Wal-Mart Revokes Smash Bros. Preorders
Late last week, some thrifty shoppers noticed that Wal-Mart was selling preorders of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for $19.82. I, of course, missed out on this deal by several hours thanks to my 'alternative' sleep schedule.
It came as no shock to hear that Wal-Mart has decided not to honor their mess up.
We have received your request to cancel the item(s) listed below from your order." We tried arguing over the phone with a Wal-Mart customer representative (1-800-966-6546, not 1-800-966-6456, the number the email advises you to call) that we had made no such request, but our protests found no purchase; we were told the distributor canceled all orders, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be relisted online tomorrow with its regular $49.99 price.
Wal-Mart has always been a little bit touchy about their online pricing mistakes. It has occurred on several times, various products priced significantly lower than their suggested retail price, only for the orders to be canceled later. Are these bait-and-switch tactics, or simply a database entry mistake? Either way, it looks like it's full price for the lot of us.
Too good to be true: Wal-Mart cancels Brawl preorders [Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 14 January 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: nintendo, online orders, preorder, pricing, super smash bros. brawl, wal-mart
Probably just incompetence, but if they had any sense of integrity they would acknowledge the F-up and honor the original price. Whenever I've worked retail and something was incorrectly priced, I've had to give it to the customer for that price.
But what does Wal-Mart care about customer satisfaction and reputation? It's a monster that people won't stop shopping at no matter what comes to light about it.
I'm going to keep wasting their time until they give it to me for 19.82 or I've used up at least 10 hours of their time (in my estimation.) I needed a hobby, anyway.
This is the reason that I don't post "mistake" prices and only "sale" prices. Occasionally, the retailer will honor the price if the problem remains small. The more attention the error gets, the more likely you're going to get farked in the end.