UPDATE: Provantage WILL honor their pre-order 6800 price

[artemicion]

I (and a bunch of other people it seems) just filled the most dissastisfied report possible with resellerratings.com, and encourage everybody else screwed over to do so also.

I also discovered you can file complaints directly to the FTC, which I believe others should too if they feel as burned about this as I do. If it's not illegal now, it should be in the future, and I'm sure at the very least if enough people complain, they will get some nice friendly e-mails from the FTC.

Here's a link:
http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm
If you go there, there's an option on the left menu for "File a complaint"
When you file the complaint, it'll ask for information on the company, which can all be found here:
http://www.provantage.com/buy-xcontact-shopping.htm

Yes, if I could fill out the form for you, I would

If anybody knows of any other good ratings/complaint sites I can vent to, I WANT to know.

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: dud

The facts (as I read them) of this sad story are:

1. Company made offer to sell X at Y (preorder) price.
2. You and others accepted said offer gleefully.
3. Later, company changes offer because of an increase in their supplier's cost, BUT still gives you the chance to accept or deny it. ( I find it funny how MANY people posted many times between (2) and (3) above wondering if it could be possible for this to be real - only to be disappointed.
4. All hell breaks loose because you didn't get your way.

ok, let's analyze the facts as told by the spin doctor and pay attention to the subtle twists of meaning
it introduces:

1. Company made offer to sell X at Y (preorder) price

Yes, you said it yourself, the company made the offer, and while it may not be legally
binding, no retailer worth a spit would even consider backing out without proper cause.
The preorder comment is not relevant for this point.

2. You and others accepted said offer gleefully.

Correct again, but no need to add "gleefully", actually it might have been out of boredom.

3. Later, company changes offer because of an increase in their supplier's cost, BUT still gives you the chance to accept or deny it. ( I find it funny how MANY people posted many times between (2) and (3) above wondering if it could be possible for this to be real - only to be disappointed.

"Later, comany changes offer" - do you realize what you just said ? wtf, they can't just do that !
"Because of an increase in supplier's cost", eh? I guess their supplier rasied the price to 450 now ?
In any case, this is not even relevant, once the offer was made and accepted, it is pretty much
like a future contract to buy the item, and it should not be allowed to changed on a whim.

4. All hell breaks loose because you didn't get your way.

How about this: "All hell breaks loose because greedy company wanted to make more money
by screwing over its would be customers". But in the end even this company will realize it's
not really good business to do that, the comapny itself will end up as the biggest loser.

 

[Johnbear007]

The only beef I have left with this company is that they still have a hold on my credit card and I can't use it to buy the cards somewhere else ( I use a very low limit CC for stuff like this, just so I can have CC type protection) So this is pretty annoying.

 

[Johnbear007]

Just checked out the reseller ratings thread.


Perhaps someone should e-mail them a link lol. Looks like their decision is going to cost them more than honoring the price would have.

Instead of all these bad reviews they would have had a bunch of new glowing reviews. They 6 months rating is now down to 5.77

 

[BuckNaked]

I am not going to debate the bait and switch semantics as was posted earlier, but I do think some of the bitching here is justified... I think it would be one thing if Provantage bumped the price up to the MSRP of $399 saying that PNY changed the pricing... Maybe even feel decent if they offered to knock off $20 to make everyone feel good, and look good to the customers in the process...

But bump the price up to $448? Sounds more like Ebay rather than an established retailer... If I was a retailer and had to purchase product at a price that I would have to sell for higher than its MSRP, I just wouldn't carry that particular line... I think of all the different ways Provantage could have handled this, they chose the worst possible option. It makes them look pretty bad in my opinion.

 

[DefRef]

Just to play Devil's Advocate, let's imagine if it went down like this:

1. Provantage places an wholesale pre-order with PNY to get GTs for $300. They price them at $340 on their site and the orders roll in.

2. PNY is getting slammed with orders, so they turn around and tell Provantage that they're gonna raise the wholesale price to $380-$400, take it or leave it.

3. Prov is now in a bind, cuz if they fulfill at the original price, they'll lose maybe $50 for EACH card (times 200 orders, if not way more, and that's a $10,000 markdown), so they have to choose between:

a) Eating the difference, with the result being a huge loss and probably not much future business as the herd roams back to Newegg or wherever the next hot deal will come from.

b) Invoking their clearly stated policy about price hikes, tell people it's either pay up or cut bait, losing little money, but buying a lot of grief.

c) Sell the cards at cost, making no profit on a highly-allocated at this time product, with no guarantee that the trade of the profit margin would be rewarded with future patronage from the buyers of this one deal.

Hmmm....if these premises are sound, it appears they chose the worst possible option (no profit AND angry customers) and it doesn't add up yet either. Hmmm....

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: DefRef
Just to play Devil's Advocate, let's imagine if it went down like this:

1. Provantage places an wholesale pre-order with PNY to get GTs for $300. They price them at $340 on their site and the orders roll in.

2. PNY is getting slammed with orders, so they turn around and tell Provantage that they're gonna raise the wholesale price to $380-$400, take it or leave it.

3. Prov is now in a bind, cuz if they fulfill at the original price, they'll lose maybe $50 for EACH card (times 200 orders, if not way more, and that's a $10,000 markdown), so they have to choose between:

a) Eating the difference, with the result being a huge loss and probably not much future business as the herd roams back to Newegg or wherever the next hot deal will come from.

b) Invoking their clearly stated policy about price hikes, tell people it's either pay up or cut bait, losing little money, but buying a lot of grief.

c) Sell the cards at cost, making no profit on a highly-allocated at this time product, with no guarantee that the trade of the profit margin would be rewarded with future patronage from the buyers of this one deal.

Hmmm....if these premises are sound, it appears they chose the worst possible option (no profit AND angry customers) and it doesn't add up yet either. Hmmm....

Yeah, it sounds like someone made a poor decision. Also, how likely do you think it is that PNY would charge the same price to vendors as they do consumers? I mean, does that make sense? If you are going to do that why sell to vendors at all, and on top of that any vendor that bought from you would be stupid, because they would have to know that no one is going to pay 50$ over MSRP when they can get it for MSRP right from the manufacturer.

IF PNY decided to charge them that much, they were stupid to not just cancel their order with PNY.

 

[FluxCap]

Can anyone prove if this was really honored?

 

[edumacated81]

Mine was honered. And I believe a few others from TX had theirs make it through.

It's ironic, but obviously I'm not complaining.


:beer:

 

[rms]

Looks like I slipped through the cracks at the $345 price They gave me a tracking #, should be here the 28th. Whew!!

rms

 

[SynthDude2001]

I got mine in today!

First run through 3DMark03 gave me a score of 10566...and I haven't even tried overclocking it yet! Needless to say, I'm quite pleased.

 

[DefRef]

My order still says "In Progress". Huh?

 

[aldamon]

Well, my 6800 GT came from Accupc and it did come with Far Cry. I think they're out of stock now though.

 

[DefRef]

WTF?!?!??! They're now listing it for sale at $339.67 ?!?!? Or is it really $429.24 ?!?!?

Crazy!

 

[Johnbear007]

Well, I tired to order agian but it cannot be added to the cart. They must be messing with it.

 

[royalx21]

The part is not even on their listings if you look for it, only the PNY 6800GT at the $429 price or whatever is.

 

[wolve]

It looks like Provantage is honoring this deal afterall. I got the following e-mail today from them...

Re: Order Number xxxxxxx


Dear PROVANTAGE Customer,

As the result of a series of spirited negotiations between PROVANTAGE and
PNY, we are able to offer those PROVANTAGE customers who placed a backorder
for the GeForce 6800 GT (#PNYV03P) the original price of $339.67. This
price is exclusive to those PROVANTAGE customers that had placed a
backorder, and our Marketing Department has worked diligently to have PNY
honor that price to those customers. The product cannot be ordered online,
and you will have to contact PROVANTAGE Sales at 800-336-1166 to place your
order. Simply offer your previous order number to a PROVANTAGE Sales
Representative to have them reactivate your order. Inventory will be
available for shipment around August 20, 2004.

This is not a marketing gimmick. We simply have negotiated this deal to
ensure that PNY honors its commitments to our PROVANTAGE customers. Only
original backordered quantities will be honored at the $339.67 price. Any
additional quantities of this part number added to your order will be
included at the higher price.

Again, we would like to extend our apologies for this unexpected increase
from PNY. If this price increase was at all foreseeable, we would have
taken measures to prevent any inconvenience to our customers.

This is hard to believe, but it they are going to honor the orders placed at the $339.67 price, then I'm cancelling my other orders for the card.

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: wolve
It looks like Provantage is honoring this deal afterall. I got the following e-mail today from them...

Re: Order Number xxxxxxx


Dear PROVANTAGE Customer,

As the result of a series of spirited negotiations between PROVANTAGE and
PNY, we are able to offer those PROVANTAGE customers who placed a backorder
for the GeForce 6800 GT (#PNYV03P) the original price of $339.67. This
price is exclusive to those PROVANTAGE customers that had placed a
backorder, and our Marketing Department has worked diligently to have PNY
honor that price to those customers. The product cannot be ordered online,
and you will have to contact PROVANTAGE Sales at 800-336-1166 to place your
order. Simply offer your previous order number to a PROVANTAGE Sales
Representative to have them reactivate your order. Inventory will be
available for shipment around August 20, 2004.

This is not a marketing gimmick. We simply have negotiated this deal to
ensure that PNY honors its commitments to our PROVANTAGE customers. Only
original backordered quantities will be honored at the $339.67 price. Any
additional quantities of this part number added to your order will be
included at the higher price.

Again, we would like to extend our apologies for this unexpected increase
from PNY. If this price increase was at all foreseeable, we would have
taken measures to prevent any inconvenience to our customers.

This is hard to believe, but it they are going to honor the orders placed at the $339.67 price, then I'm cancelling my other orders for the card.

Wow..... Well, if my order at ZZF doesn't pan out, I will be giving provantage a call. I didn't get this e-mail yet however. Did anyone else?

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

As jadedly skeptical as I am, my initial feeling is that this is a hoax. What makes me think it's true is that they left the old price for the card up. You'd really only do that if you needed to keep the item number and price in your system for something like this. But until I get an email or talk to someone there, I'm not getting my hopes up.

 

[Fant]

I sure hope this isnt true because I ended up buying the cart at output for $411 shipped.

 

[BuckNaked]

Anyone call and see if this is legit yet? I haven't received an email on it yet...

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: Buck_Naked
Anyone call and see if this is legit yet? I haven't received an email on it yet...

Phone hours were conveniently up just before that was posted. I tried calling anyway and they direct you to the website.I'm getting to work right as they open tomorrow, so I'll call first thing and confirm or deny.

 

[ColdBrew]

Well, I hope this is true. I still don't have one.

I haven't received an e-mail about this either. But I never received one when they changed the price. I had to call them...

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

It's real. Just reordered.

 

[zlooop]

No freaking way. I love the internet community. Mess with us and zou are in trouble big time! Muhahaha.. now should I attempt an order or not? Is this a preorder or instock item?


Ok.. of course you cant add it to your cart.. Bastards are still obnoxious.