ThoughtsOfSpeaking
Banned
Then you cannot give out a blanket condemnation of everyone who took advantage of this.
You simply dont know. Even people who post on twitter, there still isnt proof they put up the listing.
Wal-Mart scammed into price-matching the bogus 89.99$ PS4 listing on Amazon.
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Then you cannot give out a blanket condemnation of everyone who took advantage of this.
You simply dont know. Even people who post on twitter, there still isnt proof they put up the listing.
outunderthestars
Banned
I don't see any ethical difference. You can do whatever mental gymnastics you need to do in order to not feel like a bad person, but you took advantage of a mistake to buy something at an artificially low price.
Their lowest level employees? Yes. Anyone higher than the lowest level makes more than the national average for that position.
test_account
XP-39C²
Hehe, i thought of the kayaks too
If people really think that those pricing errors are legit prices, i agree. Its worse to actively scam though, no doubt about that, but if people know that a mistake is being done, and people just care about their own winning by taking advantage of a mistake being done, i think that this is a gray area, in my opinion. Personally i wouldnt do it.
Ayato Kanzaki
Member
A variable-geometry sense of ethics. How convenient.
But no thanks, I sleep better with my rigid one.
Dr. Black Jack
Member
No, but tricking a store into paying 1/8th of the original cost of an item by setting up/using a dummy listing on Amazon is fraud.
SlickShoesRUCrazy
Member
lulz, reminds of this picture.
can food drive for wal-mart employees, within the store....
ya, no sympathy for wal-mart.
Hero Prinny
Member
Oh man I read it wrong when I first came here and thought it was amazon that matched the price, I went to amazon asap go see if I could get one. Whoever got it I'm so jealous.
Lmfaoooo no way that's real. I mean cmon, SERIOUSLY?! Its freaking Walmart man, just give them the food, its not like it'll make even a tiny dent in all the profit you make.lulz, reminds of this picture.
can food drive for wal-mart employees, within the store....
ya, no sympathy for wal-mart.
The price match policy should have the URL and stuff for the managers to checkout for online listings BEFORE the pricematch is granted. Put the person that wants to price-match on hold until the manager is sure it's a "legit" deal. Either through corporate or their own checking.
Seems like a reasonable thing to do and would prevent third party amazon listings from happening to be price-checked if the manager typed in the URL from the print-out and saw that no Amazon isn't the seller.
Seems like a reasonable thing to do and would prevent third party amazon listings from happening to be price-checked if the manager typed in the URL from the print-out and saw that no Amazon isn't the seller.
Machinehead
Member
And I was happy I got mine for $600.
Here in Brazil.
Official price is ~$1700, so I made a bargain.
Official price is ~$1700, so I made a bargain.
Steve Youngblood
Member
I don't think that anyone misunderstands that in the grand scheme of things, one person scamming their way to $300 in gaming console savings isn't going to hurt Wal-Mart's bottom line. However, I think some need to understand that Wal-Mart didn't get to where they are by being nonchalant about pricing. These sorts of price changes are almost sure to turn up on some bean counters report. And Wal-Mart doesn't make massive profits by employing people to look at this data, shrug their shoulders and go "meh, whatever. We're made of money! Kudos to that savvy customer."
SlickShoesRUCrazy
Member
I wish it was not real....
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickung...ing-charity-food-drive-for-its-own-employees/
that's why f**k wal-mart.
Steve Youngblood
Member
I'm sure someone out there may earnestly make that mistake. However, it's also asinine to pretend that most people wouldn't recognize that something was up there and that this probably isn't a legitimate price, even if they weren't in on the listing going up.
AlteredForms
Banned
I ain't buying anything full price again. Good things come to those who wait...
Thank You! What it comes down to is if you can live with yourself or not after you have done it. can you? I would hate that i got a ps4 for so cheap. Now xbox one thats a different story.
Wolfgunblood Garopa
Member
Anyone who tried this knows it was the wrong thing to do- there's no justification for it, or some rationale why it should be ok. What it is is a matter of how relatively wrong it is to someone. If you normally do the right thing, you wouldn't be able to do this.
Gotdatmoney
Member
Makes sense. Granted, as a Canadian I don't think I can take advantage of any Amazon US sales through price match.
The problem is that this listing is fraudulent. If you were to purchase this $89.99 "PS4", you'd be pissing away your money on an obvious scam.
Now, if it was just Walmart who was going to get shafted for the cash on this, that'd be one thing. But someone is going to get chastised or even fired for allowing the transaction to go through on a big-ticket item with such a massive price drop.
Brian_FETO
Banned
Actually, it's about ethics in price matching
sixteen-bit
Member
dat hustle
It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that people try/or take advantage of things like this, it happens and always will.
What does surprise me is that none of those retailers have a real system to check that others listings are correct.
I mean some of these were a case of "Look, here is the page on my phone", "Oh ok, sure i'll put it through now for you", that's just stupidity upon the retailers part.
What does surprise me is that none of those retailers have a real system to check that others listings are correct.
I mean some of these were a case of "Look, here is the page on my phone", "Oh ok, sure i'll put it through now for you", that's just stupidity upon the retailers part.
GreatestHits
Member
Probably because a big corporation got scammed
It's actually just a person wearing blue clothes who wears a wal-mart badge and makes decisions for them. Some of them seemingly really aren't aware of too much. One of them was ready to give me a $60 Wii-U but they were out of stock
ThoughtsOfSpeaking
Banned
Granted. But that is not the issue here.
At the end of the day, the argument of it being fraud or theft only applies to the person creating the listing. At the end of the day, even if you felt there was something dodgy about it, if you just saw the listing and thought "sure why not try" and was successful, I don't see why that is any different from taking advantage of a pricing glitch.
Considering there have only been three people who have been confirmed to of got anywhere with this, I find the outrage needlessly overblown and silly.
Most walmarts would just laugh you out the shop and rightfully so.
Forsaken82
Member
Not sure how this qualifies as theft...
Did he walk into the store and walk out with out paying? Did he throw 50 dollars on a counter and run out the door?
There is a difference between scamming and stealing.
I go into Gamestop and sell Ogre Battle 64, the sale associate tells me "hey we will only pay you 3 dollars in credit, but ill buy it from you for 5 dollars" Is the Sales associate a thief because I didn't know any better that the game is selling for like 100 dollars on Ebay? No, he is simply taking advantage of a dumb kid (which I totally was
NEVER AGAIN!)radios shipping overview
Member
This is super super trashy. If you took advantage of this, I hope you're riding high on your success in beating the system and sticking it to the man, bro. Hope you used your coupon scheme to buy a whole palette of fabric softener to flip later, too.
Both are still crimes.
NegativeCero
Banned
I appreciate the response. I learn something new everyday.
superchunk
Member
That's the type of bullshit that ruins good customer focused policies for everyone.
Those of you laughing at Walmart are narrow-minded and short-sighted. The price matching policy by most stores is an excellent customer focused feature that I know I've used many times legitimately. Scamming ignorant people at a walmart register who probably didn't even know what a PS4 was, is just bullshit.
Those of you laughing at Walmart are narrow-minded and short-sighted. The price matching policy by most stores is an excellent customer focused feature that I know I've used many times legitimately. Scamming ignorant people at a walmart register who probably didn't even know what a PS4 was, is just bullshit.
n00bsauce87
Member
Just tossing it out there. Is there a possibility that there was at least one who didn't see the scam and legitimately went to wal-mart and thought they got a good deal?
I don't understand how someone working at Wal-mart doesn't raise at an eyebrow outside of the fact that they don't care about the profits of a greedy corporation, or to use common sense as to why someone would offer a PS4 at such a huge discount.
It's one thing to take advantage of a pricing error, and another to deliberately scam a retailer into matching the price from a fake listing. Might as well just steal a PS4 from a back of a truck.
It's one thing to take advantage of a pricing error, and another to deliberately scam a retailer into matching the price from a fake listing. Might as well just steal a PS4 from a back of a truck.
garginator850
Banned
Run the playstation 4
starwarsfan541
Banned
If you know the people working at wal mart and what they do while working and what wal mart does toward them, you really stop caring (or going to wal mart if you can)
Hilarious, but pretty unethical to fake an amazon listing and exploit, have no issues taking advantage of legit screw ups, but this is pretty wrong.
Anyways congrats to any who got it without being involved making it
loaf of bread
Member
Why are people so offended by this. Its Walmart not some grandma. Besides its not fraud, the person who made the listing committed fraud but theres nothing fraudulent or unethical about walking into Walmart and saying "Will you price match this?" If yes, get price match, if no walk away.
Won't start up from stand-by
Someone might be out a job/paycheck. That's a little shitty.
No there is not. There is a big difference legally, but not ethically. If you know the price in question was incorrect to begin with (by glitch or fraud), then, ethically, you are taking advantage of someone.
Whether it bothers you or not is entirely based on your own ethics.
It is if you KNOW the price you are trying to have them match is wrong. By glitch or fraudulent means, YOU know the price is wrong and are trying to take advantage of it. The store being Walmart has nothing to do with someone trying to take advantage of a situation they know to be wrong.
While Walmart will most certainly be able to withstand the financial impact of this activity, it does not change the ethics of the act.
IISANDERII
Member
This is likely the high water mark for naivety ever seen in the history of the internets.Maitiú;139412242 said:
Should've added I was talking more about the guy who took the time to make a fake listing.
WalMarts here in Canada rarely match price Amazon or any other online-only retailer. If they did, the manager would never allow this to slide.
Oh, there is nothing illegal here for price matching something. It is up to the company to determine if they are willing or not to comply. Says so in their policy.
Oh, there is nothing illegal here for price matching something. It is up to the company to determine if they are willing or not to comply. Says so in their policy.
Yes there is. The difference is that In the case of a glitch, I'm taking advantage of somebody else's fuckup. In something like this where it's clear that somebody did this with the intention of fraud, I'm going along with a deliberate scheme.
protomouse
Member
Unethical? Theft? At the end of the day, the price-matching retailer agreed to enter into the business transaction. The onus is on them to verify the conditions beforehand, especially when the difference is as incredibly obvious as this. I just hope these things don't cost the employees that authorized them, stupid as their actions may be.
Fake listings on Amazon is a separate matter in and of itself, really. But to argue that it's supposed fraud against price-matching retailers would assume that they operate on such information in "good faith". I somehow doubt that's how their protocols are written. At most, it's just abusing the most negligent employees.
Shameless? Most definitely. I would be pretty content with myself if I got a steal like this, but I would never be able to go through with it in the first place.
Fake listings on Amazon is a separate matter in and of itself, really. But to argue that it's supposed fraud against price-matching retailers would assume that they operate on such information in "good faith". I somehow doubt that's how their protocols are written. At most, it's just abusing the most negligent employees.
Shameless? Most definitely. I would be pretty content with myself if I got a steal like this, but I would never be able to go through with it in the first place.
This system works for any product offered on Amazon and Amazon Marketplace. If the store is honoring the system that corporate put into place, where they get on their handheld and are able to add the product to their cart and into their system, then they'll match it. I was just at a store that sold 10 PS4s and the rest of their Mario Kart 8 and Nintendoland bundles because of the flaw in their system.
It'll probably be changed to exclude Marketplace sellers in the next day or two as Walmart is losing a ton of money.
It'll probably be changed to exclude Marketplace sellers in the next day or two as Walmart is losing a ton of money.
DoktorEvil
Banned
The 89,99$ PS4 scam on Amazon? People took advantage of it after all.
http://kotaku.com/people-are-scammi...m_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow
Paging Walmart lawyers... you know those lovely Twitter posters are gonna have a nice letter or phone call coming to them.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are people defending such an egregious abuse of a good customer first policy.
Someone's going to be fired over this.
This. No tears from me
Paging Walmart lawyers... you know those lovely Twitter posters are gonna have a nice letter or phone call coming to them.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are people defending such an egregious abuse of a good customer first policy.
Someone's going to be fired over this.
No one is getting a call or email. WalMart has good enough lawyers that know what is illegal and what is not.
test_account
XP-39C²
Yeah, it would be nice if the sellers had some ballpark figure on the item, so that they could detect if a price match might be off (as in being priced too low). I guess maybe one problem is that if you just get the item in the store and go to register to pay, those who work there might not be specialized in selling a certain type of product, so they might not know if an item is priced way too low because of a pricing error.
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