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The bad deal thread

Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 2:04 pm
by noiseredux
I figured we already had an anti-finds of the day thread of some sort, but can't find it. So here's a thread to gripe about bad deals. I'll start with this email I just sent to the KMart Feedback form:

Dear KMart,

I am writing to let you know I am very disappointed with a shopping experience I had today. I was browsing the video game department and came across the section of PlayStation 3 games kept behind glass. There was a sign up inside the glass advertising that the game Splatterhouse was on sale for $19.99. I was thrilled to see that there was a single copy of the game still in the display case. I went and told an associate that I would like to purchase the game. She took the game, and the sale sign out of the case and brought it to the register for me. When she rang it up, she told me that the game was $39.99 and that the sign was old but they had forgotten to take it down. I told her that if they had left the sale sign displayed, I expected them to honor that price. Indeed the sale price was the only reason I was making the impulse purchase. She told me all she would give me a 10% discount (so I'd still be paying $36 for a game advertised on the shelf for $19.99). I told her that if they were not going to honor the price they were advertising on their shelf, then they were going to lose the sale and I'd just go buy it for the same price at another store. She shrugged so I left without making a purchase. I find this experience to be bad business. Not only did KMart lose a sale for not honoring a price that they were responsible for leaving advertised, but they've most likely lost my future business as well.

Sincerely,

Brad

Re: The bad deal thread

Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 2:33 pm
by flex wood
Wow that sucks and is absolutely retarded. You should have tried to talk to the manager at least. I've been in the same situation and the manager got me the price I wanted. She was just being lazy and trying to give the employee discount it sounds like. Glad you filed a complainant to many people just don't do anything when this type of stuff happens.

edit: trying to make a suggestion on changing the thread title but can't think of anything. The title sounds more in line with the wtf ebay craigslist thread. I'm just sayin'

Re: The bad deal thread

Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 2:35 pm
by noiseredux
flex wood wrote:Wow that sucks and is absolutely retarded. You should have tried to talk to the manager at least. I've been in the same situation and the manager got me the price I wanted. She was just being lazy and trying to give the employee discount it sounds like. Glad you filed a complainant to many people just don't do anything when this type of stuff happens.


she actually asked the manager via walkie talkie and it was actually the manager who said 10%... so based on that bullshit I didn't think asking to speak directly to the manager was going to help anything.

Re: The bad deal thread

Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 3:26 pm
by Betamax001
I actually bought SMB/Duck Hunt and Tetris cart only for 10 bucks - each >.< That was a bad deal.

Re: The bad deal thread

Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 4:03 pm
by AppleQueso
I'll sometimes go ahead and take kinda crummy deals if I'm shopping at pawn shops/flea markets locally and an item I want is there.

Re: The bad deal thread

Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 5:12 pm
by Czernobog
AppleQueso wrote:I'll sometimes go ahead and take kinda crummy deals if I'm shopping at pawn shops/flea markets locally and an item I want is there.


I occasionally do this too, especially if it's a game (or anything really) that I don't see very often.

Re: The bad deal thread

Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 5:47 pm
by eskil
I work in sales, and although I feel sorry for your inconvenience, I feel I should explain.
Legally speaking, at least in my country, you have zero right to purchase the product at the price that was advertised, and for multiple reasons. First, it happens from time to time that people forget to put down old price signs, there's no way to guarantee that the employees can keep up with the very frequent price changes. Second, and this doesn't apply to your situation, it's ridiculously easy to fake price signs and especially price stickers. And third, some customers like to steal price signs at the time when something is half-off, and then come back at their convenience, sometimes weeks or months after the special offer, put the sign back up and demand to purchase the products at the "advertised" price. This happened to me three times over a year when I was working at a home improvement store. At one point, the customer was arguing over a €300 price cut.
Again, I don't mean to upset, but I just thought I'd explain. Of course, you were right to leave, and the associate had no reason to care. Speaking from experience, you acted like an ideal customer, not making much of a fuss and instead taking it up with the management.

Re: The bad deal thread

Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 7:00 pm
by Josh
I'm not sure if it's still there, but one of my local Pawn Shops was selling a copy of Big Bumpin' for the 360, for a whopping 20 dollars, which is really $19.99 too much. Same Pawn Shop I got a copy of Pokemon Silver for 7 bucks. Guess it just depends on who marks it.

Re: The bad deal thread

Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 8:32 pm
by Hazerd
here is a list of games ive seen overpriced and laughable as you walk by :lol:

seen:

TMNT Arcade Game NES - $40
Donkey Kong Land 2 GB - $30
Donkey Kong Land 3 GB - $30
Super Godzilla SNES - $20

that's all i can remember at the moment, but these were at a Pawn America.

Re: The bad deal thread

Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 9:12 pm
by Flake
eskil wrote:I work in sales, and although I feel sorry for your inconvenience, I feel I should explain.
Legally speaking, at least in my country, you have zero right to purchase the product at the price that was advertised, and for multiple reasons.


In the US retailers are required to meet advertised prices - if they advertise a special price in store without putting a specific expiration date on that advertisement, the store is obligated to honor it. Failure to do so is false advertising.

Beyond that - to Kmart that is a chump change amount of money to swallow on a sale they they were ALREADY having. However, the potentially hundreds of dollars of sales that Noise might take to a competitor is more substantial.