Re: Woot self-destructs, film at eleven

Well, it’s obvious you are not a lawyer. Fraud requires intent, you can’t prove intent here. And your opinion does not change legal standing. BBB wont mess with it and no court system will look at it either. You should give it a rest, you are emarassing yourself. Really, if you are so turned off, you should just leave.

I’m looking at it like a coupon that has expired. The code was posted in the coffee maker forum, and it should be clear to anyone reading the explanation for the code that they shouldn’t have made assumptions that it would be good past the one item per day Woot item. Going back to an expired coupon thought. Would you sue your local grocer because the store didn’t honor your coupon that expired at midnight on Sept. 16, 2005 and you tried to use it a day, or two, or week later? Of course you wouldn’t sue, because you know you were in the wrong. Well, the same principal applies here. The coupon was good for one day, one item only. Anyone who tried to steal (that’s right, STEAL) a discount by fradulently using an expired code and then gets mad about it, deserves what they get. To me this is a non-issue. Someone(s) tried to steal a discount, got busted, and now is upset. Don’t get confused about who the guilty party is here, it’s not Woot, it’s the person trying to steal money from Woots pocket.

Your example’s not really matching up. To match up, the coupon would not have an expiration date, the retailer would take the coupon, then later add the amount of the coupon back to the order, and charge a higher amount.

O.K. but there is an expiration date on the “coffeebreak” code.

Posted at 12:00 a.m. Sept. 16, 2005 the explanation for the code is stated as:

Thanks for joining us in the product discussion forum today - your reward for coming to the forum is a $25 coupon for tonight’s item. Be sure to enter the code “coffeebreak” when you purchase.

Sounds like they put a time limit on the code.

Or am I just being dense (probably) and not understanding what the problem is.

It’s gone now, but in big bold letters on the woot’s forum page (click community, then woots) was a text saying “thanks for visiting the forums, blah, blah, blah, use this coupon on tonight’s woot”. If you were just visiting that night, having not visited the night before, it would not be obvious that the code were only for the coffee maker. Now, you have to go into the coffee maker forum to see it, but before, you didn’t, it was on the page under the title.

(Should be obvious, but the above is not a direct quote [;)])

Got it. Didn’t know that it was on the main Woots forum page. If that was the case then it was a stupid thing to let slip by on Woot’s part. I’m still of the thought of the expired coupon (I should be, it’s my thought). But, in the matter of good business, if that is really the case of the code confusion, then Woot should suck it up and honor the codes that were entered while that information was still on the Woots forum main page. Anyone trying to scam a discount after Woot corrected the page shouldn’t expect to get the discount, if that was even a possibility.

I’m afraid you have a very valid complaint, but I urge you to wait and see if we can get an official response from woot here. They are really good guys, and I’m sure they’ll be understanding.

Well, I just thought of another thing. Although I received my drive about a week ago, I never thought to check my credit card charges because some many people in various forums (Fatwallet being one of those I frequent) have raved about them. Had they included an invoice or packing slip, sent me an email, or otherwise tried to let me know in one way or another that the coupon had been invalidated, I would have known about this matter sooner. If i was one of those people who didn’t check their credit card charges online, I would have had to wait another week or two to find out that this purchase had become a problem. Where is the ethics in that? I am awaiting eagerly for a satisfactory response from the Woot staff as we speak.

Agreed - that’s what should have been done. It was our first attempt with a coupon and I dare say the last one as well. It was supposed to expire at 11:59 but didn’t and when the coupon was cancelled at about 4am, all the orders that had used the coupon (about 20 out of 500+ orders) were supposed to be cancelled as well. Instead they ended up in the automated order process and were sent to the warehouse . If you’re one of the twenty or so that used the coupon, refuse your shipment or email rma@woot.com and we’ll issue a call tag and refund your money.

Great. Thanks obob and Rev. Here’s the result of your Don Quixote attack on woot. No more coupons.

Please feel free to GFO.

What someone makes an honest mistake online because of woot’s screw-up and it got fixed? Yeah, I don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight with that horrible deed hanging over my head.

I love woot and the guys here are great. I appreciate BigD coming out and explaining things. Woot always does, that’s why I said people should wait. See, now people can get themselves a refund. Its not entirely within the usual dealings of the law, but it is a very fair compromise. This way trouble will be avoided.

I love the woot staff because they will come out and explain things, most businesses don’t. These are genuinely good people and we can expect to hear from them when something goes wrong.

Layoff Dreamaster, the problem was resolved, and woot can get the coupon thing working if they try. I don’t care, everyday is like a coupon here.

If you check the thread in the daily woot area - I did blame the folks on fatwallet that gave the code out, and not the ones that used it and got hurt by it.

Obob bringing this thread up was wrong, and honestly, BigD didn’t need to answer it. I lumped you in because you defended Obob here.

Mea Culpa.

Excellent idea! I’d love to see this thing close. All that could possibly be left is Dreamaster looking like an idiot, and no one wants to see that.

Problem solved. Let’s close it!