Man Who Bought $735 Xbox One Photo Gets Free Xbox One

[valkeminator]

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!"

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

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.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

He's still an irresponsible idiot though.

 

[StriderShinryu]

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.

 

[wulf3n]

Contrary to popular opinion I don't believe the guy was an idiot in this circumstance. I actually think his action was a calculated decision when considering paypals and/or ebays policies regarding poor/misleading item descriptions.

 

[MatsVS]

People aren't so much jealous, more or less they actually read the article and using sound logic came to the conclusion that the guy didn't deserve jack for being an imbecile.

Using sound logic they passed a moral judgement? Yeah, sure, that's how that works.

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.

 

[nathan-dts]

So he won't really learn anything from this?
I understand them giving him a free one because this guy had lots of publicity and every site who reported on him will also report on them giving him a Xbone. However, this seems to be a local retail shop. I'd expect the Xbone to come from somewhere higher up, e.g. MS PR.

Crappy, nationwide, second hand gaming and technology shop. Not too small.

 

[DugMachine]

Sheesh some people in this thread need to take a damn chill pill. The dude isn't Hitler.

No he doesn't deserve a free xbone but it's not like he asked for it, they offered and if it would save you a couple hundred dollars I think anyone would accept. Get off your high horses people, I'm sure you've all made idiotic mistakes. This one xbone giving away for free isn't the end of the world.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

By this logic I McDonalds now morally owes me the compensation of selling me burgers that look as good as they do in their commercials.

 

[Alorxico]

I actually think his action was a calculated decision when considering paypals and/or ebays policies regarding poor/misleading item descriptions.

The whole article reads that way, in all honesty. He admitted the description said that it was a photo, he admitted that the seller had NO negative comments and had been around for awhile, and he admitted that even though he realized that the auction was in the wrong place he placed his bid anyway. Sounds like I wasn't the only one who read the Violin article two years ago. Confused? Go here. [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/paypal-makes-ebay-customer-destroy-2500-violin-seller-left-empty-handed/]

What is even MORE concerning is the fact that the auction no longer exists on eBay. At all. I mean, normally after something sells, the auction page remains accessible on the site labeled as "sold", but this auction has been completely erased! I searched for almost an hour (because working computer retail on a day when half the city is snowed in means I have a lot of free time on my hands) and found nothing.

The reason I searched was because I wanted to see this auction page for myself. I search eBay for memorabilia for my favorite movies and if any field gets mislabeled it is THAT one! Sellers will post in the title of their auction one thing but in the description something else. Books or music albums that share only the TITLE of the movie are also commonly "miss files". It is something the sellers due to get more hits and raise the odds of their product selling. Sort of like the poster of a Youtube video of someone doing something gross adds "cute kittens" or "Justin Bieber" to their Search Tags; to points more people towards the video and raises the hits.

But most people who post will make it VERY clear when something being auctioned is not EXACTLY what is described in the title. I am currently searching for props used on the set of my favorite movie and I found an auction labeled "Real Movie Prop". After clicking on the auction link to get more details, the description said "Real Movie Prop REPLICA" and descriptive how the seller did research on the film (which included visiting the company that made the props for the film, so 'go, dude') and made the replica based on that. Only if I hadn't been paying attention would I have missed the giant all-caps REPLICA label. I would like to think that is what happened here, but the article doesn't make it sound that way.

I feel sorriest for the gaming store that got roped into this. Dude, sell it to him at a discount. It's not like he didn't get his money back, Paypal bends over backwards to get people their money back if they aren't satisfied. That's one of the reason I will NEVER use Paypal!

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Yeah, this guy just solidified his spot on the "Top 5 shameful people of 2013" thread I think I'm going to write at the end of this year.

He lost all sympathy with me when he said he was buying the console for his four year old son.

He may have honestly gotten duped while buying this picture. Which means he really was expecting a console to come with it. The idiocy of that is not what I'm here to debate. I'm more sickened by him saying the console was for his 4 year old son.

The XBox is marketed as an entertainment system, not just a gaming console.
Sure, his kid might not be playing the latest FPS but that doesn't mean he can't use it for other things. Microsoft have been trying to aim the console at families. My two little cousins, 5 and 11, were given an XBox and a Kinect a few years ago and they love it. They didn't get it for the hardcore gaming experience, I can tell you that.

I highly doubt your anecdotal story is backed with the facet of your cousins getting a fresh launched gaming console with next to nothing for kids in their age group to play. Sorry, but Lego Marvel Super Heroes is not a viable reason to throw $735 at a console. There's not even anything that's Kinect only besides Just Dance 2014 for 4 year olds to enjoy. And I doubt he wanted an Xbox One solely for his son.


Back to my point.

This guy used his kid for attention in the media and and got a refund in a situation that probably would have ended in him not even getting a refund in the first place. I highly doubt anyone and everyone who buys a picture of something that says its a picture in the description gets a refund. Especially after admitting that the description says its a picture. That's usually enough for eBay to tell you "tough luck. you read it, you bought it knowing what it was. nothing we can do." Plausible deniability.

Even if he was expecting to get an Xbox One due to the high price of the picture, that was an assumption he irresponsibly made. The video game company is just doing the skeevy PR/Marketing tactics gaming businesses are known to make so I'm not too angry with them. This guy however is shameful. But frankly folks that's all that needs to be said. No need for unrequited threats of castration. This point it out for what it is so that other hopefully learn to do better.

 

[Phanixis]

- 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.

Nice catch Caiphus. I was wondering what the precise verbatim of the title was, and this confirms my suspicions. This is known as a "misleading title" and is a direct violation of eBay's rules. Ebay was right to grant this man a refund, and hopefully they followed up by also closing the seller's account and reporting the seller to the attorney general's office of whatever state he resides in. This BS the seller pulled is criminal fraud, and nobody should have to put up with it. If it were up to me, I would have the seller thrown in jail for a couple of months.

 

[Guffe]

I wouldn't pay close to 750? for any console!
I don't care if he got it in the end, he still paid double ths price for that thing.
Good for him I guess, a pretty easy PR move for Microsoft.
And people raging because they weren't "the lucky ones", althou as said, paid too much for it, even if the original would've been sent via ebay -.-

 

[RedDeadFred]

Why not give the free console to someone with a modicum of intelligence?

So you think it would make sense for CEX to have a press release along the lines of 'There's this thing going on with someone doing a thing on eBay. So we're giving this free Xbox to someone totally unrelated to this story'.

Yeah, I bet the PR would've been awesome. Would definitely have made the gaming press and got their name out there.

I didn't mean they should literally just give away a console for no reason... I guess that was clear in my mind but not in my post.

 

[Funyahns]

Its not a question of being jealous. I don't want an Xbox. If it was given to me I would sell it or give it to a kid in the family or something. Its stupid that he is rewarded for being a twit. Sure, he probably sort of maybe deserved a refund. But to top it off with a free system seems dumb. They could have gave it to a kid who did really good good in school. Or a kid who went out of his way to do community service.

 

[mitchell271]

How does a teenager have a 4 year old son and the disposable income to buy a brand new game system? Also why does a 4 year old need a glorified cable box?

THANK YOU
How does no one else think that's weird? Either this guy is getting a free ride from his parents or he somehow became head of a successful startup during the pregnancy.

 

[BarrelsOfDouche]

I would be happy to chock him getting a real Xbox one as charity...except it isn't. This is a retailer trying to garner good publicity.

The problem is that people waited in line for these things and someone who didn't, and made a dumb mistake to boot, is getting rewarded.

You wanna donate an Xbox to somebody who deserves it? Fine. Give it to the last guy in line who was one unit short of getting to pay for it.


Besides, I've heard that photos of the PS4 are about 100 bucks cheaper...and you don't waste precious ink on the kinect.

 

[gphjr14]

People aren't so much jealous, more or less they actually read the article and using sound logic came to the conclusion that the guy didn't deserve jack for being an imbecile.

Using sound logic they passed a moral judgement? Yeah, sure, that's how that works.

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.

Being a 19 year old father pushes him out of the kid category into a full fledged adult.

Also part of what problem? The world is shitty because people don't want stupidity to be rewarded?

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

CeX head office is just full of cool guys, not surprised this got authorised.

 

[MatsVS]

The world is shitty because people don't want stupidity to be rewarded?

People are slinging shit at a KID (contrary to what you wish was true, having a kid doesn't give you a magical growth spurt) for having something nice happen to him. Fuck sake... this is so bloody sad.