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Forums - Sony Discussion - How to get a PS3 for $299

coasterlove on 05 November 2008

It's a fairly good deal and I would consider it if there were more movies to choose from I wouldn't feel like returning movies to a store. Other stores would take them back after Christmas. Stores almost always take back any product they sell and give you credit as long as the item is unopened and looks to be in good condition. This is speaking of the time after Christmas. Now that I think of it, I should wait until then to return a few of the unopened movies I have that I bought duplicates of on accident.



I'll come up with something better eventually...

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deathgod33 on 05 November 2008

or you can just go on ebay.



 

 

 

 

Killergran on 05 November 2008
rajendra82 said:
Killergran said:
rajendra82 said:
markers said:
sweet bout time to stick it to walmart by making them pay for your goods that you never bought from them!!!

 

 

It's not really sticking it to them at all.  They get to turn around and sell those movies and get their money back.  They also make thier profits, because I will end up spending the store credit in there.  I consider muyself just an alternate distribution system fior the Blu-Ray movies I brought in.

 They get their money back, but they loose profit. It's somewhat like piracy. The store doesn't suffer directly, but they loose the profit they would have had if they had actually sold a Blu-ray movie they had a profit margin on.

Yes, they get some profit on the other stuff you buy, but I'm not sure whether that has such a big profit margin as movies do. Also, there's no way knowing wether you would buy that stuff at that Walmart anyways, so that they get profit on that to make up for the profit they lost is also kinda uncertain.

It also creates opportunity for arbitrage. If you have an item for $10 in one store, and $15 at Walmart, you can earn $5 by trading. Hence the max. 3 times rule for returning items without reciet.

Also, it's lying. Not morally acceptable. I have no idea if it constitutes as fraud.

In the US, many (not all) stores will match the price of another store.  If the item you seek is $10 in one store and $15 in another, if you ask the second store manager, they are likely to sell it to you for $10 as well.  If they don't, they know my next move will be walking out and driving to the other store.   You call this arbitrage, amd make it sound like it might be illegal in Sweden, but it is quite legal here, and I am glad that it is.

I don't get this moral outrage at this.  I didn't force Wal-Mart take the movies back, I let them make a choice.  I didn't make any money on the return, and I accepted store credit, an inferior form of cash that I have to spend at the store accepting the items back.  In doing this, all I did was expanded what came bundled with the PS3, and where I bought it.  There was no stealing, lying, cheating, pirating, looting or any such swashbuckling activity involved.

The arbitrage really wasn't a part of my argument, just an observation. I did not all mean to imply it would be illegal. Upon re-reading my first post, I can see how it would be interpreted as me implying that. If that offended you, I'm sorry for it. My writing isn't really that good, sometimes I come off as saying things I didn't really mean. I'm working on this, but it's not all that easy.

I might be wrong, but my understanding of the word 'arbitrage' was that you profit from the difference in value of an object in two different places. That would be legal, and incorporated into our economic system. Maybe I should check the exact definition up when I'm done posting this.

My point is instead this: By selling the movies to Walmart at the same price as they will sell them for they will have a profitmargin of 0 on those items (if they sold the movie, they will have lost profit, and if they don't they will have lost money). This is not immoral. However, you're giving them the impression that they had already made a profit of it (that is, you returned it after buying from them), and that's the part I find to be immoral. You're not being honest with Walmart, and profit from it while they lose profit.

It's not really that bad, what you're doing. It's not like there's any stealing, pirating, cheating, looting or any swashbuckling activity involved. :) I surely do worse things myself. I'm no saint.

 

PS. The comparison to piracy in the previous post was not an attempt to put this kind of behaviour on the same level as pirating, but an attempt to show that losing profit can indeed be a bad thing. I hope this post makes my reasoning a bit clearer.

 



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redisrad on 05 November 2008

nice



Resistance owns!!!!!111 one!

Hawkeye on 05 November 2008
rajendra82 said:
nordlead said:
Hawkeye said:

Wal Mart loses. They make no profit, though they break even. Still, they have to pay to stock items/return them/pay their workers. However, you are liekyl to come back and shop again at wal mart after using your credit, becuase you will now like the store.

 

Anyway, I am thinking of doing this. Is this really considered fraud, or is it perfectly legal? If I told Wal Mart the item was from another store but its the same ting you stock, would they take it? Do they actaully care about the store?

 

Walmart does care, just like every other store. However, they only care after you do it to many times. To many returns and Walmart will cut you off. Whether it is permanent or temporarily, I don't know.

Technically you are lying and saying you bought it there. Does that count as fraud in the eye's of the law? I don't know.

 

 

They never asked me if I bought the items at Wal-Mart.  They never do, and they don't care.  They rely on the computer tagging you as a repeat offender.  As seen on their official policy, they keep you blacklisted for 6 months.  There are no laws in returns to store, only store policy.  They are not required to take anything back, whether you have any receipt or not.

 

I carefully read their policy. It nowhere implied the item had to be bought from Wal Mart. In fact, their policy seemed to imply that even if it was from another store, it was ok to return at Wal Mart if it was unopened. It also sounded like Wal Mart wnated its customers to think it was a "friendly store" for doing this, and that its return policy is what seperated it from the competition. How is this any different from the following:

 

you get crap for Christmas and the gift doesn't come with a recepit. You have no idea where it came from. You send it to Wal Mart, get store credit, and get something you actaully want. I catually want games, not movies (well, 2 movies I want on that list, so I would reutn 2) If I return them and get $35 store credit and turn around and buy LBP for $60, it still costs me $25 plus tax. They get 45% of normal porfits since 25/60 is roughly 45%. So Wal Mart and I both win, becuase I am liekly to come back and buy blu movies in the future if I noticed they had good ones.



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BottledSpringWater on 05 November 2008

Ewwwwww.
"Since the store credit is useful for groceries and other games in stock at the store, it's as good as cash."
You get your groceries from Wal-Mart.
Open your eyes dood.
Wal-Mart food is tainted with pollutants and probably farmed from non-local farmers who were paid less then 2 cents for their crops.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyLhpUPNPIs

360 IS OPERATIONAL AFTER 37 DAYS!

Killergran on 05 November 2008
Hawkeye said:
rajendra82 said:
nordlead said:
Hawkeye said:

Wal Mart loses. They make no profit, though they break even. Still, they have to pay to stock items/return them/pay their workers. However, you are liekyl to come back and shop again at wal mart after using your credit, becuase you will now like the store.

 

Anyway, I am thinking of doing this. Is this really considered fraud, or is it perfectly legal? If I told Wal Mart the item was from another store but its the same ting you stock, would they take it? Do they actaully care about the store?

 

Walmart does care, just like every other store. However, they only care after you do it to many times. To many returns and Walmart will cut you off. Whether it is permanent or temporarily, I don't know.

Technically you are lying and saying you bought it there. Does that count as fraud in the eye's of the law? I don't know.

 

 

They never asked me if I bought the items at Wal-Mart.  They never do, and they don't care.  They rely on the computer tagging you as a repeat offender.  As seen on their official policy, they keep you blacklisted for 6 months.  There are no laws in returns to store, only store policy.  They are not required to take anything back, whether you have any receipt or not.

 

I carefully read their policy. It nowhere implied the item had to be bought from Wal Mart. In fact, their policy seemed to imply that even if it was from another store, it was ok to return at Wal Mart if it was unopened. It also sounded like Wal Mart wnated its customers to think it was a "friendly store" for doing this, and that its return policy is what seperated it from the competition. How is this any different from the following:

 

you get crap for Christmas and the gift doesn't come with a recepit. You have no idea where it came from. You send it to Wal Mart, get store credit, and get something you actaully want. I catually want games, not movies (well, 2 movies I want on that list, so I would reutn 2) If I return them and get $35 store credit and turn around and buy LBP for $60, it still costs me $25 plus tax. They get 45% of normal porfits since 25/60 is roughly 45%. So Wal Mart and I both win, becuase I am liekly to come back and buy blu movies in the future if I noticed they had good ones.

I thought that the word RETURN (in capitals) was an implication that it had to be bought from Wal Mart. Am I wrong? Does it simply mean that the customer returns it to a retailer, anyone?

 



This is invisible text!

rajendra82 on 05 November 2008
BottledSpringWater said:
Ewwwwww.
"Since the store credit is useful for groceries and other games in stock at the store, it's as good as cash."
You get your groceries from Wal-Mart.
Open your eyes dood.
Wal-Mart food is tainted with pollutants and probably farmed from non-local farmers who were paid less then 2 cents for their crops.

 

I guess it's a good thing they also have a pharmacy too.  That way people like you can use the store credit for crazy medication. 



BHR-3 on 05 November 2008

^^^^^^^ that was pretty funny



                                                             

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Hawkeye on 05 November 2008
Killergran said:
Hawkeye said:
rajendra82 said:
nordlead said:
Hawkeye said:

Wal Mart loses. They make no profit, though they break even. Still, they have to pay to stock items/return them/pay their workers. However, you are liekyl to come back and shop again at wal mart after using your credit, becuase you will now like the store.

 

Anyway, I am thinking of doing this. Is this really considered fraud, or is it perfectly legal? If I told Wal Mart the item was from another store but its the same ting you stock, would they take it? Do they actaully care about the store?

 

Walmart does care, just like every other store. However, they only care after you do it to many times. To many returns and Walmart will cut you off. Whether it is permanent or temporarily, I don't know.

Technically you are lying and saying you bought it there. Does that count as fraud in the eye's of the law? I don't know.

 

 

They never asked me if I bought the items at Wal-Mart. They never do, and they don't care. They rely on the computer tagging you as a repeat offender. As seen on their official policy, they keep you blacklisted for 6 months. There are no laws in returns to store, only store policy. They are not required to take anything back, whether you have any receipt or not.

 

I carefully read their policy. It nowhere implied the item had to be bought from Wal Mart. In fact, their policy seemed to imply that even if it was from another store, it was ok to return at Wal Mart if it was unopened. It also sounded like Wal Mart wnated its customers to think it was a "friendly store" for doing this, and that its return policy is what seperated it from the competition. How is this any different from the following:

 

you get crap for Christmas and the gift doesn't come with a recepit. You have no idea where it came from. You send it to Wal Mart, get store credit, and get something you actaully want. I catually want games, not movies (well, 2 movies I want on that list, so I would reutn 2) If I return them and get $35 store credit and turn around and buy LBP for $60, it still costs me $25 plus tax. They get 45% of normal porfits since 25/60 is roughly 45%. So Wal Mart and I both win, becuase I am liekly to come back and buy blu movies in the future if I noticed they had good ones.

I thought that the word RETURN (in capitals) was an implication that it had to be bought from Wal Mart. Am I wrong? Does it simply mean that the customer returns it to a retailer, anyone?

 

I thought it meant the latter.  I still do.