[jacofan]

shopblackberry is shipping out the PB's ordered with the IBM code but they are charging the buyer the non-code price.

Meaning all of you who ordered 16GB's will be charged the same $299 that the 64GB buyers paid!

This just coming from SBB itself. I suggest those that ordered them to verify the charge on your credit card!

More details to follow.

edit:

actually what I mean is that SBB is saying that the IBM code is invalid so they are charging the regular prices for all PB orders that used that code, regardless of initial transaction cost.


They are doing this without notifying the buyers.



I've seen reference to a price error on the PB before, is there a quick summary on what happened there? Did SBB honor the price?

[KermEd]

They'd refund you the difference, just call em?

[cntrydncr223]

better check those "terms" and see if that's a clause in there....

[ralfyguy]

How do you know that?

[FSeverino]

wow. really?

that is incredibly disturbing to hear...

Are these the orders that were maybe placed after the deadline and somehow still got through?

[oilgeo10]

better check those "terms" and see if that's a clause in there....

It looks like it is there in clause 3, 'Accuracy of Information'. They can change prices without notice and charges.

For good business practice and customer relations, if Shop BlackBerry isn't going to accept the promo code, that is ok by me but they should notify the customer and offer order cancellation or acceptance of the adjusted price before shipping and charging your credit card.

Otherwise, the return policy is also clear: if the item is returned unopened within 30 days from the shipment date, a full refund is given. Return shipping is the buyers cost.

That's what I will do if the PB is shipped to me without the discount.

[BB_Phoenix]

Has anyone actually received and benefited and from the 20% promotion? Did anyone talk to an SBB and still get the 20% discount?

[FSeverino]

Has anyone actually received and benefited and from the 20% promotion? Did anyone talk to an SBB and still get the 20% discount?

This is what needs to be looked into... if even ONE person got the discount then there needs to be a VERY good reason why other people are not getting it

[buchacho]

If they give you an invoice that states the product should be shipped for a certain amount then that price should be honored. I do not see how they can legally ship it out and charge more without the buyer's knowledge. If they do that to me, I would contest it with my credit card company.

Also doesn't make sense that they are reverting the $199 price to $299 price for the 16GB version since it is now on sale for $199. Good merchants usually honor the current lower price if they make any adjustment after the order is placed.

Who is running SSB, are they trying to intentionally spread ill-will toward its customers?

[mikeplus1]

At least 2 people claimed to have ordered and received their discounted PBs from shopblackberry.com including the OP of that thread who did so before he posted the code for others. Also, the price for the 16gb PB was $299 when the IBM 20% off code was valid and the price is now $199, so someone cancelling an ordered 16gb PB will result in a $40 savings anyway. Now if someone tried to use the code after the price change, yeah that's not gonna work, but sill it will only be $199 for a brand new 16gb PB. SBB have also already charged some people's cards, don't remember if theirs were debit cards or not though, and they have already put a pending charge or hold at the discounted amount on others, so gonna be a little difficult for them to charge more than the confirmed and approved charges, probably lead to fraud charges against them, which is GlobalWare Solutions, Inc, and NOT BlackBerry or RIM, but rather an ordering fulfillment center or selling agent for them. Worst case as I see it would be them saying that the code was invalid and trying to cancel all of the unfilled orders.

[buckeyeind]

If they are not going to honor order confirmation/invoice, I would think they would be sending out a notification email to whoever made the purchase (myself included) to "please contact us regarding your recent purchase. due to (insert reason here) we cannot honor the promo code that was used at the time of purchase. If we don't hear from you within the next x business days, your order will be cancelled. We want to ensure you get the playbook of your choice and we look forward to hearing from you".
I'm not calling them and will let this ride.
They can't simply assume additional funds from your bank account without notification. That would be a public relations nightmare, would be all over the news wires and grab the attention of a few different agencies.

[ralfyguy]

If they are not going to honor order confirmation/invoice, I would think they would be sending out a notification email to whoever made the purchase (myself included) to "please contact us regarding your recent purchase. due to (insert reason here) we cannot honor the promo code that was used at the time of purchase. If we don't hear from you within the next x business days, your order will be cancelled. We want to ensure you get the playbook of your choice and we look forward to hearing from you".
I'm not calling them and will let this ride.
They can't simply assume additional funds from your bank account without notification. That would be a public relations nightmare, would be all over the news wires and grab the attention of a few different agencies.

I'm with you on this one. I will wait and see. I expect them just to cancel all promo based orders in the worst case scenario. I do not think it is legal just to up the charge on customers cards without prior authorization. I'm not even sure if the card companies let this go through anyway, because to them that MUST look like fraud.
If they are the least bit legit, they will email whoever ordered with the promo code and offer to cancel the order and reorder for $299 or drop the order in general.
Besides, they should have been professional enough in the first place and not even let the promo go through to begin with, if now they say it wasn't valid. Well it processed the orders that way, didn't it??? You need to have your crap under control and not have "seller's remorse" if you discover you messed up. You can change prices all you want, but you have to honor done deals. Deal is deal, PERIOD!
Either way, if this goes down in flames, it will put RIM in a very bad light again. If RIM assigns this company as their official store, then they need to have their thumb on it as well. You simply cannot do serious business that way, because it will backfire badly.
It doesn't matter how people got a hold of the promo, you simply have to play by the rules of business.

[buchacho]

Besides, they should have been professional enough in the first place and not even let the promo go through to begin with, if now they say it wasn't valid. Well it processed the orders that way, didn't it??? You need to have your crap under control and not have "seller's remorse" if you discover you messed up. You can change prices all you want, but you have to honor done deals. Deal is deal, PERIOD!

Exactly, did they really say, "shh, don't tell anyone" and expect that to happen? If they really wanted to restrict a promotion, they could have done it other ways.

If they cancel my order, I don't think I would want to deal with them anymore.

[ridemaster]

i would remind everybody to just take a deep breath and wait for an answer from sbb for each of your cases. i wouldnt write off the promo as many of you have. send and email to sbb and wait for an answer and then make your judgement calls.

299 is a steal for a 64g. 240 may be to good to be true. the deal as i understand was for any size unit at 299 so if you thought you were going to get the new price of 199 and then 20% off i am thinking you are very mistaken.

deep breath folks the sale did have a time limit.

fingers crossed for everyone however.

I am waiting for my 64g to arrive, as of yet i still have not received any notification it has been sent, but im not stressing over it either

[phoreoneone]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOO!!!

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT ... lol just kidding

they should honour the price or might as well return it.
there is a such thing as too many playbooks in a household right?

[BB_Phoenix]

Someone at RIM put the IBM promo code in for a reason. And that reason was for a 20% discount for a group of people. That group may or may not include us.

However, that being said the promo code is legit to use. No where was their a disclaimer against it's use. If someone at RIM gives out a promo code for a select group, then you better damn well ensure you can control its use. Otherwise, you have sloppy commercial practices.

I would say to RIM, "lesson learned". Suck it up and honor the discount and change future practices. Not like this will dent their 1.5 billion cash on hand by much.

[auditman]

im pretty sure all will be ok. as long as you have used the code before the time expired. lets wait till tomorrow. we should get an email first if they will honour our purchased or not. BTW its the weekend how did the OP's sister talk to them? aren't they closed on weekends?

[auditman]

My sister just got off the phone with SBB to check the status of her order and that's what she was told. She was offered the chance to cancel her order so that she would not be charged the non-IBM price as her order had not shipped.

She ordered a 16GB for the $199 + 20% off and SBB told her that they were going to charge her credit card the $299 price if she didn't cancel, so she did.

sounds like your sister place an order after the promo ends. during the promo all pb's are priced @ $299.00

thats probably the reason why the code didnt work for her order.

[auditman]

She called 866-957-0761, which was listed in the order confirmation email and yes she called today but I thought that people would not believe me so I encourage someone else to call that ordered one to see their status to (re)confirm.

i've ordered from canada and there is no telephone number to call on my order confirmation that i received via email.

[ralfyguy]

I for myself would consider it a legal contract that when the order went through with the promo code, we got an order confirmation and shortly thereafter put the funds for that amount on hold in the bank account. And it is there on hold ever since. If the order doesn't get honored as placed, the funds where withheld for no legit reason and could have been used for purchases somewhere else. Basically the funds were blocked in a way that wasn't agreed to. Just because they put down thousands of of words in a legal disclaimer does not make them the universal holder of all the rights there is out there. If I make a business mistake financially it is my own fault and I just have to deal with it. I cannot come and say afterwards that I messed up and expect everybody else to comply. Life is hard! Not just for us!

[thewit]

Just an FYI...

I ordered a PB using the code prior to deadline. When going through the order process my credit card kept getting rejected(although I verified the card details were correct), the processing error said I should contact SBB about the order.

I then tried using my other credit card and the order went through, received the discount, saying credit card would not be billed until the order ships. I receiceive an order confirmation email with the correct discount applied. My second card does have a "hold" against it for the amount of the PB order.

However the next day my first credit card company called me asking about a charge(perhaps a Hold) to my card posted by GobalSolutions, I told them the charge should not have ocurred. They said fine, the transaction did not look right to them(perhaps some fraud detection flags got triggered or actually went through multiple times, they don't like to disclose those details).

Like the rest of you, I will wait and see if a PB shipment does occur.

[ralfyguy]

I see it as a contract as soon as the order confirmation email was sent with the correct amount applied. I agreed to their terms and they agreed to mine with the confirmation. The rest is just plain logistics.

[swyost]

At least in the US, they are well within their rights to not honor the price; however, they would have to notify a buyer before shipping at a price other than that on an invoice since it is a contract. That of course assumes that the invoice explicitly says "amount to be charged" or something similar. I will point out though that some retailers get around that by inserting qualifiers on an invoice and/or disclaimers in the order process about x or y being subject to approval or verification. Personally, I wouldn't wait around though to see what price you are charged. I would at least check in on the status.

As far as anyone getting indignant about it though, my own suggestion would be to just get over it (provided you aren't charged more without authorization). If the discount wasn't meant for you, it is hardly the case that one has any moral high ground. BTW, with respect to comments about RIM having 1.5 billion cash on hand, that also happens to be the high end number for RIM's losses on the Playbook. At a minimum, they are taking a half billion dollar write-off to sell the inventory at the current prices. Under the circumstances, no, they really may not be able to take any further losses on price without taking another stock hit in a few months. I expect Amazon and Microsoft would both still like to acquire RIM. Hostile takeovers become a lot easier when the stock price falls through the floor....

[auditman]

i tried the code the next day and it no longer works. there was a count down clock. i live on westcoast. anyways i checked the status still same. order recieved and still same price.

[sjefferson21]

Ordering from sbb was a disaster!