Man Who Bought $735 Xbox One Photo Gets Free Xbox One
- Thread starter Steven Bogos
- Start date
There are things in this story, after having a long look at makes little sense.Revnak said:
First of all, the age of the kid, at most Peter would be 15 years old when his kid was born, but given the 9 months incubation period, this could get down to the very squicky age of 14. This makes me want to take a long shower to feel clean again.
Again, I bring up that he read the auction description which did not state that he would get a console. But I will accept that he was justly rewarded with a full refund of his bid. That is perfectly fine and fair.
But, if he is buying this brand new console for his 4 year-old, what game other than Lego Marvel Super Heroes would he get? I mean seriously, I highly doubt that Forza, FIFA, and all the other launch games are appropriate for a 4 year-old to play. And while I am aware that when we were younger there were games we could play, the size of the XB1 controller, compared to the older systems would make the logistics of him holding it questionable. I cannot figure out how someone with small hand could hold such a large item, and use the buttons and sticks effectively.
While Peter was a victim of a con (I will agree to this), I think this above and beyond any justifiable reward, and that got me thinking. Wasn't there an article or something stating that the PS4 outsold the XB1 in the UK or something? Wouldn't this be a great piece of marketing, not for the stores so much, but for Microsoft?
And I am sorry, but his face in photo is a little creepy. I mean, a cocked eyebrow and lop-sided grin?
Really?
Really?
I'm of mixed emotions of this story. For the most part I'm jealous he nabbed a much sought after unit. He got his refund after being conned that in itself is lucky. Half the time you'll get a "Buyer beware" when you try a refund from most companies or purchases. But to get a system for free that's a step beyond. The next part of me is angry that he was stupid as to not read the descriptions. This is a given on any purchase. Medicine or food you buy in the grocery store is the same way. Just buying it blindly and having an allergic reaction isn't the fault of product nor can you blame the store. You, the purchaser, have a duty to look at what you're purchasing. I guess in his defense it was in the improper heading, but still you'd think he'd look anyway. I tried to buy an original PS3 online (my old was fried) and after reading the description found out it was broken. Seriously the guy was selling a broken console. So I didn't buy it. Simple as that. Finally comes curiosity. After reading the story I start to wonder how many others have done something similar and yet got nothing from it. I truly believe this isn't an isolated incident. Chances are there are other unfortunate souls that fell for that trick. Perhaps they were too embarrassed to come forward with their stories? Got their refund and didn't raise as big fuss over their incompetence. Who knows. The guy got lucky, he should know that. Nothing I say or do will change that fact. Yet he shouldn't feel proud in the slightest, but seems he got his 15mins of fame.
This forum has a very large group of losers who have nothing better to do than to try and tear other people down every chance they get. I swear they would and have berated small children in the past for doing something "stupid". I wish someone studying psychology could shine some light onto what the hell is wrong with some of the people here.Clive Howlitzer said:
Stupidity being rewarded... Awesome. -.-
Sarcasm
So, I'm totally going to go to my local store and buy some demo item. When they tell me it might have some wear and tear because it is a demo item I will dismiss this as they are a store and required to sell me new items. I will ***** to the media about said product and profit. Because fuck you people who use common sense. NOOBZ.
/Sarcasm
Sarcasm
So, I'm totally going to go to my local store and buy some demo item. When they tell me it might have some wear and tear because it is a demo item I will dismiss this as they are a store and required to sell me new items. I will ***** to the media about said product and profit. Because fuck you people who use common sense. NOOBZ.
/Sarcasm
Baaaaah. So much hate and anger here. I love this society: people who get free stuff for being stupid are hated more than outright thieves. Seriously, where was the anger towards the scammer in the first thread?
No, he sure as hell didn't deserve a free Xbox, but does he really deserve all this hatred and anger? Shame on all of you.
No, he sure as hell didn't deserve a free Xbox, but does he really deserve all this hatred and anger? Shame on all of you.
sorry to be cynical, but I'm going to have to agree with the others that had the same opinion. Dont reward idiot behavior. I know this is a bit of hyperbole but all its teaches is that if you get laughed at enough and look pathetic enough you'll get free stuff and thats not a lesson you should teacher.
Really? You're saying it's impossible for intelligent people to be scammed? Yeah right. Everyone at some point in their life will probably be scammed, only those who are extremely cautious might be able to escape their wrath.Baffle said:
Regardless this man wasn't scammed. Being scammed implies he didn't know about it but he clearly knew what he was walking into and bought the wrong thing anyway. Stupid or smarts, (see first reply) but not scammed.
Maybe that's just the cynic in me but my problem is that he wasn't really scammed, more that he was rewarded for his stupidly. Countless times I've heard or seen people who are scammed but don't even receive a refund for their troubles. If this man received a refund and nothing else then I'd be happy for the guy, but this guy was then rewarded for it.Baffle said:
To put it another way, I don't believe the guy should be rewarded. He in no way deserved it. Simple as that I guess.
Am I the only one who thinks the guy from the store kinda looks skeptical himself? I don't know why, but part of me is really entertained by the face he pulls next to the smug face of the guy receiving the Xbox.
I read this thread and some of the comments and I am just utterly shocked at the amount of hostility being directed towards the victim of this eBay scam. Sure, the man needed to be more careful, but the fact of the matter is a crime was committed against him. The eBay seller is a criminal worthy of condemnation, but the victim's only crime was carelessness. Also, I highly doubt that the item title or description made it obvious that only a picture of the item was being sold.
Then again, I am rather sympathetic because I made a similar mistake 6-7 years ago and got ripped off by a rather similar bait and switch scam. I am going to list my recollection of the scam below for those willing to spend the time to read it, to give you a better idea of what this guy may have gone through, and the highlight what utter scumbags these eBay sellers who use misleading auction descriptions are (which by the way are a direct violation of eBay's rules along with placing the item in the wrong category).
About 7 years ago I wanted to upgrade the processor on my computer. I went to eBay a searched for AMD Athlon XP processors (if memory serves correctly) within the computer > processors category and found what looked to be an excellent deal from a seller named wholesale_dealzzz (now long since removed from the eBay community for rules violations). The auction title was AMD Athlon XP 2400+ Heatsink, lapped. The description really didn't expand upon the title, and led me to believe I was purchasing a processor and heatsink combo. Had I been more careful, the real give away would have been the picture, as I could not discern what was actually in the picture. It turned out the picture was the close-up of the bottom of the heatsink, but was taken in a manner that made it impossible to tell what it was.
Despite the poor picture, the price was too low to pass up. I checked over the seller's feedback rating before purchasing, it was excellent with a score in the high nineties and thousands of transactions. The first couple of pages under the feedback summary listed nothing but positive reviews, including such descriptions as "exactly as described" and "fast shipping". After reviewing the feedback I bought the item and paid using a money order (big mistake). The item cost was approximately $70.
It took the seller over a month to ship. When it finally arrived, I received a poorly packaged, extremely poor quality heatsink, something I could probably buy for $2 from an electronics dealer. Rather than receiving what I thought was a processor and heatsink combo (a rather common pairing of items), it was apparently just a heatsink for a processor, that just happened to be priced like it was the processor itself, and somehow found itself in the processor rather than the heatsink category on the eBay site.
I almost let the matter drop after releasing the meaning of the auction title and wrote the whole thing off as a loss, but upon reviewing several pages deeper into the seller's feedback and found other seller's complaining that they found the title misleading, so I chose to stand up to the scammer. I left negative feedback titled quite clearly "FRAUD" and opened an "item not as described" dispute with the seller in eBay's resolution center. The seller not only gave me negative feedback in return, but then opened up an "unpaid item" dispute against me, despite having received the payment. I have to spend another $10 to get the post office to verify the money order was received, and I eventually got a copy of the money order with the seller's signature on it confirming that the seller was in fact paid. This got the seller's dispute dismissed. Unfortunately, the seller never suffered any further negative consequences for intentionally lying about my lack of payment, and I never did get a refund.
As for why the wholesale_dealzzz maintained such a high feedback score, she engaged in what is known as feedback manipulation. In this case a large number of items costing less then a dollar each were sold by wholesale_dealzzz, each generating positive feedback, and this accounted for the bulk of the seller's transactions. When actual buyers did buy the big ticket items and got scammed, often their negative feedback got removed because of successful "unpaid item" disputes initiated by wholesale_dealzz, much like the fraudulent one that was leveled against me. In all likelyhood these other scam victims simply did not keep records of the purchases like I did. Their comments would still show in the feedback summary, but there feedback was not added to the seller's feedback score, so buyers would never see them unless they went digging deep into the feedback comment pages. Worse yet, the seller left negative feedback comments on the feedback pages of her various victims declaring that these unfortunate victims were referred to a collection agency. So not only would wholesale_dealzzz rip people off, she would then accuse them of wrongdoing when they complained about her little scam.
Thankfully this seller eventually got kicked out of eBay for these practices. Ebay has definitely gotten their act together since I have dealt with this seller, and Paypal will almost always give you a refund if you dispute this kind of thing now (I have never used a money order since this incident). The feedback system is still completely worthless though.
Hopefully this gives a better idea of what this guy had to go through. He is not some shrewd mastermind trying to exploit society, he is just some guy who got ripped off by one of the many predators out there. It also should give you an idea of what kind of scumbags these eBay scammers are. The scammers are not doing some kind of service by keeping people on their toes, they are ripping off honest people and have no business sharing civilized society with the rest of us. Please do not justify the actions of individuals who attempt to use deception to take money from those who paid for items in good faith.
Then again, I am rather sympathetic because I made a similar mistake 6-7 years ago and got ripped off by a rather similar bait and switch scam. I am going to list my recollection of the scam below for those willing to spend the time to read it, to give you a better idea of what this guy may have gone through, and the highlight what utter scumbags these eBay sellers who use misleading auction descriptions are (which by the way are a direct violation of eBay's rules along with placing the item in the wrong category).
About 7 years ago I wanted to upgrade the processor on my computer. I went to eBay a searched for AMD Athlon XP processors (if memory serves correctly) within the computer > processors category and found what looked to be an excellent deal from a seller named wholesale_dealzzz (now long since removed from the eBay community for rules violations). The auction title was AMD Athlon XP 2400+ Heatsink, lapped. The description really didn't expand upon the title, and led me to believe I was purchasing a processor and heatsink combo. Had I been more careful, the real give away would have been the picture, as I could not discern what was actually in the picture. It turned out the picture was the close-up of the bottom of the heatsink, but was taken in a manner that made it impossible to tell what it was.
Despite the poor picture, the price was too low to pass up. I checked over the seller's feedback rating before purchasing, it was excellent with a score in the high nineties and thousands of transactions. The first couple of pages under the feedback summary listed nothing but positive reviews, including such descriptions as "exactly as described" and "fast shipping". After reviewing the feedback I bought the item and paid using a money order (big mistake). The item cost was approximately $70.
It took the seller over a month to ship. When it finally arrived, I received a poorly packaged, extremely poor quality heatsink, something I could probably buy for $2 from an electronics dealer. Rather than receiving what I thought was a processor and heatsink combo (a rather common pairing of items), it was apparently just a heatsink for a processor, that just happened to be priced like it was the processor itself, and somehow found itself in the processor rather than the heatsink category on the eBay site.
I almost let the matter drop after releasing the meaning of the auction title and wrote the whole thing off as a loss, but upon reviewing several pages deeper into the seller's feedback and found other seller's complaining that they found the title misleading, so I chose to stand up to the scammer. I left negative feedback titled quite clearly "FRAUD" and opened an "item not as described" dispute with the seller in eBay's resolution center. The seller not only gave me negative feedback in return, but then opened up an "unpaid item" dispute against me, despite having received the payment. I have to spend another $10 to get the post office to verify the money order was received, and I eventually got a copy of the money order with the seller's signature on it confirming that the seller was in fact paid. This got the seller's dispute dismissed. Unfortunately, the seller never suffered any further negative consequences for intentionally lying about my lack of payment, and I never did get a refund.
As for why the wholesale_dealzzz maintained such a high feedback score, she engaged in what is known as feedback manipulation. In this case a large number of items costing less then a dollar each were sold by wholesale_dealzzz, each generating positive feedback, and this accounted for the bulk of the seller's transactions. When actual buyers did buy the big ticket items and got scammed, often their negative feedback got removed because of successful "unpaid item" disputes initiated by wholesale_dealzz, much like the fraudulent one that was leveled against me. In all likelyhood these other scam victims simply did not keep records of the purchases like I did. Their comments would still show in the feedback summary, but there feedback was not added to the seller's feedback score, so buyers would never see them unless they went digging deep into the feedback comment pages. Worse yet, the seller left negative feedback comments on the feedback pages of her various victims declaring that these unfortunate victims were referred to a collection agency. So not only would wholesale_dealzzz rip people off, she would then accuse them of wrongdoing when they complained about her little scam.
Thankfully this seller eventually got kicked out of eBay for these practices. Ebay has definitely gotten their act together since I have dealt with this seller, and Paypal will almost always give you a refund if you dispute this kind of thing now (I have never used a money order since this incident). The feedback system is still completely worthless though.
Hopefully this gives a better idea of what this guy had to go through. He is not some shrewd mastermind trying to exploit society, he is just some guy who got ripped off by one of the many predators out there. It also should give you an idea of what kind of scumbags these eBay scammers are. The scammers are not doing some kind of service by keeping people on their toes, they are ripping off honest people and have no business sharing civilized society with the rest of us. Please do not justify the actions of individuals who attempt to use deception to take money from those who paid for items in good faith.
*Cough* Blatant promotional stunt by CEX *cough*
But wait a moment... CEX deal with second hand purchases. Does this mean that someone somewhere has truly bought an Xbox One and ALREADY handed it in to CEX for trade? Damn.
But wait a moment... CEX deal with second hand purchases. Does this mean that someone somewhere has truly bought an Xbox One and ALREADY handed it in to CEX for trade? Damn.
How is that a "nice thing" for them to do, when it is obviously a cynical PR stunt?hey_iknowyou said:
You say yourself that it is cheap PR. How is using the situation for cheap publicity a nice thing to do, for anybody apart from the company that stands to reap more profits from it?
That doesn't make any sense. If $735 is the retail price, then why not just buy it at a retail store, rather than on eBay? Who the hell would think to buy on eBay at the full retail price, when it is available from more reliable vendors at the same price?UltraPic said:
It's a mos5tly second hand retailer.It is fairly cheap but not a patch on , say, gainger games. Still i boycott the leeds store as it is massive and has tons of staff but you can still easily queue 40 mins in there, while the staff preen and pose and try to be funny and quirky. It's like some sorta alt beauty pageant. I wouldn't mind but aldi supermarkets run on 3-4 staff, not the 15 odd Cex employs.Me55enger said:
Victim? Someone who got robbed on the street is a victim, someone who had his house burgled is a victim. Someone buying a picture and hoping it magically becomes a console is not a victim. That's an idiot.Revnak said:
And THAT is what pisses most people off about this, that this is the hundredth story where a nimrod does nimrodish things and gets rewarded for being a nimrod! And that's a sad realisation. And I simply can't bring up any sympathy for that, sorry.
