Woot.com: many people leaving

[ViviTheMage]

I go to woot for the shirts now ... I am pretty sure I have like 30 of them!

 

[PottedMeat]

this is what happens when you deny me my bag of crap

 

[Kyle]

It's always been a marketing gimmick....nothing less, nothing more.

That has not changed, and will not change.

There is no such a thing as a "deal". Sure you might save a little bit but at the end of the day the company and retailer still make their profit.

There is no magic

Wait, what? How is there no such thing as a deal? They used to regularly offer the product less than you can get anywhere else- how is that not a deal?

I agree, it's changed over the years...but saying there's no such thing as a deal is retarded. What difference does it make if the company makes money? If it costs me a good amount less to buy the product, it's a "deal" to me.

 

[Craig234]

I do understand. I'm just saying that their changes probably would've sucked by now with or without Amazon, so it's not like Woot suddenly went downhill and it's all Amazon's fault. Many of the changes people ITT are complaining about were pre-Amazon.

I don't think you do.

If you read the thread I posted, which includes some Woot people, you'd see reports of how Amazon started to make changes forcing Woot not to do things it wanted to.

It's pretty clearly a case where the Amazon influence was a major factor against Woot's approach to things and it's reasonable to expect would not have happened like that.

 

[Craig234]

My favorite Woot purchase I think was several years back when I got a 65" LCD TV for $2K when they seemed to be going for about $5K. Works great.

 

[Cuda1447]

Wait, what? How is there no such thing as a deal? They used to regularly offer the product less than you can get anywhere else- how is that not a deal?

I agree, it's changed over the years...but saying there's no such thing as a deal is retarded. What difference does it make if the company makes money? If it costs me a good amount less to buy the product, it's a "deal" to me.

Yea, it really isn't magic. It's pretty straight forward really and the same business model I use. Get products at cheaper prices due to overstock, groupon style marketing of a product, discontinued model or in Woots case a lot, refurbished items (I don't deal in refurbs). It's not magic, it's just a good business model. Just because woot doesn't offer as good of deals as they used to doesn't mean they can't. They just choose to take a bigger profit at the expense of the quality of products they send consumers.

 

[Baked]

Heh, woot was the inspiration for my small business. What made them good (being a smaller company, flexible, creative and fun) was lost when Amazon purchased them.

The whole point of running a business is make money. The goal of an online start up company is to get buy out by a large company for more money than you put in to start company plus change to live the rest of your life comfortably. In this case, the owner(s) of woot won big.

 

[ultimatebob]

Woot has really gone hill... they used to have one or two solid bargains every day, but now it's mostly filled with refurbished crap with horrible reviews.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were getting most of their stock from refurbished amazon.com customer returns now.

It's been a long time since I've seen a bag of crap as well. If only someone here could reproduce the thrill of receiving a random item in the mail...

 

[Cuda1447]

The whole point of running a business is make money. The goal of an online start up company is to get buy out by a large company for more money than you put in to start company plus change to live the rest of your life comfortably. In this case, the owner(s) of woot won big.

Oh I agree with you there. Just saying from a consumer standpoint, Woot the company is going in a negative direction. But the original owners surely don't care at this point.

 

[Cuda1447]

Woot has really gone hill... they used to have one or two solid bargains every day, but now it's mostly filled with refurbished crap with horrible reviews.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were getting most of their stock from refurbished amazon.com customer returns now.

It's been a long time since I've seen a bag of crap as well. If only someone here could reproduce the thrill of receiving a random item in the mail...

Haha... if only

 

[CZroe]

I don't think you do.

If you read the thread I posted, which includes some Woot people, you'd see reports of how Amazon started to make changes forcing Woot not to do things it wanted to.

It's pretty clearly a case where the Amazon influence was a major factor against Woot's approach to things and it's reasonable to expect would not have happened like that.

I did read it. Who's to say they would not have had similar changes forced on them by another suitor or inserted executive if Amazon had never bit? Who's to say that different changes without Amazon wouldn't have had an equally bad effect, especially when half of the things people ITT are complaining about happened before Amazon? Re-read your own OP from that perspective. Especially the part where you said that they promised that they "wouldn't change." Somehow, I doubt they were saying that they "wouldn't change" at all over several years when they were no stranger to change themselves over the prior years.

My favorite Woot purchase I think was several years back when I got a 65" LCD TV for $2K when they seemed to be going for about $5K. Works great.

Yep. My brother and I got in on that $2,300 Olevia with the Sharp Aquos panel, ATI digital tuner, and Faroudja image processor. Great deal.

 

[ZaneNBK]

They just need to rename the site to dysonrefurbs.com and be done with it.