Thunderdome 2015 » Printable Version of Topic

Forum: General Stuff
Topic: Walmart
started by: TheCatt

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,05:22

Something weird is happening on Walmart's website.

First, I saw $9 monitors, but they all went OOS before I could buy them. Then $15 music keyboards. Then $33 treadmills.

I bought a few things, so we'll see what happens and if they go through.

< Slickdeals >

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,05:27

Train tables just popped up.

My credit card just got put on fraud notice for too many orders.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,05:28

People are posting stuff in < thread 1 > and < thread 2 > as they pop up.

Just ordered a battery powered car.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,05:40

I'm guessing stuff gets canceled, but worth a shot.

Posted by Stranger on Nov. 06 2013,05:56

Holy Shit!! i just ordered two mountain bikes for me and my wife for $60!

I hope that shit doesn't get cancelled! thanks for the heads up!

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,06:31

Well, we'll see... the site is now down.

Posted by Stranger on Nov. 06 2013,06:37

Something was wrong for sure.. I had my cart full of kids toys for christmas shopping, mostly lego stuff and cheaper shit. But when i went to check out all of that shit was listed at $360 a piece! of course i had to remove those from the cart, but i knew something was wrong. Maybe the sight got hacked

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 06 2013,06:55

Not down, just busy. I just got in an order for something ridiculously cheap.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,07:08

Well, supposedly at least one person was able to get their TV that they did in store pickup for according to forums/twitter. I'm guessing most everything goes away.

Posted by Leisher on Nov. 06 2013,07:20

I already had one order canceled, but it might have been because it went OOS while I was processing the order. I've got 6-7 more orders in between me and the wife. We will see what happens.

Posted by thibodeaux on Nov. 06 2013,07:25

Poor WalMart. First the EBT debacle and now this....

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 06 2013,07:30

My coworker's brother just picked up his TV and a copy of GTA V.

So, what do you think? Hacking? My money is on someone entering Black Friday sale prices and screwing up the go-live date.

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 06 2013,07:32

Huh, < might be legit >.

QUOTE

In advance of the traditional Black Friday sales events, Walmart announced that they are currently running an Early Bird pre-Black Friday sale in stores and online now.

Included in the online pre-Black Friday deals from Walmart are discounts on televisions, tablets and other popular consumer electronics.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,08:00

I don't think it's legit. Walmart's been running "early bird" sales for days, just like last year, and those deals are warm at best. I think someone inside the company decided to have some fun before quitting or such.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,08:17

QUOTE

A spokesperson declined to specify whether an error was made, but said the tech goodies were unavailable in the retailer's brick-and-mortar stores and are "no longer available" online. She also couldn't immediately comment on whether people who swooped in on the pre-holiday snafu would be able to buy the monitors at the specified prices.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,09:52

I finished with 9 orders.
3 keyboards (~$200 each)
2 treadmills (~$500 each)
1 battery powered car ($200)
1 train set ($200)
1 battery powered tractor ($200)
1 50" TV (~$800)
Some KNex toys ($60)

I paid about $450 for all of that, about $3000 worth of stuff. I'm guessing Walmart considers these losses too large. Especially with some of the stuff people were posting that they bought.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,09:53

QUOTE

Walmart assured the media that the site was not hacked.

"We experienced a technical error that caused some items to show incorrect pricing," Walmart said in a statement. "We are working quickly to correct the error and during this time, there may be intermittent site availability. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers."

Ravi Jariwala, a spokesman for Walmart, said: "I want to make very clear this is not a hack. This is an internal technical error."

When asked if the company will honor items sold to customers at the mistakenly low prices, Jariwala said the company is "still working through those details."

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,09:54

Best Christmas ever if the allow the sales to go through

Posted by Stranger on Nov. 06 2013,10:14

(TheCatt @ Nov. 06 2013,12:52)

QUOTE

WOW!!!! that is a shitload of goods right there!

I'm happy that i got in for 2 mountain bikes for $30 a piece. I just checked the sight and both are back to normal price of $150 a piece.

I highly doubt that all this will go through. They woulda just been fleeced for millions i would imagine. But fuck Walmart, they can afford it.

Posted by Leisher on Nov. 06 2013,10:16

What does the law say about these "technical errors"?

I know of cases where the courts forced the companies to honor the prices, and cases where they did the opposite.

We ordered:
-A men's mountain bike
-A 5 man inflatable raft
-An 8 man instant cabin tent
-A 150lb dumbell set with rack
-An elliptical machine
-A kid's powered car

I just missed $500 off the TV I want.

Here's hoping they honor these sales.

QUOTE

They woulda just been fleeced for millions i would imagine.

Depends on quantity.

QUOTE

But fuck Walmart, they can afford it.

Yeah, because they're non-union.

UPDATE: I just now received the last email confirmation for my orders. Not sure what that means, but this is hours after they discovered the issue. Again, fingers crossed.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,10:27

The law says they do not have to honor price mistakes, even if they are the ones who made the mistake.

I'm sure they are going through the math now of how much they stand to lose, and how much goodwill they stand to lose over canceling. I mean, if they lose $1 million, who cares? They make $27 Billion a year. If they lose $10 million... well, I'd care if I were them.

If you assume 1,000 people did roughly the same # of orders that I did, then they lose about $2.5 Million.

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 06 2013,11:28

I heard about this from four different people who are completely unrelated and have no connection to each other. They also all have very different internet usage profiles and got it from very different sources. If I got this from four such highly independent sources, then I'd put the estimate more on the order of 100,000 people, Catt.

I know of three separate people that picked up their super-cheap very large TVs this morning at the store instead of waiting for shipping. There's no way to go back on those deals, at least.

Posted by Leisher on Nov. 06 2013,11:32

Yeah, I figured the same in terms of cost vs goodwill.

If I were running the company, I think I"d reduce everyone's order quantity to 1, leave the price alone, cancel all shipments, and tell folks they get 1 of each item they ordered, but they have to come pick them up. (Folks located 100+ miles from a Walmart can still have their items shipped, but I'd make them pay full shipping.)

You keep most of your goodwill, reduce your losses, and get people into your store.

You probably also drive traffic to your site as people will be hitting it more often hoping you repeat the mistake since you honored most of the sales.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,11:35

Sadly nothing of mine was in stock locally. Yeah, I wasn't estimating 1000 people placed orders... I'm guessing it was way more. Wonder when they'll say something?

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,14:46

Well, I still cannot get to the walmart website. no updates on my orders, no emails.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,15:03

Just got my first order cancellation... expecting 8 more.

Posted by Leisher on Nov. 06 2013,15:11

Are you sure it wasn't because that item was out of stock or something? That's what happened to me on the first battery powered car.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,15:28

QUOTE

Paid by Credit/Debit Card or Bill Me Later®.
Your account was not charged because we weren't able to find these items in your selected store

Since it was "ship to store" I'm taking this as "we just decided to cancel it"

Oh, and which car did you get canceled on? This one?

QUOTE

Fisher-Price Power Wheels Dune Racer 12-Volt 1 $29.97 $29.97
Battery-Powered Ride-On, Pink

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,15:30

< Lots of cancellations, but some orders shipped. >

I can't login to check any order statuses.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,15:52

Another order canceled on a treadmill.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 06 2013,17:33

QUOTE

Last night and this morning we experienced a technical error that caused many items to show incorrect pricing. We are working to quickly resolve the issue. Unfortunately, given the wide discrepancy in pricing, we have canceled your order.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and will be sending you an email with a $10 e-gift card (one per customer) within the next 5 days. We appreciate your business and look forward to you visiting walmart.com again soon.

Bah... 3 orders canceled now.

Posted by Stranger on Nov. 07 2013,04:39

order cancelled.. $10 e-gift card instead.

Posted by GORDON on Nov. 07 2013,04:46

It's almost like y'all are being rewarded for attempting to pull off a scam. ;-)

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 07 2013,05:08

Rewarded would have been getting the items we ordered

Posted by Leisher on Nov. 07 2013,06:11

It's not a scam, it's their error, and honestly they should be making some effort to make amends.

Why? Who knows that this was a technical issue?

If I'm Best Buy, Meijer, or any other retailer, I'm thinking, "Let's have our own 'glitch', get free media, drive up traffic to our site, and all for the low price of letting a few folks get some great deals on ridiculously marked up merchandise."

Point being, this "error" got them a lot of free publicity. Handing out ecards is actually genius if it was a faked event (and I'm not saying it was...), because you just turned a non-customer into a customer.

I still have 4 orders that say they're processing. I'm hopeful they were already put on trucks, and in two weeks when I go to pick them up, nobody will remember.

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 07 2013,06:30

I got a generic "we are cancelling your order" email that didn't reference which order, but my orders are still marked on their site as not cancelled. Also there has been no refund to my Paypal. Not sure what they are doing with mine yet.

Posted by Leisher on Nov. 07 2013,06:39

QUOTE

I got a generic "we are cancelling your order" email that didn't reference which order, but my orders are still marked on their site as not cancelled.

Same thing, and the email included the $10 eCard thing. They can shove that up their ass.

I say we start the rumor about them doing this for publicity.

Posted by Troy on Nov. 07 2013,06:45

Walmart sucks

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 07 2013,07:23

Yes, yes it does.

This is the first purchase I've made from them in about a decade. Maybe in 2023 I'll try again.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 07 2013,08:49

I sent an email to michael.duke@wal-mart.com (and walmart.com, just in case) to see what would happen.

I told them they ruined Christmas.

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 07 2013,09:32

I had bought something that was for the kid of a friend for Christmas, or if I had guessed wrong I was going to give it to toys for tots.

But Wal-Mart hates orphans, so nevermind.

Posted by Leisher on Nov. 07 2013,10:21

Walmart killed Santa.

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 07 2013,11:28

Both my orders have been cancelled, but they don't give Paypal refunds so they're just going to keep my money.

This could become very entertaining before it's done.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 07 2013,12:51

(TPRJones @ Nov. 07 2013,14:28)

QUOTE

Both my orders have been cancelled, but they don't give Paypal refunds so they're just going to keep my money.

This could become very entertaining before it's done.

Nice.

I saw a bunch of people using Paypal for fear that the site had been hacked. Welcome to a new headache.

Posted by Paul on Nov. 07 2013,16:10

< This guy had his three $230 monitors arrive after paying $23 apiece. >

Posted by Paul on Nov. 07 2013,16:18

The same guy said, "I had another later order cancelled so I'm getting a $10 gift card too hah. I'm never this lucky and I'm truly grateful for these."

Posted by Malcolm on Nov. 07 2013,18:28

(Paul @ Nov. 07 2013,18:10)

QUOTE

< This guy had his three $230 monitors arrive after paying $23 apiece. >

There's a super center right a mile or so away. Fucking hell, I would've grabbed at least four of < these >. I would have slammed an energy drink in the middle of the night and headed over had I known. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 08 2013,07:02

My $10 card arrived today.

Got more order cancellations over night. A few orders still not canceled.

Posted by Leisher on Nov. 08 2013,07:40

(TheCatt @ Nov. 08 2013,10:02)

QUOTE

My $10 card arrived today.

Got more order cancellations over night. A few orders still not canceled.

Ditto.

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 11 2013,07:08

So it shakes down to one order cancelled (and refunded) and one shipped.

Here's the gift card they sent me, someone use it if you want because I won't:

Card Amount: $10.00
Card Number: 6075286091844738
PIN: 9897

Posted by Leisher on Nov. 11 2013,07:36

My wife tried to use both of ours in the store and was denied. She had a bunch of stuff for Christmas and when she was denied, she left all the items at the register and walked.

I still have one order out there that says "Processing".

Posted by GORDON on Nov. 11 2013,07:42

I returned something to Walmart one time.... those people behind the counter seemed like the unhappiest people on the planet.

Posted by Stranger on Nov. 11 2013,07:59

i still haven't been refunded my money yet.. The e-mail states that the money was never taken out but was put on hold by the bank. Not sure who to get ahold of for this, maybe the bank but ill give it another day or so.

Posted by Malcolm on Nov. 11 2013,08:03

But come on, the rollbacks. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 11 2013,08:05

(TPRJones @ Nov. 11 2013,10:08)

QUOTE

So it shakes down to one order cancelled (and refunded) and one shipped.

What did you end up getting?

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 11 2013,09:13

Some chocolate, of a type I haven't seen in stores. It was a reasonable sale price instead of a mistakenly good deal. Not really worth mentioning if it weren't on the day of madness.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 11 2013,09:20

Ah, gotcha. All my shit got canceled except for the TV. But since I was supposed to receive it today, I'm guessing it's just a matter of time til it gets canceled. Currently still Processing.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 11 2013,09:55

OK, I thieved TPR's Walmart code to buy my daughter a birthday present.

QUOTE

Balance Due$6.66

Posted by TPRJones on Nov. 11 2013,13:34

One of my co-workers ordered a nice car stereo for $8 (for in-store pickup). The order was cancelled and refunded and she got a $10 code. She got an email at lunch that her order was ready to be picked up. She went to the store and picked it up, and paid for it with the $10 code.

Free stereo.

Posted by TheCatt on Nov. 12 2013,19:07

So... after the Walmart thing, I tried to get NFL Madden 25 Xbox 360 (or PS3) for $5 on Amazon tonight. It was supposed to be a deal for Kindle Fire owners. However, it wouldn't show up on my Kindle Fire.

So I went to the shop icon, and searched, found it for $5, clicked Add to Cart... nothing happened.

Searched through Silk, and it was $50.

I ended up calling them and complaining. It took 12 minutes on the phone, but I got it for $5.