STAPLES COMPUTER DEAL PULLED! READ!

[skyjuice]

I just went to the site and it the link says that they are temporarily out of stock on that PC for 120.00 something. I wrote an email to customer service that if I did not get a rain check for that computer at that price then i wanted the presidents office phone number and that i was not about to let this rest either cause I was fed up with Staples renigging on their deals-I will post updates here as they develop. I swear I will threaten with media if I have to

[ProMinx]

hell, i'll go to the media as soon as i have time . I hate Staples.
ProMinx

[resented]

IMHO you guys are just wasting your time, it was an obvious mistake, it was in Hard Drives for pete's sake

movin on...
resented
p.s. good luck, let me know if you get anything

[jiggy]

I've worked in a retail place before and have dealt with customers trying to get away with switching price tags on an item or getting an incorrectly priced item for really really cheap. I can tell you right now that being on the other person's shoes (the establishment) isn't pleasant, unless you find joy in being b*tched at while trying your hardest to politely explain the situation to a disgruntled customer. The most valuable lesson I've learned from this experience: The customer is not always right.

Normally if one dislikes a store so much, they keep away from it.
Yet another Staples fiasco and no lessons learned.

[revil]

I once worked at a movie theater and the one thing I learned is that the customer is never right, and most of the time their complete idiots.

[NiceMann]

LOL don't even get me started on if the customer is always right. I always try to be nice to my customers, if they get an attitude I still try to be calm, if they really start acting up and get on my nerves...they can leave. More power to them. The customers should always be treated with respect even when they are complaining. But there is a line a customer can cross when the retailer should be able to tell them to get lost. I never want to loose a customer, but sometimes it's going to happen.

~NiceMann

[Speedfreak]

This was dead to begin with.

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§=-Sp34dFr34k-=§

[Inhibit]

I don't know... Seems that staples is baiting in people with odd "misprints", then pulling them. It' looks awfully good when you have that many hits and sales generated by your site. I know that if I was running a store, and someone REPEATEDLY f'd up on the pricing, I'd fire them. They've had an awfull lot of "Oooops, did we say 5$, we meant 5000$, sorry" lately.

[skyjuice]

My point exactly-if they can't get their marketing and advertising right then I am going to make them pay. I am so sick of people saying that staples pulled this deal and that deal etc-I AM WINNING THIS TIME! I WILL F$^$^ING GOT TO COURT IF I HAVE TO DO! DOWN WITH CORP> AMERICA! ok sorry I got carried away, but seriously, staples f,ed up one too many time and now they are going to either buy me off or hear me bitching,and bitching and writing and bitvhing and to this manager and that manaher and this supervisior and this VP and to that VP-dude i grab my nuts and I mean what I say when i tell you all in these forums that i absolutely will NOT stop until I get the President on the phone or they give in. I am the Terminator-I am going to eat staples for lunch. Waiting for an email reply, then the phones at staples.com will start a ringing, and I will start talking-and thats how its going to work, Im out Romey-late (jim rome rant) thought it sounded funny-skyjuice

[DrSluggo]

By threatening a company for a typo with media coverage if they dont give out a raincheck, you basically earned a lifetime membership to anandtech. People that do this crap ruin it for everyone else, not to mention how blatently dishonest and sleazy that is.

if you know its not the right price, then don't expect anything when it gets cancelled. How hard is that concept? Apparently very.

[PeteyBoy23]

I agree with Sluggo... I mean it is kinda crappy to bitch and moan about a company who made a typo. You get what you pay for.

[[email protected]]

I can top all of your stories on stupid customers: I frequently volunteer at a non-profit retail store that sends the profit back to the workers who make the crafts we sell, one time an item was accidently marked below cost. A woman came in and bitched about the price until we gave the lower-price to her. What makes this so ridiculous is that she basically stole money from someone FAR less wealthy than her! I wanted to start yelling at that stupid woman. $10 goes a lot further for someone on Pakistan than it does in the U.S.

cya l8r

PS. Stupid customers -- they don't realize that businesses are run for MONEY. Not to give pushy customers a free ride.

[methodMan]

Lets not get all silly with this now... this can be taken to an extreme either way. The complaints here are not groundless - though they may be a bit exaggerated at times.

Businesses exist to make money, but not through deception of their customers. I would not say that Staples has purposely deceived anyone, but the level of incompetence I am seeing from them borders on a lack of respect for the buyer.

Mistakes happen, online and at the retail store. At the retail store, the mistake can be caught and corrected when the first person walks up with the misspriced item - when you take that same mistake and post it to the web, you can have 20,000 orders in an hour - before you have a chance to see the problem. This, however, does not excuse Staples' behavior. In fact, this makes it even more absurd that these issues continue day after day. If they are going to play in e-commerce, you have to maintain a certain level of professionalism, attention to detail, and accountability. If you choose to disregard the requirements of the market domain, then you deserve to lose money - in fact, you deserve to loose your business. That way capitol will find its most efficient use in more competent enterprises.

I could rant more, but I'll go get a free tshirt instead...

mM

[29th Infantry]

Some of you people disgust me...

You know it's a mistake when you purchase the item and you expect to get away with it? If there was a nice Jaguar beening sold for 3000 bucks instead 30,000, you can't honestly expect the dealers to hold up to a typo. You are CHEATING the system and lieing through your teeth to get what is best for you at the lowest price. What is worse, you bitch and bitch about how they should honor a deal that you know is wrong but you just want your freakin' computer. People give me a break. Deals are good, but when you take advantage of a hole in the system, that is just plain out abusive.

Same thing with the coupons, you know you were ripping the store off yet you still tried to cheat your way into getting something next to nothing. That is mostly the same as stealing. If CompUSA had a backdoor unlock and no security cameras around, would you grab a Palm V and dash for the door? No. Like the other person said, its like switching price stickers and expecting to get the merchandise at a lower price. It is just not going to happen people.

I mean no offense to Apex. However, knowing the some of the greedy and dishonorable people that roam the net, I would of held back the posting.

If you want to get back at corp america, set a good example as a consumer...maybe then they will hear your case. Chances are you'll make a better arguement as a good consumer than a free-loading whinner.

just my two cents.



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"I am the Infantry--Queen of Battle! For two centuries I have kept our Nation safe, Purchasing freedom with my blood. To tyrants, I am the day of reckoning; to the oppressed, the hope for the future. Where the fighting is thick, there am I am the Infantry! FOLLOW ME!"

[methodMan]

29th,

Not that I would presume to disagree with you, but I would be interested in hearing your definition of "consumer" - the definition that, of course, does not include '[doing] what is best for you at the lowest price'. My economics texts may need revision...

mM

PS: [doing] was inserted for "lieing through your teeth", as I can't imagine where there was a lie in the above posts or transactions - with the possible exception of Staples' ads

[muffdivr]

this is getting way out of hand now. it was TYPO! period! i can't believe there are people out there that think they can seriously win this thing. you're not gonna win anything for sure. they're just gonna laugh at you. just relax and be patient. there are plenty of deals going around. just like the coupon fiasco not too long ago. everyone will just get pissed off because all they recieved was a hard drive thinking they should get a computer.

[Apex]

I think all in all, there are good points on both sides. I do not believe that there is any legal contract between the buyer and seller UNTIL the credit card is charged. That's simply law. Also, I have heard that if a price is mismarked in a store, they are obligated to sell it to you (false advertising laws).

This being said, I think fair is fair. With things like this, you take a chance. If they decide to give it to you, great. If not, then so be it, there will be other good deals. In terms of coupons, I think that is a whole different issue. Coupons are controlled on their side. It takes them 30 seconds to delete that coupon off their server so it cannot be used. If they are not willing to do this but instead take the orders and subtract the coupon value without telling the customers, this is a problem.

[speedracer120]

IMHO. The thing about the false advertising within a store is that, any company can put a disclaimer on the "about" section and argue that the web customer is not "in" the store until the "check-out" section where and when they are billed. I'm not a lawyer or anything but, it does seem that they should honor their advertisements and be meticulous in their descriptions. Otherwise, they just end up looking like fools to the consumers.

While working retail, I've come to realize that I'm not always right, nor is the customer. And in this case, I think Staples made a stupid mistake.

[Grizybaer]

I agree with apex, If they cancel my order, there is no harm done, I didnt lose anything besides time, however if the did charge me, like staples charging a few humdred bucks to my MC, i think thats wrong on their part and if i had a better credit card company like AMEX, i'd go get them for it but i dont so allwell. And as for the rain check thing, i dont think any store is required to give you a rain check, it depends on their policy, if they dont TOO BAD, thats it end of story.

~William

PS: Even though staples screwed my credit card, i dont hate them that much, cuz i got so much free stuff from their $15 off so i dont really mind too much.

PS': Some of you guys, CHILL OUT, take a chill pill. Its only a deal, if you get it, woohoo, if not, just hope that apex posts something better tomm, no big deal.

PS'': I seem to remember that alot of web pagessay somehting like they are not responsible for typographical errors or some type of disclaimer. That pretty much clears them of any responsibility.

[jeproks]

I saw this deal last thursday . I ordered 2 and hoping that I'm gonna get it before I post it and make sure it's the right stuff. Well Apex posted it monday and I got the shipment from staples tuesday. Opened the package and they were 2 10.2GB hard drive. I called staples and the CSR said that she can't find the product under that item number. She also told me that UPS will pick-up the hard drives and Staples wil ship the right product, How can staples ship the right product when they don't even have that item number anymore? I printed my receipt and the product image page before they pulled it showing it's a vectra I ordered. Are they liable to send me the vectra for false advertisement? BTW, I used my AMEX Blue.

[muffdivr]

JEPROKS- no they are not liable

[Timotheus]

Anyone who really and truly thought they were going to get a $1200 computer for $120, especially since the "computer" was listed in the HARD DRIVE section of the store, was either drunk, high, or just plain silly. I don't blame you for trying but to be surprised at the result...C'MON PEOPLE!!

[Grizybaer]

Hey jeproks, can you send me the saved webpage, my email is [email protected]

~William

[skyjuice]

OK i STARTED THIS THREAD AND IM GOING TO END IT. First and foremost-Dr Sluggo was right-my behaivour was anandtech like for sure-I was in a really bad mood when i wrote that and after reading the posts i have decided to call of my efforts to get the vectra-Although, staples did respond apologizing for having that in the hard drive section via my email addy. I guess that will be good enough for now. It was a stupid mistake on Staples part but acting like an idiot like I deserve a nearly free 'puter is worse-Actually, when i read what i wrote at the top of the thread, I laugh at how ridiculous I sounded. Oh well-guess we all blow off steam sometimes. Anyways-enough mush. Thanks for the posts and replies-

PS- F Staples

[mijordan]

wanna do something about it???
The National Consumer Complaint Center http://www.alexanderlaw.com/nccc/cb-ftc.html

[G_Sup]

OK, I've heard both sides of this and I was one of the few that fell for this thinking that if it was an error (which I knew it was) than no big deal...my card would not be charged, no loss.

The problem that I have with Staples in this instance is this: Minutes after I made the order I recieved an E-mail confirmation which clearly stated that I had purchased a 10.2 gig HD and NOT a full computer. I thought "No big deal, I'll just call and cancel". I next called consumer service to cancel the order and they replied that they could not cancel the shipment and to simply "refuse" the shipment from UPS for a refund.

This is all fine and dandy EXCEPT for the fact that they now tie up my credit card in the amount of $100 for a couple of weeks! Now, take this theory into thought for just one moment: Staples posts bogus deal and gets $20,000 in purchases for this item. That's $20,000 of consumer's money in the hands of Staples tied up for at least a week. Now, a good investor could make a lot of money with $20K while our money is in THEIR hands. A theory yes, but could it not happen? Just some food for thought!

[havok]

okay. ethics 101. somebody got blasted a couple days ago for asking if it's okay to lie and tell staples that he didn't receive the harddrive that they just left at his doorstep. here's my dilemma. i jump on the bandwagon for a p3-550 computer, but cancelled my order when i realized that it was a harddrive. the sales rep i spoke with said she would cancel the order, and just have the package called back. i haven't been billed. the package arrived and was left at my doorstep. nobody has come by in 2 days to take it back, and i have only been out of the house for maybe 1 hour today. should i call them, or should i accept it as a gift?

[durrr]

same problem i had w/ me... ordered the palm IIIx (in stock) at buy.com, called them up to check bout shipment... they said they'll send it today. called them up again during the evening, they said that the item is on backorder and there were only 3 in the warehouse (which are all taken).... so i requested that my order be cancelled since the website says the item is in stock. next day i checked my buy.com account, the IIIx was shipped out to me already. so i called them again and they said that it must've been a mistake that my item was backordered and if i do not want the palm, then i can refuse delivery. i mean comon, it takes about a week for the item to arrive then i have to waist my time refusing delivery and checking up whether i received my credit.