans to abuse a glitch in an automated system to purchase 50+ copies of a game, then fence the fraudulently obtained goods on eBay. Guys, you're discussing a felony. Things like returns, price matching, etc... are customer services offered in order to attract shoppers, they're not guaranteed by law, and they're certainly NOT required to help you steal from them.

[QUOTE="ferret-gamer"][QUOTE="subrosian"]

It always amazes me that people commit fraud then expect they should be compensated, or able to sue, when a company stops them. People are on here posting about their plans to abuse a glitch in an automated system to purchase 50+ copies of a game, then fence the fraudulently obtained goods on eBay. Guys, you're discussing a felony. Things like returns, price matching, etc... are customer services offered in order to attract shoppers, they're not guaranteed by law, and they're certainly NOT required to help you steal from them.

VideoGameGuy

They cant cancel mine. The balance was took out of my gift card already.

The same thing happened a few months ago and they just cancelled everyone's orders.

[QUOTE="VideoGameGuy"][QUOTE="ferret-gamer"] how exactly is it fraud? best buy advertised on their site that starcraft 2 was on sale for $5, so people saw the deal and bought it. Perhaps you can explain to us how them advertising a game at $5 and people buying it is fraudulently stealing the items. They never, claimed, said, nor gave any plausible reason to believe that it was a glitch or exploit, they did however say it was on sale. ferret-gamer

[QUOTE="ferret-gamer"]

[QUOTE="VideoGameGuy"] I think any reasonable person would realize it was a mistake and wouldn't try to exploit an OBVIOUS mistake by trying to order 50 copies. Maybe i just live in a dream world where people have more sense.VideoGameGuy

[QUOTE="VideoGameGuy"][QUOTE="ferret-gamer"] how exactly is it fraud? best buy advertised on their site that starcraft 2 was on sale for $5, so people saw the deal and bought it. Perhaps you can explain to us how them advertising a game at $5 and people buying it is fraudulently stealing the items. They never, claimed, said, nor gave any plausible reason to believe that it was a glitch or exploit, they did however say it was on sale. ferret-gamer

1. That's a straw-man argument. STEAM has gigantic ads discussing their yearly sale, it's all over both their site and the STEAM software as a sale. The software discounts have also clearly been marked as such (showing the full retail price, the discounted price and the discount percentage) and the time frame for the sale is clearly detailed. Nothing on the Best Buy site comes close to that, nor is it something that has been "advertised", they posted the webpage for Starcraft II preorders, everything else was purely accidental.

2. Best Buy has an automated pricing failure. If you buy a copy or two of the game for personal use, it's easy to believe that you are doing so because you saw a great price. However, if you buy 50+ copies of the game as an individual, with the intent to sell them on eBay, it's obvious that you are aware an error has occurred and are attempting to abuse it. Your action (creating an insanely large transaction for an individual, anyone normally buying such a quantity would get it from a wholesaler) demonstrates an intent to abuse their system.

3. While Best Buy won't prosecute the offenders (since the mistake will be caught, no damage will occur, defeating the point of seeking out Fraud charges in a Civil case) keep in mind that the laws is on their side. You have people who are AWARE there is a mistake, buy a huge number of copies of a game, have an INTENT to resell for PERSONAL PROFIT and are causing OBVIOUS DAMAGE to Best Buy in doing so.... that's open and shut fraud.

-

People buying games for personal use on STEAM during an intentional sale is a legitimate transaction. People abusing a pricing error for personal gain (i.e. buying a bunch of copies of Starcraft and fencing them on eBay) is clear cut fraud. You can go to jail for it, you can be sued for it, and while BB won't bother, it amazes me the number of people who don't even consider what they're doing *wrong*, let alone realize it's a *crime*. Would you take a box of Starcraft II games that fell off the back of a truck? Do you go into a store with a barcode printer and re-label everything to $5?

They aren't going to honor this glitch, and they shouldn't. I saw this StarCraft II deal earlier, and I didn't order one copy, since I knew it was an error and it was going to be fixed. It's not like StarCraft 2 has been released. Best Buy doesn't even have to carry the product if they choose not to. They are just a store, and this was an online error. It's bound to happen all the time, and it does. Imagine owning a business guys, and you will figure out the right thing here. Try to take a step back and look at this situation from all angles, and look into similar cases on BestBuy, Gamestop.com, EBgames.com, Ebay, Amazon.com, etc.

I've seen this before with various companies online. These companies have rights and protection too...as much as some consumers don't like it.:(

Some people already posted they would just buy them to sell them to others. I would recommend we all use our computers and a search engine to see how these other cases turned out. Instead of arguing with me, just look at the cases.

Sure, it would have been nice if this was legit, but it's no big deal. It's not like anyone here actually lost their money.

This actually already happened with some HDTV's being sold online at BestBuy.com, and they just gave refunds on the orders, which is their right.

I'm not one to protect or defend BIG BUSINESS either, I'm just reasonable. There is a very strong sense of entitlement some consumers seem to have, and business' large and small have some rights as well.

Bioshock called the rep before I could order :(

Foliage-King

[QUOTE="VideoGameGuy"][QUOTE="ferret-gamer"] So by that logic everyone who has been taking advantage of the steam sales where games were 90% off were commiting fraud because it is obviously common sense that no store would ever put up such outrageous discounts.

ferret-gamer

The game hasn't come out already and you think stores are going to sell it for $5? :|

[QUOTE="ferret-gamer"][QUOTE="VideoGameGuy"] Oh come on, seriously? Ragnarok1051

The game hasn't come out already and you think stores are going to sell it for $5? :|

[QUOTE="Ragnarok1051"]

[QUOTE="ferret-gamer"] what? so its ok for one store to have sales but not another? That is baseless discrimination.ferret-gamer

The game hasn't come out already and you think stores are going to sell it for $5? :|

[QUOTE="ferret-gamer"][QUOTE="Ragnarok1051"]

The game hasn't come out already and you think stores are going to sell it for $5? :|

Ragnarok1051

I notice Best Buy makes a lot of mistakes.

I remember a few months ago that there was an HDTV or something like that selling for dirt cheap. :P

[QUOTE="Ragnarok1051"][QUOTE="ferret-gamer"] most likely not, but that still does not constitute accusations of fraud. Just because a deal seems too good to be true it doesn't mean the people buying it are fraudulently exploiting a mistake.ferret-gamer