Wal-Mart Customers Trick Stores to Match a Fake $90 Price for PS4 - Update

[tippy2k2]

I'm kind of surprised they just take your word like that.

I know Best Buy has their employees hop on their computer before they do the match (I assume they are going on amazon to check but I suppose they could just be putting on a show). Seems strange that Walmart wouldn't do the most basic amount of work to check those numbers...

By the sound of it, the products were actually listed for that price on Amazon. The thing is, anyone who signs up for a selling account (which I have done myself) is free to sell products on Amazon for whatever price they want, so they probably just got their friend to put his PS4 on sale for $90 during the 3 minutes it took to make the purchase. They weren't cheating Wal-Mart, they were exploiting an oversight in their policy. The only risk was if someone actually tried to buy their PS4 on Amazon for $90, but even if they had to actually ship it, it would still just be trading one $90 PS4 for another or possibly several.

Best Buy has it where it HAS to come from Amazon for their price match to be valid. I couldn't put a PS4 on Amazon for $90 and have them honor it.

My guess is Walmart is supposed to do that too (or they will now) and the cashier didn't know/care enough to look into it.

 

[FalloutJack]

"Heh, that's obviously fake. But frankly, WalMart, you don't pay me enough to care. NEXT!"

Pretty much this. You want a Wal-Fart cashier to give a ruddy damn about anything like this during the holiday season, during Black Friday even? HAH! Yeah, you don't pay your people enough. Have fun with that.

Captcha: The yellow king

*Looks around and sees Old Man Henderson stepping into Walmart for lawn gnomes...*

 

[el_kabong]

I'm kind of surprised they just take your word like that.

I know Best Buy has their employees hop on their computer before they do the match (I assume they are going on amazon to check but I suppose they could just be putting on a show). Seems strange that Walmart wouldn't do the most basic amount of work to check those numbers...

By the sound of it, the products were actually listed for that price on Amazon. The thing is, anyone who signs up for a selling account (which I have done myself) is free to sell products on Amazon for whatever price they want, so they probably just got their friend to put his PS4 on sale for $90 during the 3 minutes it took to make the purchase. They weren't cheating Wal-Mart, they were exploiting an oversight in their policy. The only risk was if someone actually tried to buy their PS4 on Amazon for $90, but even if they had to actually ship it, it would still just be trading one $90 PS4 for another or possibly several.

Stories like this really brighten my day.

I honestly dislike this kind of practice. A lot of people are quick to dismiss this as "sticking it to Walmart". However, keep in mind that by creating false ads on Amazon, they're actually hurting consumers and other gamers as well. For every person who gets a cheap PS4, there's probably a dozen people who placed an order for what they thought was a special deal (hey, we're heading into Black Friday, after all) who will be sorely disappointed when they find out that the order can't be filled. What about those parents who thought that this was their chance to provide the perfect Christmas gift for their children? Hopes dashed just so someone can game the system.

How can a dozen people place an order for 1 PS4? At most one gullible person will buy it and then it'll be removed from Amazon's storefront. Then that one gullible person will have to face THE HORROR of not actually getting a stupidly cheap PS4. That's if the $90 PS4 was on sale long enough for anyone to even try to buy it though. And who knows, maybe the people who put it on sale would have actually followed through, in which case this poor consumer of yours actually comes out ahead.

So, you're correct on your first point...if they only put one quantity for sale. However, most of the people who successfully use this exploit are putting their stock at a number high enough that it will stay on the page long enough for them to claim their ill-gotten gains. So it definitely results in multiple orders, not just one.

Also, anybody who is actually selling legitimately at that price aren't who I was talking about. I'm also fairly confident that NO marketplace is selling at that price point for a working unit.

 

[Jodan]

I tip my hat to you. I tip my hat to anyone who cheats walmart.

 

[Thanatos5150]

Wal-Mart's Online price matching is down to the individual store manager's discretion, the only "We have to" price matching comes from actual, physical fliers from a direct competitor. (My local store, for example, will not match Sear's unless it's a Black Friday ad).

All the Wal-Mart associate has to do is check the flier and call a manager over to enact the override, where the manager looks over the ad again.

Really, anybody taking advantage of glitches like this is incredibly lucky. Even employees who aren't paid enough to care are generally able to do the quick cost-benefit analysis that says letting this go through is not worth the job I use to pay rent.

Seriously, guys, I hate Wal-Mart, too, but so low-wage cashier is probably going to end up fired over this bullshit, and that's not worth a $90 PS4.

 

[RaikuFA]

Wal-Mart's Online price matching is down to the individual store manager's discretion, the only "We have to" price matching comes from actual, physical fliers from a direct competitor. (My local store, for example, will not match Sear's unless it's a Black Friday ad).

All the Wal-Mart associate has to do is check the flier and call a manager over to enact the override, where the manager looks over the ad again.

Really, anybody taking advantage of glitches like this is incredibly lucky. Even employees who aren't paid enough to care are generally able to do the quick cost-benefit analysis that says letting this go through is not worth the job I use to pay rent.

Seriously, guys, I hate Wal-Mart, too, but so low-wage cashier is probably going to end up fired over this bullshit, and that's not worth a $90 PS4.

It's retail. Customers don't care about the cashier. Which is really freaking sad.

 

[not_you]

"Heh, that's obviously fake. But frankly, WalMart, you don't pay me enough to care. NEXT!"

My thoughts exactly...

Then again, if that employee gets in trouble for it (or if they knew the one who bought it) I'm sure they'll be having a chat with management...

oh well... worth a laugh to the internet at least...

 

[Olas]

I'm kind of surprised they just take your word like that.

I know Best Buy has their employees hop on their computer before they do the match (I assume they are going on amazon to check but I suppose they could just be putting on a show). Seems strange that Walmart wouldn't do the most basic amount of work to check those numbers...

By the sound of it, the products were actually listed for that price on Amazon. The thing is, anyone who signs up for a selling account (which I have done myself) is free to sell products on Amazon for whatever price they want, so they probably just got their friend to put his PS4 on sale for $90 during the 3 minutes it took to make the purchase. They weren't cheating Wal-Mart, they were exploiting an oversight in their policy. The only risk was if someone actually tried to buy their PS4 on Amazon for $90, but even if they had to actually ship it, it would still just be trading one $90 PS4 for another or possibly several.

Stories like this really brighten my day.

I honestly dislike this kind of practice. A lot of people are quick to dismiss this as "sticking it to Walmart". However, keep in mind that by creating false ads on Amazon, they're actually hurting consumers and other gamers as well. For every person who gets a cheap PS4, there's probably a dozen people who placed an order for what they thought was a special deal (hey, we're heading into Black Friday, after all) who will be sorely disappointed when they find out that the order can't be filled. What about those parents who thought that this was their chance to provide the perfect Christmas gift for their children? Hopes dashed just so someone can game the system.

How can a dozen people place an order for 1 PS4? At most one gullible person will buy it and then it'll be removed from Amazon's storefront. Then that one gullible person will have to face THE HORROR of not actually getting a stupidly cheap PS4. That's if the $90 PS4 was on sale long enough for anyone to even try to buy it though. And who knows, maybe the people who put it on sale would have actually followed through, in which case this poor consumer of yours actually comes out ahead.

So, you're correct on your first point...if they only put one quantity for sale. However, most of the people who successfully use this exploit are putting their stock at a number high enough that it will stay on the page long enough for them to claim their ill-gotten gains. So it definitely results in multiple orders, not just one.

Also, anybody who is actually selling legitimately at that price aren't who I was talking about. I'm also fairly confident that NO marketplace is selling at that price point for a working unit.

They might be if they're doing it specifically to undercut Wal-Mart so they can then buy a bunch of cheap consoles, which was kinda my assumption. Look, either way, the worst thing I could see happening is a couple extremely foolish people having their bubble burst. Boo hoo, there's also no pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Welcome to reality.

I'm not saying it isn't wrong, it is, but it's the mildest kind of wrong. It's not like the people who tricked iPhone 6 users to microwave their phones. I was actually against that, but there someone was having their property damaged. This is wrong on the level of a prank phone call.

 

[Jiggle Counter]

The only part I hate is when it becomes public news.

All those people, getting AMAZING deals, then some asshole takes off to social media to brag about his purchase.

Soon after, tech and gaming websites post it on their sites and ask Walmart for comments, which at that point everything is ruined and nobody else can get the same deal.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Walmart's a little behind on this one. Target was very thorough when I went to price match a game last year.

Yes, Target is much more thorough on this. I work there, and it can be a bit of a pain when someone wants to price match. This wouldn't have happened at Target (or at least not at the one I work at), because the item being sold has to be being sold by Amazon itself, not someone selling on Amazon or supported by Amazon.
We get a lot of grief for that and other price match policies and people always go, "Well, Wal-Mart does it." Yes, apparently they do--for real! I can legitimately say that now without doubting it.

 

[Dalisclock]

That is one hell of a loophole to exploit.

As for people doing this I really don't think there was much at loss here, I mean this is Wal-Mart 300 dollars lost is a drop in a swimming pool for them.

Don't worry. If it hurts them, they'll just cut back on hours for their employees(but still make them work the same amount of time) and blame it on the Unions.

 

[AstaresPanda]

"Heh, that's obviously fake. But frankly, WalMart, you don't pay me enough to care. NEXT!"

pretty much this. Treat your staff like expendable assholes and they not going to give a fuck about you when it matters.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm kind of surprised they just take your word like that.

Poorly trained cashiers and managers who don't investigate returns are the root causes of these types of things. I worked at a hardware store for nearly two years and we had the cashiers refund someone for a toilet that 'didn't work and we bought it here'. It was clearly a 5 year old toilet (with all the 'wonderful' proof of that I noticed when trashing it) and was a brand that the hardware store didn't even carry. But because they came with a debit card receipt and the cashier didn't notice/care how fishy it was, they got a full $160 refund for their old toilet.

This is how the big box stores lose a LOT of money. These things add up over time.

 

[Risingblade]

I thought about doing this while back ago but i did not because i feared about the Imperial Legion soldiers popping out of nowhere to tell me I'm a criminal scum. o.o

Obviously if you had invested in Speechcraft you wouldn't have had this problem .-.

 

[Strazdas]

When you have stupid policies like price matching (how about just having decent prices? that seems to work for everyone else) you get burned by people smarter than you. No wonder they got scammed.

Poorly trained cashiers and managers who don't investigate returns are the root causes of these types of things. I worked at a hardware store for nearly two years and we had the cashiers refund someone for a toilet that 'didn't work and we bought it here'. It was clearly a 5 year old toilet (with all the 'wonderful' proof of that I noticed when trashing it) and was a brand that the hardware store didn't even carry. But because they came with a debit card receipt and the cashier didn't notice/care how fishy it was, they got a full $160 refund for their old toilet.

Dear GabeN.

Anyone that did this here would be fired and the cost deducted from his pay.

 

[FalloutJack]

Seriously, guys, I hate Wal-Mart, too, but so low-wage cashier is probably going to end up fired over this bullshit, and that's not worth a $90 PS4.

Dear GabeN.

Anyone that did this here would be fired and the cost deducted from his pay.

My brother works at a Walmart (not as a cashier, fortunately), and so I have a few insights into things there. I'm almost dead-certain that this sort of thing is either {A} poorly-investigated or not at all due to a lack of time, importance, and clarity of information to be found or {B} goes unnoticed and nobody knows what happened because the management is largely crap, the employees aren't paid/trained well enough to care/know, and 'By god, it's the holidays and we don't have TIME for this shit because the customer is always OBNOXIOUS about it!'. Things will be too chaotic this time of year and security is a joke, besides.

 

[Strazdas]

My brother works at a Walmart (not as a cashier, fortunately), and so I have a few insights into things there. I'm almost dead-certain that this sort of thing is either {A} poorly-investigated or not at all due to a lack of time, importance, and clarity of information to be found or {B} goes unnoticed and nobody knows what happened because the management is largely crap, the employees aren't paid/trained well enough to care/know, and 'By god, it's the holidays and we don't have TIME for this shit because the customer is always OBNOXIOUS about it!'. Things will be too chaotic this time of year and security is a joke, besides.

No wonder wallmart never made it to my country. See, being Ex-Soviets we are best known in europe as these guys that can outdrink the russians and steal everything. it would be abused as hell.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I honestly dislike this kind of practice. A lot of people are quick to dismiss this as "sticking it to Walmart". However, keep in mind that by creating false ads on Amazon, they're actually hurting consumers and other gamers as well. For every person who gets a cheap PS4, there's probably a dozen people who placed an order for what they thought was a special deal (hey, we're heading into Black Friday, after all) who will be sorely disappointed when they find out that the order can't be filled. What about those parents who thought that this was their chance to provide the perfect Christmas gift for their children? Hopes dashed just so someone can game the system.

The only thing that bums me out more than the individual act itself is that news organizations are essentially providing a how-to guide by reporting on it, ensuring that the scam negatively affecting our fellow consumers will most likely increase in frequency.

Plus the "poorly treated employees" at the bottom rung are the ones who will end up suffering the most as stuff like this ends up costing stores money and possibly leading to cutting back hours on employees or outright laying off workers.

 

[Remus]

"Heh, that's obviously fake. But frankly, WalMart, you don't pay me enough to care. NEXT!"

Captcha: The yellow king

*Looks around and sees Old Man Henderson stepping into Walmart for lawn gnomes...*

Don't worry, if you're kidnapped and posed nude, in a semi-religious context, Woody and Matthew will eventually find you, and a few years down the road, shoot your sister-loving killer, who looks like this:

OT: This was inevitable. Price-matching the interwebs has to come with a verification process. Wal-Mart, of course being new at this - old conservative farts that they are - chose not to verify the ad. So scams happened. But anything that costs Wal-Mart money is a score for the free market in my book.

 

[PunkRex]

"Heh, that's obviously fake. But frankly, WalMart, you don't pay me enough to care. NEXT!"

Cashier: I should probably check with my manager first...
Manager: Hey, I'm gonna need you to work Saturday as a new COD's being released.
Cashier: You wanna bag with that?