Steal on hard drives!

[kak]

This is just like what happened with AxionTech and their harddrive typo. Why don't you guys read the their terms about price listings before you go posting stuff [bizrate?]. That's very immature considering they blatantly state that they are not responsible for the errors [which are corrected asap].

[BxBoy]

this was also what happened with Dell and their Axim's.

[OrangeSoul]

I find it funny that you guys were knowingly trying to steal (yes, steal) those harddrives for that low price, knowing that it was a goofup, etc. And then, you get ****ed because uBid cancels your orders. Some say it was bait and switch. Lets look at the definition of bait and switch:

bait and switch - a deceptive way of selling that involves advertising a product at a very low price in order to attract customers who are then persuaded to switch to a more expensive product

By that definition, it was not bait and switch. They did not try to get you to buy a more expensive product. You know before hand that the price was wrong.

Also, if you bothered to look at the bottom of uBids webpages you would see the following line:

uBid is not responsible for any typographical or photographic errors which may appear on our website.

Basically I don't think you have a leg to stand on if you are going to try to threaten uBid with lawsuits etc.

Just my 2 cents worth ...

life is a bitch, tough...but if you make mistakes , you pay for it, and not take away the oppurtunity given to people who take advantage of the mistakes, thats life. and that post of yours was miserable

[Fantmx]

life is a bitch, tough...but if you make mistakes , you pay for it, and not take away the oppurtunity given to people who take advantage of the mistakes, thats life. and that post of yours was miserable

You said it very well. Life is a bitch. You won't get your drives, UBid has every right to cancel the orders. Live with it, and move on. All the complaining about this is going to get you no closer to getting those drives for that price, so you may as well forget about it.

[Sleepy Jesus]

and that post of yours was miserable

I believe it is the other way around.

[Jason the Eighty Eighth]

I find it funny that you guys were knowingly trying to steal (yes, steal) those harddrives for that low price, knowing that it was a goofup, etc. And then, you get ****ed because uBid cancels your orders. Some say it was bait and switch. Lets look at the definition of bait and switch:

bait and switch - a deceptive way of selling that involves advertising a product at a very low price in order to attract customers who are then persuaded to switch to a more expensive product

By that definition, it was not bait and switch. They did not try to get you to buy a more expensive product. You know before hand that the price was wrong.

Also, if you bothered to look at the bottom of uBids webpages you would see the following line:

uBid is not responsible for any typographical or photographic errors which may appear on our website.

Basically I don't think you have a leg to stand on if you are going to try to threaten uBid with lawsuits etc.

Just my 2 cents worth ...

would you be annoyed if i put up an iPod for $30 and cancelled it? you anxiously bid for it, possibly email all your friends in excitement sharing the excellent steal, and in a few hours, i tell you "sorry, i forgot to add a 0. you still want it?"

[Daybreak]

I'm going to agree with all those people who say that uBid has done nothing wrong. I mean come on, how many of you HONESTLY believed that uBid hadn't made a mistake? It's not as if they shipped you the harddrives, and actually made you pay the full price for them. To be frank, I don't even think you guys made the orders in good faith - I mean, spreading the word all around, buying many many items...

Let's call a spade a spade. How I see it is that uBid made a mistake, you guys decided to capitalise on it, and kick them while they were down. Now they've gotten back up and corrected their mistake, and you guys are complaining about it?

[Jason the Eighty Eighth]

A. Isn't there a Hard Disk physical limit of 137 GB UNLESS you're on ULTRA ATA?!??!!?

no, that a misconception.

[Shifty]

in reguards to other saying some of us complaining of cancelled orders and getting mad, i say this:

Customer/Seller relationships are at stake here. if a company makes a mistake they need to own up to it.

Obviously not all of you read my post about bestbuy and my sweet deal w/ that $129 Geforce4 4600 that was

supposed to be $219 and my company, DishNetwork and how we sold a pay-per-view event cheaper than it

was supposed to be. in both cases the companies admitted to the mistake, apologized and honored the price.

2 things happened: 1.) in both cases they lost money, a lot of money 2.) they gained customer confidence and

loyalty.

in this Ubid and other companies w/ error in pricing, they should do the same. bite the bullet and have the balls

to admit the mistake and do the right thing like bestbuy and dishnetwork. its called good business!!

DarkPhantasmo, i feel that some of your statements are flawed. we did not try to *steal* those drives.

stealing - To take (the property of another) without right or permission -dictionary.com

its like if i went up to you offering a piece of candy for 5cents and when you agreed to buy it, gave me

5cents, and i told you that it was really 10cents, you would feel betrayed and had your purchasing expectation broken.

there is a principle to this matter, good business or bad.

and yes this is bait and switch. they tried to sell something at a given price and then turn around after we agree to

buy AT THAT PRICE only to be told, "sorry, it was actually more" as far as "attract customers who are then persuaded to switch to a more expensive product"

they cancelled our orders and posted the *revised* price. that is bait and switch if i have ever seen it.

the disclaimer that is on their website is BS, how hard is it to run a simple inventory??

sounds like a drunken monkey at the wheel of the price gun to me!! disclaimers like that are put there to cover their butts

when they mess up. my company as well as bestbuy have the same disclaimer. BUT the difference is is how its used.

sure we advertised a $23.99 PPV and it was supposed to be $32.99. we had thousands of people pay and order it at the

advertised price. we later charged them the correct price and gave credit for the difference on their bill. this is the

exact situation as ubid, but we actually did the RIGHT thing a made those adjustments to the bill AND gave a free PPV coupon

to people who actually paid for it upfront. we lost WAY more money than Ubid would have with their prices. since

we are a successful company, we could bite the bullet, since Ubid obviously does not do good business, they cant

compensate for gross incompetance!!

Though i got both my orders cancelled, (i knew they would) i honestly dont feel bad about not getting the good deal they

offered, BUT i am definately !@#$-ed off for the manner in which was handled.

I will not take any legal action unless the pending money is either not released or refunded.

DarkPhantasmo, you are right we cant sue or take legal action as far as being cancelled for the order.

but rest assured i will definately NOT refer Ubid to anyone and will tell them about this incident.

word of mouth will hurt more than a law suit :)

[SioPao]

I think shifty summarizes things well enough here. It's so much a legal issue as mistake are often times made on the internet. It's just a matter of how much Ubid values customer satisfaction and if they are willing to bit the bullet and take responsibility for their little mistake.

[SirEvan]

Hey guys just wanted to provide you with an update. I just got off the phone with someone from UBids customer support on this issue, and I demanded to know why I wasn't notified that my order had been canceled. She said that the vendor who was selling the drives listed the price wrong, and when Ubid found out, they decided to just up and cancel everyones orders...without so much as to even notify most of the people (myself being one of them)

Now as honest a mistake as this seems, I for one think that is quite shady. I have never heard of a single company just canceling orders without notifying the customer.. hell if Dish network did that when I still worked there, I'm sure we'd be hearing from a few lawyers if we decided to just up and cancel someones service, or installation appointment. this is ****TY customer service if you ask me, and ubid should have to answer for it... regardless if it's there vendor or not... I am on my way over to file a BBB report, I don't know if you guys wish to do so as well... To this minute, I still have not recieved any sort of email notifying me of any problem with the system, or that my order was going to be canceled. Crap customer service at it's finest. I definately will not be shopping ubid anymore.

Just thought I'd let you guys know. I'm going to be talking to a friend who's a corporate lawyer to see if there is anything we can do.. I'll keep you informed.

Evan

[dreamz Veteran]

well, i emailed customer service asking them about what was going on, if my card was charged, etc., and they sent me this:

At uBid it is our mission to be the #1 trusted online Business to Consumer marketplace. In efforts to continue offering quality product, prices and service, we want to make you aware of a discrepancy regarding order ********, the page contained a typographical pricing error submitted by one of uBid's suppliers.

Your credit card has NOT been charged for this order. We apologize for any inconvenience this problem has caused you. Please be aware that uBid's main concern is the security and trust of our customers and we hope you will continue to shop uBid for quality products. Should you have any questions simply contact us at 1-888-900-UBID, or email us using our convenient web forms at <http://www.ubid.com/help/topic38.asp>.

Sincerely,

Melissa S

uBid.com Online Auction

1-888-900-uBid

http://www.ubid.com

it's a pretty generic email, but i would not have received it had i not emailed them inquiries. i mean, i'm fine with not getting the drives, but my account should remain intact, so i need to check that.

[raid517]

You guys are crazy to have thought you can get something for nothing. Why don't you give these guys a break and accept the fact that they made an honest mistake, instead of forvever bitching that somehow you have the right to steal from them. I mean surely you must have figured out pretty quickly something was wrong?

GJ

[jerzdawg]

You guys are crazy to have thought you can get something for nothing. Why don't you give these guys a break and accept the fact that they made an honest mistake, instead of forvever bitching that somehow you have the right to steal from them. I mean surely you must have figured out pretty quickly something was wrong?

GJ

yea... cuz im sure if u had the chance you wouldnt have ordered a few of them... people just got excited about getting a "good deal"... no reason to acuse people of "stealing"... you will be jealous if by some chance "we" get theses hd's for this price... not that i think they should/will honor it.. but there is always a chance some may get through...

[SioPao]

stealing ? far from it. this kind of thing happens all the time. if it happened in a normal b&m type store, the price would be honored if it was a mistake. online is different, but depending on how much the company cared about customer satisfaction would determine how they handle it. nobody here is really bitching i don't think. legal action i think is unnecessary, it's just a matter of ubid understanding what they stand to lose as far as their customer base goes.

[seethru]

None of us think we have the right to steal from them raid517, but we have the right to be notified when a order we've confirmed and accepted the price for gets cancelled. I run a design business here, and we do custom helmet designs for mainly motocross riders. If I give one of my customers a quote on how much it will cost, and it turns out to be more I can't charge them that amount, because I've already stated the lower price. I take it up the ass because I know that that customer, who was very happy with their finished product, will be spreading the company name, not only by word of mouth, but by wearing the helmet the company created. This situation is exactly that, on a larger scale. The confirmation e-mail is like a price quote, and when consumers get a quote they don't expect to pay anymore than originally quoted. Now it isn't a legal binding document or anything, but it's bad customer service to switch the price. Yes they made a mistake, a very large one, and people did try to take advantage of it. Instead of just cancelling orders without notification they should have offered some form of compensation, as insentive for the customers to return.

If you made a mistake in real life, lets say you hurt someones feelings, and didn't apologize, do you think they would want to continue being your friend, or hold a grudge and possibly not talk to you ever again.

[raid517]

Well just don't be surpised is all I'm saying. I think its funny how you are all so indignant. I mean common, there is no way hard drives would be sold at that price, that is cheaper than it costs to make them.

Remember the old adage, that if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

It's a fact of life that it seems a few folks here have yet to get used to.

GJ

[threetonesun]

It does suck, because in a physical store, if the price is marked wrong they have to honor the price (that's happened to me a lot of times, from $70 off a guitar to $5 off a video game). But online, they have price marking covered. Granted, someone should check these things first, but it's tough luck to anyone who ordered them.

[SioPao]

yes, lots of online retailers need to work on their quality control. i got that email someone just mentioned. i didn't really expect to get the drives. but as many have said now, we had the right to be notified that the orders were cancelled and why. so it's a matter of quality control/customer satisfaction and whether they wanted the word of mouth advertising to be positive or negative.

[Aaron Veteran]

Vendors - of any type - are not obligated to honro typos in their adverts. Pick a up a news paper someday and look at how nmany typo dislcaimers are all over them. Give it a rest, you almost got it but you didn't you lost nothing at all... consult a lawyer? Why? What damages have you incurred? Get over it people quit acting like you deserve something for all this.

From their own terms agreement:

6. uBid Reservation of Rights. uBid retains the right, but does not have the obligation, to immediately halt any auction or product sale, prevent or restrict access to the Site or the Services or take any other action in case of technical problems, objectionable material, inaccurate listings, inappropriately categorized items, auction inaccuracies, product inaccuracies, unlawful items, items, procedures, or actions otherwise prohibited by the procedures and guidelines contained on the Site, or for any other reason in the sole and absolute discretion of uBid, and to correct any inaccurate listing, auction inaccuracies, product inaccuracies, inappropriately categorized items or technical problems on the Site.

[LittleMe]

mine still show in process and i still show the charge as pending in my account info.

[dougkinzinger]

Well, both my orders are cancelled, and I too got the "At uBid it is our mission...." email. Oh well!

[best_uv_d_best]

i haven't recieved the email... but cancelled late yesterday sometime.

[GSDragoon]

Email of death :( Got this today around 2pm. Order was canceled yesterday.

Dear Gregory ******,

At uBid it is our mission to be the #1 trusted online Business to Consumer marketplace. In efforts to continue offering quality product, prices and service, we want to make you aware of a discrepancy regarding order ********, the page contained a typographical pricing error submitted by one of uBid's suppliers.

This item will not be shipped and please be assured that your credit card has NOT been charged. We apologize for any inconvenience this problem has caused you. Please be aware that uBid's main concern is the security and trust of our customers and we hope you will continue to shop uBid for quality products. Should you have any questions simply contact us at 1-888-900-UBID, or email us using our convenient web forms at http://www.ubid.com/help/topic38.asp.

Sincerely,

uBid.com Customer Care

[email protected]

[ChicoCahill]

i know it sucks for all the people who thought they might get these hard drives cheap, but this is one of the funniest things i've ever seen on neowin.