Egghead : 256MB Scandel/HotDeal Continued.

[EmailNBheleu]

Just read something really rotten over at another forum.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=56293&pagenumber=8
note I took out the explicitives
----------------

MPeeee3

XXXXX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i just called 1-800-egghead cause i was feeling a bit impatient, hit 5, talked to a representative almost immediatley and i tell i'd like to check the status on 2 of my orders (i placed 2 orders of 4 sticks in each order), shes asks for order number...then name...then address for verification, then this is what she says:

oh, this is dealing with one of the products we had a problem with the other day, yadda yadda yadda, we had it priced at $34.85 yadda yadda, it should have been about $350 yadda yadda yadda, our team has been working on this all last night and you should have received a letter but this is pretty much how it goes: yaddda yadda we will be be fully refunding your money yadda yadda, the agreement you agreed allows egghead to take back any order yadda yadda yadda...blah blah blah, im sorry, but we're still in the process of cancelling all the orders and you should still receive that letter later. then she says, you said something about another order? then i said ya, but it was the same product and she appologized once again....


XXXX! wheres my 2gigs of ram for $300!?!???? XXXX!

this is actually my phone call so don't be saying i made this up, as of my current order status online, this is what it looks like still:


Order Number 1945xxxx
32X64-8 256MB SYNC PC100 168PINMEM3.3V 100MHZ DIMM
Sep 25, 2000, 4:24 am PDT Order placed.
Sep 25, 2000, 4:25 am PDT MasterCard ending in xxxx charged $146.35.
Sep 25, 2000, 5:10 am PDT Order sent to our warehouse for processing and fulfillment.
Sep 24, 2000, 5:00 pm PDT Order receipt acknowledged by warehouse.

notice i was an early buyer @ 4:24am

i just hope i was skipped on the list and she had the incorrect info and that i'll still receive my chips, im crossing everything i can find, got all my fingers crossed, toes crossed and if i had 2 dicks, i have em crossed as well, XXXX! ME!

o yea, she said something about all orders being sent to wherehouse are being returned too regarding this product

 

[EmailNBheleu]

Previous thread to this was in HotDeals!
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?start=105&catid=40&threadid=240675

 

[Maverick215]

thought that this would be interesting to you crazy kidz who are trying to rip off poor little innocent egghead.com

Anonemouse

Charter Member Date Posted: Sep/26/2000 1:45 PM

Sep 25, 2000, 6:31 am PDT Order placed.
Sep 25, 2000, 6:32 am PDT Visa ending in **** charged $***.**.
Sep 25, 2000, 6:40 am PDT Order sent to our warehouse for processing and fulfillment.
Sep 24, 2000, 5:00 pm PDT Order receipt acknowledged by warehouse.
Sep 26, 2000 Order shipped via UPS Next Day Air, tracking *************. Packing Slip enclosed.


yah!




that's from fatwallet
see ya kidz

 

[tgillitzr]

How many people's credit cards were actually charged?

I know egghead order status says they all were charged, but mine has not been charged. Call up you CC company and ask them if there has been any charges from egghead.

 

[Rogue]

And if it were your business and you f*cked up like that and people raped you, you'd do the same d@mn thing. STFU and quit whining!

 

[office boy]

Heh heh... some things never change... you can never bring a hot deal gone bad into OT...
oh the memories...

 

[plasmator]

My Card was charged.

On the "taking advantage" of the businesses....

It's long past time that businesses be held accountable for their mistakes...Posting a price like that draws a lot of attention very quickly, something no banner ad could hope to do.
Scams like this are pulled all the time, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they're occasionally done on purpose....anything that gets your name out there is good advertising.

The Better Business Beaureau exists to keep things like this from happening, and I'd encourage anyone who doesn't get an order filled to file a complaint with them.

I ordered no more than I could use for my personal box, (3 sticks), and I'd really like to see the price honored. Once the price was removed, they have an argument, but if I see a price, I click on the price, I'm billed for the price, I should get that price....

Seems fair enough to me.

Oh, and if they'd spend their advertising budget pulling stunts like this, then Actually Following through on them, they'd find themselves with far more customers than banner ads and TV commercials can bring them.

All IMHO, of course...take it our leave it.

 

[KarsinTheHutt]

It was obviously a mistake, so I think they are justified in cancelling those orders. I hope it wasn't an advertising stunt. Pulling crap like that will only piss off potential customers.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

The Actual Following Through reminds me of the old joke:

"So, how much do we stand to make on these sales?"

"We're losing $10 on each one, but we can make up for it in volume!"

 

[Windogg]

Who cares? Take your bitching home to mommy.

To quote RD: "Ferengi"

Windogg

 

[plasmator]

but that's just it.


By losing money on this RAM, they could draw in thousands of return customers who liked shopping at egghead because they got that great deal.

Keep the customer happy and your business will thrive.

 

[KarsinTheHutt]

But I think a lot of us go where the price AND the service is good. If Egghead made me go to all that trouble of placing an order and then retracted it, I would be less inclined to shop there.

I don't think they planned to lose money. Selling it for 10% of retail is just too rediculous.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

If they got "thousands" of customers (call it 5,000), that would mean they lost a quick $750K or so on the deal. If that sounds like a successful promotion to you, please tell me the name of the company you work for so I can make a mental note to avoid buying stock! I for one would be no more likely to patronize a store just because they were prone to pricing errors.

 

[EmailNBheleu]

Well I just confirmed it with my CC company, I was billed!!!
Also, my order status still says, "Order receipt acknowledged by warehouse."

Now if I could just get those tracking numbers I'd be in business with something else to monitor.

 

[plasmator]

"If they got "thousands" of customers (call it 5,000), that would mean they lost a quick $750K or so on the deal. "

To this, I concede.

I'd still love to see a shipping number tho, ya know?

Some things just are too good to be true...

 

[shamu]

I guess it depends on how you look at it. They could have turned the negative into a positive and just chocked the loss to advertising dollars, as well as gained thousands of new actual customers. 750k is a drop in the bucket for advertising. I remember back when buy.com made several blunders, and lost at least that much. But you know what, I consider myself a loyal customer there now, and pay full price on items there I never would have spent if their blunders didn't bring me there in the first place.

 

[EmailNBheleu]

Aye if my memory comes, chances are I'll be building a new system and will glance over their prices too. Mainly will be looking at getting a 19"+ monitor, motherboard, and case. Got a few cheap video cards laying around with a keyboard and mouse. It'll be nice to have a second system with a GB of RAM. Heh, who am I foolin'. That's going in my current system. My Corsair CAS2 256MB chip can be for a second system. My current one was meant to be a server. Tyan S1837UANG board

 

[Eeks]

This would not be effective adverstising at all. Buy.com and a bunch of other online stores that tried the "Loss leader" modus of business are finding that the only thing they lead in is losses. Their mistakes, their low prices brought in cherry pickers mainly. There was an article about this on CNET the other day.

 

[Eeks]

This would not be effective adverstising at all. Buy.com and a bunch of other online stores that tried the "Loss leader" modus of business are finding that the only thing they lead in is losses. Their mistakes, their low prices brought in cherry pickers mainly. There was an article about this on CNET the other day.

 

[Soybomb]

Whadda ya mean like the

<< WMC's >>

Red?
They are WMC's.....whiney memory children hehe.........
Besides I think the mods locked the thread and told them to come here knowing what would happen
.....who says the mods don't have a sense of humor?

 

[kranky]

I agree that honoring a mispriced item does not lead to customer &quot;loyalty&quot;. Sure, people say that when they want 256MB of RAM for $34.85. But what do they do - the next thing they buy, they want at the lowest price.

I have a feeling that these companies are done honoring these massive pricing mistakes that get caught quickly. There's been enough business done on the net for these companies to realize that the loyalty factor counts for squat. As Eeks pointed out, &quot;Loss leader&quot; tactics work in a B&amp;M store - that's been proven. It doesn't work at all on the net.

 

[EmailNBheleu]

May not work on the net, but... hmmmm... got me there.


BTW, where's that CNET article. I'd like to read it. Gonna go look for it now.

 

[randomlinh]

you can't complain if you don't get the damn thing.

anyway, has anyone checked the online stats??? My orders have disappeared

 

[Russ]

<< just chocked the loss to advertising dollars, as well as gained thousands of new actual customers >>



Right, like any of the whiners would actually ever buy anything again; unless, of course, it was another typo.

BTW, my fifty pieces arrived UPS today.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Windogg]

BTW, my fifty pieces arrived UPS today.

REALLY?!?!? YOU TOO???? I got 10 sticks sitting right beside me right now.

Windogg