Hey! -- I've been working solid for the last few days, and I just got back to the forums.
W - M - C... Somehow, those letters have a familiar ring from yesteryear.
First, I want to say that if you weren't around back (
WA-a-a-a-y back) when this was actually a current event that launched the Hot Deals forum, or you haven't otherwise taken the time to learn the facts of this particular situation, you might want to learn the whole story before you comment about whether someone is taking advantage of Buy.com's "mistake." Suprise of all suprises -- For all the strange birds that scavange the web looking to rip off vendors, there actually are unscrupulous merchants who engage in shoddy business practices, as well. When this happens, the courts are their only recourse, and there really is such a thing as the law and justice.
In this particular case, I believe Buy.com was the bad guy. They had a history of advertising extreme lowball prices, some of which they honored, and some of which were unannounced specials. They also
used to charge your card at the time of purchase,
not when they shipped the goods. If you use a
debit card, such as American Express, that means they had your money, right then. If your order was backordered for three months, they had use of your money for that time. Since this fiasco, they have change this policy and othewise cleaned up their act substantially. They also dumped their CEO of the time.
At the time, I posted that, instead of pursuing a class action suit, each person should file their own small claims suit in thier home town. As others pointed out, the lawyers take their expenses and fees off the top before the rest (if there is any) is distributed to the claimants. In this case, the actual value of each claim was about $450, the difference between the advertised price and the price one would have to pay to buy the same monitor, elsewhere. I know for a fact that almost everyone who actually did file such a case received a settlement from Buy.com, and they didn't have to wait a year and a half to find out if they were successful. They also had to sign a non-disclosure document promising not to reveal the terms of the settlement.
I know this because
my monitor was acutally ordered by someone else, along with theirs, and charged to the other person's card, so I never had a claim under my own name. That means I know the terms of his settlement, but I am under no obligation to keep quiet. My settlement measures 19".
Red --
<<And how do you guys go about proving that you were one of those who are deserving of a part of the settlement?>>
The best way would be to have kept a copy of the e-mail confirming your order. I also kept screen shots showing my order status as backordered.