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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - The $99 Xbox 360 On Sale Now at Best Buy, GameStop

Aielyn said:
sales2099 said:
Aielyn said:
sales2099 said:
Clearly your too young to have experience in buying a car and a house with a down payment.

Its simple: when you cant pay it all upfront, you end up paying more in the long run in exchange for affordable monthly instalments. Its a trade off.

Are you guys incapable of actually reading what I say?

I actually spelled out, in detail, the way that it works. I'm a mathematician, I know this stuff pretty damn well. If you guys aren't capable of reading my posts and thinking about them before responding, then there's no point continuing the argument.

You may be a mathematician, yet you seem to know little about the concept of paying with interest in the long run in exchange for affordable monthly payments.

Car industry, House industry, and phone industry all do this. Now MS is trying this with consoles. Simple.

OK, I'm going to say this in bold.

I described the process of paying with interest. If you don't realise that, then I can comfortably say that you didn't take ANY time to read what I was actually saying - you clearly just skimmed and decided to draw your own conclusions. Kind of like what I fear that advertising is intended to cause, really.

And as I said, none of the others try to hide that you'll be paying interest - they're quite upfront about it.

So the issue you seem to have is that some people will be gullible. Well then if someone is ignorant enough to not do their research before buying, then its their fault. 

Because its pretty evident that youll be paying more in the end with this deal then you would with buying all upfront. 



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

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sales2099 said:
Aielyn said:
sales2099 said:
Aielyn said:
sales2099 said:
Clearly your too young to have experience in buying a car and a house with a down payment.

Its simple: when you cant pay it all upfront, you end up paying more in the long run in exchange for affordable monthly instalments. Its a trade off.

Are you guys incapable of actually reading what I say?

I actually spelled out, in detail, the way that it works. I'm a mathematician, I know this stuff pretty damn well. If you guys aren't capable of reading my posts and thinking about them before responding, then there's no point continuing the argument.

You may be a mathematician, yet you seem to know little about the concept of paying with interest in the long run in exchange for affordable monthly payments.

Car industry, House industry, and phone industry all do this. Now MS is trying this with consoles. Simple.

OK, I'm going to say this in bold.

I described the process of paying with interest. If you don't realise that, then I can comfortably say that you didn't take ANY time to read what I was actually saying - you clearly just skimmed and decided to draw your own conclusions. Kind of like what I fear that advertising is intended to cause, really.

And as I said, none of the others try to hide that you'll be paying interest - they're quite upfront about it.

So the issue you seem to have is that some people will be gullible. Well then if someone is ignorant enough to not do their research before buying, then its their fault. 

Because its pretty evident that youll be paying more in the end with this deal then you would with buying all upfront. 

I see it more as MS knows that there is a certain percentage of "gullibles" that they can take advantage of to make a profit. Which isn't bad but the idea behind this deal is bogus for lack of a better word. sure it might be 15% or maybe even less than 10% of those "gullibles" but still those people shouldn't be taken advantage of their Gullibility. Is it a bad business practice? HELL NO! but definitely bad morals. but wtf am I talking about morals don't exist in the business game!!



Aielyn said:
Wh1pL4shL1ve_007 said:

... So ... If you cant read properly. This is a contract that allows you to buy a product in a very cheap upfront price but gives you a 24 month term in a fixed rate.

I honestly dont see what your problem.... Theres not interest there. FIXED rate??? Duh.

*facepalm*

I know what the deal is. I fully understand it. It seems that other people are having trouble reading what I'm saying. It was someone else who drew the analogy of what's going on here with interest payments on a house or car. I'm pointing out the absurdity of that comparison, when those deals are completely upfront, making it clear that you're paying extra to compensate for not paying for everything immediately on purchase. This deal isn't doing that - it's instead using vague terms and implying that you're getting a bargain, when you're actually going to end up paying more than you otherwise would.

It would be like a real estate agent going "Normally, this house would only cost $200,000. But today, as a special deal, you'll get the house for $50,000*".

"*for twenty years at $2000 a month."

I was content to leave this topic alone and just say that cultural differeces are the reason why we can't seem to see eye to eye on this thing.  I'll just assume that the way real estate sales, car purchases, and more are handled differently in your country and leave it at that.  On top of that, it looks like everybody else has already said what I was thinking, anyway.   I just wanted to look at the offer and see why you think it's being deceptive:

That's the same ad that was shown elsewhere in this thread.  It doesn't say "Normally the Xbox costs $300 but we're giving it away at $99!".  It doesn't say "We're giving you Xbox Live valued at $14.99 for free!!"  Your arguments are based on seeing something that simply isn't there and isn't even implied.  There just isn't room for misinterpretation, here.  The small print isn't even that small! 

It says "Jump into the Xbox Experience for only $99".  That will catch the customer's eye.  $99?  That's not too bad.  Directly beneath it it says what you get--a "4GB Xbox 360 console and Kinect".  It doesn't promise anything more.  It doesn't promise anything less.  It also says tha this deal (it doesn't say that this is a fair deal or a money saving deal, mind you) is with the CONTRACT for Xbox Live Gold at $14.99 a month for two years.  Everything else that you've been arguing is simply gaps that your mind has filled in when there is nothing to fill in. 

It's not a matter of you being the soul person that sees the reason in this while the rest of the world is just blind.  It's not "The earth is round" while we are all saying it's flat.  It's a service contract.  Just like the one I got from my phone company when I signed up for the internet and they gave me a router.  They charged me an extra $10 a month for that shitty router for probably a couple of years.  It's the same deal I got when I got a new DirecTV satellite reciever.  In addition to being able to watch satellite television, I agreed to "lease" the reciever (there was no option to buy) and I am charged for the hardware each month.  When I got the service, I was obligated to keep it for at least one year or pay a massive penalty (over $300 plus hardware, I think).

Anyway, we've beaten this dead horse long enough.  The deal is shitty.  Anybody that has to go this route probably doesn't need to buy a 360 because they are probably in no position to pay for home internet, Netflix, etc.  That $15 a month could go towards something more important.  I will agree with anybody that says the deal is no good.  I can't agree with your idea that the deal is somehow misguiding and deceptive.  It says everything in crystal clear English and it's a model that we've seen time and time again.

And, with that, I'm done.



Ok the one thing I don't understand is how to you use a 4GB Xbox? You wouldn't be able to download many retail games, and you'd probably run out of room for DLC eventually. Is there something I'm missing? Cuz I just don't get it.



 Been away for a bit, but sneaking back in.

Gaming on: PS4, PC, 3DS. Got a Switch! Mainly to play Smash

mysticwolf said:
Ok the one thing I don't understand is how to you use a 4GB Xbox? You wouldn't be able to download many retail games, and you'd probably run out of room for DLC eventually. Is there something I'm missing? Cuz I just don't get it.

It's simply a cheap option that is not meant for someone who is a serious downloader.



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yo_john117 said:
mysticwolf said:
Ok the one thing I don't understand is how to you use a 4GB Xbox? You wouldn't be able to download many retail games, and you'd probably run out of room for DLC eventually. Is there something I'm missing? Cuz I just don't get it.

It's simply a cheap option that is not meant for someone who is a serious downloader.

...Or anyone trying to play UFC 3.



thranx said:
It was your sentance, i just reused it. You seem to think the general public are idoits and have not seen many deals like this. Either you don't go shopping or you are being naive on purpose. Thats why I reused your sentance so maybe you could see how your tone was.

Againyou are the only one reading it that way. Everyone else is reading it just fine. Consumers are not iodiots, stop assuming they are.Wehter its a game machine, a hoiuse hold appliance, a cell phone, etc peoplea re very used to these deals. My mom has used similare deals and she knows nothing of games.

Your reasoning is wrong because you are trying to read it as a common person apparently and are not doing the common person justice assuming they are have no reading comprehension or have never read a deal before when clearly many have and do know how it works. Your also assuming that you are different (better? i dont know) than the normal consumer. These ads are being made by the companies they are being sold in, not MS. I think best buy knows what consumers are used too. That would be why they used a very common and generic ad. So does game stop. And any where else this will be sold.

Which sentence are you talking about? I can't see anything that you said that I'd said before you. And I don't think the general public are idiots, I think the "deal" is vague enough to catch people out who aren't gaming enthusiasts, and thus don't know to pay close attention to it.

As I said, the problem isn't the deal, it's how they're selling it. They aren't selling it the way that a "household appliance", a "cell phone", etc would be sold. To be clear, by "selling", I'm talking marketing, not actual sales.

Excuse me, but where did this "common person" thing come from? I would never use such a term, and I do not think of people in that way. And it's not reading comprehension - what I've been saying from the start is that someone who isn't a gaming enthusiast doesn't read the ad knowing that an Xbox 360 is usually $250 (and that MS isn't big on actual deals), or that Xbox Live Gold is usually cheaper than the price they're quoting. It's the lack of knowledge of the field that is the problem, and is what MS is exploiting. All I'm doing, when reading it, is ignoring the part of my mind that knows about gaming. And it reveals the problem that I've put forward.

yo_john117 - My problem isn't the "deal" itself. It's how they're selling it. That is, the marketing method.

sales2099 - I never said they're gullible, stop putting words into my mouth. My problem has never been the deal itself, but the marketing. They make it look, to the casual eye (again, this doesn't mean "casual gamer", this means someone reading without close inspection), like the deal is "buy an Xbox 360 for $99, get Xbox Live Gold with it". You and I know that MS would never do this. A non-enthusiast wouldn't.

d21lewis - Tell me, how would you read "Jump into Xbox experience for only $99"? The word "only" implies that that's the full price that you'll pay. This is then followed by "...for only $99 with new 2 year Xbox Live Gold contract at $14.99/month". There are three ways to read it - either there's the way that people in this thread understand it (which comes mostly from the fact that they know MS and actually saw information on what the deal really was first, prior to seeing how they're marketing it), there's "get the system for $99 with free Xbox Live Gold", or there's "get the system for $99 and then get Xbox Live Gold for $14.99/month if you want it". All three are valid readings of it. Let me say that again: all three are valid readings. And a formal reading of it favours the second interpretation, due to the repeated use of "only" and the choice of the word "at" before the monthly Xbox Live Gold price (which implies value rather than cost). The use of the word "contract" is the only thing that favours the first reading, and it's not inconsistent with the other readings.



sales2099 said:
Many people dont see that this mirrors that of buying a house......you pay more with a downpayment then you do when you pay for the whole thing upfront.

A downpayment now and paying off later costs more in the end because of interest.

So offcourse many people here dont see this as a deal. Because its not meant for them, as we are too used to buying consoles upfront.

This deal is meant for lower income families. They would end up paying more in the end, but the payment plan is done so that instalments are affordable to them.

is the price of a house affordable enough for the average person to be able to buy it in full upfront. NO

same thing with cars.

you you dont take out a loan to pay for everyday "cheap" things like this.

could you imagine if you bought your groceries like this. Filet mignon, only $5!!!... with 24 easy payments of $4.99



Aielyn, I.....I just don't know what to say. I just want to shake you until ask "Why don't you get it?" Why don't you get it? "Only" is just an advertising buzz word. This is ridiculous. Have you ever seen an infomercial for something like P90-X. It'll say "For four easy payments of only $39.99..." or something.

I have given up on you.



Aielyn said:

yo_john117 - My problem isn't the "deal" itself. It's how they're selling it. That is, the marketing method.

It's the same as any other marketing method. So what's the big deal? Is this the first contract you've ever seen or heard about in your life?