Woot Off Website is terrible

So, in my experience, the Woot Off website is terrible. Items often stay as sold out for extraordinary lengths of time and when the new item finally does show up, it often halfway sold out or more depending on how desirable the item is. Items with a significant quantity available and that are less desirable obviously are sold much more slowly. If the item happens to be a BoC, it is already gone. As far as I can tell, quite literally the only way to get a BoC during a Woot Off is to be utilizing the Woot app on a smart phone. I’m not sure if this is an intended function to prioritize traffic through the Woot app or just poor programming on the back end.

Tip:

Watch this page, as it updates faster:

Woot-Off - Woot

(You’ll just need to click the blue bar when there’s a new something (whether it be a listing or comment), as well as open the thread, AND go to the item listing from the thread.)

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Howdy. Weird things happen when you have hundreds and hundreds of people trying to buy the same thing at once.

New items not showing up: Sometimes our servers need to think a bit.

The desktop site updates slower than the app and mobile web because they’re on an updated feed. We’ll get the desktop to that new feed when we can.

The forums do update a smidgen faster than all as noted by @Froodyfrog. He’s a rock star.

The BOCs are an edge case where we have hundreds trying for them but we’re selling only a few at a time.

To put it in perspective:

image

Orange are those orders going to the Vestibule of Patience (the order queue for BOCs).
Blue are orders going through.

For any sale of BOCs, about half go straight through (up to a max of 100 orders), the rest go to the queue to wait their turn. Of those going to the VOP, a small percentage will get to buy a BOC before inventory for that sale is exhausted.

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Interesting. Definitely an awkward way to go about it, but I guess whatever works. Eh? Thanks for the reply, @Froodyfrog.

That said, it still seems like they have underlying issues with their system. This isn’t a new issue either. It’s almost a guarantee that you’ll get a BoC with even the smallest of effort when using the app. Through the website and refreshing the page, it would be almost impossible. (I would say it would be impossible, but there is always the slimmest of chances that app would get shutdown for a few minutes.)

Thanks to @ThunderThighs for the additional reply. I know there are certainly supply versus demand issues with BoCs. Like I mentioned above though, when I’m able to utilize my phone for a Woot off, I’ve had zero issue getting a BoC every time. This is definitely a system level problem. In the big scheme of things, Woot isn’t hurting because the items are being sold.

This is Woot.

Awkward is the way to go.

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We break ALL the things!

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I’m on a iPhone and believe me nothing works for getting a BOC! I happened to hit on it right before the notification was sent and I was at 100% and all I did was cyber spin for hours! I think it’s just another one of their mischief games where nobody really even gets them! It’s just employees in the video’s! That’s my true belief after 3 experience today :ok_hand::infinity::monkey::two_hearts:

Exactly where I have been looking for the past few Woot-Offs. Everything else has a huge delay. Nice to know it’s not just me.

I got one.

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Refreshing my dibs claim.

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Yes dear.

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Something is rotten here. It used to be that if you tried often enough you’d eventually get one, but now it appears that only those first few, particularly those located close to Texas are getting the BOCs.

Coincidence.

I’ve seen people on the other side of the continent get them.

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It’s a pattern. I’ve seen that happen, too, but years ago. Unless they’re only giving out a half dozen each time now, it’s a bit odd.

Have you seen the stats from the last listing?

I live in Oregon and have purchased or won over 90 BOCs. It’s not geographical, I promise.

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Or have been gifted…

That’s true. I can’t quite remember who gave me one, though. Any ideas?

Didn’t you get even with them?

That’s impossible. They don’t have any sort of physical address.