Originally Posted by
VandyBDL
Not an accurate analogy. It is like selling a bunch of people the TV's for $1 dollar, allowing some to pick them up, and then charging the rest WHO BOUGHT IT WITHIN THE SAME TIME PERIOD $ on their credit card, then saying those picking up in the future that paid can't have it....regardless of offering a refund, its unfair to honor for some and not others.
Sure it's fair - I understand your analogy as well and would agree with it. You don't have to do for all what you do for one - that's not how life works, unless of course you are a communist. Everyone doesn't buy a car at the same price. If you buy something on the Best Buy website that was a $1 price mistake, and the first orders ship out before the price mistake is noticed - sure Best Buy can cancel the rest of the orders before they ship. Heck they can even recall the orders back from the shipping carrier prior to delivery. That's simply how it works.
You aren't obligated to fulfill a mistake simply because it slipped through for some.
Bottom line is that it's "not fair" for anyone, or any company, to have to fulfill orders due to a typo or legitimate and quite obvious (ie not fraudulent) mistake. Imagine if every time you had a Freudian slip, said something accidentally, made a typo or ordered something accidentally - that you were HELD to it regardless. Again, life doesn't work like that, and it shouldn't.
Perhaps I have a different view because I am a retail business owner - if there was some major price mistake with my pricing program or labels, I would hope that an honest consumer who recognizes the mistake would bring it to my attention, versus try to get something for virtually nothing. It would feel like they stole from me (even though of course they did not). Even worse would be if it's a regular customer that does a lot of business with me.
I, too, believe that because this is a massive company, it doesn't really hit the conscience of a lot of people. It feels different to take advantage of a price mistake at Best Buy, then at your locally owned small hardware store where you know the owner. But you shouldn't separate the two - whether it's a large company or an individually owned business - the scenario could be exactly the same. And if someone came up to the counter and said, "Hey, I saw you ring that last customer at this price - you need to do the same for me!" - I would not think kindly of that person as a human being. Again, we're taking into account it's a OBVIOUS and RIDICULOUS price mistake, not something that is miniscule and could be construed as just a low price.