Man Who Bought $735 Xbox One Photo Gets Free Xbox One
- Thread starter Steven Bogos
- Start date
Why not give the free console to someone with a modicum of intelligence?
Since when do we reward people for being stupid?
Since when do we reward people for being stupid?
On the man falling for the scam:
- He was paying considerably less than the going rate for the same product elsewhere:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-7UV-00080-Xbox-One-Console/dp/B00BE4OUBG (check the Day One Fifa 14 Edition)
- He allegedly emailed the seller, who told him it was a console:
Of course, this could be bullshit. But if true, would be theft by deception.
- The listing was "Xbox One Fifa 14 Day One Edition, Photo Brand New UK 2013"
Forgive me for not thinking that the description was "clear". For anyone who has seen a scam, you'd probably know that they don't tend to work if they're obvious cons. Furthermore, being listed in the wrong section by a seller with good feedback? Yeah, it's not entirely unreasonable that someone would fall for it.
On getting a console for free:
- Sure, he didn't deserve it. He deserved a refund. The punishment for his naivety was the chore of having to get a refund, the humiliation, and also having his personal life dragged through the mud by you lot, by the way. He didn't deserve to lose his money too. He didn't deserve a free console. But whatever. He got one. I know I'd be over the moon, and my rich, spoiled white kid ass certainly doesn't deserve it.
- Yes, it's publicity for the company. But it's still a darn sight kinder than the sneering going on in both this thread and the other one. A lot of you should be ashamed.
I must say, for a website that tends to pride itself on fighting for consumer rights in the video game arena, when an actual affront to consumer rights pops up (i.e. the right not to be deliberately misled or deceived) a lot of you have shown rather poor form in detecting when something is unfair.
And furthermore, for a website that frequently flies into outrage for being judged unfairly by ignorant outsiders (such as: studies suggesting that gaming causes violence, Anita Sarkeesian, Fox News, Jack Thompson, etc) a good number of you have shown tremendous aptitude and enthusiasm for judging a person you've never met.
Spot on. I haven't been this disappointed in this website for a long time.
Finally, I've never been victim to a scam myself. This isn't me trying to defend my own hidden mistakes.
- He was paying considerably less than the going rate for the same product elsewhere:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-7UV-00080-Xbox-One-Console/dp/B00BE4OUBG (check the Day One Fifa 14 Edition)
- He allegedly emailed the seller, who told him it was a console:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2518874/Father-receives-photo-XBox-One-duped-Ebay.html
Of course, this could be bullshit. But if true, would be theft by deception.
- The listing was "Xbox One Fifa 14 Day One Edition, Photo Brand New UK 2013"
Forgive me for not thinking that the description was "clear". For anyone who has seen a scam, you'd probably know that they don't tend to work if they're obvious cons. Furthermore, being listed in the wrong section by a seller with good feedback? Yeah, it's not entirely unreasonable that someone would fall for it.
On getting a console for free:
- Sure, he didn't deserve it. He deserved a refund. The punishment for his naivety was the chore of having to get a refund, the humiliation, and also having his personal life dragged through the mud by you lot, by the way. He didn't deserve to lose his money too. He didn't deserve a free console. But whatever. He got one. I know I'd be over the moon, and my rich, spoiled white kid ass certainly doesn't deserve it.
- Yes, it's publicity for the company. But it's still a darn sight kinder than the sneering going on in both this thread and the other one. A lot of you should be ashamed.
I must say, for a website that tends to pride itself on fighting for consumer rights in the video game arena, when an actual affront to consumer rights pops up (i.e. the right not to be deliberately misled or deceived) a lot of you have shown rather poor form in detecting when something is unfair.
And furthermore, for a website that frequently flies into outrage for being judged unfairly by ignorant outsiders (such as: studies suggesting that gaming causes violence, Anita Sarkeesian, Fox News, Jack Thompson, etc) a good number of you have shown tremendous aptitude and enthusiasm for judging a person you've never met.
Spot on. I haven't been this disappointed in this website for a long time.
Finally, I've never been victim to a scam myself. This isn't me trying to defend my own hidden mistakes.
Man gets scammed, gets refund.
Some shop wants to surf on the publicity and gives him a free Xbox One, that's it.
If anything it might be the shop that is being smart. Advertising costs boatloads of money, yet now they've got their name all over the place by just giving the guy a free console.
Also, stop looking down on this dude from your supposed high and mighty position. I'm sure many amongst you have made retarded stupid mistakes in the past as well. I know I did for sure.
Some shop wants to surf on the publicity and gives him a free Xbox One, that's it.
If anything it might be the shop that is being smart. Advertising costs boatloads of money, yet now they've got their name all over the place by just giving the guy a free console.
Also, stop looking down on this dude from your supposed high and mighty position. I'm sure many amongst you have made retarded stupid mistakes in the past as well. I know I did for sure.
Wow, Caiphus pretty much just nailed it there.
I've been tempted to join up and add my little bit to the forums for a while, lord knows why I chose this point but hey ho, here goes.
There are a few facts we firstly don't know since either:
They have been omitted from the original stories or,
They have been jumped on and warped and guessed at and assumed.
So this is just my little attempt at sorting through everything.
1) The guy is RESPONSIBLE for a 4 year old child. At no point is it mentioned if he is (or isn't) the biological father. He could just as easily be a father figure for his girlfriends kid from a previous relationship. It's a possibility, but for whatever reason, he's decided to get the kid a present at Christmas.
2) It hasn't been stated if he's working etc. He COULD be working, some reports say he's a student, someone says one place put him on the dole, he can't be both so someone someplace has the wrong end of it all since you can't claim dole money and be a student at the same time. Whatever the situation, we don't concretely know where or how he got the money to make this purchase.
3) He fell for a scam. A deliberate attempt by someone to defraud. This means (of all things) he is human and had a moment of stupidity, I personally believe in the Scott Adams theory that we are all idiots at some point every day, we just slip in and out of idiocy without spotting it. Scammers prey on those moments of idiocy.
Lets not forget in all this, the whole thing was started because some low life put a photo up for sale on eBay under the wrong category with the direct intent of defrauding someone. That person is lucky to just get away with having their eBay account shut down and not be pursued by the law for criminal charges.
4) The guy got his money back. And so he should have.
Lets also remember here that eBay is host to lots of small businesses who sell new items direct to customers without the need for a physical shop front. So it is entirely possible that (if it were a genuine console) it might be sold through eBay.
At this point the story should have ended, the guy got his money back, and the scammer got lucky and got away with it (with nigh on a slap on the wrist).
But then some bod in CeX spotted the cheapest advertising campaign ever.
For the price of a XB1 (as many have quoted, about £450) they've managed to get a photo with their logo, and their name, printed in so many news outlets. For comparison an official advertising campaign on that scale would cost potentially thousands overall.
As for the guys choice in presents (assuming the XB1 is for the kid and not just for him), lets say I ain't impressed. At 4 years old the child will be more than capable of playing games, but will they really care about it being the super duper brandest of the brand new console? Or would they be just as happy with a WiiU and a couple of Lego sets, or an RC car, or a bike?
So lets appoint blame and vitriol appropriately, let the first (and quite frankly biggest) chunk go to the scamming scumbag from eBay. And the rest (a tiny amount) to the CeX manager looking for the cheap promotion.
All the victim here really deserves is to get a reminder of how many cheaters their are in the world looking for his money without earning it, and to get on with Xmas.
I've been tempted to join up and add my little bit to the forums for a while, lord knows why I chose this point but hey ho, here goes.
There are a few facts we firstly don't know since either:
They have been omitted from the original stories or,
They have been jumped on and warped and guessed at and assumed.
So this is just my little attempt at sorting through everything.
1) The guy is RESPONSIBLE for a 4 year old child. At no point is it mentioned if he is (or isn't) the biological father. He could just as easily be a father figure for his girlfriends kid from a previous relationship. It's a possibility, but for whatever reason, he's decided to get the kid a present at Christmas.
2) It hasn't been stated if he's working etc. He COULD be working, some reports say he's a student, someone says one place put him on the dole, he can't be both so someone someplace has the wrong end of it all since you can't claim dole money and be a student at the same time. Whatever the situation, we don't concretely know where or how he got the money to make this purchase.
3) He fell for a scam. A deliberate attempt by someone to defraud. This means (of all things) he is human and had a moment of stupidity, I personally believe in the Scott Adams theory that we are all idiots at some point every day, we just slip in and out of idiocy without spotting it. Scammers prey on those moments of idiocy.
Lets not forget in all this, the whole thing was started because some low life put a photo up for sale on eBay under the wrong category with the direct intent of defrauding someone. That person is lucky to just get away with having their eBay account shut down and not be pursued by the law for criminal charges.
4) The guy got his money back. And so he should have.
Lets also remember here that eBay is host to lots of small businesses who sell new items direct to customers without the need for a physical shop front. So it is entirely possible that (if it were a genuine console) it might be sold through eBay.
At this point the story should have ended, the guy got his money back, and the scammer got lucky and got away with it (with nigh on a slap on the wrist).
But then some bod in CeX spotted the cheapest advertising campaign ever.
For the price of a XB1 (as many have quoted, about £450) they've managed to get a photo with their logo, and their name, printed in so many news outlets. For comparison an official advertising campaign on that scale would cost potentially thousands overall.
As for the guys choice in presents (assuming the XB1 is for the kid and not just for him), lets say I ain't impressed. At 4 years old the child will be more than capable of playing games, but will they really care about it being the super duper brandest of the brand new console? Or would they be just as happy with a WiiU and a couple of Lego sets, or an RC car, or a bike?
So lets appoint blame and vitriol appropriately, let the first (and quite frankly biggest) chunk go to the scamming scumbag from eBay. And the rest (a tiny amount) to the CeX manager looking for the cheap promotion.
All the victim here really deserves is to get a reminder of how many cheaters their are in the world looking for his money without earning it, and to get on with Xmas.
I was all for calling this guy an idiot for what he did but... these comments man. I get that most of you are joking but gawddamn cut the guy a break. He lucked out that his slip up got as popular as it did and he wasn't 'rewarded for stupidity', CEX saw the oppitunity for some good PR and jumped all up on that shit.
I still think it's bullshit that he baught it for his son though.
I still think it's bullshit that he baught it for his son though.
Not quite sure what to think of this really. On the one hand, I do think the guy could have thought about his decision a little more carefully, on the other hand I don't see the problem in giving him a refund. Maybe the free console was a bit overboard, but I see that as more of something on the part of the retailer that gave it to him, looking for publicity especially around the holidays.
Honestly, whether he got the console for his son or not isn't really important to me, I can understand it would be annoying if he was using it for a sob story, but I find myself in a position that it's water under the bridge now.
And honestly, I have to disagree with the people who think shaming stupid people is the only solution to this sort of thing. And, in my opinion, negative reinforcement is not really the most effective way to encourage proper behavior (it can be, make no mistake, but there are other techniques that can be as effective if not more so, I think). Sadly, people tend to prefer a different narrative to that of the good upstanding citizen who always does the right thing. But, what I think is that some people who make good decisions should be rewarded and made examples of. Not going gonzo, but some sort of acknowledgement. Basic use of psychology.
Of course, then there's the argument of who we should use and how that wouldn't be fair...
But anyway, it was just a suggestion, don't mind me.
I am more with Revnak who posted earlier, there is enough suffering in the world as it is and we should do what we can if and when we can. This does seem a bit more trivial and the lad is in fact 19, not that there aren't fairly competent people that age out there, but I've heard of people that age doing much more foolish things.
That's just how I feel, I'm probably not reading into the issue as much as I should and for that I apologize.
Honestly, whether he got the console for his son or not isn't really important to me, I can understand it would be annoying if he was using it for a sob story, but I find myself in a position that it's water under the bridge now.
And honestly, I have to disagree with the people who think shaming stupid people is the only solution to this sort of thing. And, in my opinion, negative reinforcement is not really the most effective way to encourage proper behavior (it can be, make no mistake, but there are other techniques that can be as effective if not more so, I think). Sadly, people tend to prefer a different narrative to that of the good upstanding citizen who always does the right thing. But, what I think is that some people who make good decisions should be rewarded and made examples of. Not going gonzo, but some sort of acknowledgement. Basic use of psychology.
Of course, then there's the argument of who we should use and how that wouldn't be fair...
But anyway, it was just a suggestion, don't mind me.
I am more with Revnak who posted earlier, there is enough suffering in the world as it is and we should do what we can if and when we can. This does seem a bit more trivial and the lad is in fact 19, not that there aren't fairly competent people that age out there, but I've heard of people that age doing much more foolish things.
That's just how I feel, I'm probably not reading into the issue as much as I should and for that I apologize.
Either you get rewarded for stupidity... or they really just happen to have so many unsold Xbones they might as well give it off for free!
That being said this is stupid and if anything it only reinforces people to act like a child: "Keep demanding for something loud enough and eventually they will get what they want!"
That being said this is stupid and if anything it only reinforces people to act like a child: "Keep demanding for something loud enough and eventually they will get what they want!"
He's a teenager and has a four year old son? Clearly his decision making skills are already a bit shaky. And yet he is rewarded with a free console just for getting scammed. Maybe I should get scammed and hope lots of people notice it...
Whether he deserves it or not, eh... people are supposedly winning free systems through giveaways at various fast food places, so I guess this isn't too terribly different. Good for him, I guess.
Whether he deserves it or not, eh... people are supposedly winning free systems through giveaways at various fast food places, so I guess this isn't too terribly different. Good for him, I guess.
Good for him. Now, maybe next time the store wants to do some good hopefully they'll donate $500 to Childs Play or go volunteer at a soap kitchen or something. Sorry, but in no world I'm aware of is it doing good to give someone who obviously could already afford a new game console that console instead of making them buy it.
Using sound logic they passed a moral judgement? Yeah, sure, that's how that works.gphjr14 said:
This world is a pretty shitty place, in case you haven't noticed, and if what bothers you is that something nice happens to a kinda dumb kid you're part of the problem.
