Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
Said Joe Schmoes are free to express their opinions about online retailers (NewEgg or otherwise) no matter what we may or may not think of their opinions. Their complaints are far from ridiculous considering the fact that most of them expect to pay not $X, but $1099 which is the price suggested by Intel.
Of course they're free to express their opinions, but that was never the point. The point is that those opinions are ridiculous.. and I'm going to point that out, period. The customer can expect to pay whatever he/she wants, but that doesn't make it a crime for retailers to offer to sell it for more than that amount.
Of course there is such a thing as pushing the supply/demand envelope too far. Any pricing policy one enacts that alienates customers is obviously inappropriate, both fiscally and arguably ethically. In any case, it's just a bad idea. Making enemies while making money is a poor strategy in the long run. As TankGuys mentioned earlier, NewEgg makes a lot of its premium sales to people who have a generally good impression of NewEgg and shop there either out of loyalty or ignorance. Consumer loyalty is very important to the Egg. It should not be taken lightly.
When customers go away, the price drops. When customers form lines to get a certain product, the price goes up. It's a self-regulating system. Setting the price on a new item, particularly one as luxurious as the QX6700, usually involves a retailer gauging demand and determining the initial price. There are always adjustments to it as demand ebbs and flows, as supply mounts, or as competitors enter the fray. It seems to me a lot of people in this thread were getting in an uproar about what was destined to be a blip on the radar screen.. not a bogey. The people who just *had* to have a QX6700 when it was initially offered for $1700 on Newegg (and determined they would buy it from Newegg) are precisely the people who will pay the premium for being among the first to have the product in their hands. The desire to be "the first to have it" is an intangible force that retailers would be foolish not to put a dollar amount on.. and everyone else would be foolish on which to question either the customer or the retailer.
But their prices were too high. The customer is always right, and that cardinal rule supercedes all others. NewEgg has the right to set prices as they like, and we have the right to feel however we want to feel about them (and discuss our feelings on internet message boards). And it isn't bovine manure when we do so. In theory, we could declare to all retailers that all of their items are worth a dollar and adamantly refuse to purchase them for anything more, but doing so would run every retailer in existence (well, almost every retailer) out of business. That would be a poor decision on our part, just as it was a poor decision for NewEgg to try and twist the dagger that had been stuck in the back of anyone who wanted a QX6700 over the last four days or so.
Yes, it is "bovine manure". The price of admission to being a computer enthusiast is precisely situations like this. Complaining about prices in an online forum is as stupid and useless (and, yes, bullsh!t) as complaining in an online forum about taxes, prescription drug costs, and everything else we the public find is wrong with the world. Oh, woe is me! Newegg charged a premium for a niche product that's in demand for a select few! Whatever will I do? How can I go on with my life? Too dramatic for you? The "twist the dagger" remark was too dramatic. The people who wanted a QX6700 are going to come back to Newegg. A price anomaly, alone, rarely turns a customer away permanently because price is just one of many factors that online shoppers consider. Other things count, too.. such as speedy shipping, good order status and tracking information, and just the sheer selection and variety that Newegg offers. Additionally, as someone else mentioned, many of the same people who had to have the QX6700 and complained about the $1700 price Newegg was charging are the same people who sell their "old" computer stuff on eBay for as much as they can get for it, which is the same thing Newegg was doing. The bottom line: Newegg will remain on their list of places to consider when the next thing they have to have comes along.
No. This is only really true between merchants who are willing to haggle over prices for a living, or for fun. Most modern consumers consider this to be a hassle. This is why there are such things as MSRPs and price tags to ease the process of retail sales. Your average consumer does not want to go into a store (or to a website) and find the retailer trying to rip them off constantly, just as your average retailer does not want customers constantly haggling and trying to low-ball them at the cash register. The modern marketplace is not a bazaar. We expect price fluctuations from time to time and in different retail venues, but nothing of the magnitude that NewEgg had done. $1199 seems like a small gouge that is forgiveable, $1400 was eyebrow-raising, and $1700 was just over-the-top. It's all arbitrary, but when you consider that NewEgg could still make a profit selling the QX6700 at $1099, it makes sense.
As I said earlier, this was (and was from the start) a blip on the radar screen.. not a bogey. The "average customer" is not going to buy the QX6700 and the QX6700 is not a mainstream product, so all bets are off when it comes to "reasonable" expectations of price and supply/demand. Of course most marketplaces are not a bazaar anymore.. but with products like the QX6700, it remains very much a place where those who have to have an item will be forced to pay a premium for their desire.
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