Best Documentation Website

So far, I believe the best documentation of Staples Black Friday error is listed at:

http://www.slackeratwork.com/?p=107

http://www.slackeratwork.com/?p=109

For others comparing notes, here is the original complaint I issued through the BBB website (I know that things are getting a little out of order, but I'd like to record as much as possible on the web as quick as possible):

Brief description of problem:
At approximately 6am on November 23rd (Black Friday), I logged into the Staples Website to attempt purchasing a door-buster sale. At that time, I was able to select a Navigon 2100T GPS unit and place it in my shopping cart. I also selected a phone and then proceeded to checkout. At that point, both items were in my shopping cart and totaling to the correct, sale dollar amounts. I checked out of the store using a credit card and received a confirmation page showing that I had successfully purchased the items at sale prices. I thought I was one of the luck few who had secured a Black Friday, limited quantity item. I frequently purchase through Staples website – and this transaction had proceeded absolutely normally. About an hour and a half later, I logged back into Staples to print my receipt – but found a disturbing adjustment. Although my order was in the system, the Navigon unit had been removed and the phone status had been moved to "researching". I immediately called Customer Service regarding the issues and was told that the GPS system was a limited quantity sale and that they must have run out of inventory. As for the phone status, I was told that overwhelming website traffic may have caused a system glitch and that they would need my credit card info a second time (it’s important to note that I could not have checked out of Staples in the first place had I not supplied a credit card – but here we were). While I did supply the necessary info to complete the phone purchase, the Customer Service agent could not fix the issue with the GPS system disappearing from the cart. As it was a limited quantity item, there were no more to sell me. I explained that I was fine with the idea of a limited quantity sale, however since I had been able to actually check out of the store and receive Staples’ confirmation page, that a GPS unit should have been set aside for me. In my opinion, it’s unethical for Staples to allow consumers to reach a confirmed checkout page, only to go back and adjust orders later based on limited inventory. If the system is not sophisticated enough to limit the number of purchase transactions to actual inventory, then aggressive sales such as this should not be offered online. As a consumer, I did everything correctly; loaded the website at 6am, selected the door-buster item I wanted, saw this item in my shopping cart, agreed to pay the listed amount for the item, paid by credit card, and received confirmation that the order was accepted at the sale price. It was not until I logged back in that I found out the order had been adjusted and the GPS removed. In my mind, the transaction is the same as if I had gone to a store at 6am, actually gotten my hands on a door-buster item, proceeded through the registers, drove home, and then been greeted by a Staples employee who wanted to tell me that they were just kidding about the sale – and that they wanted the product back because they only had a limited quantity. When I left the call, it was without resolution. Later that day, my wife called Staples, as she could not understand what had happened. Although Customer Service was polite to her as well, they could not supply answers beyond the fact that this was a limited item sale. She was told that even though confirmation occurred on our screen, true confirmation only occurs when Staples has internally processed the order. I am writing this complaint in the hope that the issue receives appropriate levels of attention within the Staples organization. Sr. Management in any company would see this as an opportunity for process / technology improvement – and there is something here that needs to be fixed.


Settlement sought:
An appropriate resolution would be to set aside a single unit from the next Navigon shipment and complete my order at the previously confirmed sale price of $99.99 with lifetime traffic. An alternative solution would be to honor the $99.99 sale price on a substitute GPS system that includes Text to Speech (the primary feature I was attempting to purchase). There should also be a commitment acknowledge the issue, research the cause of this situation, and correct the system going forward so that other consumers to not have the same experience.
Primary settlement type:
Delivery of Order

Interesting Info Found on the web

I really wasn't thrilled with Staples responses so far, so I decided to do a little searching on the web to see if there were precedents about this sort of thing. Interestingly, I did find that Staples had to pay 850K in fines a few years back due to an inaccurate inventory system... It's not exactly the same issue, but here's the letter I wrote back to Staples regarding the topic. I know that there are a few people out there (I've read on other forums) considering researching legal action. Maybe a bunch of follow-up letters to the FTC / those involved in the original lawsuit will get things moving. Letter below:

Alicia,

Thank you for your response to my BBB complaint. I do not believe the response addressed the core issue within the complaint; the fact that as a consumer, I was mislead by being able to fully check out of the store with an item in my shopping cart, only to have the item removed after the fact. Had a proper inventory management system been in place, consumers shopping online would have received an "out of stock" message at the time of their attempted purchase. Instead, we received an purchase confirmation.

We obviously have different points of view on the situation and how it is being managed. Reading through the 2003 $850,000 FTC judgment against Staples for a similar, misleading inventory issue, I question whether or not today's problem has been given proper attention - http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/05/staples.shtm.

Similarly, the Massachusetts department of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation clearly states that a business cannot practice deceptive or misleading sales tactics - http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocaterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Shopping%2c+Retail+%26+E-Commerce&L3=Shopping+Rights&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=a_basic_guide_to_the_massachusetts_consumer_protection_law&csid=Eoca

While one could argue that a limited quantity clause is clear and non-deceptive, I could certainly argue that being allowed to reach a webpage that "confirms" a purchase - only to have it later removed - is both misleading and deceptive. Hundreds of Internet posts from consumers prove that others were mislead by the Staples system - I am not an isolated case.Please let me know if there is any additional feedback on this matter from the Staples leadership team.

Regards,
Mike

Today's Update

Apparently, it can take Google up to a month to find this type of blog for its search engine. So by the time anyone actually finds this site, the issue will probably be dead. Still, on the off chance that someone does encounter this site, I've listed a few updates:

First, here is the Staples response to my Better Business Bureau complaint. It completely skips over the fact that consumers were allowed to check out of the website & receive a Staples Order Confirmation - but this is what they're sending out:

November 26, 2007 Mr. Michael XXX XXX /11/26/2007/ABX Dear Mr. XXXXX: Thank you for taking the time to contact Staples concerning the unavailability of the early bird specials on our website, www.Staples.com. We understand that it is a tremendous inconvenience for our customers to visit our website, only to not attain the desired items. We apologize. In this particular situation, we had noted on the website that the product was available while supplies last. Due to the overwhelming response to our advertisement, Staples ran out of the Navigon GPS system that was featured very quickly. I have forwarded your experience to both our product buyers and replenishment group. Unfortunately, we are not offering a substitute on this item to be able to accommodate your request. Again, please accept our apologies. I do hope you will remain a valued Staples customer and look forward to serving all of your future office supply needs. Sincerely yours, Alicia Benoit Office of the President Staples, Inc.

Staples Cancelled My Black Friday Order - Navigon 2100T

For a moment, I started to think that I had done something wrong. It was 7:30am and I was staring at my computer screen trying to understand why the Navigon 2100T with free lifetime traffic no longer appeared within my Staples order. Sure it was early when I completed the transition at 6am, but I've ordered from Staples.com many times - and this order seemed to process completely normally. I know that I used the right credit card, saw the item in my shopping cart, and reached the purchase confirmation page - I did buy a Black Friday door-buster special online, didn't I? I was one of the lucky few to make it through checkout before the masses, wasn't I?

If you're reading this site, chances are you're one of the lucky ones too. By lucky, I mean one of us who found out after checkout that Staples went back in and cancelled orders because they didn't have sufficient inventory for what they allowed the website to sell. At 8:30pm, I received the informal Staples notification that an item on my order had been cancelled.

I've spoken to Staples customer service several times, filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and now taken to blogging. Something about this transaction just doesn't seem right. How can a major retailer allow an online sale that dupes so many consumers into believing they had gotten a deal - only to retract that deal 14 hours later?

I could write pages and pages on my thoughts, but the purpose of setting up this site is to create a location where everyone can vent. The breadth of this problem should not be hidden behind Staples' customer service department. Instead, the number of upset customers should be exposed for the world to see. Legal or not (I don't know), Staples online Black Friday sale strategy has caused many consumers to feel tricked. I was mislead - and in searching the Internet, it appears that many others feel they were mislead too. Please post your comments & discussion - this site is dedicated to exposing Staples mismanagement of their online Black Friday sale and their corporations position on the topic.

As a final note, I've heard that Staples was unprepared for the massive demand on this item (in my mind that is a legal clause to try avoiding future trouble with consumer protection agencies). To prove that, I would welcome anyone with access to Staples POS to post past year, comparable item information. I read on one website that a similar incident happened in 2006 with a Mio GPS (no idea if this is true or not) - and would like to see that item's (or other comparable offers) sales bench marked against this year's Navigon sales in units.