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.'"

Re:It's So Easy

[nutrock69]

If I remember correctly (after the altzeimers kicks in...), rumor had it the retailers were under pressure to "sell out" of the XBOX 360 and related accessories from Microsoft. MS is a legal monopoly now, so they can get away with unreasonable requirements like that. Anyway, the bundling was probably the only way BB could guarantee selling out the accessories.

And no - I don't think they're really sorry about it. They probably planned the apology weeks ago knowing that accepting returns for parts of the bundle after the inital sale wouldn't be a violation of their agreement to sell all of the accessories in the first place.

Doesn't EB still do this?

[thundar2000]

I tried to order an xbox at ebgames.com - and all they would sell me was a bundle.

I did this with the PSP, and got burned big time (all the games were very bad indeed)

So now, instead of having a pre-orded xbox because I wanted to avoid the bundles, I have a brand new DS with Mario Kart. And you know, I think I may be happier.

Smart strategy

[hal2814]

Step 1. Sell a product in an overpriced bundle.
Step 2. Since the buyer already bought the bundle, probably openend the items, and discarded much of the original packaging, offer a refund for the unwanted items weeks later. Not only will many buyers not bother to return an item they really didn't want in the first place, many buyers will not be able to return the items due to the packaging, etc being thrown away.
Step 3. Profit.

reversal of history

[NewmanBlur]

Back in the day, game companies used to pack in games for free as an incentive to buy the hardware (Super Mario, Sonic, etc)... now the retailers use the appeal of the hardware as a way to force consumers to buy games/accessories they don't necessarily want. Interesting how things have changed.