Here is a good one for ya. I was shopping online a while back. Visited ToyWiz.com. I ordered a number of striges for $2 a piece. Which was a decent price. Though I got a better deal from Auggie when he had them in stock. Couple days later I get an email from Andrew Cordiello of ToyWiz that they 'completely' out of stock and cancelled my order. Next day they had stock again, but had raised the price to $6. Is that BS or what. I emailed and said since you DO have stock again now, I will take the items I ordered at the original price. Got a line of BS that their cost had increased. What booster prices changed in two days? No just greed and not honoring a sale contract. Last time I order from that fly-by-night operation. I'll stick to legit sellers like Auggie.

It is called bait and switch.  It is against the law.  You should contact them again and insist on the original price or let them know you will contact he Better Business Bureau.

-SYB

It is called bait and switch.  It is against the law.  You should contact them again and insist on the original price or let them know you will contact he Better Business Bureau.

-SYB

It's not bait and switch.  Bait and switch would have been if they advertised for $2 took his order and then charged him $6 or shipped him a different product than what he ordered.  They just cancelled his order.  Its slimy, but it doesn't cross into illegal unless they accepted his payment.  You could pick up a gallon of milk with a price tag of $3 and walk up to the counter with it and the guy behind the counter could say that they are now charging $5 for milk and that isn't illegal.  Bad business, but not illegal.  A listed price and an order placement does not constitute offer and acceptance.

All that being said, it was definitely a rotten thing to do and thanks for the warning about these guys.

[QUOTE]emontedodger wrote
It is now at $19.99 each![/QUOTE]

That's just insane....

If "bait & switch" is illegal, then how does every single car dealership in America get away with it?
[/QUOTE]

Car dealerships will run an ad with a come-on price. They actually have the car available at that price. ONE car. The car is sold to another dealership, who will then use it for advertising purposes (ie, Honda dealerships will just swap the same car around). However, if an outside buyer gets to the car first, they can snag it. Its how I got my last car - by arriving at the dealership before they opened and squatting on the ad car. Every other car of the same model on the lot was higher.

It's not bait and switch.  Bait and switch would have been if they advertised for $2 took his order and then charged him $6 or shipped him a different product than what he ordered.  They just cancelled his order.  Its slimy, but it doesn't cross into illegal unless they accepted his payment.  You could pick up a gallon of milk with a price tag of $3 and walk up to the counter with it and the guy behind the counter could say that they are now charging $5 for milk and that isn't illegal.  Bad business, but not illegal.  A listed price and an order placement does not constitute offer and acceptance.

All that being said, it was definitely a rotten thing to do and thanks for the warning about these guys.

[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure if the price change isnt illegal. If you advertise milk for 3 dollars a gallon, then charge 5, I dont see how that fails to qualify as false advertising, baring some small print.

As far as this, I'd say its a pretty clear case of bait and switch. You advertise a product (stirges) for a low price (2 dollars). Whent he customer attempts to purchase said product, you refuse to sell it to them, and offer a substitute good (other minis).

From the FTC site:

"Bait advertising is an alluring but insincere offer to sell a product or service which the advertiser in truth does not intend or want to sell. Its purpose is to switch consumers from buying the advertised merchandise, in order to sell something else, usually at a higher price or on a basis more advantageous to the advertiser. The primary aim of a bait advertisement is to obtain leads as to persons interested in buying merchandise of the type so advertised."

Since the sale went through, its a switch after sale, a type of bait and switch also identified on the FTC site.

"Bait and switch" specifically refers to "baiting" with one product at low prices, then "switching" the consumer's focus to another product.  So far as I'm aware, intent is an element.  "False advertising" is also a matter of deliberate deception; mis-pricing will only rise to that level if it's intentional.

What this seller is reported to have done is sleazy and potentially fraudulent (though that would be difficult to prove), but it's not "bait and switch."

Maybe not illegal, but definitely sleazy, and a good reason to never buy there again.

In fact, maybe we should remove Toy Wiz from the list for the online price guide, and then send an e-mail to Toy Wiz and the other shops on the Price Guide, telling them why we did it.  Apply a little mass consumer pressure...

JIM
aka kyrin

I'd actually call this a breach of contract.  I presume you paid at the time of order which almost certainly shows you are serious about the deal.  If they then come back a day later and say "sorry, I guess we don't have any" they should then ask what you want done, a full refund or to wait and see if they can honor their end at a later time.  Not giving you that chance and then miraculously having the product back in stock (at a much higher price) less than a week later definitely breaks with the rules of proper buisness.

I'd actually call this a breach of contract.  I presume you paid at the time of order which almost certainly shows you are serious about the deal.  If they then come back a day later and say "sorry, I guess we don't have any" they should then ask what you want done, a full refund or to wait and see if they can honor their end at a later time.  Not giving you that chance and then miraculously having the product back in stock (at a much higher price) less than a week later definitely breaks with the rules of proper buisness.

[/QUOTE]

Yep, I paid via credit at the time of the order. Never asked if I wanted to wait for more stock to come in or anything. The completely sold out stuck me as funny, since most online stores buy more boosters as needed and its not like the set is out of print.

Okay, that is ridiculous and definitely deserved to have a topic about it to warn others in case of potential future incidents. Also, the other minis on that site, already briefly mentioned, are also priced to a ludicrously high level. There's such thing as profit because stores don't want to lose money as that's the entire point of running a business but then there's just plain gouging which next to none of the time has justification of any level present. Even looking at the significantly older sets is ridiculous, even for the lack of availability in actual, brick-and-mortar stores that is their current situation and therefore pretty much only available through the internet. I mean, yeah, the prices should go up for older figures but there has to be a limit. I could be horribly, HORRIBLY wrong about this but I don't think it is normal for figures even as old as Giants of Legend to have prices for even the huges such as the Nightwalker at $11.99. If that's the price for one of the most unwanted figures of a set due to the overpricing of a figure, although powerful but also came in much greater numbers to the point where it's essentially an expensive paperweight, what does that say about the $99.99 Huge Gold Dragon and $149.99 Huge Red Dragon? Then again, for the Red at least, since the price jumped for the Large Red Dragon to a maximum of nearly $100, you could say that perhaps that it detracts from the effect $150 would normally have on something like this but for all I know you could be in the minority on this. Highest I've ever seen a Huge Red at was about $80 and even with the LRD wielding extremely real potential that has shown itself to go even higher than that, nearly double that makes me glad I hate Red Dragons. Things like this burn me up even though I personally am not being affected.

Yep, I paid via credit at the time of the order. Never asked if I wanted to wait for more stock to come in or anything. The completely sold out stuck me as funny, since most online stores buy more boosters as needed and its not like the set is out of print.

[/QUOTE]

Question is, did the transaction hit your card? Unless he sent through his authorization ticket, no money actually chaged hands (even if he did a pre-auth to verify the card), and ergo, no sale. Sleazy to the extreme, but not illegal (unless, as I said, he charged your card and later refunded it).

[QUOTE]gausse wrote
I for one am all for removing any online store that uses nonsense 'placeholder' prices like $19.95 for a stirge from the price guide calculations. It just throws everything off. He is not selling any at that price.[/QUOTE]

The sad fact is that he may sell some, there's so much craze for stirges right now...

[QUOTE]JugglerVR wrote
Just to play devil's advocate here, what if he was truly out of stock, and refunded your money, then got a line on some stirges for $4 each? why on earth would he be obligated to sell you some at half what he paid for them?
I agree, it seems shady, but in this 3rd party market, supply is a big factor of the transaction, and I know dealers have to take that into account.

Flip side, I know that in the retail market, if a store advertises a sale, and then runs out of product, they're legally obligated to make out I-O-Us for customers who subsequently attempt to buy after the product has been sold. I've done this at a few stores.
[/QUOTE]

If he was truly out of stock there should have been no minis to buy in the first place.  He either need better inventory management or should keep a reserve stock.  I imagine most online sells have their inventory in a database which should be tied directly to the sale process.  Secondly, as I previously stated, he should try to make good on sale promises as it is VERY likely the seller knew they had a new supply (or at least potential supply) coming in very soon.  I can see some allowance for a price increase but you still need to honor your old promise.

[QUOTE]JugglerVR wrote
Flip side, I know that in the retail market, if a store advertises a sale, and then runs out of product, they're legally obligated to make out I-O-Us for customers who subsequently attempt to buy after the product has been sold. I've done this at a few stores.[/QUOTE]

Actually, they're (probably) not legally obligated to do that, at least under contract law.  Generally, advertisement doesn't constitute the offer side of a contract.  Most stores give rainchecks simply because it's bad business to piss people off.  There are exceptions in which advertising can constitute an offer, but they're rare, and the exception rather than the rule.

(Also generally, transactions between merchants and non-merchants can get a little odd, contractually speaking.  It's very often incorrect to apply "classic" contract law to transactions involving goods, not least because such transactions are covered instead by the Uniform Commercial Code -- or its equivalent -- in nearly every jurisdiction in the US.)

[QUOTE]JugglerVR wrote
Just to play devil's advocate here, what if he was truly out of stock, and refunded your money, then got a line on some stirges for $4 each? why on earth would he be obligated to sell you some at half what he paid for them?
I agree, it seems shady, but in this 3rd party market, supply is a big factor of the transaction, and I know dealers have to take that into account.
[/QUOTE]

Only problem I see with that thought is online sellers like this one aren't buying their minis ( at least not current sets ) from some middle man who opens the boosters, sorts and sells the minis to them. They are buying boosters at a reduced wholesale cost, opening them and setting their own prices. So any new stirges cost them exactly the same as the old stirges. They just wanted to reap the extra profit.

Never really thought too hard on the legality of it, nor do I really want too. It was just a very uncool thing to do in my opinion and decided to bring it up rather than just let it slide. I asked them to honor the sale, but they had no interest in customer service. They could have easily offered to sell me a few at the original price, or something similiar to try to make a return customer. But chose not to. Just think it's a bad way to do business.