The i-Deals Incident

[AnthonyAthletic]

But that Dvorak deal was listed for a long time, not just a couple of hours. And it was Amazon itself, not a AMP seller. It was even on their pre-release listing. I bought it. I got it in a more reasonable time than some others because I ordered it sooner and they ran out, restocked and still shipped. It never even entered my mind that this might have been a mistake price. Hell, maybe it was, but if so, Amazon lived up to it.

We will have to get you to fulfill our orders on behalf of the UK next time it appears Gurn  .

Buy em all up, many Brits will have them 

[AnthonyAthletic]

Bargain is hardly an adequate word to describe this.  I paid full price when it first came out, and I still thought the price more than fair.

I had it on ahem mp3/cdr at the time, discovered it new at a rediculous price and snapped it up.

[asin]B000BYMHR4[/asin]

I'm no expert on Shostakovichs' quartets but this was a delight.  Knocked all my other versions sideways. At the time I knew nothing of the Quartet ensemble nor the record label.

I bought this at the same time but had to pay about £15 for this delivered.  This too, was and still is amazing.

[asin]B005HO1W7O[/asin]

[Gurn Blanston]

We will have to get you to fulfill our orders on behalf of the UK next time it appears Gurn  .

Buy em all up, many Brits will have them 

Always my pleasure. Perhaps a Lend/Lease deal again? 

[AnthonyAthletic]

Always my pleasure. Perhaps a Lend/Lease deal again? 

  Only if we can pay you back in kindness.

[Todd]

I'm no expert on Shostakovichs' quartets but this was a delight.  Knocked all my other versions sideways. At the time I knew nothing of the Quartet ensemble nor the record label.

I bought the cycle about a month or two before hearing the Emerson String Quartet play nine of the quartets in three concerts.  The Danel recording ended up being better.  (The Emerson recording was better, too.)  I have since bought the same ensemble's Saygun and Weinberg recordings.  All top flight.  That mono Budapest set was another fine bargain you found.

[Scarpia]

But that Dvorak deal was listed for a long time, not just a couple of hours. And it was Amazon itself, not a AMP seller. It was even on their pre-release listing. I bought it. I got it in a more reasonable time than some others because I ordered it sooner and they ran out, restocked and still shipped. It never even entered my mind that this might have been a mistake price. Hell, maybe it was, but if so, Amazon lived up to it.

In that case, I suspect they were able to get the item for a very low price and passed along the discount as long as that channel was open. 

For the i-Deals incident, the FTC has rules for mail or telephone order, which also apply to internet orders:

From the FTC's own web site:

The Rule requires that when you advertise merchandise, you must have a reasonable basis for stating or implying that you can ship within a certain time. If you make no shipment statement, you must have a reasonable basis for believing that you can ship within 30 days. That is why direct marketers sometimes call this the "30-day Rule."

If, after taking the customer's order, you learn that you cannot ship within the time you stated or within 30 days, you must seek the customer's consent to the delayed shipment. If you cannot obtain the customer's consent to the delay -- either because it is not a situation in which you are permitted to treat the customer's silence as consent and the customer has not expressly consented to the delay, or because the customer has expressly refused to consent -- you must, without being asked, promptly refund all the money the customer paid you for the unshipped merchandise.

Instead of seeking the customer's consent to delay, you can always cancel the order and send a refund. In that case, you must notify the customer and send the refund within the time you would have sent any delay notice required by the Rule.

As I read this, even if they charged the credit card, they could notify a customer that the item is unavailable and promptly refund in full.

http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus02-business-guide-mail-and-telephone-order-merchandise-rule

There are rules against "bait and switch" when a vendor deliberately advertises a price he or she has no intention of honoring, in order to get the customer to order a more expensive item, but this would not apply to a pricing error, and there has been no attempt by iDeals to offer the items at a higher price.  They simply marked all items on their site as unavailable.

I think there is no basis for action against them, if some or all of the orders get canceled.

I placed two small orders with i-Deals.  One is marked as shipped, another is stuck in "shipping soon."  I suspect they are trying to figure out how to cancel it.  I'd rather loose that order than see i-Deals go out of business, since their normal prices were good, and they had excellent customer service.

[DavidRoss]

[asin]B000BYMHR4[/asin]

I'm no expert on Shostakovichs' quartets but this was a delight.  Knocked all my other versions sideways. At the time I knew nothing of the Quartet ensemble nor the record label.

The one I turn to now four times out of five, and which I would probably never have known of were it not for GMG.

Re. the ideals deal: when I was seeking items of interest, I kept seeing things that I had only recently purchased at much higher prices (many from ideals!) offered for next to nothing, like Harnoncourt's Schubert symphonies box for $4. And I must admit that I did think about snatching some of these up to resell for a profit later.

But I thought ideals might have an inside line on the end of the world and I would have hated to be stuck with so much worthless inventory while civilization crumbles around me!

[Mirror Image]

Speaking of Shostakovich SQs, I bought this one for a $1 that night all of this was going on:

[asin]B004OWN868[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

Like I said, NOBODY knows what truly happened these two nights that these "sales" went on. Everything we think is pure speculation. I'm just happy to have caught this by accident.

[Scarpia]

That they did it again the following evening makes me wonder if it's a marketing tactic. I know that I and many others will be checking their storefront pretty frequently from now on!

The fact that the discounts came, disappeared, returned, then the entire site was taken down suggests to me that someone gained unauthorized access to their account.  When the site went down the second time there it was very abrupt, items were showing as available, but could not be put in the cart.  I can imagine a scenario where they had to contact Amazon and say, "someone has taken over our site, shut it down ASAP."

[Mirror Image]

The fact that the discounts came, disappeared, returned, then the entire site was taken down suggests to me that someone gained unauthorized access to their account.  When the site went down the second time there it was very abrupt, items were showing as available, but could not be put in the cart.  I can imagine a scenario where they had to contact Amazon and say, "someone has taken over our site, shut it down ASAP."

You don't know this for a fact, which is what I've been saying all along. You're just speculating, which we all have done at this juncture.

[DavidRoss]

That's a big

DUH!

And a bemused chuckle at the irony.

[DavidRoss]

It's more than $1, so now I feel that it is a rip-off. 

I'm feeling that way about a lot of things, now!

[Mirror Image]

I'm feeling that way about a lot of things, now!

I don't know why you are. Why don't you request a cancellation of your orders with I-Deals because it's the right thing to do and because you're so kind and understanding.

[Mirror Image]

I guess a fair question would be has anyone actually contacted I-Deals to ask them what's going on?

[DavidRoss]

Good grief -- take your meds and give it a rest, please. Let it play out before getting yourself in a snit and trying to work others up as well. Many of these orders have already shipped, as you know quite well.

[springrite]

I guess a fair question would be has anyone actually contacted I-Deals to ask them what's going on?

Since you appear to be one of the people who are about to receive the orders in the mail, I think it'd be better for you to keep quiet and let the ones who did not get their orders filled do the asking... Just saying...

[Mirror Image]

Since you appear to be one of the people who are about to receive the orders in the mail, I think it'd be better for you to keep quiet and let the ones who did not get their orders filled do the asking... Just saying...

Good idea, Paul. This was some helpful advice unlike Dave's.

[Scarpia]

Message just sent to i-Deals store through Amazon:

Dear i-Deals Store.

I have noticed the intermittent appearance of dramatically low prices from i-Deals store.  I was wondering if this was a dramatic clearance sale, or whether it was the result of pricing errors, some sort of computer glitch.  Will these orders be honored, and will the i-Deals store return to normal operation soon?

best,
Scarpia

[bigshot]

I think self awareness of how one's actions make one appear to other people is a valuable thing.