“Bait and switch” as defined by Wikipedia.org
…bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the party putting forth the fraud lures in customers by advertising a product or service at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute is.
That’s what happened to me this past week at a GameStop. And yes, I’ve seen this time and time again from not only GameStop but many other electronic vendor. I was traveling in another city back east. During my walk to breakfast I happened to see a GameStop before it had opened. Literally 20 Wii Fits inside the store waiting to be sold.
I thought, “what a great gift to bring home to the family!” After work at my customer, I hightailed it 8 city blocks to get back and buy that prized possession. My eyes got bigger as I approached the store to still see that large stack of Wii Fits sitting there. Opened the door and picked up the box on top….and it was empty. I knew at that moment, I had been had.
What was the first reaction from the folks behind the counter, after a short chuckle. “Oh, you can’t get a Wii Fit within a 100 mile radius.” The gal behind the counter, said “Yes, it’s unfortunate, but corporate requires us to set out these empty boxes to bring customers in.” Classic bait and switch. Heck, they didn’t even try to take an order for a future shipment. They also said that Nintendo was in on this, as they are the ones who provide the plethora of empty game boxes.
That’s very unfortunate. I’ll do whatever I can to never, ever buy anything from GameStop in the future. What a crappy way to do business. I won’t be surprised to see GameStop out of business as they turn off customers like me one by one.
btw, Still searching for a Wii Fit.
Technorati Tags: GameStop
June 26, 2008 at 11:12 am |
[...] to Starbucks! Ok, after my previous post on GameStop’s “Bait and Switch” practice, I owe kudos do folks who do a great job. After all, good service these days is really hard to find [...]