Friday, November 30th 2007

Newegg's Cyber Monday Sale Bombs; Leaves Customers Dazed and Confused

Newegg hardly needs an introduction, boasting a reseller rating of 9.90. On the traditional day of online sales, dubbed "Cyber Monday", though, that reputation was put to the test. It all started innocently enough: Newegg was offering 20% cash back on anything purchased via PayPal between Monday and Wednesday (November 26th through November 28th). They promised to put the cash in by January 31st 2008. The only rule Newegg gave customers was that the refund would not be any more than $50USD.

Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, about two and a half hours after people started splurging, PayPal ran out of funds to give people cash back, and Newegg was forced to call a hasty end to the promotion. This left Newegg in a very sticky situation, as the promotion banners were prominently displayed all over the site. Newegg later edited the terms-and-conditions to say that the promotion would end on 11/26, would only last "while supplies last", and began damage control. Newegg is now in the very tough position of trying to get people the refunds they deserve. If Newegg cannot get the customers the cash back they promised, they will send said customer a free gift, assuming the customer contacts Jason on the Newegg forums.
Source: DailyTech
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27 Comments on Newegg's Cyber Monday Sale Bombs; Leaves Customers Dazed and Confused

#1
hacker111
they must be selling really bad products...even though they are seling like crazy...now they have a recall and they have supposedly ran out of money...ya right..the people that purchased the product need there money back and I can see why the people are pissed and they only get a maximum $50 back????? What if they bought something over $1000 that would be $200 for 20% and they cant dish that out??? BULL:banghead:
Posted on Reply
#2
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
No, the cash back is not for returned items, it was a money saving promotion.
They should have never put a date spread in if there were only limited funds for rebates.
They should have made it clear that it would only be "until the rebate money is gone."

I'm not going to beat up newegg too bad, they are a great company and I have never had any problems with anything I have purchased from them.
Posted on Reply
#3
mdm-adph
Paypal ran out of funds? You mean Newegg's Paypal account, or Paypal itself? One I can believe, one I can't. :p
Posted on Reply
#4
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
mdm-adphPaypal ran out of funds? You mean Newegg's Paypal account, or Paypal itself? One I can believe, one I can't. :p
Neither, the amount of money that PayPal ponied up for rebates ran out.
Posted on Reply
#5
L|NK|N
Foresight is a lot better to have than hindsight!
Posted on Reply
#6
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
If newegg was really really great, they would have just sucked it up and send the people the money via paypal out of their own pockets.
Posted on Reply
#7
PVTCaboose1337
Graphical Hacker
I was so happy for this, I was gonna get 20% back, but newegg was being bad, and now I cannot :( I wanted to buy the Phenom BTW, so as a free gift they can give... a 3870!!!
Posted on Reply
#8
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
newtekie1If newegg was really really great, they would have just sucked it up and send the people the money via paypal out of their own pockets.
If disagree. Since this was a promotion to get people to use PayPal (and PayPal was putting up the money) it should be PayPal who sucks up and gives everyone the rebate for the original date range.
Posted on Reply
#9
PVTCaboose1337
Graphical Hacker
Yeah, Paypal was advertising it for LOTS of etailors besides newegg... so it would be VERY unfair.
Posted on Reply
#10
Unregistered
But Paypal is owned by eBay, and what is eBay?......

That's right, evil!
Posted on Edit | Reply
#11
nflesher87
Staff
yeah this pissed me off a bit monday, I was just about ready to use three different paypal accounts to get a total of $150 off, then it was like BAM no more promotion
paypal should have made it known beforehand that there was a max they were going to give back
Posted on Reply
#12
HookeyStreet
Eat, sleep, game!
hacker111they must be selling really bad products...even though they are seling like crazy...now they have a recall and they have supposedly ran out of money...ya right..the people that purchased the product need there money back and I can see why the people are pissed and they only get a maximum $50 back????? What if they bought something over $1000 that would be $200 for 20% and they cant dish that out??? BULL:banghead:
LOL, I think you misread or dont understand what Zek said :o
Posted on Reply
#13
HookeyStreet
Eat, sleep, game!
v-zeroBut Paypal is owned by eBay, and what is eBay?......

That's right, evil!
Agreed! I call BS on this.....theres no way PayPal could 'run out' of funds :mad:
Posted on Reply
#14
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
HookeyStreetAgreed! I call BS on this.....theres no way PayPal could 'run out' of funds :mad:
PayPal didn't run out of funds. The sales reached the limit of the funds that PayPal was willing to offer in rebates.

So if PayPal said we will only rebate up to $50,000.00 and the limit was reached, the offer ended.
Posted on Reply
#15
SK-1
v-zeroBut Paypal is owned by eBay, and what is eBay?......

That's right, evil!
I have made and saved THOUSANDS with Ebay,..EVIL?
Posted on Reply
#16
HeavyH20
KreijPayPal didn't run out of funds. The sales reached the limit of the funds that PayPal was willing to offer in rebates.

So if PayPal said we will only rebate up to $50,000.00 and the limit was reached, the offer ended.
You are correct. This is the same kind of promotion that Buy.com does with Yahoo checkout. You get 20% off your current order if you do it via the Yahoo payment service. PayPal does this to get new accounts. I think they likely underestimated how many NewEgg customers had a PayPal account already and ripped through the allocated marketing funds in a short few hours.
Posted on Reply
#17
zekrahminator
McLovin
hacker111they must be selling really bad products...even though they are seling like crazy...now they have a recall and they have supposedly ran out of money...ya right..the people that purchased the product need there money back and I can see why the people are pissed and they only get a maximum $50 back????? What if they bought something over $1000 that would be $200 for 20% and they cant dish that out??? BULL:banghead:
You obviously have never got anything off of Newegg ;).
Posted on Reply
#18
zekrahminator
McLovin
newtekie1If newegg was really really great, they would have just sucked it up and send the people the money via paypal out of their own pockets.
If I'm not mistaken, that's what Newegg was doing, but PayPal put a set limit on how much money Newegg could give back.
Posted on Reply
#19
mdm-adph
KreijPayPal didn't run out of funds. The sales reached the limit of the funds that PayPal was willing to offer in rebates.

So if PayPal said we will only rebate up to $50,000.00 and the limit was reached, the offer ended.
The problem is, they never said that anywhere.
Posted on Reply
#20
HookeyStreet
Eat, sleep, game!
KreijPayPal didn't run out of funds. The sales reached the limit of the funds that PayPal was willing to offer in rebates.

So if PayPal said we will only rebate up to $50,000.00 and the limit was reached, the offer ended.
That should have been stated in the offer description ;)
Posted on Reply
#21
Basard
Free gift? like what? A $50 paperweight? Why can't they just cut these people a CHECK. I don't see how Paypal could run out of funds, if people are "inserting" funds as they purchase items, the funds should just come in form of discount... "Cash back"... LOL what is this AT&T now.
Posted on Reply
#22
AsRock
TPU addict
Thumbs up to Newegg. :toast:, BUT does this mean that Paypal are spending what they don't have ?... People have the right to have there money back DAM Paypal....
Posted on Reply
#23
F-22
SK-1I have made and saved THOUSANDS with Ebay,..EVIL?
Yea, dude, wtf are these guys talking about? Ebay is great! Also they've pretty much eliminated the eCommerce entry barrier for new businesses. That is definately NOT the definition of Evil! Also, you can find shit on there that you can't get anywhere else.
Posted on Reply
#24
panchoman
Sold my stars!
paypal ran out of funs and screwed over newegg, wow...
Posted on Reply
#25
SK-1
F-22Yea, dude, wtf are these guys talking about? Ebay is great! Also they've pretty much eliminated the eCommerce entry barrier for new businesses. That is definately NOT the definition of Evil! Also, you can find shit on there that you can't get anywhere else.
:toast:
Posted on Reply
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