Ooops. For a few hours on Wednesday, the Best Buy Web site listed a Samsung 52″ LCD HDTV for the unbelievable price of $9.99. Sure enough, it was not believable. Best Buy quickly fixed the typo, restoring the correct $1,699.99 price. The company also issued an apology, and stated that they would not honor the [...]
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HDTV Almanac - Did You Get a $10 LCD HDTV?
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alfredpoor
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videograbber
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Unrealistic Expectations
> This was clearly a disappointment for the many customers who placed orders at the low price, and received email confirmations of their purchases. <
Really? Why?
What I mean by that is that it would be ridiculous for them to be disappointed, since they could have no realistic expectation of ever having that order fulfilled. This wasn't a case of getting a good deal because the price was off by a few hundred $$$. It was clearly obvious that $10 was a mistake, and could just as well have been $0.00 for the net financial impact. Heck, BB won't even sell you an HDMI _cable_ for $10. What were these people thinking?
I'm sure there are folks who will say that since the order was accepted, and they received a confirmation, that BB has an obligation to deliver it for the price quoted. Companies will sometimes do that, just to maintain good will, if the loss is small enough to only impact their profit margin, on a small number of units. But not when the amount is radically below their cost. My question to those people would be, "How would you like it if you made a minor typographical error at your job, and it cost your company over $1 million dollars, plus your job?" Hmm... not so quick to trumpet consumer rights, eh? To expect BB or any company to commit financial suicide is ludicrous.
What I find most interesting is that people actually wasted their time placing orders at that price. Rather than just e-mailing or calling BB to let them know they had an error. To me, that demonstrates a serious problem we have in this country (which I'm seeing with greater frequency), with people who, quite literally, want something for nothing. And then have the audacity to be upset when they don't get it.
- Tim
Really? Why?
What I mean by that is that it would be ridiculous for them to be disappointed, since they could have no realistic expectation of ever having that order fulfilled. This wasn't a case of getting a good deal because the price was off by a few hundred $$$. It was clearly obvious that $10 was a mistake, and could just as well have been $0.00 for the net financial impact. Heck, BB won't even sell you an HDMI _cable_ for $10. What were these people thinking?
I'm sure there are folks who will say that since the order was accepted, and they received a confirmation, that BB has an obligation to deliver it for the price quoted. Companies will sometimes do that, just to maintain good will, if the loss is small enough to only impact their profit margin, on a small number of units. But not when the amount is radically below their cost. My question to those people would be, "How would you like it if you made a minor typographical error at your job, and it cost your company over $1 million dollars, plus your job?" Hmm... not so quick to trumpet consumer rights, eh? To expect BB or any company to commit financial suicide is ludicrous.
What I find most interesting is that people actually wasted their time placing orders at that price. Rather than just e-mailing or calling BB to let them know they had an error. To me, that demonstrates a serious problem we have in this country (which I'm seeing with greater frequency), with people who, quite literally, want something for nothing. And then have the audacity to be upset when they don't get it.
- Tim
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alfredpoor
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Re: Unrealistic Expectations
I couldn't agree with you two more. The sad part that I didn't report is that in spite of there not being any hope of winning, at least one lawyer has already announced that he's filing a suit to force Best Buy to honor the sales. Now, in a rational world, his action would not stand a chance, especially when you consider that the FTC views this as a no-harm, no-foul incident. But the way court cases run these days, there's no telling what will happen. I'm hoping that we get a judge who understands the law and throws the case out at the earliest possible opportunity.
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videograbber
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