Shogmaster
Member
The item in question: 40GB Creative Zen touch
First, a little story of how I aquired it today:
I was at Burbank Frys Electronics looking to buy a 20GB iPod for my secret project (not fucking in stock again BTW), and was hanging around the MP3 player isle when I noticed this elderly Asian gentleman looking puzzled over a tag. Being a fellow Asian, I thought I could help out.
"You look rather confused over that tag, sir."
"Huh? Oh. I'm just having a hard time finding this thing. 40GB for only $130!"
"40GB MP3 player for $130? That's gotta be a mistake..."
So I go closer to the tag and sure enough, it says: "40GB Creative Zen Touch $129.99 before $30 mail-in rebate". And not just one tag, but two seperate ones in two locations! I was like "HOLY SHIT! I want one too at that price! Let me help you find it!" So we are both hunkered down, looking for the damn thing, all the while I'm thinking that it's gotta be a pricing mistake. I saw alot of Zen Xtras 20 and 40GBs ($250~$300), but no 40GB Zen touch. After few minutes, I told the gentleman that I'll go ask the saleman.
I bring a saleman away from his kiosk hangout spot, where him and few other saleman were shooting the breeze. He didn't seem to happy to come along, but I insisted. We explained the situation to the young and eager helper: "Hey man, we can't seem to find this thing at all. Can you help us look for it?" He first looks confused at what he's seeing. Obviously, he knows that the tag is wrong. First he tries a distraction technique: "No, that tag is talking about something else. See, the left tag is this thing, but the right tag (the tag in question) ain't in this area". I wasn't about to let him slid on by: "This is the MP3 player isle, right? See? There's the other Creative Zens right there. We just need to find this particular model."
Seeing that I wasn't that easy to distract, he begins to look for it. He retreads where we already looked and says: "Let me look it up in the system." I go along with him to his computer. After a few taps, he goes: "Nope. All out of stock. It was a one day sale, you see, and it's already 8:30(PM), so it's all gone.". Never mind that the tag said "price good until 2/22", since he was claiming out of stock, and I couldn't find any, I decided that was that. I winked at the saleguy and said smiling: "You can admit it. It was a pricing mistake, wasn't it?" The guy just grined back with that 'I don't know what you mean' look. The lack of answer was telling enough, and made me chuckle. I just shruged "Oh well" to the elderly gentleman, turned, and was headed out to the DVD media isle when the end cap display right next to me caught the corner of my eyes.
Yep. In a plastic 'don't steal me' cocoon was a 40GB Zen Touch, sitting there along other Zens. I made a loud noise not unlike what my sister's old dog use to make when I accidently stepped on her foot. "That's it!" I turned to the elderly gentleman and pointed at it. "There it is! You better take it! They have to give it to you at that price since it was on the tag!" After a momentary exchaging of incredulous faces, he offered: "No, you went and bothered to ask the salesman, so you take it." I said: "No no. You found the tag, you take it." He kept insisting that I take it since he didn't really need something that big. To be honest, I didn't need it either (what I really needed was an iPod), but since obviously the sales guy lied to me, I wasn't really opposed to the idea. But I was sure this couldn't possibly be the last one in the store, so I started to dig behind the pile where I found the first. Sure enough, there was another.
I grabbed the second Xen Touch and handed it to the gentleman, and head back to the sale guy. He didn't look as happy as we were. But he didn't have a choice anymore. I grabbed the second mistake tag to them and watched him and his manager manually change the price in front of us. Took about 20 minutes to do the damn change, but we were patient. Afterwards, I shook the elderly man's hand, exchanged pleasentries and went to the cashier to pay for it with the adjusted price sheet. The cashier gave me a $30 rebate form to boot!
So the final tally: One 40GB Zen Touch and one 25 pack DVD-Rs for $158.02. Before the $30 rebate! :lol
Now the only question is, do I keep it, or sell it for fun and profit?
First, a little story of how I aquired it today:
I was at Burbank Frys Electronics looking to buy a 20GB iPod for my secret project (not fucking in stock again BTW), and was hanging around the MP3 player isle when I noticed this elderly Asian gentleman looking puzzled over a tag. Being a fellow Asian, I thought I could help out.
"You look rather confused over that tag, sir."
"Huh? Oh. I'm just having a hard time finding this thing. 40GB for only $130!"
"40GB MP3 player for $130? That's gotta be a mistake..."
So I go closer to the tag and sure enough, it says: "40GB Creative Zen Touch $129.99 before $30 mail-in rebate". And not just one tag, but two seperate ones in two locations! I was like "HOLY SHIT! I want one too at that price! Let me help you find it!" So we are both hunkered down, looking for the damn thing, all the while I'm thinking that it's gotta be a pricing mistake. I saw alot of Zen Xtras 20 and 40GBs ($250~$300), but no 40GB Zen touch. After few minutes, I told the gentleman that I'll go ask the saleman.
I bring a saleman away from his kiosk hangout spot, where him and few other saleman were shooting the breeze. He didn't seem to happy to come along, but I insisted. We explained the situation to the young and eager helper: "Hey man, we can't seem to find this thing at all. Can you help us look for it?" He first looks confused at what he's seeing. Obviously, he knows that the tag is wrong. First he tries a distraction technique: "No, that tag is talking about something else. See, the left tag is this thing, but the right tag (the tag in question) ain't in this area". I wasn't about to let him slid on by: "This is the MP3 player isle, right? See? There's the other Creative Zens right there. We just need to find this particular model."
Seeing that I wasn't that easy to distract, he begins to look for it. He retreads where we already looked and says: "Let me look it up in the system." I go along with him to his computer. After a few taps, he goes: "Nope. All out of stock. It was a one day sale, you see, and it's already 8:30(PM), so it's all gone.". Never mind that the tag said "price good until 2/22", since he was claiming out of stock, and I couldn't find any, I decided that was that. I winked at the saleguy and said smiling: "You can admit it. It was a pricing mistake, wasn't it?" The guy just grined back with that 'I don't know what you mean' look. The lack of answer was telling enough, and made me chuckle. I just shruged "Oh well" to the elderly gentleman, turned, and was headed out to the DVD media isle when the end cap display right next to me caught the corner of my eyes.
Yep. In a plastic 'don't steal me' cocoon was a 40GB Zen Touch, sitting there along other Zens. I made a loud noise not unlike what my sister's old dog use to make when I accidently stepped on her foot. "That's it!" I turned to the elderly gentleman and pointed at it. "There it is! You better take it! They have to give it to you at that price since it was on the tag!" After a momentary exchaging of incredulous faces, he offered: "No, you went and bothered to ask the salesman, so you take it." I said: "No no. You found the tag, you take it." He kept insisting that I take it since he didn't really need something that big. To be honest, I didn't need it either (what I really needed was an iPod), but since obviously the sales guy lied to me, I wasn't really opposed to the idea. But I was sure this couldn't possibly be the last one in the store, so I started to dig behind the pile where I found the first. Sure enough, there was another.
I grabbed the second Xen Touch and handed it to the gentleman, and head back to the sale guy. He didn't look as happy as we were. But he didn't have a choice anymore. I grabbed the second mistake tag to them and watched him and his manager manually change the price in front of us. Took about 20 minutes to do the damn change, but we were patient. Afterwards, I shook the elderly man's hand, exchanged pleasentries and went to the cashier to pay for it with the adjusted price sheet. The cashier gave me a $30 rebate form to boot!
So the final tally: One 40GB Zen Touch and one 25 pack DVD-Rs for $158.02. Before the $30 rebate! :lol
Now the only question is, do I keep it, or sell it for fun and profit?
