Best Buy Apologizes For 360 Bundles

drScott2 writes "During the launch of the Xbox 360, some Best Buy stores created bundles of Xbox 360s and accessories, and would not sell the Xbox by itself. Thus, if you wanted to buy an Xbox 360 you had to buy the accessories too. The president of Best Buy has officially offered an apology. From the Brian Dunn's letter: 'I'm writing to apologize. While all of us at Best Buy were thrilled to be part of the recent launch of Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game system - one of the most anticipated events in the history of electronic gaming - the launch did not go as we had hoped.'"

It's So Easy

[Adrilla]

It's very easy to say sorry once the units have left the shelves and the extra money has been pocketed. If they really wanted to say sorry they'd accept returns on the accessories in the bundles for a full refund and just let the customers keep the Xboxes...that is if they aren't defective. :)

Re:Amends?

[Knara]

If you're not keeping your receipts where they can be easily found after you make 100$+ purchases, you're a moron.

Of course, you're also a moron if you paid through the nose just to be one of the first people to get an Xbox 360.

I have little pity for people who got "hurt" by this. If you were able to control your consumerism just a little bit, it wouldn't have been an issue.

bs

[steelmaverick]

Its all BS. They're probably gonna do it again anyway.

When you think about it, M$ probably sells it to BB at $375, and BB sells it at $400. IIRC, EBgames gets XBOX 1's at $138 and sells them for $150.
They're just looking for some extra cash. And once they have it, they'll say sorry, and do it again. I'm really sick of bundles. Why should i be forced to buy things i dont want anyway? Like those EU retailers forcing consumers to buy PSP Giga Packs with 2 crappy games, for a total of $400 USD.

Re:It's So Easy

[the eric conspiracy]

IANAL, but isn't this sort of bundling actually illegal? I.E. you must buy unrelated item A to get B?\\

Re:It's So Easy

[Leiterfluid]

Maybe if they required you to buy a refrigerator to get the Xbox360, but I hardly think that games and accessories are "unrelated."

The usual corporate BS

[TheLoneDanger]

Total BS. Does anyone honestly think that the pressure to sell accessories with the 360s as bundles came at the salesperson level or just store management level? They went in knowing this was gonna be a high demand item, and that they would have increased leverage. They also probably knew that there was going to be a supply shortage of new 360s in the near future and didn't want to hold onto stocks of accessories, games and other stuff and let shoppers potentially get their extras elsewhere.

Besides which, what does this cost Best Buy? Issue an apology probably written by his assistant/secretary/lawyer and then agree to give refunds for those people who actually manage to hear about this and bother to take the time to go through the process. I really only accept a corporate "apology" if it means they take a financial hit worse than what they gained through the improper behaviour in the first place.

BS

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

I waited outside Best Buy for 5 hours on Black Friday (for the $380 laptop and $150 PC/monitor). Quantities of unbundled items were very limited (the minimum specified in the advertisement) and the employees were trying to sell extremely overpriced "bundles" to drive up the price.

Best Buy is all about upselling - from extended warranties to cables to services, their whole strategy to increase margin is to bundle overpriced junk with anything you buy.

Best Buy is fine as long as you remember one thing - don't believe their lies.

Re:bs

[the_humeister]

Not to be crass, but no one is forcing you to buy anything. You don't like the bundle, don't get it. Personally, I'm waiting until at least Halo 3 and possibly longer.

Who will know about it?

[LoverOfJoy]

How is this apology being advertised? Will many of the disenfranchised people even know about it?

On the other hand, it might not matter if they can get a much better "refund" by selling the accessories on ebay.

Steaming!

[obeythefist]

Well that letter was so full of corporate BS it was making my PC steam. And the aroma! At least the flowers will grow.

It's ridiculous that someone in his position wouldn't know about bundling practices, it was probably his idea. He apologises that it happened, he says he'll look into it, but he doesn't actually bother admitting that it was their own idea and they did it to make money. A sales and marketing exercise like the release of a new console is probably almost as important as christmas to these guys. Just like anything that makes customers (aka walking wallets full of cash to take) to line up outside the shop has got to get some special attention at the highest level.

It's purely a PR exercise. They're not really sorry, and if they thought they could get away with it, they would. Heck, from the attitide of that letter, if they thought they could get a good revenue stream from stealing old ladies handbags, they would. Especially if all they have to do afterwards is write a "sorry, don't know what happened to your handbag, maybe it went missing, I don't believe in stealing handbags so I will look into it" letter.

Re:It's So Easy

[Fjornir]

Because unless you're a karma whore you don't care about a downmod and the moderation system is in place to help people who browse at a higher threshold not see Troll/Offtopic/Duplicate/Etc posts.

Re:It's So Easy

[drsquare]

Isn't that just tough? If you don't like it, don't buy it. It's so popular it's selling out everywhere, if they can make more money with bundling then fair play to them.

Re:bs

[!an + Den!se]

I see how this works. You mean that misleading someone into believing they can just buy a 360 without paying that extra money out the nose for crap after waiting hours for it isn't slimey? And that it's actually the consumer's fault he was there in the first place? Yeah, those damn consumers. What they should have done, like you suggested, is go to another place after waiting for hours in one line so that they could be last in line somewhere else and not get one at all. A brilliant point.

Re:Again?

[dar]

That gave me a chuckle. I never have mod points when I need them.