Apparently some lucky folks may be getting a PlayStation 3 for just $39.99. We think. Of course word spread quickly about this promotion and thousands of orders must have been made while it was up. However, some 8 hours later, it was removed from the internet, replaced by an Error 404 page. It’s unclear if this was a mistake or a promotion, since Target and Amazon both listed the PlayStation 3 console for sale at $40. Our guess is a mistake, since $40 for a PS3 is just ridiculous.
But if you bought one, the PlayStation 3 console was legally purchased, so Target is bound to ship the console. And if that is accurate, the company is going to have some heavy losses because of this snafu.
[erictric]
TAGS:
$40, Playstation 3, Target, website
Last night, it was discovered that Target mislabled an accessory for the Playstation 3 as the console itself, hence, creating a page with the appearance that one could purchase a $40 PS3 on their website. However, if one was to READ the entire page, the description was clearly for the accessory. Also, if you were to order the it on Target.com, your receipt would clearly list a “Sharpshooter Accessory.” Target has not cancelled any of these orders, but are sending out the accessories to those who mistakenly believed they were purchasing a PS3. If you ordered from Target.com, cancel now.
Target also sells its products through Amazon.com, using a service called Amazon Marketplace. Target’s website provided data to Amazon that they were selling the PS3 gaming console for $40, so Amazon listed the console at that price, from that dealer. There are two telling clauses in the Amazon Marketplace contract that suggest those who purchased the device on Amazon may very well receive PS3s.
“Do not misrepresent yourself.”
and
“Honor your commitment to buy or sell.”
(From the plain English version: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_navbox_lnsell_pa?nodeId=1161272
The legalese version is here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_lnav_dyn?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1161302)
Target has misrepresented themselves, be it intentional or unintentional, and Amazon may hold them to honor their agreements.
The most damning clause (in legalese) states:
“By entering into this Participation Agreement and posting a listing for fixed price sale, you agree to complete the transaction as described by this Participation Agreement. You acknowledge that by not fulfilling these obligations, your action or inaction may be legally actionable.”
On the other hand, Amazon themselves could take action and cancel the orders themselves.
“We may in our sole discretion withhold for investigation, refuse to process, restrict shipping destinations for, stop and/or cancel any of your transactions. You will stop and/or cancel orders of your products if we ask you to do so (provided that if you have transferred your products to the applicable carrier or shipper, you will use commercially reasonable efforts to stop and/or cancel delivery by such carrier or shipper). You will refund any customer (in accordance with this Participation Agreement) that has been charged for an order that we stop or cancel.”
This PS3 pricing situation really isn’t Amazon’s problem. This is probably why Target hasn’t released a statement. Amazon has no obligation and no reason to cancel the orders – a right they reserve – and Target doesn’t want a stain this big on their name. Notice no news networks have reported it. The only loser in this whole debacle is Target. Sony makes boatloads off the massive amount of bulk ordering Target is going to have to do, and Amazon doesn’t make or lose money either way.
Bottom line: It could go either way for Amazon customers. You could receive a PS3, or it could get cancelled by Amazon. As no statement has been released, I can’t tell.
I purchased a system from both sites, then cancelled my Target order after doing this research.
I have not received an email of cancellation from Amazon as of this writing.
really? “bound to ship it” you guys need to read the fine print. They are not bound to do anything. There are clearly things that state they have the right to cancel etc if they misprint a price. This is not the first time something like this has happened you know. Hey, I ordered one but I knew going in there was a snowballs chance in hell it would go through. That combined with the fact the model being sold has not been made in a few years.
Actually, if you look at the text on Target’s website before you order it clearly states: “If the item’s correct price is higher than our stated price, we will cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation via email” so no, they aren’t obligated to send anything.
Yeah I bought one, but like i supected, the I later recieved an email saying that I wouldn’t be getting it because it’s a price AND name mistake. It was meant to be a Playtation Motion remote or whatever. I knew it was too good to be true but I’m not going to complain over it. No big deal. It was worth a shot!
They probably don’t have any 60GB PS3′s lying around to ship out anyway.
Hey, not every company would do what this big company did, which was take the loss and make good with their customers.
http://www.walletpop.com/2010/05/24/pricing-error-costs-zappos-1-6-million
The only problem with what Christian said is that it will most likely be impossible for them to fill the orders seeing as how the version of the PS3 that was advertised is no longer in production and circulation.
Athena works for Target Public Relations, damage control. Isn’t it true that “If the item’s correct price is higher than our stated price, we will cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation via email” was place on the site after the fact?
I also ordered one through amazon and received a cancellation email. I probably won’t get anything, but I’m trying to push this a bit so I get some form of compensation.
Is there any chance of the other people that ordered through amazon getting together to press this issue?
money..
yes there is a thing on amazons site that says you have to “Honor your commitment to buy or sell.” and violation “result in the removal of your Amazon.com selling privileges.”
Anyone think if people pressed the issue with amazon then tagret would most likely do somemthing about it rather than get kicked off of amazon and lose potential sales?
I am pushing the issue.. I ordered through Amazon and my order is for a NEW console..Not this power grip thing.. Some body better clean it up.. Because I’m sure A LOT of people ordered them and not all of them are going to take “It was a mistake.” I know I’m not! When you goto the store and the shelf reads one price and it happens to be lower then the price rang up.. Don’t they give you the cheaper price if you say something????
Those dumbasses who expect to get a severely (and frankly unbelievably low priced PS3) ought to learn how to read and figure out what contract law is. Contract law protects merchants from dumbasses like you in protecting them from honest mistakes. Stop wasting our dwindling cash dollars just because you were too stupid to realize that a price was TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
So what can actually be done? Will an individual have any success?
The problem I have with all of this is I have never used Amazon.com or Target.com; however, this “deal” brought me to their websites for the very first time. I registered my Credit Card and made a Purchase. I received a Confirmation Email along with an Order #. Now they’re saying “Sorry for our mistake – Transaction is void”. WHAT A SCAM!!! Think about it, you’re sitting in the Marketing Depts of these two companies asking yourself “How can we attract New Customers?” Then the light goes on, “Let’s put out a deal too good to be true with the intent of never honoring the deal”. And just like that you snag yourself a whole lot of traffic… Believe me all of the Email Accounts for us New Customers isn’t going to be erased from their Data Bases along with these Cancelled Transactions. Now that is wrong!!!
Hey folks. I decided to give the “live chat” help option a try. After establishing that I was indeed talking to an automated computer, I wanted to try and squeeze as much info out of it as possible. After mentioning that I had been a faithful Amazon customer for a few years now, I received this:
Chandrasekar :Thanks, Anna. We certainly didn’t expect this would happen. At any given time, despite our best efforts, a small number of the millions of items on our site may be mispriced. We do, however, verify prices as part of our shipping procedures.
To make up this inconvenience, I’m issuing a $10 promotional certificate to your account. This amount will automatically apply the next time you order an item shipped and sold by Amazon.com. You won’t need a claim code.
It’s not much, but still… sweet!
they are cancelling all the orders. alot of people are reporting them to their state attorney general and the BBB for false and misleading advertising.
a few people i know of have received $5 or $10 gift cards, but most people wont even get an apology.
target has not commented on any of their facebook posts regarding the error yet are happy to reply to the posts praising them.
i ordered one, and got my cancellation letter today. i emailed customer service to express my unhappiness with what happened and received a reply from Shivani A. I know others have contacted Amazon and got replies from other customer service agents with names that suggest they may not be American citizens, or even in the country. This is the final insult to know that not only are they not going to own up to their mistake and take the financial loss like an honest business would, but they then have the audacity to have an out-sourced employee – making pennies to boost profits even further – give me the bad news.
Chris – I would looove it if we all who got screwed by Amazon got together to do something!
Summer – keep pushing!
I’ll never buy another thing from Amazon or Target again!
Got this today from Amazon.
Dear Amazon Customer, We are contacting you regarding your order ############### from the Target store at Amazon.com. We recently became aware of mismatched price and product information which resulted in the discontinued Sony PS3 Hardware System and the PlayStation 3 Move Advanced Shooter Grip being displayed incorrectly.
We are sorry, but we are unable to offer you either of these items at this time and have canceled your order. Your credit card was not charged. We sincerely regret this inconvenience.
For more details on our pricing and cancellation policy please see Target.com: http://www.target.com/Pricing-Policy-Pricing-Tax-Information-Ordering-Shipping-Help/b/10824271?ie=UTF8&ref=br_bx_Pricing%20Policy
Sincerely,
Amazon Customer Service
Amazon.com
http://www.Amazon.com
Dear Amazon Customer,
We are contacting you regarding your order #*****-5846647 from the Target store at Amazon.com. We recently became aware of mismatched price and product information which resulted in the discontinued Sony PS3 Hardware System and the PlayStation 3 Move Advanced Shooter Grip being displayed incorrectly.
We are sorry, but we are unable to offer you either of these items at this time and have canceled your order. Your credit card was not charged.
We sincerely regret this inconvenience.
For more details on our pricing and cancellation policy please see Target.com:
http://www.target.com/Pricing-Policy-Pricing-Tax-Information-Ordering-Shipping-Help/b/10824271?ie=UTF8&ref=br_bx_Pricing%20Policy
Sincerely,
Amazon Customer Service
Amazon.com
http://www.Amazon.com
I will work on getting a facebook page up for this …maybe we can get everyone to join and we can have powows there…I will work on it this evening…if anyone else has time to do it just post on here that you are and I won’t worry about it…just make sure you post the link…and look for other forums where people are talking and post it there also.
thanks,
JMS
Talk to customer service @ Amazon. They wont budge with the PS3. Only compensation you will get is a $10 credit to your account. Its better than nothing.
Just got done with a lengthy chat with Shaharuddin….Amazon isn’t gonig to do anything. I cancelled my Prima & paid off my Amazon card. Target is next.
Claude up there has a great point. I’m not upset about the order. I know mistakes can happen. I’ve been known to make one before too. But Target got a whole bunch of new personal information with new sign ups. According to their privacy policy they can share your information with whom they choose. This makes them money when they do that. They are profiting off your information that they collected after falsely advertising a product, mistake or not. It’s amoral.
http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/page.jsp?title=privacy_policy
“We may share information with carefully selected vendors, business partners and other organizations that are not part of the Target family. These companies and organizations may use the information we share to provide special opportunities and offers to you.”
It was an honest mistake. Amazon and Target websites both state if a price is listed wrong, they will not charge your card. We all knew it was too good to be true, and we also knew that someone messed up and would probably be in trouble or lose their jobs. If 1000 people ordered the discounted PS3, Playstation (or target) would be losing nearly half a million dollars! This is clearly not a small mistake but it isn’t like they did anyone wrong on a personal level. Getting the deal would have been great, not getting it was expected.
Move on.
I called Amazon and Target last night.. Even though my order was through Amazon.. They are trying to say it’s Targets doing for cancelling anything at all. The listing was for the Shooter Grip. Someone in their listing department made a BIG mistake.. They are just giving the “I’m sorry there is nothing we can do about it..” line.. Of course they are reading it off a computer.. So, all I can say is you can keep pushing and hopefully they come up with something to make people happy.. At least Amazon has stepped up to the plate and are offering credits.. This was Targets mistake and what are they doing? Letting Amazon take the hit!!
Ted Bell: Most of us arent stupid enough to think we were REALLY going to get a PS3 for the cost.. The point of the matter is they listed something for EVERYONE to see and now they arent taking fault for their mistake..
Yeah, they don’t have to ship. I sell stuff on Amazon and once I had a listing for something that got lost. I simply clicked the appropriate boxes for “out of stock” and that was that. Nobody sued me etc. This is bunk that you have to ship cause someone made a mistake.
If you buy something from a guy for a fraction of what it normally costs, you have to think in your mind that it is not right. If the deal sounds too good to be true it is. Any whiners who are angry etc that they didn’t get their basically free PS3 should just suck it up.
I think its hilarious that people are getting upset for them “not honoring” a ” TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE” deal. It must be this economy… the desperation and unbelievable madness these people are putting themselves through…. funny to read.. I wasn’t DUMB enough to order any of these when my wife showed them to me… because it was ” TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE” ………duh lol
i think it’s hilarious that someone would assume the identity of an utter jackass only to accuse others of making poor decisions. actually, you were DUMB not to place an order. what if they did ship the ps3′s? you’d have been the classic fool to have denied yourself such an opportunity. we tried and failed. you didn’t even try at all.
I’m okay with Amazon.com and Target.com saying they made an “honest mistake”. Each of us has made a few mistakes in our lives. What I’m not okay with is now they have my PERSONAL INFO – they should be compelled to ERASE EVERY NEW ACCOUNT brought in due to this “honest mistake”. But they won’t; so they’re the only ones who stand to PROFIT from their mistake, because now my PERSONAL INFO can be used by them and any of their partners. Just wait and see how much SPAM each of us is about to receive because of this… Publicly they may be saying that someone’s going to be reprimanded – Privately they’re saying “what a stroke of genius”; we just registered more NEW ACCOUNTS than we could’ve ever hoped for…
there is one problem i have with this. to all you people saying “it was obviously too good to be true and so only jerks and whiners would expect actually to get a ps3″ i have a little story for you. a couple in west palm beach 8 years ago accidentally listed their house too low in the classifieds by leaving off a zero. so they listed it for 29,000.00 by accident. someone came to buy it within hours. they of course refused to sell it for 29k. the man sued. under the laws of florida they were forced to sell. so i guess what i am sadly learning here today is that any of us would actually have to lose our own house because we goofed but major corporations get ,… well basically they get a mulligan. it kinda hurts to know the rules are so one sided but guess what. i can get even with them. so can anyone else who reads this that shops at target. they don’t have to honor ther mistakes and we don’t have to mistake them for being honorable. we can even sell our tggt stock and buy walmart, because guess what? if this story gets legs and everyone realizes that target is a scab then walmart stocks gonna rise anyways so i will get my money either way.
and i admit i took advantage of thier mistakes its called capitalism when you capitilize on a deal. does anyone in their right mind think target would let a vendor off the hook for promising the “wrong price”? of course not because the tggt stockholders would want blood because “business is business”.
one other thing i wanted to address is a seperate issue.
Dear Amazon,
Every one know about you and most people have bought or sold something on your website. It has always been satisfactory to do business on your site. However this ps3 nonsense has brought it to my attention that you actually let some entities have contractual purchase clauses in direct opposition to your own rules of use. Most folks would say that’s “bullsh#t”, but i have a little better legal take on things so what i will say is that’s “fraudulent”. to present binding agreements in a contract while allowing a subcontract to contradict these “binding agreements” requires you to disclose by addendum the possible exclusions to your “binding agreement”
plainly you must amend your
“Do not misrepresent yourself.”
and
“Honor your commitment to buy or sell.”
with an addendum that gives sellers the right to have clauses that allow them to not honor commitments at their discretion.
I got on live chat and complained. they gave me a $20 credit.
All you people saying honor the request, are retards. How can they supply us with 80 GB PS3 that has been out of production for like 3 years? I understand if they got a Slim that is still being made, but they “offered” devices that are no long available.
Here is my problem with it….As far as my Amazon paper work goes.. I bought a PS3 CONSOLE…It never said what size it was going to be or what model.. When you call all they do is read something off a screen that is already typed up.. And as far as taking credits they offer? You are settling! Lets just say…For the fun of it.. That Target realizes what they did was wrong and want to make up for it…I’ll bet they will find out the people that settled for the $5,$10 or even @20 credits and they won’t start with you.. I think both of them should be turned into the BBB!!! I’m not PISSED or even UPSET.. I’m angry that yet again Joe Bob with the big office and nice car is f”cking us over again.. We might as well bought lube for this one! I don’t care what anyone else says.. I’m fighting it.. Target is LETTING Amazon take the fall for this one.. Who is giving you the credits????
I find it interesting that people profess to be so MAD that they’re paying off their Target and Amazon charge cards, canceling same, closing their Amazon account, and NEVER shopping at Amazon or Target again. 1) If you had the money to pay off your charge cards you would not have a balance to begin with and you likely would not have that same charge card. 2) Never, I mean NEVER, shopping at Amazon or Target again? Fat chance. If so you’re only screwing yourself. We shop at both places to save money, because they have good deals sometimes, key word, sometimes. Discounting them does not make you a smart shopper and I assure you does not hurt their bottom line.
The only gripe I can agree with is for those that opened an Amazon account just to buy the PS3 because now, as you stated, Amazon has your personal information that they did not have before. I can see the problem here.
I bought 6 knowing it was a screw-up but hoping to get them and resell them for what they’re worth. They cancelled my orders as I expected, I never got charged, I use virtual account numbers, I don’t care. I’m not even going to call Amazon and try to get a $10 credit because my goal was only to get 6 PS3’s for $40 each and turn around and sell them for a profit. It’s not worth my time. Sometimes we profit from other’s mistakes and sometimes we don’t but I won’t lose any sleep over this one. You can’t argue with published terms of service. In fact, at some point you agreed that you read them and that you would abide by them otherwise you would not have been able to purchase your item.
Too all you people taking $10-$20 Credits – just realize that what you’re actually doing is giving away your Rights to be included in any Settlement at a later date. Target & Amazon can rightfully claim that you accepted their Credit Offer in lieu of any future Settlement. Ask yourself this “if Amazon or Target would have contacted you and said we’ll give you a $10-$20 Credit for all of your Personal Info, including Credit Card info, would you have said YES?” But, by SCAMMING everyone that acted on this deal, they now have all our Info for FREE. THIS IS WRONG!!!
I think that it is pretty clear that Amazon has a choice.. The can hold Target to their commitment or let them off the hook.. Amazon has chosen to side with the larger corporation that does volume business through them… Not a surprise.. But not right either.. When you think about how many people actually got an order in before they closed the deal, lest guess about 10k, and figure about $200 loss per console. That means a loss of about $2M. Lets take the legal argument out of it for now… $2M is less than a SuperBowl Commercial. So it all comes down to how big of a Black Eye they will get out of this.. If they think they can contain the PR damage, they will.. If not, They can do the right thing and protect their Brand Names… Just a though.. Turn up The Volume and we may get them yet
soapy taco – it doesn’t matter if they no longer make those models. the product description said “playstation 3.” just as if a car dealership advertised “mustang”, and used a picture of an older model no longer in production, as a buyer i would assume one of two things: either they were in fact selling the “no longer in production” older model – which just because they don’t “make” them anymore doesn’t mean they no longer exist today to be bought or sold; or that they mistakenly misrepresented the correct, newer model, with a picture of an older model. in either case there is no reason for me to believe they would not be able to produce an automobile for sale.
a buyer could have easily assumed that they were simply flogging off the older models at a massive discount price to get rid of them. why not?
if we intend for this not to go away we must make this incident as public as possible – blogs, tv (g4 might care), whoever you can think of. right now target and amazon are absolutely satisfied that nobody knows or cares about what happened besides us. but if this got more publicity they would definitely start to worry about their reputation.
for all who are serious about getting your ps3 – please contact consumer affairs. go to their website. they have a complaint form you can fill out. don’t give up just yet. they will have an attorney look over your (our) case, sooo…. go! now! COMPLAIN! and tell everyone you know to go there and file a complaint too.
Taking a $20 credit doesn’t leave me out of a future settlement, because I didn’t agree to be left out of a settlement. I said that I wasn’t satisfied, and I told them as much.
Now, obviously this is all a load of nothing, but Target and Amazon have infinity dollars each, and I’m not above trying to get them to give me something for free. I already got $20 out of the deal, so even if nothing else happens, that’s a win.
I do love all of the amateur lawyers talking about what people are legally obligated to do as though they know something. Also, guy who said that that couple had to sell their house for $29k, you’re a liar. That never happened.
I’m all about the fight….But I won’t settle for $20 so you can go spend it on their website….Because most likely you’ll buy something worth more and thats what they want.. They really arent losing anything.. They are gaining from Targets mistake…
Also, I never said I wouldnt shop at Target again (Never shopped at Amazon before so it doesnt matter..) But yeah, I’ll probably not shop there for a while..
I’d rather have what I started with…..Which was nothing.. Then $20 to a place that just screwed everyone over..
On another website about this I read that most of them were buying 3.. Someone even posted they ordered 6…. And even admitted they were going to resell them for more money.. Thats the problem with today…A lot of people are hurting for money and out to find the quick buck….But think about this…With all the people that were probably thinking along that same line.. Do you think you would have made that much money?…Ebay would have been FULL of PS3′s…
Just a thought….
Everyone should go on the Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org to file a complaint on “Target Corporation”, it would actual get us somewhere unlike the petition. I filed mine under “Advertising issues” and “advertised price not honored”.
@Anne Bundance.
I suppose your correct. If they can’t offer the 80 gig model, they should give us another similar model. I emailed them explaining the situation and Amazon’s policy. I’m sure if enough of us speak out they must do something. I can’t believe Target can just give us the blindeye.
peter i don’t appreciate your name calling. with a name like peter you should have learned not to pick fights with names anyways. as to my story being a “lie” it is the truth. people lose money all the time with mistakes on homes and cars when they try to sell and make a mistake. it is illegal to advertise one price yet demand another. it is called the “bait and switch” and i don’t know about everywhere but in florida it is illegal. so if you advertise in florida then you are bound to honor the terms of your advertisement- to the first buyers also. they have had people try to wiggle out of home deals on the upswing housing markets by trying to invalidate closings for a whole host of reasons and it never ever works.
same with ebay. you can’t wait till after a bid and say “oh sorry i paid too much so i don’t want it anymore” and you can’t wait till after your item sells at auction and invalidate the auction because you made too little.
and fyi critics. as part of my J O B i buy houses, boats, cars, trucks, sealed containers, and jewelry at auction all the time. while i can understand target having a 20 million dollar reason to disagree with me but facts of law are pretty clear. i would appreciate if the corporate stooges out there in little old lady land would just not waste every ones air criticizing the rest of us, but then how would you rapier wits justify your existence if not through meaningless nasty comments?
I don’t know about the rest of you.. But I did report them to BBB as well.. I’m also calling every day until they figure out it won’t go away!
All of you complaining about how it’s “not fair” and they should just “honor it”, even though the LISTED model is NO LONGER IN PRODUCTION, listen up. You did NOT lose ANY money. You are NOT going to suffer from not getting a PS3. It is a VIDEO GAME CONSOLE, not food or an electric bill. Someone made a MISTAKE. I KNOW you all have made mistakes. Mistakes like posting your ridiculous outrage on the internet for all to see, making complete fools out of yourselves. GROW UP. Get over it. There are more important things than raising a fuss and being crappy, ignorant “crustomers” about it.
Facey: Your rant and rave over what we are saying is what exactly?? Childish.. I don’t expect to get it.. Never did.. It’s the point of the matter now.. I think the only person getting upset around here is YOU! Everyone makes mistakes, no one is perfect.. It has nothing to do with that to me.. It has to do with the fact that Amazon is taking the fall for Target.. And people are taking credits just to buy more stuff off Amazon…