Dicked off: Customers furious at Dick Smith's $7m sale 'scam' - Polidicks

[img]http://resources2.news.com.au/cs/newscomau/v2/_shared/base/css/images/icons/homepage-title.png[/img] Source: [url]http://www.news.com.au/technology/gaming/dicked-off-customers-furious-at-dick-smiths-7m-game-sale-scam/story-e6frfrt9-1226316539362[/url] [img]http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2012/04/02/1226316/542532-dick-smith-sale.jpg[/img] Shoppers at Dick Smith's George street store were in for a disappointment. Picture: Sebastian Servat Source: Supplied [quote] • Sale details "leaked" online Friday • Angry customers say sale news was "bait" • Staff accused of "snapping up items" [B]DICK Smith's $7 million games sale has been labelled a PR disaster after shoppers left confused and empty handed.[/B] News of the sale was leaked on Friday, with [url=http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/03/leaked-price-list-show-dick-smith-might-be-having-a-ridiculous-sale/]sites claiming it was a games clearance sale[/url] due to a staffer saying Dick Smith would no longer be stocking any video games. Several [url=http://www.ecogamer.com.au/dsearticle.html]documents posted online[/url] appeared to show video game stock set to be pushed out at massively reduced prices. [url=https://www.facebook.com/dicksmithaustralia/posts/403833649646774]Dick Smith confirmed on Facebook[/url] later Friday that the sale would take place from 8am this morning. Among the items on the leaked lists were Nintendo's Wii Console, slashed to $129 down from a recommended retail price of $299. Xbox consoles were on sale for $100, down from Xbox’s RRP of $399, and the PlayStation Portable (PSP) was down to $40 from its RRP of $189.95. But when customers turned up at stores this morning, many found staff claiming to be unaware that the sale had even been scheduled. Twenty-six-year-old desktop support worker, Charles Grogan told news.com.au that he visited three different Dick Smith stores in Queensland but found that many of the games listed were not on sale. “Toombul was first on my list, there was at least 100+ people in line by the time doors opened,” Mr Grogan said. “Customers ran to the back of the store where the game section normally is, skipping past all the items on sale in 'throw out bins' along the way.” “When I got to the counter, the sales staff were yelling out to customers to stop picking up the display boxes for Xboxs and PlayStations as the store had no stock of those items that were on sale.” Mr Grogan said that most of the sale stock wasn’t on display at Dick Smith’s Cannon Hill store, but was kept behind the counter. “The staff member at Cannon Hill told me that the leaked list of sale items actually changed a few times over the weekend,” he said. The staff member also told Mr Grogan that the sale was meant to start on April 5 but had to be pushed forward due to the leak. “They didn't have the staff over the weekend to reprice the stock on the shelf, instead they came in early and took it all off the shelf,” he said. News.com.au senior developer Sebastian Servat was one of the people queuing up this morning, a decision he said was a complete waste of time. “There were hundreds of people just barking in the store, grabbing games, consoles, accessories, just to make it to the register and be told that nothing is on sale,” Mr Servat said. Some reports even claim that because of the leak, Dick Smith declined to offer many goods on sale. One commenter on [url=http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/04/dick-smith-sale-kicks-off-site-melts-down-while-the-queues-build/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GizmodoAustralia+%28Gizmodo+Australia%29&utm_content=Google+International]Gizmodo[/url] said the staff at Dick Smith posted a sign outside one of their stores that read: “Dear Customers, As you may know, we are having a huge gaming sale starting from 2/4/12. However due to the internet leak, our business will not drop 80% of what was listed until April 10th. Thankyou (sic)” However, a spokesperson for Dick Smith confirmed that the sale did indeed take place today as planned. "Due to the popularity of today's Dick Smith gaming sale we understand some customers did not get what they wanted and were disappointed," a statement from the spokesperson read. "A number of stores sold out of some products within the first hour and the Dick Smith website received an unprecedented volume of traffic. "All Dick Smith stores received communication about the gaming sale last Wednesday." Angry customers vented their frustration online, accusing staff of snapping up items before they officially went on sale. "Speaking to a mate who works at dse said most of the staff got consoles before the stores were open this morning," one commentor on Gizmodo claimed. Another - “Vin” - said the staff at Cannon Hill told him Xbox consoles were not available for sale because they weren’t in “saleable conditions”. “But I was informed (by another Dick Smith store) that they had two Xboxes in store,” he wrote This claim was also backed up by commenter “Matt” who said he heard a similar response when he spoke to one of the staff at Cannon Hill. “If they were going to let staff have first dibs, they shouldn’t have confirmed the leak, or at least informed that this was going to be standard practice,” he wrote. Associate editor of Kotaku, [url=https://twitter.com/#%21/LukePlunkett/status/186613240313286656]Luke Plunkett wrote on Twitter[/url]: “wow, Dick Smith's sale was a total f***ing waste of everyone's time. And they wonder why nobody buys video games there!” “DSE Altona had almost nothing (on sale), plenty of stock of items that were clearly on the discount list at full price," wrote a commenter known as "Mixer" on [url=http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/67028]OzBargain[/url]. "As far as I am concerned, this is absolutely bait advertising.” Dick Smith said pricing should have been "consistently applied across identical products in all stores", but the advertised stock was "limited and varied in amount and products between stores". "This was clearly outlined on the Dick Smith Facebook page when the sale was announced last week," it said.[/quote]

yeah went today, waste of time uncharted 3 was marked up from 70 to 90, the fuck

I was planning on giving it a look. A Nintendo DSi for 20 bucks would hev been awesome, but the only store that had any was about 20 minutes away, and is always busy so wouldnt have had a chance.

[QUOTE=Hamsterjuice;35394494]yeah went today, waste of time uncharted 3 was marked up from 70 to 90, the fuck[/QUOTE] Same, grabbed a whole bunch of items (MS Points mostly), went to pay, was told they were full price. Later on I see the same employee walking out of the store with the same items I went to buy

Went in, nothing was on sale, according to the website no stores had the G19 in stock when Sunday there was quite a few.

[QUOTE=Noth;35394508]Same, grabbed a whole bunch of items (MS Points mostly), went to pay, was told they were full price. Later on I see the same employee walking out of the store with the same items I went to buy[/QUOTE] to be fair the store i went to was aware of the sale, but the only things they bothered to put on sale was shit noone cared about like udraw and wii zumba fitness

[QUOTE=Hamsterjuice;35394521]to be fair the store i went to was aware of the sale, but the only things they bothered to put on sale was shit noone cared about like udraw and wii zumba fitness[/QUOTE] All my one had in a [i]single basket marked sale in a corner of the store[/i] was tennis and racing games for $5. Then, of course, there were the consoles behind the counter that noone wanted to talk about

I'm so disappointed over this sale.

Glad I decided against taking a train out to one of the stores today. At least I got a G27 racing wheel when it was on sale yesterday for $140 which is usually $500 at dick smiths (Horrible rip off at that price though).

This sale was so fucking dissapointing Stores opened at 9AM, I got up at 6AM to be ready to get to one before it opened (to catch bus with my older bro and then get a lift with one of his friends) and was waiting out the front of the store since 8AM, where about 20 other people showed up before their doors opened. Literally nothing was on sale, there was a single table in the middle with a bunch of video games and screen protectors. Went to a store on the other end of town to look there, and they also had literally nothing. I'm willing to believe the list of things discounted was fake because that store still had fucking consoles and controllers and stuff in it and nothing was marked down. Had school today, but thankfully didn't need to be there early as I'm doing some important midyear exams (HSC) and my exam for the day started at 1:30PM. Still, I could have been at home till midday doing other more important shit.

April Fools.

[QUOTE=BigOwl;35394905]April Fools.[/QUOTE] It's April 2nd in Australia, and the sale was today

which makes it an even more clever April fools... get them when they least suspect it

I wasn't planning on going because I could smell this happening however my mates got up early for this And appeared really Angry on Facebook that this happened

Eh i got Fallout: NV and Ruse for $10, only good games there except for Witcher 2 but that was $15 and i wanted to see if they would put more games out. My friend got the ONLY Wii in stock around my area for $129 so good day out. Its not like we got there at 7 or anything and waited for 2 hours for it to open. [sp] 2nd and 3rd in line [/sp] Edit: Also no way home till 3:30...

[QUOTE=Hamsterjuice;35394494]yeah went today, waste of time uncharted 3 was marked up from 70 to 90, the fuck[/QUOTE] yeah. i went and apparently the sale started at 9am, and ended at 9:45am they still had heaps of stock of the items on sale. they just weren't on sale anymore what the fuck

[QUOTE=Antdawg;35394888]This sale was so fucking dissapointing Stores opened at 9AM, I got up at 6AM to be ready to get to one before it opened (to catch bus with my older bro and then get a lift with one of his friends) and was waiting out the front of the store since 8AM, where about 20 other people showed up before their doors opened. Literally nothing was on sale, there was a single table in the middle with a bunch of video games and screen protectors. Went to a store on the other end of town to look there, and they also had literally nothing. I'm willing to believe the list of things discounted was fake because that store still had fucking consoles and controllers and stuff in it and nothing was marked down. Had school today, but thankfully didn't need to be there early as I'm doing some important midyear exams (HSC) and my exam for the day started at 1:30PM. Still, I could have been at home till midday doing other more important shit.[/QUOTE] Normally i never say this but Your avatar fits this thread pretty well :v:

A blacksmith is a person who is skilled with iron. A goldsmith is a person who is skilled with gold. A wordsmith is a person who is skilled at writing. A dicksmith. . .

What a dick. I feel sorry for all the shoppers who got their hopes up.