Office Max says "Bah humbug" to Black Friday orders
I am writing this in hopes that it will draw attention to the dubious practices and shoddy "customer service" I and many like me received this past week.
As part of their Black Friday special Office Max made their sale items available online. On the night before Thanksgiving, I and many others (possibly up to 1,100) ordered the Averatec 2370 12" laptop for the sale price of $599. For the next week I checked the Office Max website and my order was listed as "Shipping in 6-9 days". On Thursday, i received an email stating that my order had been backordered. I called Office Max customer service to confirm that, yes my order had been backordered and it would be back in stock in 10 business days. Finally, yesterday, I got yet another email telling me that my order had be cancelled. This is where things turned very sour.
Office Max is now, or has already, cancelled all of the orders received from their website for this laptop that exceeded their initial supply. When I called customer service again I asked why my order was cancelled and was told that they can no longer get the laptop and that's it. Subsequently, later in the evening I was contacted by someone from Office Max offering a $50 gift card for the "inconvenience" of ordering a laptop at a $300 savings and having the company cancel my order.
I find it very hard to believe that this laptop is no longer being made. It is still a new model and less than two months ago this model was upgraded by Averatec ( http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/17/averatec-goes-dual-core-with-ultraportable-2300/ ). I will be contactin Averatec on Monday to confirm that this model is still in production.
Office Max is able to get these laptops but would rather disappoint a possibly large number of their customers than take a loss on filling the orders that they willing took. I placed my order. Office Max took my money. Cancelling orders simply because it is inconvenient for them to fill is one of the poorest examples of customer service I have ever seen. It is false advertising at best and outright fraud at worst.
I'm listing several links below for anyone who is in the same situation as I and would like to let the crooks at Office Max know how you feel. These were gathered by the folks on the forums at Slickdeals.net. I've also listed relevant links to forums that are discussing this topic. If I'm missing any forums please email me or post links in the comments. I would love to have everyone who has had their order cancelled flood the number listed below with their complaint
TO HELP PLEASE DIGG THIS STORY!!! If we can draw attention to this then Office Max will have to pay attention and not be able to sweep us under the rug.
Contact information at Office Max
Phone # 630-438-7800 Ask for Kim or any of the people listed below
CEO - Sam Duncan - samduncan@officemax.com
CFO - Don Civgin - doncivgin@officemax.com
VP Marketing - Bob Thacker - bobthacker@officemax.com
Forums:
http://www.averatecforums.com/showthread.php?t=5694
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=378333&highlight=officemax
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?start=0&catid=18&threadid=674753
As part of their Black Friday special Office Max made their sale items available online. On the night before Thanksgiving, I and many others (possibly up to 1,100) ordered the Averatec 2370 12" laptop for the sale price of $599. For the next week I checked the Office Max website and my order was listed as "Shipping in 6-9 days". On Thursday, i received an email stating that my order had been backordered. I called Office Max customer service to confirm that, yes my order had been backordered and it would be back in stock in 10 business days. Finally, yesterday, I got yet another email telling me that my order had be cancelled. This is where things turned very sour.
Office Max is now, or has already, cancelled all of the orders received from their website for this laptop that exceeded their initial supply. When I called customer service again I asked why my order was cancelled and was told that they can no longer get the laptop and that's it. Subsequently, later in the evening I was contacted by someone from Office Max offering a $50 gift card for the "inconvenience" of ordering a laptop at a $300 savings and having the company cancel my order.
I find it very hard to believe that this laptop is no longer being made. It is still a new model and less than two months ago this model was upgraded by Averatec ( http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/17/averatec-goes-dual-core-with-ultraportable-2300/ ). I will be contactin Averatec on Monday to confirm that this model is still in production.
Office Max is able to get these laptops but would rather disappoint a possibly large number of their customers than take a loss on filling the orders that they willing took. I placed my order. Office Max took my money. Cancelling orders simply because it is inconvenient for them to fill is one of the poorest examples of customer service I have ever seen. It is false advertising at best and outright fraud at worst.
I'm listing several links below for anyone who is in the same situation as I and would like to let the crooks at Office Max know how you feel. These were gathered by the folks on the forums at Slickdeals.net. I've also listed relevant links to forums that are discussing this topic. If I'm missing any forums please email me or post links in the comments. I would love to have everyone who has had their order cancelled flood the number listed below with their complaint
TO HELP PLEASE DIGG THIS STORY!!! If we can draw attention to this then Office Max will have to pay attention and not be able to sweep us under the rug.
Contact information at Office Max
Phone # 630-438-7800 Ask for Kim or any of the people listed below
CEO - Sam Duncan - samduncan@officemax.com
CFO - Don Civgin - doncivgin@officemax.com
VP Marketing - Bob Thacker - bobthacker@officemax.com
Forums:
http://www.averatecforums.com/showthread.php?t=5694
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=378333&highlight=officemax
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?start=0&catid=18&threadid=674753
posted by library.ninja at 3:29 PM
67 Comments:
"Office Max took my money."
If your statement is accurate, you should check and see if that is even legal. As far as I know (IAMAL) they cannot charge you for something that has not shipped.
I'm in business for myself and I can see both sides of this story. The problem is that Office Max decided to put this Black Friday item online for people to order. They made it highly convenient for some slub to sit at his computer desk and order a laptop for cheap. Hell Best Buy did the same thing but as a in-stock at-the-door only item. Since they could regulate the crowd on what they had they had no problem. By trying to advertise on their site, take people's money and then say sorry it's obsolete is a line of horsecr#p.
Solutions: Office Max takes a loss and honors what they charged their customers and learns from their mistake. I don't care if they are going to lose money, they were the ones that put the product online for people to purchase. If I would have known I would have purchased one myself since I couldn't make it out Black Friday. Sure they don't have to honor their advertisement but honestly if one thinks that you won't get a large volume of people on your site to order a cheaply priced laptop (especially in this day and age) then they are retarded. They show their true colors by not honoring this promotion and I will not be shopping there any time soon. Sure they will lose money on this but hopefully this bad publicity will affect them worse.
Oh to the second anonymous, they probably won't honor it at all so they can keep their money. It's sad how most business models center around making cash and not keeping happy customers.
No, Office Max shouldn't have taken more orders than they had stock for, but all stores reserve the right to refuse business to anyone for any reason.
That includes you or the ~1100 other people they "ripped off" -- I would take the $50 any be happy.
It's not like they are holding your money AND not giving you a laptop.
You Lose. They win. Unless they actually took your money there isn't any contract. An order confirmation is meaningless.
Go to small claims court. This is what small claims court is for.
Businesses have customer-service policies for these situations. Usually you have rights beyond what is listed in the policies.
Exercise your rights. Inform others.
Before you start bitching and moaning, you really should verify if the laptop in question is still in production. If it's not, they simply CAN'T fill your order.
On the other hand, if it is, and Office Max just doens't want to take a loss... Yeah, you have every right to complain.
Go to small claims court. This is what small claims court is for.
Whether or not a businesses has a customer-service policy for this situation, you usually have rights beyond what the business is willing to offer.
Exercise your rights, and inform others.
Ok for the 2 people who commented at the end stating office max was in the wrong, and the person who posted this story. I am not worried about animosity here, my name is Jaycen Judge I am an Electronic Sales Associate at office max Store number 319. I also have a 4 year computer science degree with a CCNA and MCSE, the Website is a different entity from the store buildings them selves, the people doing the website were not counting on Averatec discontinuing that model, and YES it is discountinued, I have the 3700 model which is the white non wide screen format, that was out dated for the one mentioned, the one mentioned was outdated for the new dual core 6730. My store had 4 left during Black Friday and we sold everyone save for the display model which was sold that next day.
A lot of the stores were contacted by the system doing the website but most of the stores were sold out, and they were unable to pull the needed ammount. First of all Omax took a Major loss in that we didn't get the expected money from the online orders so YOU weren't the onlyone to lose out.
SECOND there are places where they will state that online orders are NOT guarenteed, so it's not a false advertising or anything that can LEGALY hold up in court, and by means go ahead and try it won't be I who is laughed at for taking on a big corporation who was with in their rights, to small claims court for being sold out of a discontinued laptop that the company offered a fair restitution which realy DIDN"T have to be done.
Its probobly not that the laptop is no longer in production but that Office Max agreed to a certain number at a certain amount. If they bought 1000 laptops for 500 dollars... and evertyone oever 1000 they pay 700 for... well, you can see why an angry customer would be better than a loss that huge.
But its office max. You should have gone to Staples, they had a compaq for 400.
Write the attorney general of your state and federal. Though not the same case, CompUSA a few years ago had an item with a rebate and when the rebate was rejected because the company went out of business, CompUSA was forced to pay them. On top of that, contact the Better Business Bureau, most businesses don't want their name drug through the mud.
You may want to contact the FTC, since they have fined etailers for making shipping claims they could not keep.
Or mention that you have contacted the FTC to Office Max because you believe the situation to be similar to what the FTC has found punishable in the past.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/11/21/ftc.promises.idg/index.html
If they have actually taken your money, then you own the laptop.
It's irrelevant that it may be out of production or that they can't get any in stock. You own that laptop and you are well within your rights to refuse a refund.
If they can't produce a laptop for you or something of a equal or better spec for no extra cost, then you can take legal action against them. Once they take your money, they must fulfil their side of the bargain.
But if all you is an order confirmation then you're out of luck, they are well within their rights to cancel the order with no legal repercussions.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Check your order confirmation. It all depends on where the transaction was at in the contractual process. Likely, your purchase was merely an offer to contract. The confirmation via email was nothing more than a confirmation of receipt of your offer. Office Max would then accept your offer upon receipt of consideration, your payment. Because no contract is formed until there is a valid: offer, acceptance and consideration, you have no valid claim under any contract law. This is of course assuming that Office Max has set up the transaction as such.
Don't waste your time. You have $50 more than you did 2 weeks ago. Go on with your life.
Ever owned an Averatec, trust me they are doing you a big favor!!!!
Have a relative in the military? Or retired Military? AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange) will be running this notebook at $599-649 Dec 15.
You must be active or retired military (any branch) to purchase at AAFES, but they should have it.
1. Get your money back.
2. Understand that most computers offered for Black Friday are not usually regular stock so don't expect to find them.
3. Get off your duff and get them like everyone else. If online ordering of Black Friday items was a guarantee we'd never see people line up at all.
4. Get over it. Don't assume infinite quantity EVER. I cannot stand people who assume that businesses can violate the laws of economics, physics, and everything else just cause they didn't put "While supplies Last." We actually have a guy right now trying to get a laptop for a sale price with no stock. His bitter complaining makes me want to punch him.
So all in all, even though you didn't get what you wanted, I would just stop into your local shop, explain everything, and get your money back.
Cause seriously, the point of Black Friday is getting into the store, not lazily sitting at home ordering online. Logistics man, logistics.
plain and simple. officemax is unwilling to take the loss. there are 15-20 stores within my area, withing desirable driving distances. and none of the stores with the same averatec laptop left in stock is willing or allowed to pricematch the same price they offered during the black friday sale.
store managers themselves tell me they were told by corp. to not sell the laptops for cheaper.
some ppl really need to research before firing off on ppl who were jipped by this. honestly.
fight the good fight library ninja! update me (and us) about this.
"If they have actually taken your money, then you own the laptop.
It's irrelevant that it may be out of production or that they can't get any in stock. You own that laptop and you are well within your rights to refuse a refund."
If they can't produce a laptop for you or something of a equal or better spec for no extra cost, then you can take legal action against them. Once they take your money, they must fulfil their side of the bargain."
What a bunch of nonsense. First, if you refuse the refund, Office Max gets to keep your money until you get to small claims court -- six months from now. And you have to go to whichever state their corporate headquarters is in to make a claim against them.
Second, once in court, the judge would probably grant your claim and require Office Max to give the refund, which they have apparently already offered to do.
Third, if Office Max documented that you had refused a refund and insisted on taking it to court, the judge would probably charge you court costs for being obstinate.
Fourth, you'd be paying interest on your money to your credit card while the mess is being sorted out.
Fifth, if you read the fine print of any major online retailer, there is a clause that states how out of stock/backordered items are handled. You more than likely checked a box agreeing to those terms when you placed your order.
So, Mr. "you own the laptop" -- your advice is ridiculous.
If a store has them in stock and you are really upset about it, ask the manager to hold it and call the customer service line, (877)officemax. They should be able to get it from the store to you. Remember it has to be the same exact item that was advertised. Frankly though, you are an idiot. It was black friday. Did you really expect a great deal to be in stock for long?
Officemax employees creep me out.
I hate their stores, and try to avoid shopping in them.
My local store never has very many cars in it's lot. Officemax's days are numbered.
I find it hard to believe that Jaycen Judge can say this laptop is DEFINITELY discontinued when after I was told by OM that they would not get anymore in when I called last week and now low and behold....a fresh shipment of the elusive laptop has shown up at one of my local OM stores but again as of yesterday. Not only did they just received a shipment this week but now Sams Club carries it. Hard to understand how other retailers are stocking a laptop that is no longer being produced. How can a laptop that debuted in Sept/Oct. of this year be discontinued now?? Makes no sense and it would seem that all OM employees are no better than the CSRs I have talked to and gotten a different story each time. You need to get your stories straight. Like an episode of the Three Stooges. OM should get a reward for incompetence that reaches the point of being comical. Also, for those of you saying get over it...I waited in the cold for hours to be the first one to get in the door only to find that the store didn´t have the item and had NEVER carried the item. I then ordered on an assurance that it was just as simple and would only be a few days late in arriving. Get over it??? Easy words for those of you that weren´t misled, lied to, and then given the idea that you had purchased an item that you can no longer price match or anything else after sitting there waiting for something advertised that you expected to receive. What do you get for all of that trouble....$50.00 gift card to make yet another purchase at a store that appreciates and treats its customers so well. Also $50 retail equals sometimes quite a bit less actual cost so they are not loosing that much. That is just plain BS and a cheap way to squirm out of a mess they created.
Dell pulls this shit a couple of times a year. [Run a web special that they then don't honor.] I buy a fair number of computers, about 15 a year.
Three years ago, when Dell refused to ship my order, they referred to language in their TOS that allows them to cancel orders do to their mistakes.
My solution? I haven't bought from Dell since.
If this pisses you off, vote with your packetbook, simply make Office Max "off-limits" to your checkbook.
Another thing...where is this new and better 6730?? Do please post a link since it is not on Averatec´s site or anywhere else that I can find.
OfficeMax never has in stock what's in their sale paper. I've been to the store when it opened, the day the sales start and they claim "it never came in." that excuse works once or twice but fater that it's just BS. OfficeMax.com may be considered a "separate entity" but they are the same company. you want to see the store ad..visit the website. Best Buy says the same thing.. it's a cop out.
a few years ago on the day after thanksgiving sales I went to Circuit City and they were out of stock on a laptop they had on sale.. a new sales clerk ordered one for me and i paid for it right away..got my receipt and went home. waited for the date it was supposed to be delovered to the store and called. was told it didn't arrive and would be in with the next shipment in a couple days. couple days later I called again and was told it didn't come in... finally the manager called me and told me that they couldn't get anymore of that model laptop and that they weren't supposed to order it for anyone but since they did and i had paid for it..they would give me the next, more expensive laptop for the same price to fulfill their obligation.
that's much better customer service than officemax could ever give.
I'm sorry.
I am neither an attorney or involved it this transaction.
But, an offer was made, someone accepted, and money exchanged hands.
Where am I going wrong?
"and YES it is discountinued, I have the 3700 model which is the white non wide screen format, that was out dated for the one mentioned, the one mentioned was outdated for the new dual core 6730."
Well, Mr. Judge, someone had better tell Averatec that as it is on their home page with this little word on top of it that says"NEW" and then look what else they have to say: "Introducing Averatec´s newest dual core, ultra thin, ultra light, widescreen notebook!" Yeah, looks like it is on its way out. I agree with the other guy...where is the link to the new 6730?? Give me a break.
As a fellow purchaser who was also screwed, I'd like to say to everyone who is bashing the author that if you'd been treated they way OfficeMax has treated its so-called "valued customers" this week, you'd be pissed too.
Most of the brick-and-mortar OM in my area had ZERO laptops in stock on black friday, despite its color avertisement that came out in the Thanksgiving edition of the paper, so getting up at 3am to stand in line would have been pointless. Actually, the manager of my local OM encouraged me to order it online, as they wouldn't have any in stock. Last I checked, advertising a product that you have no intent to sell was illegal, right? According to the FTC, you have to have at least one of the item in the store. Most of the people who placed orders online didn't do so because they are lazy - we had planned on waiting in line until we found out that 1) our local store had zero, and 2) we could get it online.
I'm sorry if my expectations for a huge corporation like OfficeMax are too high. I'm sorry if I expect them to link their sales to their inventory, and display a "sold out" message when they are indeed sold out. Its not rocket sciene. I thought that this technology exists and is used my almost all internet retailers. How silly of me. I'm sorry if I don't appreciate being lied to by every OfficeMax customer service rep I contact (always a different story, of course.)
And I don't know much about contract law, but I do know that a contract is formed when
1) an offer is made (OfficeMax offered me the laptop for $599)
2) offer is accepted (by me providing my credit card information and clicking "Submit Order"
3) consideration (I count the $650 authorization on my credit card for a week as consideration).
Finally, damages did take place. I needed a new laptop, and there were several fantastic Black Friday specials to choose from. I chose OM's offer, and relied on that offer being good, and hence lost out on the other deals available that weekend. There are currently no deals available to me for an ultra-portable laptop with those specs at that price point.
So yeah, there are approximately 1,100 of us who are pissed off.
Amen to the previous post. I waited also on BF and lost out on all of the other deals I could have possibly gotten. It is one thing to be number 7 in line and there only be 5 but 0 laptops is a bunch of crap. I think though that in this instance technology, while not used as it should have been by OM, actually did most of us that ordered it in to our present fate. Have you looked online at all of the posts and sites talking about this deal??? OM never expected there to be such an awareness and demand for the item and they got caught when they put it online the day before or according to some even earlier than that. I am not absolving them so please don´t misunderstand but they just did not think as they are not doing now. They should have NOT offered it online if it was such a limited, rare, soon to be extinct commodity as our star OM employee claims and put a great deal more thought into how to handle these sales. Maybe they should have sent their actual inventory to the stores and only sold them in the stores. Wow...rocket science I tell you must be too complicated for them.
OM is like that. They did it to me when I ordered RAM last year. Two weeks after cancelling my order due to the item NLA, they emailed to say that I could reinstate my order...
I don't shop with them any longer.
Take the $50 and run. Working in retail I can tell you that most of those "special" laptops are released just for black friday, and wont see those models in stores ever again. Honestly comaplaining wont get you anywhere. 1,000 people, to their millions that shop there, hrm..
Yeah, that is a dangerous gamble. Having worked in retail you are aware that a disgruntled customer tells 7-9 people of his complaint whereas a happy customer tells 3-5. It adds up little by little. There are too many businesses out there for one to piss off a thousand or so customers. The repercussions can be very severe.
Hey I understand your situation. You made an offer in good faith and expected to receive your laptop and you are upset about it. Cool that is your right and it is understandable.
But is it really worth this much time and effort? Officemax did contact you, explained the situation and offered and apology and a $50 gift card.
That is excellent customer service, Try getting ebay or a phone company to do that. It will never happen. They have gone above and beyond.
Also there probably is some legal out that they can use if they are sued and unless a memo leaks showing that this was an intentional ploy most lawyers won't touch it because you probably won't win which means they can't get paid.
Now my final 2 bits. Take the $50 gift card, and use it on something during the after christmas sales. You might find a laptop with similar or better specs that you can get now that you have the extra $50.
YO, i work at office max...here's the story
we were told we could order it all day and avertec would supply it
then when were were trying to oreder one we noticed all orders on any thxgiving product were cancelled, yours might have been ordered early and cancelled later that day
just a lil fyi
pissed a lot of people off...
PS im not deffending OM just saying might be avertec too
I quit working for OM 8 years ago. I had worked for them for 6½ years. I can tell you that even back then they would run print ads for specials that not all of their stores would even get stock on - locally specific ads. I can still distinctly remember 2 customers fighting with one another on who would get the last Pentium 90 that was on sale!
OfficeMax has been doing this for too many years and deserves to be spanked for this! There's no reason their website can't limit orders only to stock that is on hand.
They were also payroll freaks that would never sufficiently staff their stores, and only considered 32hrs/wk as full time - on top of crappy, low hourly wages. The only reasons I continued so long there were the 3 weeks vacation and the Microsoft retailer's discounts.
Mr "you own the laptop" here,
"So, Mr. "you own the laptop" -- your advice is ridiculous."
But is it?
I'm no lawyer, but I have always been led to believe that a sale has numerous steps that end up with the consideration being handed over. Once that consideration changes hands then the contract is finalised and ownership of the goods at this point is transferred to the purchaser.
Now I personally think the OP should take the $50 and be done with it. But I can see why he would want to pursue the affair, particularly if OM have actually taken his money.
OM screwed up, but I don't think it was deliberate, more like a poorly implemented e-commerce system. If they take an order they should warn the customer in big letters that the order is dependent on stock being available and that they can cancel the order for any reason. They should not be taking money before they can be sure they will actually be shipping the product. Taking the money before supplying the goods opens up lots of legal issues and you would think most decent competent businesses would realise that.
OfficeMax FTW
hey, let me clue you in...I am what you would call an *insider*...1 of 2 things happened here. Office Max didn't order enough inventory or Averatec can't make enough to meet the sale demand and Office Max got stuck in the middle. It does not matter if Averatec is still marketing the product...if they ain't building enough no one gets any. 3-6 months is the max life for any new notebook. New models keep coming down the pike.
Staples was selling a 32-inch LCD TV for bucks on Black Friday. Advertised it for a week. If you got to your local store by 4 am and managed to get one of the 7 they allotted to each store, lucky you. Every sale item was gone by 6 am...no rainchecks on these incredible deals...they are purely come ons to get you into the store to buy more stuff. They do this every year. Next year, get your sleeping bag and camp out at Office Max or Staples or Circuit City.
My complaint is that I ordered item on 11/22. I should have been notified much earlier that I would not be receiving laptop so I could try to purchase another one durring back friday from another vender. I received a total of three emails about status of order (last one dated 11/28). As of this moment, I have not received an email yet telling me that my order will never ship. I received a phone call on my answering machine on saturday telling me that I will be receiving a $50 gift card for my troubles. If I check my order status online it still says "Backordered"
P.S. I don't care about "technologically" being misspelled. that's just a slight-of-the-hand. And I'm making sure you're out of ammo.
(Some People are nuckin' futs about everything.)
Use the gift card to buy some DVD-Rs or wireless mouse or something. Sorry that you didn't get the deal of a lifetime...
If you go to Circuit City's website, they are having a Holiday blowout deals on the same or very similar laptop right now.
A 12.1" model the same or similar to what you are looking for appears to be in some of their stores... the wonderful thing about Circuit City's site, is you can actually see which stores near you may have the item in most cases.
Discalimer: I do not work for Circuit City. I may or may not work for OfficeMax.
Office Max screwed me. I was the second person in line at 4AM. I waited in the cold for an hour, only to be told that they did not have the Averatec 2370 in stock. "How could that be possible, I said, you just opened, and I am the second person in line!" Turns out the store, like many others, NEVER GOT THE LAPTOP IN STOCK. I was told, "Don't worry, just fill out this Ordermax, and you'll get in two days." It is now 10 days later; no laptop, no end in sight. As a matter of fact, I was told by "customer service" (and do I ever use the term loosley) that the laptop is indefinetely backordered, and might come as late as January!
JANUARY!
What really burns me up, though, is that there were FIVE other retailers within a two mile radius advertising great deals on laptops, but, seeing as though they all opened at the same time, I made a choice. And I got screwed. Officemax "customer service" was even more of a nightmare than waiting in the cold at 4AM-- placing me on hold for more than TWENTY minutes, rudely telling me there is nothing they can do, and that my order will arrive "whenever it arrives".
Yes, I made the Officemax choice. And it is now apparent to me, as a consumer, that the Officemax choice is the wrong choice. And I will never shop at Officemax again. Every person I come in contact with will know what poor customer service and business practices define Officemax. I hope the Officemax bottom line is the one out in the cold this time.
Good riddance.
Hmm. That's a very clever way for Office Max to make sure other companies didn't get to sell you anything either.
Think about it from the "sore loser" point of view. Let's say you're competing with someone selling something that you can't possibly out-do against. So what to do?
You advertise something either better or the same for cheaper or the same. What that does is takes you out of the market for buying that other company's stuff, and spoiling that company's sales for the day because you're not buying other stuff (not just the laptop) from them either!
Genius!
The OfficeMax on Stapley, Mesa, AZ took my credit card payment and issued me a receipt, saying it would ship 3-5 days. Now they want to replace it with some Everex model (no track record there, no thanks). They are picking on the wrong guy. I'm a lawyer. HA
Thought all of you might like to read the response I got from Averatec yesterday.
Dear ,
Here's what happened: Office Max tragically underestimated the response to their Black Friday sale and did not buy enough. A second purchase was done but they were sent to the wrong stores, so some had computers, others had none.
Managers on the store levels made the decision to accept "rain checks", but were unaware that more are simply not available. The reason for this is that we made enough to cover the initial shipments, but little more. We will be making more of that model but we have to wait for Windows Vista. The next generation will have Vista installed, so we don't want to load up on stock that will become so quickly obsolete.
Office Max says that they are going to honor as many orders as they can, and I'm told that they will offer another company's computer of comparable specs.
Best Regards,
Yea, they offered Everex. Ever heard of them? HA!
You bet it costs them fair amount less than Averatec.
Their e-mail said "comparable" but didn't list specs and the model can't even be found anywhere on the web.
I called my store, told them I'd be filing a complaint with the financial fraud division of the attorney general's office and also Better Business Bureau, and a law suit seeking my attorney's fees and costs as well (Arizona allows this for contracts) (they took my order and credit card in the store on Black Friday 5 AM) - and, lo and behold, that same day they had the Averatec brand new for me to pick up in the store.
Its a great laptop. Its widescreen. And I don't believe any of the crap that Averatec couldn't make enough of them.
ok ok ok... in the first place, when an order is made online, your credit card is NOT charged till the item(s) are actually being delivered so if the order got cancelled you didn't lose a dime, hell alot of people made $50 off the deal. 2nd it states in the ads that not all items are avalible in all stores, also it states that office max has the right to limit quantities... read the fine print for once.
Same happend to me, but with my camera. they said my new built camera is not being made anymore. i hope they give some credit.
same happend to me, but with my olympus SP 320, which they refuse to give to me anymore. they said the camera is on backorder and then they will cancel it (tomorrow). thank for this post. i thought i was the only one with this problem
Yellow Girl....Everyone is so upset regarding this issue, but the fact of the matter remains, you failed to initiate any action besides sitting at a computer and taking a retailer's word that they were going to ship you a product. Posted on the website under their legal disclaimer is all the information that anyone needs to stop their bantering and complaining and move on to the next level. I am an OfficeMax employee, and i am getting sick and tired of the complaining. If you want something, you have to get off your arse and go get it. Legally you don't have a recourse. Do you seriously think that a company that has been around for as many years as OfficeMax don't have their own legal department to go to with these sorts of issues? Officemax is a retailer and they do not make products but sell them. They are at the mercy of the vendor to get stock in to fulfill orders and if that can not be done, then orders are cancelled and customers can go elsewhere. I don't believe that some people have enough time on their hands to sit and marinate on issues that are beyond their control and that will not be rectified. Take the $50 and get on with your life. Its not going to be a long one the way everyone is stressing themselves out!
You know what, that's fine. But for god sakes please don't lie to me after I got my arse up at 4am to be at your poopy store only to be LIED to that my PC would have to be ordered but would be in 1-2 business days later. ...Then 3 WEEKS later feed me another bag of crap, AFTER I CALL YOU, that I can get this poor replacement instead of what I actually went into your store to buy. (BTW the plan was to ship this replacement in hopes I wouldn't even notice, EVEREX is close to AVERATEC after all) It seems more then fair to everyone else who offered deals these past weeks on products I could have actually chosen to buy instead of the old, “pull in another sucker deal.”
I canceled the order and paid full price for the laptop I wanted. Orificemax business policy is something we all should have learned from last time they had their rebate trouble. I honestly can’t believe you admit to working at such a lame excuse for a store... A job is a job I guess, but please parade your pride someplace else. *sigh*
They DO NOT GUARANTEE STOCK!!!!!! Plain and simple!!!!!!
Why are you so angry & venomous? Whether it is illegal or not, it is certainly unethical to advertise a product & then not to be able to provide even one to the customers in an area. I was at the store at 2:00 waiting, was the first one in at 5:00 & found there were none available in the St Louis area. I too was promised it would ship to me in 2 weeks.
Waaaahhh Waaaaahh! I didn't get my crappy laptop from OfficeMax and they are GIVING me $50.00 for it!!! What a A**hole. Get a life.
Pleasae pay attention to this following message because apparently you are retarded and cannot understand english.
Expected delivery times are based on in-stock items ordered before 5 p.m. local time. During checkout, we will check availability based on your ship-to zip code. If an item is out-of-stock, we will tell you on the ITEM ADDED page before you submit your order. It is possible that even if an item is designated as "in-stock" at the time the order is submitted, it may still switch to backorder status later due to orders being placed concurrently by multiple customers. In this instance, you will be notified.
That is right from OfficeMax's website.
Her's more from OfficeMax's online Customer Service. In some instances, products listed in the OfficeMax.com catalog may be temporarily out of stock. If that happens, the available items in your order will be shipped immediately and any backordered items will be delivered as soon as possible.
Perhaps one should READ THE POLICY BEFORE PLACING THEIR ORDER.
Backordered items will be held for 7 business days and you will be contacted with a shipping date if we are able to fill your order. If after 7 days we are unable to complete your order, we will notify you that we are canceling the order.
here is what i did, just for some contrast:
i went to the store at almost 7am, asked for the laptop and was told "out of stock".
i started to slump my shoulders and walk away when i heard, "but we can raincheck one in your name."
and this is how i won.
citations:
http://bfads.net/pop/2595 (The notebook in question)
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/oh_officemax.html (Precedent)
http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title24/ar5/ch0.5.html (I live in Indiana)
seeing that they've been sued on this before by the Ohio AG, they appeased me.
moral of this story:
you paid for the laptop. raise a ruckus.
see your state commerce code, bring your attorney friend, whatever.
no disclaimer applies if they rainchecked you or charged your credit card.
points of interest:
-there is no Averatec 6730. I've asked them.
-Attorneys will touch this, it's a valid complaint. (The Ohio Attorney General for instance)
-The Better Business Bureau exists for just these types of issues.
-$50 does not and never has equaled $300. not even calculable inflation covers that.
-Stephen Lindholm really hit the nail on the head, but that's a lot of trouble.
-1,100 people is a fairly serious class action suit, which is a very real possibility.
as for credentials:
I am an attorney
I did get my notebook
I know this was a case of bumbling sales practices. Unfortunately when you bumble as a Corporation, there are consequences.
What if they signed me up for their credit card (for the 10% discount) but they did not charge my card for the computer? It was a bogus transaction all together come to think of it, since they actually separated the rest of my stuff from the computer "order." I got home and panicked since I couldn't find it on my receipt, nor another receipt of the sale! Isn't the discount on the order, even if they have not billed me yet, solely on the basis of the commitment of the credit card?
Consumer transaction based on an issue of credit? (I live in Ohio BTW)
What about the people who went to the store. You read the policy for OfficeMax.com but what about the store purchase?
What most of you miss, or choose to ignore, by identifying with the retailers to your detriment, is that the retailers stand in a superior position to you and there is no equality of dealing between you and them. The retailers can and should be held to account for all their negligent and/or fraudulent actions. Comments such as "suck it up, man" and other nonsensical pseudo-macho cracks show that you, not the retailers, are the suckers. If you haven't got the guts to challenge them each step of the way, then you deserve to get stepped on. Like Steve Miller sang, "Livin' in the USA."
I don't see what the problem is, you were offered a replacement item, you were offered a 50.00 GC for something you never purchased, because you were never charged for the item, get on with your life, and if you do go to small claims court keep us posted on how much money you lost in court fee's?
i ordered it at the store the person at the store said that it be at my house for christmass guarenteed does anyone know if this is true?
... and they told me its gonna come for sure and there already giving me a whole different brand of computer everytime i call then they say its gonna come later
Well after 5 weeks a lot of calls and bitching _ I recevied a comparible computer for $599. almost identical specs 12" EVEREX. Advertisded on OM site now ( new product) for $749. Just had to keep called everyone we could.
Well, it happened Again, this time with the Tomtom 910 that they listed for $59, now all orders are cancelled.
Story..
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/6760406.html
"pish posh!" get over it. $%^&* happens and it's only worth going to court if someone suffered intentional "DAMAGE!"
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