# Future Shop Complaint



## Mrs. Furley (Sep 1, 2004)

Hey everyone. Could someone please tell me where I can send a complaint about the Future Shop and also how I can spread the word about how they screwed me out of a deal?

I'm too irate to type it out now, but I will later when I cool down a bit.

Any info would be appreciated...thanks!


----------



## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

contact the store, speak to manager
then contact FS head office making sure you have details
you may have to write a letter

see if you can get your "deal"
they may want to try to make you happy

if you are really hell bent on making them unhappy, speak to your local newspaper, but make sure you have documentation and have at least tried to first resolve the issue with FS


----------



## guytoronto (Jun 25, 2005)

Details first please.


----------



## Mrs. Furley (Sep 1, 2004)

So here's what happened...
On Sunday, there was a Sony Home Theatre system on the Future Shop website - the regular price was $1299 but it was on sale for $999 and on top of that there was a $300 mail-in rebate which made the sale price $699. The $699 was in red and it was very clear. Below the price, it said it was on sale until Dec. 8 and that it was sold out but would ship when available.

I sent the link to a couple of people to make sure it was a good system and when I heard back that it was, I decided I would buy it on Monday (yesterday). So yesterday morning I checked the link and it was still on sale but when I was preparing to phone and order it yesterday afternoon, the sale price had changed to $999!! I called and spoke to a guy who agreed that he had seen it on sale yesterday morning for $699 and he was quite confused. Then he put me on hold to speak to his supervisor and when he came back on the line, his tone had completely changed and he flatly informed me that they could only honour the price on the web. Then I spoke to his supervisor (Wes) and he said the same thing! Actually he was quite rude...especially when I said that was unacceptable. He just kept saying it might have been a typo but there was nothing he could do for me - I could tell he knew exactly what was going on though. The only way they would have honoured the former price (so they told me) was if I had a printout with the info I had seen earlier - why, oh why, didn't I print it out??

After I spoke to the Future Shop people, the info changed on the home theatre system - about an hour after, it said the system was no longer available for the previously advertised price and then they removed that a little later.

Here is the link now:
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pr...665000FS10060245&catid=19701&logon=&langid=EN

Is there anything I can do. I have the president's name and the address of the Future Shop headquarters but could I ever get a letter to reach him?

Am I pretty much out of luck? I hate to just let this go.


----------



## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

Well if I can be of some help, I don't like Sony home audio products.  I got a Pioneer VSX-515 amp (on sale for $229 from $299) that I setup with Creative speakers ($160, bought two years ago). There is a Yamaha surround speaker package on sale for $249. Then you could probably get a $199 5 disc DVD changer but for $229 you can get a DVD Recorder and make your VHS player obsolete once and for all.  Although my amp is the bottom of the line I think the sound reproduction is still way better than any Sony amp except maybe their top of the line model. Also I find it much more powerful to have a separate amp drive speakers and be the main centrepoint for your home theatre system rather than combining amp and DVD player. So totally up to you. Hey at least they put it right there at $999 and they didn't scam you... but write to them anyway if you really want to get this system. I don't know how much they'd budge but good luck.


----------



## Jason H (Feb 1, 2004)

dona83 said:


> Well if I can be of some help, I don't like Sony home audio products.


I'll second that, and 1000 watts total power is bullsh*t btw. There is no way that much power gets stuck into the back of the 'subwoofer' box OR the back of the dvd player. Probably more along the lines of 20 watts per channel.

I hate home theatre in a box.


----------



## Bjornbro (Feb 19, 2000)

Mrs. Furley said:


> The only way they would have honoured the former price (so they told me) was if I had a printout with the info I had seen earlier - why, oh why, didn't I print it out??


Well I hate to use an old cliché, but "he who hesitates, is lost". When you want to conduct business on the web things change in half a second. Future Shop is well within their right and they don't owe you a thing.


----------



## TrevX (May 10, 2005)

Bjornbro said:


> Well I hate to use an old cliché, but "he who hesitates, is lost". When you want to conduct business on the web things change in half a second. Future Shop is well within their right and they don't owe you a thing.


I have to agree. Its unfortunate, but you hesitated and lost out on the deal. This was a major issue when I worked in sales (HPShopping.com) but there really was nothing that could be done, and it wasn't in the company's interest to give the deal after the fact.

Furthermore, Futureshop does cover their ass with misprints on their website. To quote:



> Misprints
> 
> We do our best to provide you with the most up-to-date and accurate information. In the event that an error does occur, we reserve the right to correct or cancel an order at any time, and/or edit an order to reflect the correction, and/or correct the error on our web site. In the event that you are shipped an incorrect product, we will gladly accept the unit back and offer you a full refund.


You can read that here: http://www.futureshop.ca/informationcentre/EN/onlinepolicies.asp?logon=&langid=EN

Sorry,

Trev


----------



## Mrs. Furley (Sep 1, 2004)

Well I guess that solves that! Thanks guys.

Still...I'm very disappointed in Future Shop and it'll be a long time before I go back to them, if at all. I didn't like the way they treated me and I also don't like it that they could make such an error.

I guess I'll look at it as a learning experience.


----------



## shoe (Apr 6, 2005)

God made rivers god made lakes, god made us people and we all make mistakes.

Heres a really evil way to fix your problem...

You say you need a printed version of that ad correct, they know its a problem so they might honor this:

Take a screen snap shot go into photoshop or similar edit the image so it reads 699 print it and take it in, might work if your slick enoughto pull it off

shoe


----------



## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

shoe said:


> God made rivers god made lakes, god made us people and we all make mistakes.
> 
> Heres a really evil way to fix your problem...
> 
> ...


that might be considered as fraud


----------



## Mrs. Furley (Sep 1, 2004)

shoe said:


> Heres a really evil way to fix your problem...
> 
> You say you need a printed version of that ad correct, they know its a problem so they might honor this:
> 
> ...


Believe me...I already considered that!! On my drive home last night, I was thinking about doing that very thing...then I realized there were a few things that changed in the add that would be hard to replicate...then I realized that it really wouldn't be very cool to do that and it would make me as bad as they are!

But I still like the idea...and my Photoshop skills are good enough that I could probably pull it off.


----------



## Strimkind (Mar 31, 2005)

Hate to break it however fs will pull up the website to check on it to double check. I had to do that when I worked at staples to ensure that this type of thing did not happen (photoshopped webpages that is).


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

One thing that sometimes works to bring an older webpage back is to use the 'cached' function on google.
Has allowed me to look into the past before, but unfortunately it didn't work in this case to bring the $699 sale up.
At least not on my few tries - it was always $999


----------



## Mrs. Furley (Sep 1, 2004)

krs said:


> One thing that sometimes works to bring an older webpage back is to use the 'cached' function on google.
> Has allowed me to look into the past before, but unfortunately it didn't work in this case to bring the $699 sale up.
> At least not on my few tries - it was always $999


How do you use that?


----------



## gordguide (Jan 13, 2001)

Mrs Furley wrote: How do yo do that?
When you view a Google  search result  you probably just click on the blue title link. But, if Google has read the site before, it caches it in it's server. So, checking out your results page, we see other links. Eg (clickable links are bold text):

<b>Hello, World Page!</B>
List of the famous "Hello, World!" programming teaching program, in hundreds of different languages.
[xxx].latech.edu/~acm/HelloWorld.shtml - 12k - <b>Cached</b> - <b>Similar pages</b>
acm @ tech - Louisiana Tech ACM - Home - Befunge - C++
<b>More results from www2.latech.edu »</b>

Google caches from time to time, but you would have to be pretty lucky to find it had cached the page you want in the last 24 hours or so. But, for a very convincing demonstration of not only Google's caching, but how information on the 'net "lasts forever", anyone can try Googling their ehMac screen-name. There's a lot of your posts there, easily searchable by anyone, anytime.


----------



## guytoronto (Jun 25, 2005)

So just so I'm clear, this is the situation:

Future Shop posts sale for stereo $699 (accidentally? short term sale?).
You hesitate in buying it.
Future Shop ends sale.
Now you want to buy it.
You are upset Future Shop ended the sale.
Some thought of defrauding Future Shop by using a Photoshoped image.

Where exactly in this train of events did Future Shop do anything to make you angry? By ending a sale? Should sale prices last forever? Give your head a shake. You missed the opportunity. Life goes on. Donate the money to the Food Bank.


----------



## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

guytoronto said:


> So just so I'm clear, this is the situation:
> 
> Future Shop posts sale for stereo $699 (accidentally? short term sale?).
> You hesitate in buying it.
> ...


tough love


----------



## MannyP Design (Jun 8, 2000)

guytoronto said:


> So just so I'm clear, this is the situation:
> 
> Future Shop posts sale for stereo $699 (accidentally? short term sale?).
> You hesitate in buying it.
> ...


From what I understand is Futureshop had listed the sale until the 8th of December... to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't passed yet. If it has... my wife is going to be pissed I missed her birthday.


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

Mrs.F., the same sort of thing happened with my Canon digital camera. I went to the manager and explained the situation. It was a mistake on their part, with $100 off the price with the mail-in rebate, but they had it $100 off the store price AND a mail-in rebate. When he told me I could have one or the other, I told him that I was contacting the Better Business Bureau and Canada Consumer and Corporate Affairs, AND the CBC AND our local newspaper. He quickly agreed to my request, and I bought the camera for $100 off the price AND had their form for an additional $100 mail-in rebate (which I did receive).

So, the moral of this story is be calm, but forceful and threaten non-legal actions that will hurt the store's reputation. I also would ask for the manager's regional supervisor to inform him/her that the manager could have avoided all of this negative press merely by honoring their stated prices with rebates. You might not then need to go through all of this hassle. Good luck.


----------



## Mrs. Furley (Sep 1, 2004)

guytoronto said:


> So just so I'm clear, this is the situation:
> 
> Future Shop posts sale for stereo $699 (accidentally? short term sale?).
> You hesitate in buying it.
> ...


Since Manny and Dr. G. both understood what happened from my earlier post, I'm going to assume that I made it clear why I was upset and I'm not going to bother typing it out for you, especially since you seem rather confrontational.

And, for the record, I donate to the Food Bank on a regular basis as well as Sick Kids, the Leukemia Research Fund and the MS Society.


----------



## Mrs. Furley (Sep 1, 2004)

Thanks so much Dr. G. - this is the kind of info I was hoping for. I do realize that mistakes do happen and I probably should have jumped on it as soon as I saw it, but when a company gives a sale end date, I trust them - my first mistake!

Surely there are other people out there that saw what I saw and were planning on buying it...and maybe the Better Business Bureau has received other calls and, just maybe, my call could make a difference.

The funniest part was that I told the supervisor (calmly) that I was prepared to take this as far as I could and he told me he was at the top and there was no further I could take my complaint than to him!

For me, it's the priciple of it more than anything - I'm fully aware that the chances of getting the sale price are slim to none at this point.



Dr.G. said:


> Mrs.F., the same sort of thing happened with my Canon digital camera. I went to the manager and explained the situation. It was a mistake on their part, with $100 off the price with the mail-in rebate, but they had it $100 off the store price AND a mail-in rebate. When he told me I could have one or the other, I told him that I was contacting the Better Business Bureau and Canada Consumer and Corporate Affairs, AND the CBC AND our local newspaper. He quickly agreed to my request, and I bought the camera for $100 off the price AND had their form for an additional $100 mail-in rebate (which I did receive).
> 
> So, the moral of this story is be calm, but forceful and threaten non-legal actions that will hurt the store's reputation. I also would ask for the manager's regional supervisor to inform him/her that the manager could have avoided all of this negative press merely by honoring their stated prices with rebates. You might not then need to go through all of this hassle. Good luck.


----------



## Mrs. Furley (Sep 1, 2004)

« MannyP Design » said:


> From what I understand is Futureshop had listed the sale until the 8th of December... to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't passed yet. If it has... my wife is going to be pissed I missed her birthday.


According to Future Shop, you missed your wife's b-day.

According to the rest of the world, you're safe! You still have time. The question is...will you buy her gift at Future Shop?


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

Dr.G. said:


> Mrs.F., the same sort of thing happened with my Canon digital camera. I went to the manager and explained the situation. It was a mistake on their part, with $100 off the price with the mail-in rebate, but they had it $100 off the store price AND a mail-in rebate. When he told me I could have one or the other, I told him that I was contacting the Better Business Bureau and Canada Consumer and Corporate Affairs, AND the CBC AND our local newspaper. He quickly agreed to my request, and I bought the camera for $100 off the price AND had their form for an additional $100 mail-in rebate (which I did receive).
> 
> So, the moral of this story is be calm, but forceful and threaten non-legal actions that will hurt the store's reputation. I also would ask for the manager's regional supervisor to inform him/her that the manager could have avoided all of this negative press merely by honoring their stated prices with rebates. You might not then need to go through all of this hassle. Good luck.


I see this at Future Shop on a regular basis - showing a mail-in rebate and then the same amount taken off the price as well when really only one discount applies.
Whoever enters the information on their web page is not very careful in that regard, maybe because it's easy enough to change on a moments notice. On a print ad it's a bit more permanent.
This wasn't a sale that ended early - it was just another typical screw up by FS.
What to do about it? You could try Dr. G's approach but with $300.00 at stake that might turn out to be a bit tough. I don't think you have a case legally - everyone has disclaimers on their website about pricing errors. If you place the order at the lower price *and they accept it,*, then I think they have to honour it. But I have had situations where the order gets placed at the web price and an email comes back - sorry, we made a mistake, the item is actually more $$$$.


----------



## Eukaryotic (Jan 24, 2005)

guytoronto said:


> So just so I'm clear, this is the situation:
> 
> Future Shop posts sale for stereo $699 (accidentally? short term sale?).
> You hesitate in buying it.
> ...


If you'd read the post you wouldn't have had to get all bothered and waste your time typing. Give YOUR head a shake.


----------



## ladyred (Nov 6, 2005)

Stay away from Sony's Home Theater Stuff ....

the Dvd player will give you lots and lots of headaches ..been there done that ..


----------



## sccoaire (Feb 11, 2005)

I feel for you, I really do. I have had too many issues with Future Shop. There's a few stores in Edmonton, like 6-8. You go to one to pricematch something; they do it. You go to another to pricematch a similar item, but different title, and they use a different process and don't want to proceed. 

Go to http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10068065&catid= and look at the product's picture. How many controllers do you see? I bought one on-line yesterday and picked it up: there's only one controller. I told the gal at the customer service desk when I picked it up... did she bother checking, or making note of it for her manager? Why would I be the one to have to go out of my way to point out a mistake of theirs... I tried... they should go out of THEIR way to correct their own errors.

I went last week and checked their DVDs... saw Sharks at $9.99. Take it, go to the till, the price comes to $14 some dollars... I look at the guy and then I point to the big/huge label on the case that says $9.99... he's like oh, right. 

Other stores have issues, but Future Shop seams to have a lot, regularly. But I do agree with the idea that if you see a deal on the web and you hesitate, you and only you is to blame, sorry. In October of 2004, 22h my time, I was on Jetsgo's website looking at airfares and planning my trip to Quebec for the holidays. I see a sale for seats at $155 one way... so I make my selections and get my itineray. Then I hesitate... should I book this right away? I talked to my friend for a couple of minutes, then came back and hit refresh, and the prices were back up to $265. I couldn't believe it! Lesson learned...


----------



## ArtistSeries (Nov 8, 2004)

I wonder how some would be reacting to a pricing mistake by a smaller shop such as Carbon or MacDoc? 
Seem that consumers just want to "screw" the merchants. 
FS made a pricing mistake and it is annoying but this almost seems like a vendetta by some.


----------



## MannyP Design (Jun 8, 2000)

ArtistSeries said:


> I wonder how some would be reacting to a pricing mistake by a smaller shop such as Carbon or MacDoc?
> Seem that consumers just want to "screw" the merchants.
> FS made a pricing mistake and it is annoying but this almost seems like a vendetta by some.


I doubt people would be quick to take a local merchant to task as they're more likely to provide decent customer service, which is sadly lacking in a lot of big box stores.

Sadly, these "mistakes" are far too common and are suspect... I think it's just a way for these companies to catch people's attention with the hopes they'll come in and purchase the item regardless of whatever "error" made them interested in said item.

Why is it that we see less errors in paper flyers than we do on the web? The fuzzy nature that is the internet allows retailers to dance in a grey zone free from the BBB without getting nailed for it. Simply making the umbrella statement on their web site is bullshot at best... why isn't this done on traditional flyers?

Because it's WRONG.


----------



## Eukaryotic (Jan 24, 2005)

ArtistSeries said:


> I wonder how some would be reacting to a pricing mistake by a smaller shop such as Carbon or MacDoc?
> Seem that consumers just want to "screw" the merchants.
> FS made a pricing mistake and it is annoying but this almost seems like a vendetta by some.


I think the bigger issue with these situations is the reaction of these places when they have to deal with an anomaly (i.e., screw-up) in their everyday routines. It would be nice for once to have a place say, "you know what, you're right, we screwed-up...sorry about that". Even if they can't honour the price they screwed-up on, at least some sort of reconciliation should be attempted. I worked for years in retail, and I would never have taken a "too bad" approach to a situation no matter what it was.


----------



## Bjornbro (Feb 19, 2000)

« MannyP Design » said:


> Why is it that we see less errors in paper flyers than we do on the web?


I thought this would be self explanatory. Using Future Shop as an example, how many of their products are listed in a weekly flyer versus their website? Wouldn't it be conceivable that there is a proportional amount of errors in both media? I love playing devil's advocate. :heybaby:


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

« MannyP Design » said:


> The fuzzy nature that is the internet allows retailers to dance in a grey zone free from the BBB without getting nailed for it. .


News to me that this is a "grey zone free from the BBB."

If a merchant is a member of the BBB, he needs to follow the rules regardless.


----------



## MannyP Design (Jun 8, 2000)

Bjornbro said:


> I thought this would be self explanatory. Using Future Shop as an example, how many of their products are listed in a weekly flyer versus their website? Wouldn't it be conceivable that there is a proportional amount of errors in both media? I love playing devil's advocate. :heybaby:


One would think the nature of having an electronic system set up that tracks their stock dynamically would be more accurate than a designer putting a flyer (or catalogue for that matter) together outside that environment.

~


krs said:


> News to me that this is a "grey zone free from the BBB."
> 
> If a merchant is a member of the BBB, he needs to follow the rules regardless.


I never said it was a grey zone free FROM the BBB -- what I eluded to is retailers are taking advantage of customers by acting the way they did in this (and many other case.) The web allows companies to use the "error" card (and tough sh!t attitude) far too often as seen with this (and other threads.) What the BBB needs to do is educate the public at what merchants can and cannot do with regards to web pricing errors.

People need to be diligent in making sure they are not getting screwed and follow through.


----------



## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

« MannyP Design » said:


> I never said it was a grey zone free FROM the BBB.


Well -that's exactly what you posted. I read it as saying that the BBB has no control of their members when it comes to their www presence.


> What the BBB needs to do is educate the public at what merchants can and cannot do with regards to web pricing errors.


Should in principle be no different than paper advertizing, other than of course that the merchant can change it instantly.
But I have seen that type of error on the Future Shop website many times, where a discount is shown twice, once at a immediate discount and the same amount again as a mail-in rebate.
The people at RFD are good in pointing this out on their web page.


----------

