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