Xbox 360 / Bundling. Is it legal.

T

Topweasel

[H]ard|Gawd
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I ordered a Xbox 360 the day it came out, In fact I should be recieving it on Monday. I ordered it from Best Buy and was forced to Purchase a bundle, For me I got the Wireless controller and madden to go with the Platinum Xbox.I am one of those guys that normally never makes a fuss about anything, my food gets screwed up, forced to wait forever, even treated poorly, I usually won't say a peep. But forced bundling is something I get Livid about, Most of the time when a company does that I end up forcing them to sell me the main Item and I get the rest somewhere else. To me even if I plan on getting the same thing as the bundle, the Idea that you have to buy a skued and sold single Item with a bunch of sold singliy skued and UPCed items Pisses me off. Now since I bought it online I don't have much recourse because online is a convienience thing and they can do what ever I want.

But I was wondering How many of you who purchased it locally were forced to buy a bundle, and is it legal to only sell that with other things. It just doesn't make sense that to me that I no for a fact Forcing some one to buy PSP or PRP (extended warranties) isn't legal, I would think that this falls into the same line of reasoning.To me this kind of act is worse then the price gouging on Ebay.
 
It seems that most of the best buys that were doing it were not the midnight launch ones? an anyone confirm? Richfield, MN launched @ midnight and did not force accessories.

The 12 stores that opened at midnight got the most xboxes and opened at midnight because of a corporate decision. Those stores were the highest game selling and accessory selling stores in the country (based on what I read)

So I imagine because of this the other stores had "something to prove" and brought out the force bundles. It's not illegal....it's just really shady. Richfield just setup a 'gauntlet' of accesories to walk through and you couldn't go into it without your own personal product specialist to walk through it with you. :rolleyes: I didn't really mind as long as I'm not forced to buy anything.
 
I am sure it is leagal. Doesn't make it right though, but that is business.

I had a pre-order thru my local EB and I was second on the first list so I would have got one, but then they told me a week before launch that I had to buy a bundle.....I sold my pre-order to a friend (he just payed me what I had already put down on the order and I just went with him on launch day so he could pick it up, he spent almost $800 to get out of the store).

My friend works at the corperate building next to the Richfield store and he said that the corperate people were walking out with Xbox360s well before midnight....no bundles though.

When I read that everyone was doing the bundling, even Wal-Mart. I made up my mind not to get an Xbox360 until NCAA Football 2007 comes out for it.
 
MSRP = Manufacture's Suggested Retail Price

The store already purchased it from the distributor so they can sell it for whatever they want, plus all stores have the right to refuse service to anyone.. so if you dont agree with the price.. then dont buy... no one is forcing you to
 
true but this is messed up because they give you stuff you don't really want. they bundle the game with let's say call of duty 2 which you have for PC, but in order to get the Xbox u need to pay extra because they want you too, and they force you to buy the games that they want not you, especially game stores like GameStop or EB. If i had a choice of games or accessories than it's different story, they make the money you get the stuff you want and everybody is happy
 
No bundles at my BestBuy that opened at slightly before 8am. They did bring everyone in one by one so you could have a personal sales rep try to get you to buy their bundles and extra accessories.

Why dont you just buy the bundle, walk out to you car, drive home. Then drive back with whatever games you didn't want and return / exchange them? They are still shrink wrapped so them not accepting them back is wrong.
 
bazylik said:
true but this is messed up because they give you stuff you don't really want. they bundle the game with let's say call of duty 2 which you have for PC, but in order to get the Xbox u need to pay extra because they want you too, and they force you to buy the games that they want not you, especially game stores like GameStop or EB. If i had a choice of games or accessories than it's different story, they make the money you get the stuff you want and everybody is happy
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well you dont have to buy it at that store now do you? if you knew what the bundle was, what you were getting at what price and then still paid for it.. well no one to blame but yourself.. take responsibility in your action stop blaming others.
 
He's not blaming anyone and it doesn't even look like he's complaining much. I think the point of this thread was to find out how many other people were forced to do the same. Doesn't look like he's asking anyone to throw a pity party for him.
 
Tetrahedron said:
MSRP = Manufacture's Suggested Retail Price

The store already purchased it from the distributor so they can sell it for whatever they want, plus all stores have the right to refuse service to anyone.. so if you dont agree with the price.. then dont buy... no one is forcing you to
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They have the right to charge what they want for it, nobody is questioning that. But they sell it at MSRP to attract you then turn around and tell you to turn around and also buy these other things. If they were true bundles that would be onething but we aren't talking about a do not sell seperately copy of COD2 or Madden 2k6, we are talking about Items that the manufacturer sent to BB or Wallmart or EB to be sold seperately. If it has its own UPC then It should be sold sperately. I think its inmoral and I think slightly illegal to Entice customers with a sold called price of 399.99 Then force you to pay an extra $150-$200.

Edit:

Let me state that, that I am glad I am getting my Xbox monday and I am sure this isn't a huge issue legally and most people won't have a problem with this, but out of all bussiness practices this one bugs me the most.
 
WorldRunner said:
He's not blaming anyone and it doesn't even look like he's complaining much. I think the point of this thread was to find out how many other people were forced to do the same. Doesn't look like he's asking anyone to throw a pity party for him.
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thanks and ur completely right, i guess dude must be in a ranting mood or something. I am not blaming anyone if i can't get it for the price that i want and with the stuff that i want and know will be using and playing than i'll get it. I mean if i have to spend $600 for a MSRP bundle of $399 let me at least pick the stuff for that price that i want, if not than go find another sucker who shell out that kind of money, that is all i'm saying.
 
Instead of being pissed about it think of this, alot of people won't buy all the extras (including me) so in theory you're getting yours quicker than a lot of others.
 
Something that kind or relates to this that I always thought was sleazy. When I went to buy my PSP Circuit City had a sign that said "by your PSP with Twisted Metal now for this price" and I thought to myself, "Well this is cool I was already planning to get TM anyone so maybe I'll save a few bucks". Then I took a close look at the price and realized it was just the cost of the PSP plus the cost Twisted Metal with no savings whatsoever. I thought that was kind of ridiculous and then I realized I've seen this tactic before, in supermarkets.

Take the other day for example. I had to pick up a can of tomato soup so I go to the aisle and it says tomato soup 2 for $1, which at first glance would make you think that you need to purchase both cans to get them for $0.50 each, that maybe there $0.59 on their own or something, but any shopper will tell you that that's usually not the case, they just want to mislead you into thinking that so you'll buy both of them. You won't be saving any money you'll just be putting an extra $0.50 into the cash register buying something you didn't need just because you thought you were getting a deal. I don't know, I've always thought this was sneaky and underhanded.
 
Look at it this way, these stores are selling the bundles cheaper than just the systems on eBay. I think the accessory gauntlet is the most honest method. These stores are still faithful enough to sell the units at MSRP. The gauntlet tries to help them make some of the money they could easily have gotten by selling the units over MSRP.
 
I would have spent 600 dollars on extra garbage if it would have gotten me a 360. They don't have a SKU for the bundle so you can come back and return every single thing you bought besides the console. No big deal.
 
eurin said:
Look at it this way, these stores are selling the bundles cheaper than just the systems on eBay. I think the accessory gauntlet is the most honest method. These stores are still faithful enough to sell the units at MSRP. The gauntlet tries to help them make some of the money they could easily have gotten by selling the units over MSRP.
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oh yes i agree, but just because 360 isnt obtainable in store anywhere, when 360 will be available everywhere you won't see it on ebay
 
Catboxer said:
I would have spent 600 dollars on extra garbage if it would have gotten me a 360. They don't have a SKU for the bundle so you can come back and return every single thing you bought besides the console. No big deal.
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Yeah Understandable and like everyone else, I am fine with the extra package parts because they were ones I was getting anyways, but to me its the principle. Plus places like Best Buy have people they train to sell accessories so why take that out of the employees hands, while taking chances of pissing off a customer.
 
If you were a store owner and half of the items you sold were turned around and sold for 2 or 3 times as much as you sold it to them for would you like it? What they're doing is fine with me. Blame MS, not the stores.
 
Focker said:
If you were a store owner and half of the items you sold were turned around and sold for 2 or 3 times as much as you sold it to them for would you like it? What they're doing is fine with me. Blame MS, not the stores.
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It's store policy, nothing to do with MS.

It's completely up to the store if they want to do it, and they are doing it because they know if people "have to" that with the current situation/rush they will.

IMO it's a cheap tactic.

What's even more cheap is when they bundle things and they don't even give you a discount. I Mean they are shoving three games down your throat and there's no friggin discount, that's just plain wrong imo.
 
Focker said:
If you were a store owner and half of the items you sold were turned around and sold for 2 or 3 times as much as you sold it to them for would you like it? What they're doing is fine with me. Blame MS, not the stores.
Click to expand...
All agreement from me. MS knew exactly what they were doing when they dribbled out this insufficient supply. As far as bundles go.................I have taken full advantage of bundles to save $ on too many occasions to act like I think something is wrong with them. Calling them wrong or illegal would make me a horrible hypocrite. Love em when they favor me.
 
On the bundle business, I remember when I was getting a GC when they came out. Went to EB, found out they were forcing bundles. Would have been a non-issue, except the EB dudes told us that we wouldn't find one anywhere else. The cash source was so pissed, she drove another hour to get to the next closest place that had them.

Hey, I ended up with a GC, so I was happy.
 
It is legal to do bundles, it is however ILLEGAL to advertise a certain price then force a bundle. If it is advertised for $399 then legally they can't force you to buy something else to get that price.
 
Well, bundels are the retailers way of making sure they actually make some money.
If they force you to buy an extra game and a $30-50 accessory, they've doubled (or more) their profit of that sale. Retails make nothing off the consoles themsleves, a $400 XBox 360 probably costs the retailer anywhere from $380-390.

Yes bundles suck most of the time, but they're not going anywhere; they're how retailers drive their own profits for the first little while. Wait a month, you shouldn't have any trouble finding stand alone systems.
 
They might force you to buy as a bundle but you don't have to return as a bundle.... so a nice workaround is buy the bundle then walk to the return desk to return the bundled items.
 
I didn't read the whole thread, i just really paid attention to the thread starter's post.

This is what it comes down to. If you don't want what they have to offer, then don't buy it. There is plenty of other places of business to go to.
 
Stiler said:
It's store policy, nothing to do with MS.

It's completely up to the store if they want to do it, and they are doing it because they know if people "have to" that with the current situation/rush they will.

IMO it's a cheap tactic.

What's even more cheap is when they bundle things and they don't even give you a discount. I Mean they are shoving three games down your throat and there's no friggin discount, that's just plain wrong imo.
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Nonsense, if there were no "shortages" you know the stores wouldn't be doing this.
 
Focker said:
Nonsense, if there were no "shortages" you know the stores wouldn't be doing this.
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A lot of stores were doing it before release....

Before they even knew how many excatly they were going to get.
 
Focker said:
Nonsense, if there were no "shortages" you know the stores wouldn't be doing this.
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This has been done with about every console launch i can think of.
 
Focker said:
Because "every console lauch" you can think of supposedly had shortages.
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Thats besides the fact, the fact is this has happened with every console launch, shortages or not.
 
Glad others don't enjoy these type of business tricks.


BTW...They don't force the warrenty becuase they know that stories of broken systems will push enough customers to do that on their own.
 
GForce64 said:
On the bundle business, I remember when I was getting a GC when they came out. Went to EB, found out they were forcing bundles. Would have been a non-issue, except the EB dudes told us that we wouldn't find one anywhere else. The cash source was so pissed, she drove another hour to get to the next closest place that had them.

Hey, I ended up with a GC, so I was happy.
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When I got MY gamecube at BB when it came out I purchased everything 3 games 2 controllers, a PRP, and HDTV cable at the same time because they didn't try a bundle on me, When I got my PSP I walked out with Just the PSP and got everything else on the other side of town. I think the Honey, and Viniger statement comes to mine. Discounted bundles would at least be nice, but they can't even do that. Like I said this practice bugs me, wish I paid attention to the adds to see if the were advertising bundles or single systems.
 
mine did it this way:

The promised 28 units, 20 premium and 8 core. They had these for sale, un-bundled.

They then had an additional 16, 14 premium and 2 core, that they sold in bundles. Since they had the promised 28 separate, they had fulfilled their requirement, and provided the rest as a separate, different product that had never been promised or mentioned before.

I got a bundle.
 
Catboxer said:
I would have spent 600 dollars on extra garbage if it would have gotten me a 360. They don't have a SKU for the bundle so you can come back and return every single thing you bought besides the console. No big deal.
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I wish. No option from BB, they sell it as a bundle reciept.
 
During the past 3 days I've seen 'bad business practices' on the Seattle news channels regarding retailers forcing bundles on consumers about 4-5 times, And I haven't even been watching the news all that much. Their words of advice is that it is 'NOT' legal and to contact the retailers corp. HQ and the BBB if you have any problems.
 
Is this why I see so many on E-bay with games/controllers/ accesories? Thats a load of shit. I plan on Preordering a PS3 from Gamestop, or EB Games. I don't want any extras. Just the system and a launch title.
 
Bundling is illegal. If it was not intended (at minimum approved) by the manufacturer, a retailer is not allowed to force additional items on an item sale. Of course, J walking is illegal too...
 
Well, it seems {H}ard caught on and posted a link here talking about. Everyone should read up on this.

Ars
 
A crapload of retailers did that. I have heard in some cases of people in front of long lines that didn't get a system due to the fact that they didn't want to spend as much as other people did to get a system. As saying whoever would spend the most on extras would get a system. Between that & the inside Jobs (Employees getting didbs on the systems first), alot of people were left pissed. They have every right to be to if they were put under that circumstance.

-DarkLegacy
 
Guys... I think MICROSOFT and their distributors are too blame for this. They tell the retailers they have to have a certain hardware to software sales ratio. Something along the lines of "we will give you one console for every 10 games you buy." This pretty much forces the retailers to pass this on to the customer - they need to get rid of some of that extra stock of games!!
 
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