Kinect pre-order SCAMWATCH

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Amazon and GAME have locked up their Kinect preorder lists, and other retailers will do the same in the coming fortnight. Kinect is selling out. No matter how large or small the initial allocations are, it would be wise to get your preorder sorted out now if you want one. Whilst you’re hunting around, be on your lookout for scams. Some of them happen every time there’s a hardware launch, some seem to be Kinect-specific. We’re keeping track of them as they come up, so keep your eyes peeled for these cheeky chappies…

Pricey Preorders

At the time of writing, you can still preorder Kinect from a LOT of online retailers. Scammers on eBay have been trying to charge up to £198 (again, at the time of writing) for the £129.99 unit, and that price will go up if stocks dwindle. They’re generally covered with the old “will be shipped when the item arrives from the supplier”, so you may not get it until 2013 anyway! If you think you might want Kinect on launch day, PREORDER it already!

Catalogue Pricewatch

Some of the “Home Shopping Catalogues” that you can order from seem to be charging a very strange set of prices for Kinect.  Littlewoods, for example, is charging £159.00 for the Kinect Sensor, and that’s  BEFORE you add interest for weekly payments. This isn’t necessarily a scam, but the prices in some places are WAY out. Hell, even some game retailers are way out. We’ve a reminder of the correct prices at the bottom of this article.

The Discounted Launch Titles Scam

Watch out for this one. There’s a few listed in all the usual places. This isn’t technically a scam, but the wording is very choice to say the least. The seller is selling a voucher code for Very.co.uk, a UK retailer. The voucher code is for new customers only, and the wording suggests that you can buy Kinectimals, Sonic Free Riders, Kinect Sports and Kinect Joy Ride (titles vary, of course) for £19 a pop. That isn’t so. Firstly, you need to open a new Very.co.uk CREDIT account to qualify for the discount. Secondly, you need to spend a total of £40. Thirdly, you only get a £15 discount in total, which brings ONE of those games down to £19.99 from £34.99, not all of them, as is suggested.

The sellers are generally only charging a quid for the code, but money’s money, after all! And please note that I am not in any way, shape or form suggesting that Very.co.uk aren’t a reputable retailer. Having ordered from them before, I would say that they are incredibly reliable and honest. The folks selling their voucher codes on are the ones causing the trouble.

The False Advertising Scam

Seen a few of these, as well. Item listed is a “Kinect-Ready Xbox 360 with Kinect”, leading the buyer to thinking they’re getting a new Xbox 360 S with Kinect Sensor. They’re not. They’re getting an old, hard-drive-less Xbox 360 Arcade with a preorder ticket for a Kinect Sensor, and being charged £300 for the trouble. ALL Xbox 360 consoles are “Kinect Ready” though, you should note. The “Kinect Ready” sticker was just a really poor marketing effort from Microsoft, indicating that newer consoles wouldn’t need to use an extra mains adapter to power the Kinect Sensor itself.

The Forced Upsell Scam

A few “large” offline retailers have done this in the past, and I eventually lost one of my jobs in retail as I point-blank refused to do it and let the stock go out at the standard price. The practice is completely unethical, in my eyes. The store gets low on stock, and restricts sales of the hardware so that you can only buy it when you buy two or three games with it at full price. Be aware of your rights, here. If they have a unit in stock, and they visibly display the standalone price anywhere in store (shelf edges, dummy boxes, posters – NOT in a pre-printed in-store magazine, or on the company’s website) then that can be construed as a purposefully misleading action on behalf of the retailer, and the company could potentially be prosecuted via the local Trading Standards Authority. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that they are legally obligated to sell the item to you at the advertised price, though. Nine out of ten customers will bluster in and start shouting about legal rights that they absolutely don’t have and don’t understand, and I say this from experience of dealing with those nine out of ten, all of whom start screaming “false advertising” and “Sale of Goods Act” at the top of their lungs. The store has NO obligation to sell you ANYTHING, no matter what the law says. They can refuse to sell an item to you for pretty much any reason, and if that’s not enough, they can then take the item off sale until you leave, perfectly legally. Be nice, and they may see it your way, especially if you’re a regular customer. Whatever you do, don’t be harangued into buying something you didn’t want.

The Pikey’s Paradise

We’ve all seen ‘em in the UK, haven’t we? A vacant shop is taken over for a day by a group of “bankrupt stock” shifters who are offering stupid prices, generally in an auction format. They’ll give you absolutely anything in order to get the money out of your hands. Console boxes full of bricks, iPods made of soap…they’ll go to any lengths. One down in Plymouth a couple of months ago was trying to sell “Sony Move” Controllers for £5 a pop, just four short weeks before Move was released in the UK. If it’s too good to be true…guess what? It blatantly is. You have no comeback with these people, as they won’t be there the following day, and will deny all knowledge of any sale next time they come back.

The Free Game Deal

This one is a blinder, usually found with online Wii sales. The Kinect Sensor is for sale here, at a “bargain” price of £139.99. But, you’ve got to bear in mind that the seller is very, VERY generously throwing in a game for only ten pounds as a special offer. That game? Why, Kinect Adventures, of course – the game that comes free with every single Kinect Sensor sold in the UK.

The Christmas Heartstrings

Do not, I repeat NOT let these scammers play on your heartstrings. Since the beginning of October, adverts have been posted imploring you not to disappoint your children by allowing them to miss out on Kinect on Christmas Day. I know it seems like a harsh chance to take, but whilst you may not get a Kinect bundle in time for Christmas, there is EVERY likelihood that you actually will, and for standard price at that. Every single time you buy a piece of hardware and pay over the odds for it, you’re pretty much guaranteeing that the scammer will go and do exactly the same thing with next year’s next big thing. We’ve all seen PlayStation 2’s shifting for £700, Xbox 360s being bought for £500, Wiis going for £350 and even Wii Fit boards flogging for £150 (and upwards!) a pop. It happens every single time, and the cause is twofold. Firstly, people don’t preorder in time. If you weren’t sure about preordering Kinect, then it’s not going to hurt to wait a week or two more, whilst the genuinely excited folks get theirs. You’ve had around five months to place your FREE (and completely cancellable) preorder with any number of online and offline retailers. Secondly, the scammers are simply out to make money. If you’re buying, they’re selling. If you don’t buy, they don’t make a profit, and they’re much less likely to do it next time.

And yes, JUST you not falling for it CAN make a difference. Be careful out there, and happy hunting!

Correct Kinect RRPs (as of midnight on 13/10/10)
4Gb Xbox 360 S: £149.99
250Gb Xbox 360 S: £199.99
4Gb Xbox 360 S with Kinect Sensor and Kinect Adventures: £249.99
250Gb Xbox 360 S with Kinect Sensor and Kinect Adventures: £299.99
Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures: £129.99

I will – completely in the interests of making a percentage, of course (although I’d recommend Shopto anyway as I love them) – reiterate that Shopto.net are accepting preorders for Kinect at the time of writing, for £5 LESS than RRP and with free postage, via our Shopto Affiliate Link. We get a cut, you pay less than RRP, you get Kinect, and everyone’s happy, right?

http://kineticboom.com/xbox-360/xbox-kinect-news/kinect-preorder-scamwatch/

With Kinect preorders seemingly becoming harder to secure, I figured that some here would appreciate this article from KinecticBoom.