Post-Target LOTR screw up: Target cancels orders

Game_Dude_3

Game_Dude_3

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I just got an e-mail from Target saying that they cancelled my LOTR BR trilogy order for 7.99 because they were 'out of stock'. They cite their store ad that says they only had limited qualities, although I don't understand how that applies to the web site.

I'm getting some feedback from others reporting the same. What bugs me is that the web site will say when an item is out of stock, and I purchased the set before it was out. I strongly believe this is BS and was wondering if any one else got an e-mail and how we can go about still getting this deal.
 
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[quote name='ssjmichael']I don't get it. Wouldn't a price mistake policy have protected them from such a frivolous lawsuit? Did Buy.com not have one? What some people will go through to try and rape a company that made a mistake. Sad.

edit: I see it was simply cheaper for buy to hand out the money. The court would have sided with Buy though. No way this will escalate to that, and if it does, Target probably won't settle.[/QUOTE]

I thought this part was more interesting

The customers' attorneys would receive $190,000 in fees out of the settlement and would also be reimbursed for court costs and expenses.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks to a friend of mine that works at my local Target i was able to get a copy of the trilogy for the $7.99 this past Saturday. Apparently the store only had 2 copies the other one went to another friend that works there. On a side note i have 2 rain checks for the trilogy, im tempted to hit up the Targets around my area that suddenly have the trilogy "available" and see if i can get them for the $7.99 with the rain checks.
 
[quote name='bigant262']So just checked to see if it was back in stock yet, and now it says "stores only" so looks like they are trying to get out of giving it for the $8 that they said they would to people that contacted them. This is ridiculous.[/QUOTE]

I love when you try to search for the box set in stores you get this lovely error message...

[quote name='Target.com']Sorry. Our inventory information system is unavailable right now. We are working on the problem and should have it corrected shortly. Please check back soon to try your search again.[/quote]

Yet somehow the "inventory information system" suddenly works when you search for anything BUT this. I tried several random movies, CDs, etc all of which worked for in store search. In the end this is really pathetic of Target and speaks volumes of how they really view their "guests."
 
[quote name='Will']The Target I hit said they only had 3 of the Trilogy sets and that they stuck them in the back so they didnt have to honor it.[/QUOTE]

^^^
This

Saw 2 of the LOTR Trilogy boxsets out today on the shelf at my Target with the security spiders and $74.99 tags
 
I got that inventory error message earlier too, and then I went on a few minutes ago and searched for "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" on Target.com and it now says "We could not find exact matches for 'lord of the rings trilogy.'"

Then I Googled it to find the exact Target page, which linked me to a page that is Not Found. "There is no Target.com page matching your request."

I may try bringing in all my emails/order information and snag a copy if its in stock and talk to customer service/manager...we'll see what happens or if that's even possible.
 
[quote name='zuidy19']I got that inventory error message earlier too, and then I went on a few minutes ago and searched for "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" on Target.com and it now says "We could not find exact matches for 'lord of the rings trilogy.'"

Then I Googled it to find the exact Target page, which linked me to a page that is Not Found. "There is no Target.com page matching your request."

I may try bringing in all my emails/order information and snag a copy if its in stock and talk to customer service/manager...we'll see what happens or if that's even possible.[/QUOTE]
Good luck with that.
 
Looks like the ad caused quite a stir over at Target HQ.

I don't think this will escalate to the level of the Buy.com lawsuit. Like some have said, it's just a box set.
 
[quote name='slidecage']so people knew it was a price mistake ... ordered them anyways and now are pissed off cause their orders are being cancelled LOL

nothing will be done cause they do NOT have to honor price mistakes[/QUOTE]

They had weeks to fix the price 'mistake'. They handled the whole thing terribly and now they're upset because they have to deal with the consequences.

I work retail, so I know how the company/managers try to be swift about these things.
 
[quote name='Wheels03']This may shed some light on the situation...

http://news.cnet.com/Customers,-Buy...lawsuit/2100-1017_3-247071.html#ixzz16sVWSJDb

"Online store Buy.com has agreed to pay $575,000 to settle one of the first court disputes over a mistakenly priced item in a Web store.

The payment is part of a tentative agreement the Costa Mesa, Calif.-based company reached earlier this year with attorneys for a group of customers who attempted to buy a mistakenly priced monitor last year. Class-action attorneys began notifying customers of the settlement in recent weeks in the wake of a provisional approval of the agreement by the Superior Court of Orange County, California..."

Looks like Buy.com is cutting their losses, so it's not out of the realm of possibility for Target.com to do the same. Guess it depends how much of a stink is made, but considering it's a simple box set, I doubt they'll be any legal repercussions...[/QUOTE]

You realize that article is over 10 years old?

I understand this might be a little different in exact precedent than the hundreds of web price "mistakes" over the years, but at this point the legalese on the website will probably get them out of anything they want to get out of.

This guy should have just stayed home and tried to order the trilogy online:

http://consumerist.com/2010/11/man-trampled-in-target-on-black-friday.html
 
Go sign the petition on groubal again target for the way they handled the situation! Cant post links so go to groubal and search for LOTR target.
 
[quote name='whoknows']I'm glad these got canceled. Mainly due to the people who ordered more than one.[/QUOTE]

What about those of us that that only ordered one :cry:?
 
[quote name='iNCREDiPiNOY']What AD? We're talking about online.[/QUOTE]

All the online prices were the same prices for the same products as the store ad. Are you implying that they were selling all the same products for the same prices online and in the store on ACCIDENT and that the online prices were not due to the store based ad?

If I ordered one hundred thousand copies of this, are they required to meet my order if they don't have that much? What if I ordered a million? How about a billion?
 
Folks you just should have gotten the three movies for $7.99 each. Still a great deal. I got mine Tuesday from amazon. I spent under $25 for the movies. That was still a great deal on these movies, and you wouldn't be getting mad because they cancelled your order.
 
[quote name='chuckrock38']Folks you just should have gotten the three movies for $7.99 each. Still a great deal. I got mine Tuesday from amazon. I spent under $25 for the movies. That was still a great deal on these movies, and you wouldn't be getting mad because they cancelled your order.[/QUOTE]

I'm all for complaining too but this is kinda over guys. The best most are gonna do is get maybe a gift card out of this which is not bad. If you didn't hustle down to the store I figured this wasn't gonna happen. Heck I did go down to the store and didn't get one. But I did order the movies from Amazon which I thought was a great deal in itself.
 
[quote name='Commander0Zero']The best most are gonna do is get maybe a gift card out of this which is not bad.[/QUOTE]

Or get told that Target will "honor" the $7.99 price when it comes back in stock but a few days later the online listing for the box set disappears.

Personally in the end I do find how Target handed this whole situation wrong. Somehow I doubt they will learn anything from this. Yet somehow.... its also amusing how they handed this too as it exposes to us how poorly run they are. Aw well life goes on.
 
So Target is hilarious, they keep going back and forth with form letters vs actual responses. After replying to the form letter I received after my first email, the second response noted that I would be eligible to order the title once it came back in stock online and could be refunded the cost beyond the $7.99. It also stated to keep checking online AND IN STORES for stock.

So I found a copy at a local Target (because guess what, suddenly every local Target has 2 or 3 copies at full price again ... shocking :roll: ) and I e-mail them using the link they gave me to get refunded and state that I found a copy and was wondering if they would contact the store and allow me to purchase it, as was implied by the email. So after waiting a day for a response, I finally get a response that is the exact same form letter from the first time they responded, saying there's no way I can get a copy because their stock is exhausted and it was a limited time deal.

Luckily ... I had already taken the email to Target, went through three levels of employees saying no, all the way to the manager who read the e-mail and was very friendly and said yes. So here I sit, looking at my $7.99 Lord of the Rings Trilogy with Digital Copies ...

So yeah ... not quite over huh .. moral of the story is to keep e-mailing until you get a real response and then do what you need to do. It only took me about 10 minutes in total and most of it was just that the level 1 and 2 employees were first confused, had no idea about the LOTR thing, and then said they couldn't override it. But guess what, any manager can ... and if you show them a legitimate e-mail like the one I received, you should be able to do the exact same thing. Good luck ... but Target won't make it easy for you.
 
[quote name='eliter1']What about those of us that that only ordered one :cry:?[/QUOTE]

I only ordered one too. I'm disappointed, but I'm happy at the same time.
 
[quote name='chuckrock38']Folks you just should have gotten the three movies for $7.99 each. Still a great deal. I got mine Tuesday from amazon. I spent under $25 for the movies. That was still a great deal on these movies, and you wouldn't be getting mad because they cancelled your order.[/QUOTE]

Except they said we were going to get them but at a later time and by the time we figured out they were cancelled we could no longer get the $7.99 price on the movies. I was going to get them from Amazon and then I saw the thread for Target and they sent us TWO emails saying we would get them so I didn't order from Amazon.
 
There's still a glimmer of hope...

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2010/12/02/consumerwatch-black-friday-shoppers-lose-deals-after-glitch/

"They lost the opportunity to seek deals elsewhere and when they lost that, they gained the right to seek redress against Fry’s,” he said.

Early this week, Target and Buy.com agreed to honor affected customers the same deals Black Friday offered. Soon after, Fry’s Electronics told CBS 5 ConsumerWatch they would also contact all of the affected customers with instructions on how to get their backordered purchase."

Not sure what deal they're talking about, but it seems that those who placed orders may still get compensated in some way... that is, if there's enough protest.

I won't hold my breath, but it's nice to see that some people's BF wasn't completely ruined.
 
[quote name='joshythegreat18']For all of us of here affected by Target's shady business practices, there are a few good threads over at SD about the issue:

Thread discussing Groubal petition:

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2443710


Here's the thread discussing the main deal:

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?p=34977299&posted=1#post34977299

Spread the word.[/QUOTE]

It's a nice gesture, but less than 200 signatures is pretty awful even for an internet petition. This won't go anywhere even if it were 2,000 signatures.
 
[quote name='Vegan']It's a nice gesture, but less than 200 signatures is pretty awful even for an internet petition. This won't go anywhere even if it were 2,000 signatures.[/QUOTE]

This thread is 14 pages long. While I have not read the entire thing, I can't imagine that there aren't at least 50 or 100 people here who have had their order canceled. Nobody ordered an extra copy for a friend who is upset by this? If every person in this thread who had their order canceled signed it, and they had every person who had expected to get a copy from them sign it, it could go somewhere. Please sign it and get everybody you know to do the same. You can't complain about the outcome unless you're willing to try and change it.
 
At least Amazon screwed up my order for Toshiba Laptop w/o having Built-in Webcam/Mic during Black Friday. I'm fighting to get my refund back after those bait & switch issues.
 
People have officially run out of problems and things to worry about when this thread is still going on after a week.

And yes, I ordered one from the website.
 
Here's some
011510_salt_lead_604x372-thumb-604x372.jpg
for all the wounded anuses:

I was running around multiple Targets, and saw LOTR trilogy :br: sets at most of them.
 
[quote name='lawdood']People have officially run out of problems and things to worry about when this thread is still going on after a week.

And yes, I ordered one from the website.[/QUOTE]

Pretty much. Pretty sad when this is what's the most important thing to people.
 
Is it any less sad and pathetic when people continue to come into this thread and tell everyone how lame they are for still caring?
 
[quote name='etcrane']Is it any less sad and pathetic when people continue to come into this thread and tell everyone how lame they are for still caring?[/QUOTE]

Wrong, I am like the other guy. I find it amusing people are still giving two shits over this. They made a mistake. Quit bitching about it. Everyone is human.
 
[quote name='whoknows']Pretty much. Pretty sad when this is what's the most important thing to people.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, these people haven't left this thread all week. Look outside of it and you'll see all the rows of tents lined up.
 
[quote name='Steggy']Wrong, I am like the other guy. I find it amusing people are still giving two shits over this. They made a mistake. Quit bitching about it. Everyone is human.[/QUOTE]

Pretty much. I mean it comes down to this. Say one of you had it and put it up on your trade list for $7 unintentionally. Someone PM's you and is like "I'll take it". What would you do? No way would any of you sell it. You'd say "sorry, made a mistake" and be done with it. Same thing happened with Target, except since it's a big company everyone wants to take advantage and hoping that with enough bitching they'll cave.
 
[quote name='whoknows']Pretty much. Pretty sad when this is what's the most important thing to people.[/QUOTE]

I haven't posted in this thread for a few days, and now, I'm only seeing posts like this...it's heavily ironic. It almost hurts. Almost.

And about this being the most important thing...it takes seconds to make a post on this thread. I, and I believe many other people here, do a lot with their time off the boards. It really doesn't take a huge chunk of my life to bitch about a dropped deal and do a little research on it. Definitely not as much time as accumulating 18,000 posts and 8 blog entries on a single web site.
 
[quote name='whoknows']Pretty much. I mean it comes down to this. Say one of you had it and put it up on your trade list for $7 unintentionally. Someone PM's you and is like "I'll take it". What would you do? No way would any of you sell it. You'd say "sorry, made a mistake" and be done with it. Same thing happened with Target, except since it's a big company everyone wants to take advantage and hoping that with enough bitching they'll cave.[/QUOTE]

You forgot the part where I'd say, "Yeah sure, your order is complete, I'll send it your way".

Then a week later, "Hey man, I'm a bit held up, I'll send it in a month"

And then a day later, "Hey man, I never had it."
 
[quote name='etcrane']Is it any less sad and pathetic when people continue to come into this thread and tell everyone how lame they are for still caring?[/QUOTE]

no
 
[quote name='whoknows']Pretty much. I mean it comes down to this. Say one of you had it and put it up on your trade list for $7 unintentionally. Someone PM's you and is like "I'll take it". What would you do? No way would any of you sell it. You'd say "sorry, made a mistake" and be done with it. Same thing happened with Target, except since it's a big company everyone wants to take advantage and hoping that with enough bitching they'll cave.[/QUOTE]

No, the analogy with Target is putting it on your trade list for $7, deciding you'll let it go at that price, and then promise 3 people your single copy. Instead of saying "whoops, made a mistake" you tell each person who PM'd you that you'll send it to them in a month or so. Then, the next day you tell them you didn't actually say you had any, and you'll never have any again, and then you turn around and sell it locally on Craigslist for the $7.
 
I think it's more a case of "I didn't go to Target on BF because you told me I was covered the day before. If I had known I didn't really have it, I might have gone over there in person to grab one."

I'm not that concerned about it because it's the theatrical versions and I know I'll want the later set anyway. But at $7, sure, I'll bite.
 
[quote name='Game_Dude_3']You forgot the part where I'd say, "Yeah sure, your order is complete, I'll send it your way".

Then a week later, "Hey man, I'm a bit held up, I'll send it in a month"

And then a day later, "Hey man, I never had it."[/QUOTE]

Ok, so lets change it to you unintentionally put it up on ebay for $7. Those are the steps that would follow.
 
[quote name='Vegan']I think it's more a case of "I didn't go to Target on BF because you told me I was covered the day before. If I had known I didn't really have it, I might have gone over there in person to grab one."

I'm not that concerned about it because it's the theatrical versions and I know I'll want the later set anyway. But at $7, sure, I'll bite.[/QUOTE]

You really would have waited in line for a single boxset?
 
[quote name='Steggy']You really would have waited in line for a single boxset?[/QUOTE]

God no, nothing could've gotten me out of the house that day. I did just fine on the internet.

I'm just saying, it could very well have happened with a lot of people.
 
I was at my local Target for black friday, got there at 3pm and waited till 4am. Was 5th in line and got my TV I wanted but I also got 2 copies of the bluray LOTR Trilogy because I knew they screwed up with the pricing.
 
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