Buy.com class action-Hitachi fiasco. Do not delete

[KBtrade]

geez...chill JJordan, we are talking about monitors and memory here, not about about a defective product or personal injury.

Unless someone dropped a monitor on their foot or slipped on a stick of memory

 

[Gorham]

I had to respond to this post because I am tired of seeing my entire profession labeled as "SCUM."

The legal profession is in a completely no-win situation because people are either misinformed or judge an entire profession of people based on their personal bad experience(s).

If you're a plaintiff's attorney, you're scum because you file frivolous law suits. If you're a defense attorney, you're scum because you represent big businesses with lots of money. You spend that money to keep the little guy from getting what he deserves. It's all stereotypes and people just buy right into it.

We live in an imperfect world. Politicians make laws that oftentimes are the result of the pressure of lobbying and special interest groups. Because of these influences the laws are rarely enacted as intended. As a result, you work in a flawed legal system. It's the only one you've got so you're stuck with it. So in addition, politicians are "scum" and lobbyists, special interest groups and other people that try and influence the enactment of laws in favor of their own personal intersts are also "scum."

Let's move on. It's always boggled my mind that people blame lawyers instantly, but they forget that people come to attorneys ASKING to file law suits. As a very general rule attorneys cannot solicit business in that way (meaning they cannot go out and suggest that people file law suits and tell them that they are the ones to do it). But why is it that the people who want to file the frivolous law suits never get labeled as "scum", for some reason it's always the lawyers.

If pepole out there could see the number and type of "citizens" that walk into law firms claiming that they've been hurt, wronged or suffered some type of loss- they would be floored by some of the things they would hear. It borders on the absurd. So that brings me to another group of "scum." All the people that go to attorneys seeking to file law suits- They are "scum" too. In fact they may as well be the worst "scum" of all. Do you honestly think that there would be a need for lawyers if it wasn't for all the people pounding their fists screaming "sue them!"

If you think that the firm that settled the class action suit above sent its people walking the streets just itching to find someone that had been gipped out of getting the benefit of a pricing error for a monitor at Buy.com, then you'll have to invite me into your world for a while, I could use a break from reality.

With regard to this specific action, from the little I've been able to get from this thread, it looks to me like this suit had a great deal of merit and benifitted not only those directly affected, but myself and everyone else that shops at Buy.com as well. Apparently, Buy.com had a policy that allowed them to charge your credit card before they shipped your order. It seems (and I may be wrong) that becasue of this lawsuit, that's changed now and they only charge once they've shipped. I think that's good. I've had a backorder for about two months with them and I know that I wouldn't want my credit card to have been charged. I may decide to cancel and buy elsewhere. That's a good thing in my mind.

With respect to people who took advantage of this and are getting money out of it, I don't think that someone who knew this was a mistake and took advantage of it should profit. Everyone makes mistakes and companies shouldn't be forced to pay $550,000 for a pricing mistake. BUT, when that company goes ahead and charges the customer for the FULL price that wasn't advertised and the customer never agreed to pay- then there is a problem. Not only does the customer have the hassle of trying to correct it with the company, but they also have to deal with their credit card carrier as well. That can be very time consuming and also infuriating. While we're here why don't we label all the rude customer serveice people and the companies that leave you on hold for 45 minutes at a time "scum" as well.

The bottom line is sometimes things don't work out as planned. The bottom line is, just because someone sued Buy.com doesn't mean all attorneys are scum. Most attorneys are decent people, are good at their job and spend a great deal of time telling people that they shouldn't file law suits.

 

[Engineer]

Hello all again,

Discussions similar to these went on for months when this first took place. Every post above this one was discussed in detail at one point in time. I, for one, hope this gets put behind all of us and forgotton...Not the lessons...just the material.

Take care all....and have a GREAT Day! I will

 

[poolshark]

vote yes to sue Egghead
Buy.com is a good company that made a mistake so I say vote no to sueing them.

Sue anyone that has a bad rating at resellerratings for any mistake because they deserve it .

 

[ride525]

Folks,

The Buy.com Hitachi monitor was MORE than just a simple pricing error. I think just a simple pricing error, like the Egghead memory thing, is understandable.

But Buy.com, in the Hitachi monitor fiasco, was telling customers that the price was real, that it was actually a special promotion. Buy.com actually shipped many monitors at this price, for some reason they were not shipped first come - first served. And Buy.com charged everyone's credit cards, they accepted all the orders. Buy.com then rescinded their acceptance on SOME of the orders, and shipped the others.

A LOT different than just a simple pricing mistake, and email explaining.

 

[50ftqueenie]

I agree wholeheartedly with Gorham. Sweeping generalizations don't help anybody, they just perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Sometimes people tend to forget that ALL lawyers aren't in it for the money. Many times lawsuits such as these are the only thing that will force large companies (those that think of themselves as bullet-proof and play willy-nilly with their customers' money) to change policies that are harmful or deceiving to consumers. We've all seen how far asking nicely gets us (think Staples). Buy.com IS one of the better online companies, but charging a customer before an item has shipped is wrong. And changing the price AFTER the fact is even worse. Unfortunately, buy.com had to learn their lesson the hard way. Egghead might be next in line. Admitting your company made a mistake is one thing; giving special consideration to a select few is quite another. If you really care about keeping buy.com in business, then show your appreciation by continuing to shop there. And, conversely, if you feel egghead are anti-consumer, unfair and rude, then don't deal with them. Money talks...

 

[Joel Kleppinger]

Was I the only one who saw this one?



<< 9. All petitions for attorneys' fees and expenses are subject to Court approval. In this case, Class Counsel will apply to the court for reimbursement of their actual out of pocket costs, and an award of attorneys' fees in the sum of $190,000. >>



Actual costs? I think we can see who really wins in the situation. If you haven't bothered to go through against buy.com by now, then you would just be in it for the money and not the principle of correcting buy.com's error. Not to mention the fact that it seems buy.com has come a LONG way to correct that error and improve themselves.

Once a dog quits peeing in the yard, you don't kick it again a year later just because you're still mad about the ruined flower garden.

 

[Ape]

Buy.com has always had great deals on tons of stuff. Lawsuits just bring the prices up on everything and soon Buy.com will be just another overprices web site. Or gone for good. Ape Out.

 

[tgillitzr]

Just so you know, i sent this to a nice lady at egghead that i have talked to a few times. she said she was going to read over it and get back to me.

the thing that bugs me, is egghead thinks they are above the law, which the are not, as this case proves.


Another thing that bugs me is the amount of a$$holes that are calling up egghead, screaming and yelling, calling names, and then posting the person they talked to personal info. Thats a load of sh1t. Getting pissed and calling names helps nobody, if your going to call egghead act civil. Don't be an ass.

 

[tgillitzr]

Joel, yes, buy.com has come a long way since then. But why do you think that is? Would they still be doing the same old stuff if it weren't for that class action? Possibly. The lady at egghead told me they were going to be switching their way of doing things at the end of this year. I kind of laughed, said it must not be to important then is it.

Also, this case didn't just get started... they just take that long to settle.

 

[ride525]

Whooooaaa,

What is all this Egghead stuff? Didn't Egghead just have an obvious pricing mistake and email all to fix it?

Buy on the monitors.....Shipped out some at the price they advertised....the ones they couldn't ship, said would be backordered.....charged all credit cards immediately.....told customers that this was indeed a good price, one of their &quot;specials&quot;......
took almost a week of all this....then decided to cancel the rest of the orders....

 

[TheBigZ]

I would not like to see Buy.com or anyone else (well, maybe Accubyte <G>) go out of business, but I hope this suit is legitimate and starts getting some attention. There's no excuse, other than ineptness and laziness, for these pricing errors. And there are relatively inexpensive ways to make then virtually nonexistent.

If you walk in to a b&amp;m store and find and item on the shelf, with a pricetag that clearly identifies the item and shows a price, you have every right to expect to walk out of that store with that item at that price. And the same should apply to an online store. I operate a few businesses of my own, both online and traditional. And when I quote someone a price, they have every right to expect to not pay a penny more. I, for one, would be EMBARRASED to tell a client that I was either too inept or unfamiliar with my own business to quote an accurate price.

And as for the bleeding-heart liberals who would point an accusing finger at someone who would take advantage of such a pricing error, I have a question. What's the difference between a web page and a billboard? or a TV ad? I don't care how I receive their advertisement... be it in the mail, over the radio, on the TV, over the phone, via email or on a web page... if they advertise a price then THAT'S the price! Until they correct it. When was the last time you saw an ad on TV offering to sell a Mercedes for $30K less than retail because they accidently dropped a digit from the price on the screen? Ever? You know why you haven't? Because they double &amp; probably triple check the advertisement. Because they know damn well they'd be selling at least one Mercedes at a $30K loss.

Why is it always someone elses fault? It's not the fault of the person that made the mistake or the decision, it's that evil guy over there that took advantage of the mistake, it's HIS fault. That's 90% of what's wrong with society today, no one wants to be held accountable for their own actions. Why should we be? Society has made it so very easy to blame someone else.

Now before my head explodes like Lewis Black always threatens his will, I'll answer the question I just know someone will ask. &quot;Well gee Bob, how would you feel if someone took advantage of a pricing mistake you made and it cost you a whole bunch of money?&quot; I would feel like a fool. I would feel like an idiot. I would feel like I should go do something for which I show a better aptitude... like perhaps digging ditches.

 

[Seizure]

Don'to Sue BUY.COM don't if they go out of business and take a huge hit and start raising prices, where else would people go to get good deals? Sue Egghead to death, but leave Buy.Com alone. Their one of the decent companies and my favorites.

 

[BadBrad]

The real problem here is the lack of consistent customer satisfaction policies at Eggdead. I was willing to drop the matter. I took a chance for a great deal. I lost out. OK, end of it. But then I hear about some people who ordered the RAM were given a GC for their troubles while others didn't even get an e-mail appologizing for Eggdead's mistake. How can you have satisfied customers if they do not treat all equally. This just tickes me off....whatever everyone want to do to teach Eggdead a lesson, it's OK by me.

 

[DirkBelig]

Last July, when TNT2U cards were scarce as hen's teeth, I ordered a V770U from Egghead and was told it was in stock. When it didn't arrive when expected, I had to call them and was told that it was on backorder for several weeks. Because they were a C|Net Approved Merchant, I wrote a note to C|Net and got two responses the next day from them saying that they would contact Egghead. Day after that, I got shipping confirmation from Egghead. Hmmmm....where did thy find a card at?

I was one of the many who ordered the monitors, though I let it drop. Did I have to sign onto the class or is it automatically going to be dibursed to all orders on record?

 

[fxsts]

PLEASE LOCK THIS!!! I AM SICK OF SEEING THIS KIND OF MORAL PREACHING

 

[tgillitzr]

so don't read it

 

[Blindman]

Guessing that the &quot;lawyer&quot; gets one third . .. Off course bless his soul, he is wonderful man . . . And guessing that about 1500 orders ,apprx 2 order per person so about 3000 claims. Total of ((575,000 - (575,000/ 3))/ 3000) = 127.78 per order.

Thats if i got the order amount right.



BTW whats the staute of limitation on breach of contract?

 

[neonitto]

I like buy.com. I don't, however, like egghead.com.

add me to the class action suit. i want my RAM.

 

[DiscoGod]

The proposed settlement states that each order will receive one share of the settlement amount, regardless of how many monitors were ordered.

 

[50ftqueenie]

I'm not a lawyer and I don't even know any lawyers, but it's really kind of weak the way some of you keep attacking lawyers just because of how much money they make. That's their standard fee; if people didn't think they're worth it, they wouldn't pay it. If you woke up tomorrow and by some miracle, our society decided that your services are now worth $150.00 an hour (or more), I doubt seriously that you'd call yourself a greedy pig and refuse the money. It's called capitalism. Deal with it.

 

[KBtrade]

Question for the lawyers here, who are you billing for legal time as you goof off surfing the internet posting on message boards?

 

[JJordan]

No One, but If you would like to pay me, I would be happy to send you a bill ........

 

[KBtrade]

No thanks JJordan, I paid my dues with attorney bills over the years.
Sorry about my earlier comment, I was referring to lawyers that take on frivolous cases.

p.s, you can't be half bad, since you have chosen the same icon as I did.

 

[zhensel]

Sounds like an interesting situation to say the least. But let me clear up one thing - all lawyers are scum. Its a fact pouned into my left hemisphere by every cynical sitcom and late night talk show I've seen since I was born. Lawyers can do no good!

On the subject of class action lawsuits in general, everyone is absolutely right in that no one except the lawyers will ever see much in the way of money. From the big tobacco settlement to my own experience with the faulty Toshiba floppy drive law suit, it just isn't going to happen. FYI, in the Toshiba lawsuit, the settlement was technically something like 9 billion dollars and 1 billion of that went to the lawyers (my numbers could be wrong here, but it was a lot). We got a $100 dollar gift certificate good only at the extremely highpriced toshiba catalog they sent us (like 4x regular prices) or at select retailers for toshiba products. Despite the fact that the lawsuit was rather frivilous to begin with (the fault with the drive could only be repeated 1 in every 500,000 tests in a simulated labratory environment), the settlement was even more nutty. Not to mention that information was virtually impossible to find about the lawsuit, and didn't hit the news all that hard, so I would probably estimate that toshiba will only pay like 1.01 billion of the 9 billion dollar settlement with 1 billion going to the lawyers

So yes, lawyers suck. They take all my money and because I have this thing about honesty and work that actually benefits people (not monetarily) I'm not going to be one