360 Bundles Lead To Best Buy Housecleaning

Groo Wanderer writes "At the launch of the XBox 360, there were reports of forced and unwanted bundling by several companies, most notably Best Buy. There were things said back and forth, and the usual corporate banter. They have followed through, this time, and a good number of people lost their jobs." From the article: "We are told a manager that started the procedure is no longer employed at Best Buy. At least one senior district manager is no longer employed, and some of the nailings are rumored to have gone even higher. The big yellow inquisition did not stop there, and several other managers and assorted white collar workers were given an escorted walk to the parking lot."

Comments

Lemme git this straight...

[Golias]

They put policies in place which make retail managers feel pressured to pump up their sales figures by "forcing" excessive bundles on desperate (and foolish) pre-Christmas X-Box 360 buyers.

Then, when they get heat for it, they respond by firing the retail managers, but keep all the largesse of the whole scam firmly in their pockets.

And we are supposed to take this as an indicator that they are interested in doing the right thing?

Re:Lemme git this straight...

[ThePlague]

Well, see, that's the beauty of it: the company isn't engaging in the undesirable practices, that's just the few bad apples. They just reap the benefit of the results, despite the "stated policies", while the "bad apples" get to be the scapegoats.

In this case, I wonder how many memos those Managers got stressing the importance of hitting their Christmas sales figures? And how many even more specific numbers regarding units of 360 add-ons? How do you hit those numbers without bundling contrary to the corporate policy?

Same thing with Abu Grahib: we need these prisoners softened up for intel. The soldiers try, but it doesn't work. Their superiors express their disappointment, etc. Lather rinse repeat.

I'm not so sure how to feel about this

[XxtraLarGe]

Best Buy had to sell the 360 at a certain price point, and that price was seemingly far below what the demand for the 360's was. So from a certain perspective, the bundles make sense if you're trying to make supply meet demand.

On the other hand, we told our son we'd get him an XBox for Christmas since the price should go down with the 360 coming out. I figured they would go down to $129 or maybe even $99 if we were lucky. And then what happens? They throw in a cruddy racing game and jack the price of the original XBox UP by $30 to $179! The racing game isn't too bad, but it isn't a game we would have chosen to buy if it weren't bundled with the system. I don't like what they did, so I can understand peoples' complaints, but I see very little difference between what Microsoft has done with the original XBox and what Best Buy has done with the XBox 360.

$2 bill fiasco

[sunderland56]

Interesting that BestBuy took action against stores that forced bundle sales. They did absolutely nothing about the store who had someone arrested for using legal US currency.

BestBuy: good concept, bad execution.

Re:Why is bundling wrong?

[barawn]

It is bait and switch. They're told the "console-only" packages have sold out, but the bundles are available. They bait with the console-only, and attempt to switch to a higher-priced package when the consumer comes in.

And yes, it is illegal (at least in most states... I don't know if it's federal). The FTC has guides against it, and Best Buy violated a good number of them.

However, there are "CYA" wordings that most places use, although Best Buy might not have. Usually they'll say "stock limited to quantity on hand" or "limited quantity available". However, some of those memos specifically say "keep 3 or 4 on hand" which is definitely illegal in most states, as it clearly does not have enough to satisfy demand.