Scamazon.com
I'm really disappointed (along with, near as I can tell, hundreds, if not thousands of others) who logged into Amazon.com to take advantage of their new "Customers Vote" promotion. The idea is that the company puts forth four items to buy at ridiculously low prices, and whatever customers vote on is the chosen item for that week. The quantities are very limited, so customers are encouraged to log in precisely at 11AM Pacific Time (2PM Eastern) to get the deal.
This week, the inaugural week, was an outrageously good deal -- an Xbox 360 Core System (valued at $299) for $100. There were supposedly 1,000 units up for grabs.
Now, realistically, I didn't expect that I had a snowball's chance in hell of getting it, but that didn't stop me from trying. I brought my laptop with me to my in-laws' place (I hooked up wireless access for them when my sister-in-law bought her laptop this past year), and tried like hell at 2PM Eastern to get in to Amazon.com to get it.
Of course, I didn't. Their servers were totally, totally overloaded. I couldn't even get the page to refresh -- after ten minutes of trying with different browsers, I finally gave up, because I knew my chance to get the Xbox 360 had come and gone.
Well, judging from the comments of the people who joined me on my quest today, clearly my experience was consistent with the normal. What's worse, it appears that some people were able somehow to trick the system into letting them order the boxes well before the appointed time.
I really don't know what the full story is. What I do know is that it's left a sour taste in my mouth with a retailer that I've done a fair amount of business with in the past.
I really hope that Amazon.com learns from this and institutes a fairer policy in the future. What I'd like to see happen is a lottery system, whereby everyone that votes gets a chance to win -- 1,000 winners could be selected randomly, and would have x minutes or x hours to buy the product they voted on. Then, if they didn't respond in time, or if they declined to buy, another "winner" could be chosen.
But as it stands now, what Amazon.com did today amounted to little more than an online version of the rush to the door that some Wal-Marts and other retailers did last week when their PlayStation 3's came in, and that, as we all know, incites a mob mentality and really brings out the worst in people. It's just yet another shopping hassle that contributes to making this time of year bloody unpleasant.