Tuesday, November 30, 2010
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Article by: Phillip Brunelle

Aliso Viejo, California - With Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday shopping sales behind us, thousands of consumers are still left in the dark from a Black Friday deal gone bad.

Black Friday 2010 produced record breaking sales for many retailers and consumer goods websites, in fact Buy.com stated in a press release that their 2010 Black Friday sales had a growth of 45% over sales on Black Friday 2009.

Buy.com is also the website that brought a surge of over 220,000 consumers at midnight to a single product after a Black Friday deal was leaked by a Buy.com spokesperson to a news website ZDNet.com with an article by Sean Portnoy.

The Black Friday deal was for a 42-inch Panasonic 1080p Plasma HDTV that was said to be available on Buy.com for only $298 with free shipping. This Black Friday deal was the single best deal on a HDTV both online and in stores. It was said to be a much better product and deal over the next best deal on a HDTV being offered by Target who advertised a Black Friday deal on a 40-inch Westinghouse 1080p LCD TV which was available for the same price of $298.

The Buy.com Black Friday HDTV deal brought hundreds of thousands of consumers to the website in hopes of getting this deal, but thousands of people were left disappointed, some believing the deal never existed, which you can read about in my previous article here and other consumers felt this was a bait & switch scam or even fraud which you can read about in another article here.

Thousands of consumers felt cheated and said they were on Buy.com after 12am midnight Pacific Time on Friday, November 26, 2010 but never seen the price change for the HDTV deal as the Buy.com spokesperson said it would be at midnight. In fact, thousands of consumers say that there was no change to this product page at all until some time after 12:30am when the only change they saw was that the television was sold out.

Thousands of other consumers reported that they were able to get the deal, which Buy.com says was available on their website as of 12:01am on Black Friday, but when they checked out to pay for their order, the price was suddenly changed to the original sale price of $649 with an additional $150 for shipping costs. Hundreds more consumers reported that they were also able to get the Buy.com HDTV deal, but that the following day they got an email from Buy.com saying their order had been cancelled due to insufficient inventory.

Few consumers reported that even though they were able to get the Buy.com HDTV deal at the sale price of $298 and completed their sale at this price, they later found out that their invoice and charge to their credit card had been changed from $298 with free shipping to a total of $799 which included the regular sale price of the television of $649 along with a $150 shipping charge.

One consumer was skeptical of the deal to begin with and went as far as to capture screen shots of his entire transaction showing that he purchased the Panasonic HDTV at the sale price of $298 and also showing a conversation he had online with a Buy.com customer service representative confirming the price of his order. He later found out that he was one of the consumers whose order was later changed to the original price of $649 with $150 for shipping. He told me in an email that he has disputed the charge with Buy.com as well as his credit card company, but he has yet to hear back from someone at Buy.com about the issue. The consumer expressed his desire to file a complaint against Buy.com with the Better Business Bureau and went on to say that should the television still be delivered, and the charge still remain on his credit card, that he will simply refuse the delivery and contact an attorney.

After I first broke the Buy.com story on Black Friday my first article published received over 1.4 million page views which was soon picked up by the mainstream media. Thousands of emails poured into my inbox and between them all was an email response from a PR Agency which represents Buy.com which you can read here.

After the initial reponse from Buy.com's VP of Marketing, Jeff Wisot, many questions were still lingering, which I then relayed back to Buy.com via Elaine Ordiz of GolinHarris, the PR Agency which represents Buy.com.

In my email, I took the consumers feelings into consideration and asked some pretty straight forward questions, I also went on to publish the questions I asked in my last article here. I did have many of the questions answered, and the most important question I asked was what Buy.com intended to do to better this situation, and consumers may be pleased with the response that I was able to get from Buy.com which you can read for yourself below:

Hi Phillip,

Thanks again for considering Buy.com’s input on this issue – please find responses to your questions below from Jeff Wisot, Buy.com’s VP of Marketing, and let me know of any additional questions:

“Due to limited inventory and an error with order tracking in our systems, some customers received order cancellations and were told they would receive a $50 gift card instead; however, we've been working hard since Friday to ensure that everyone who actually placed orders will receive the TV. We guarantee that every customer who ordered and still wants the TV will receive one. Or if they prefer, they can keep the gift card. For all customers who bought the TV after we had it on back order, Buy.com is spending several hundred thousand dollars below our cost, to ensure that each of those customers who still want the TV will receive it. In total, 650 customers benefited from this deal.”

Additionally, “Buy.com does not charge customers until the product ships. However, some customers may be seeing a standard credit card authorization or hold on their statements. They will not be charged until we ship the TV, assuming they still want it. We apologize for the frustration and inconvenience, and thank our customers for bearing with us.” - Jeff Wisot, Buy.com VP of Marketing

Best,
Elaine

So what does this mean for the consumers who felt as if this was a fraud or a ploy by Buy.com for a bait & switch scam? First, Buy.com's VP of Marketing, Jeff Wisot, admits to the consumers that there was an error in their order tracking system, but additionally Buy.com is extending the Black Friday sale price on the HDTV to ALL customers who placed orders for the television and later received cacellation emails. These consumers now have the option to take advantage of a $50 shopping credit on their next purchase on Buy.com or they are able to receive the Panasonic HDTV at the Black Friday price of $298 if they are still interested in making the purchase.

In addition, the television will still be available to all other customers who placed an order after the television was listed on back order, should they still be interested in completing their purchase for the television. However, this does NOT mean that the thousands of consumers who didn't see the price change, and who didn't complete an order will now be able to receive the television at the Black Friday price of $298.

As like any other Black Friday deal, whether you shop online or shop in the stores, the prices of Black Friday deals are offered only on Black Friday and once supplies run out, the deal is no longer available and the price cannot be extended as a raincheck for when the inventory is replenished. This is why you hear so much about customers camping outside of stores hours and even days before Black Friday sales just to be first in line to get the deal before products run out. The same goes for the HDTV deal that was offered on Buy.com.

With the cooperation of Buy.com to better this situation, it's doubtful that this was a bait & switch scam, or fraud of any kind. It may still have been unethical for this Buy.com spokesperson to create such a hype with a Black Friday leak on a HDTV deal which their supply couldn't possibly meet the demand, but that's something Buy.com will have to deal with internally. As for their customers, they are making every attempt to keep everyone satisfied, and not left with the feeling that they were wronged.

As an advocate of consumer rights, I am satisfied with the results achieved from the executives of Buy.com which I mediated on behalf of the thousands of consumers who felt wronged as a result of this Black Friday mishap, and as a writer, I couldn't be more pleased with the with the power of persuasion via the resources of the media.

On the other hand, as a consumer, I remain displeased with Buy.com on a personal note. I was one of the thousands of consumers refreshing the page and didn't witness the price change at all, along with more than a dozen people I know, few of which were trying to get the HDTV deal for themselves as well, and the others trying to help us to get the deal. It seemed much like trying to be the right caller on a radio phone-in contest, or like a flock of seaguls going after the same piece of bread, many get left with nothing... but that's the way Black Friday goes.

My gripe isn't over not being one of the "lucky" consumers who were able to nab the deal, but rather because I went on to open an account and purchased the television at the regular cost, thinking the price would just adjust on checkout or sometime there-after, however to my surprise my card was never charged a penny, I never received a confirmation or cancellation email for the television at any cost, sale or regular price, and never received an email with my account information which I just registered for on the website.

To this day, upon trying to login to my account on Buy.com it's as if it doesn't exist and was never created to begin with. Unfortunately for me, this means that although I believed I purchased the television, which may have been a back order purchase after the inventory ran out on the Black Friday sale price, it seems I missed out on what I too thought was the best deal on a HDTV that should have been a Christmas gift for my disabled mother who still has an older television with a malfunctioning picture tube... but again, I suppose that's just the way Black Friday goes. :-(

Although Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now behind us, Buy.com will continue to offer sales and discount prices leading right up to the holidays.

If you are one of the consumers who purchased the Panasonic HDTV for $298 and later got a cancellation, or if you placed a back order on this television, and are still interested in getting the television at the Black Friday price of $298 you are urged to contact customer service at Buy.com or you may feel free to email me at phillipbrunelle (at) yahoo (dot) com with additional questions. As always you are welcome to share your thoughts and comments in the comment section below. Happy Holidays! - Phillip Brunelle

UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE - UPDATE

THIS IS IN ADDITION TO MY ARTICLE, AND SPEAKING FREELY TO ANSWER QUESTIONS AND EMAILS I HAVE BEEN GETTING, PLEASE READ ON BELOW...

What happened was there were several thousand people who were actually able to complete the order for the television at the Black Friday sale price of $298, but when this happened many things took place because of an error that buy.com had with their order tracking system.

To begin with, buy.com never really had an adequate inventory of this particular television to begin with, which is why I feel justified in my articles regarding my opinion about it being unethical for someone at buy.com to leak a deal on this television as the best HDTV Black Friday deal when they simply didn't have enough supply to meet the demand in the first place.

Buy.com had around 640 to 650 televisions in their warehouse in total, and with this in mind the first 650 orders that were placed went through successfully.

With several thousand orders following the first 650 orders, people were again still able to make the purchase for the $298 price, but since buy.com had an issue with their order tracking system, these orders should never have been allowed at the sales price (since their inventory was already gone with the first 650 orders) but they still went through.

Buy.com then had to figure out what happened, and why they had so many orders at the $298 price when only 650 televisions and anything over that amount shouldn't have been allowed, and then unfortunately Buy.com had to correct the issue by honoring the first 650 orders, which they had the inventory to complete, and then they cancelled the rest of the orders for the people who technically should not have even seen the $298 price, but did.

At this point Buy.com knew that they are going to have a lot of upset people, and then hearing about my article which had already been published with over a million views from people wanting to know what happened, Buy.com thought that they would be proactive on the issue by offering a $50 credit toward any other purchase on their website to each of the people whose orders were cancelled.

My argument with Buy.com then was that this would technically be substantiating my allegations of a bait and switch, since really they baited people with the sales price, took the orders, but are now trying to switch these people onto another item.

Since a bait and switch would then be proven, I explained to them that they most likely don't want this reputation and asked what they are willing to do to make the situation better to the people whose orders were cancelled as the $50 credit was simply not enough.

Their argument back with me was that since Black Friday deals are normally an event where a low price is offered on a particular product, and when that product is gone, so is the price...

So my argument back with them was that these customers already had the item in their "shopping cart" at the sale price and purchased it at the $298 price, but were then cancelled. I explained to them that is like going out to a store on Black Friday and being one of the lucky people to get an item before they run out of inventory, paying for the item at the register and then going to walk out of the store and having someone stop you before you leave telling you that you have to return your item because they realized they shouldn't have made that sale.... that is just something you wouldn't see happen, and because of that, following ethical standards, consumers should expect nothing less than the same with shopping online.

This obviously was a good enough argument for Buy.com to see things from my point of view, so they then went on to send out another email to the customers whose orders were cancelled to inform them that their $50 credit was now being cancelled and that the television will now be returned to their shopping carts at the sales price of $298 with free shipping... just as they should have had in the first place if the order tracking system for Buy.com didn't have such a mishap.

What this means now is if you are one of the customers who got a cancellation email for the TV, you will now be given another opportunity to purchase the TV at the $298 sales price, which everyone can now find in their shopping carts on the buy.com website.

You will have to wait for them to receive another shipment of the televisions before they are able to send one out to you though. They already ordered another shipment which will be in ASAP and all orders will be fulfilled and delivered well before the holidays.

This also means that for everyone else who ordered the television on a back-order, you all may still get the TV as well if you are still interested in making the purchase, just go back to the website and complete your purchase through the checkout on buy.com. You don't have to go back to find the television again, it should already be in your shopping carriage, and for anyone else who tries to find the television, you won't find it anyways since they buy.com had to disable the purchase options for this item until they get this issue resolved first and until they know just how many additional televisions they need to send out before they know what they have left over to continue selling on their website.

Unfortunately for all of the people who never seen the price change, or the people who never completed an order either at the sale price or regular price, there will not be an offer of the Black Friday price extended to you.

I know this is upsetting, but the fact that remains is that just like in the stores, when they run out of an item, the price ends. This is why people camp out in front of stores hours before they open, just so that they get the deal... and the same goes with shopping online, as harsh as that may seem. This doesn't however justify why so many people noticed the price never changing, but with a surge of hundreds of thousands of people on the same item page all trying to complete the order at once, something like this is almost expected to happen.

I hope this helps everyone to understand this better, but if you still have questions, feel free to email buy.com (just be patient waiting for a reply since they are getting a ton of emails right now) or you can also email me with general questions at... phillipbrunelle (at) yahoo (dot) com ... and as always feel free to comment below with your questions, concerns and feedback.

Thanks Everyone & Happy Holidays!
Phillip Brunelle
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