Shopping Discussion

Open letter to FutureShop

  • Last Updated:
  • Dec 25th, 2005 2:40 pm
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Deal Addict
User avatar
Jan 31, 2004
1401 posts
70 upvotes
Mount Hope, ON

Open letter to FutureShop

Kudo's to you for acknowledging your problems. After hammering on your site for 2 hours *again* this year, I swore I wouldn't buy from you ever again. This has happened every boxing day for the past four years. You hadn't learned from their prior years failures, and I was tired of the frustration. You note to Derek and the RFD Community changed my mind.

I have now managed to buy most of the items I had in my shopping cart this morning which FS.ca wouldn't check out, thanks to the updates on restocking that you provided to RFD. I'm glad you recognize the significant impact this community has, and are willing to provide information and updates to us in "real time".

Also, leaking the upcoming deals 2 days early to thwart the scanning issues from prior years, and giving us a heads up on the unadvertised specials was also appreciated.

It also looks like the rebate issue has been addressed. In prior years, the rebates were only for purchases on and after Dec 25th. But since the sales started at 12:01 EST and the receipts were printed with PST, there was a three hour window where the purchase dates were listed as Dec 24th, and so rebate claims were rejected. Every rebate I have checked this year has had an effective date of Dec 22nd.... nicely resolving the time zone issue.

If you can just squish the 12:01 mad rush crashes, Boxing Day 2006 should be smooth as silk.
There are two types of people in the world,
those who search for hidden messages, and those who don't.
17 replies
Deal Addict
Mar 22, 2005
1567 posts
100 upvotes
Calgary
well im angry :(

i went into checkout for the 32inch hdtv
and i was on the final screen after the shipping cost and everything
clcikced Checkout(as in im paying now)

and it just sent me back to the main screen saying out of stock..

gay.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 10, 2003
8086 posts
3870 upvotes
Now just do some Best Buy restocking and I'll be a satisfied customer too.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Dec 19, 2001
31347 posts
2025 upvotes
Fernando Poo
Everything I was interested in was sold out by the time I logged in this morning, and what wasn't sold out turned out to have crazy high rebates. No thanks.
Welcome to the Minitrue FDs, Ficdep
Member
Nov 17, 2005
386 posts
57 upvotes
I am also a very satisfied customer . The restocking this morning really helped in completing my shopping list . I have had many problems every yr with fs. This yr went smooth as it can be with all the traffic . Although yes it did take 2 hrs to check out at some point . Hopefully next yr it will even be smoother .

GREAT JOB GUYS AT FS ...
Newbie
Dec 18, 2004
36 posts
7 upvotes
Call me unimpressed. I still can't log in this morning...

Amateurs trying to act like a big e-tailer
Member
Dec 21, 2005
473 posts
15 upvotes
GreenWeenie wrote:After hammering on your site for 2 hours *again* this year, I swore I wouldn't buy from you ever again. This has happened every boxing day for the past four years. You hadn't learned from their prior years failures, and I was tired of the frustration.
maintaining an online presence, especially one tailored for e-business, is a non-trivial task. server load balancers are not cheap. i don't see the economic benefit of pouring bucket loads of money into futureshop.ca just to handle the load on one specific day of the year. to assume that a given site must be able to scale against a variable that simply cannot be predicted is, i think, asking abit much.
Deal Fanatic
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Dec 31, 2001
8234 posts
627 upvotes
Toronto
I'm pissed at Future Shop. After trying to checkout using 3 different computers since 12:01 am on Dec 25, 2005 till now 2:10pm, I still cannot checkout and pay for my items. WTF?

Ever hear of load balancing your servers or getting enough servers to support the massive advertising campaigns driving people to the website. This is not new and should have been accounted for. It happens every year and FS still has the same problems. I guess the FS corporate types didn't feel that it was worth adding enough servers to handle the demand.

I will avoid buying at FS and BB whenever I can due to this. If FS does not do anything to fix this for next year, there is no point for them to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars to advertise as people will visit the site natuarally and even with that they may not be able to handle the traffic.

It like the Toronto Maple Leafs advertising on TV about selling tickets for their games. There is no need as they get sold out regardless.

It's great that FS was restocking, but what's the point when potential customers cannot check out and actually buy those items.

By the way, I was successful checking out at BB after 15 mins of time out errors but not at FS.ca. :mad:
Member
Dec 21, 2005
473 posts
15 upvotes
silentsim wrote:well im angry ... i went into checkout for the 32inch hdtv
and i was on the final screen after the shipping cost and everything ... and it just sent me back to the main screen saying out of stock.
things happen asynchronously on e-business sites; this is reality. frustrating for some unfortunately.
Member
Dec 21, 2005
473 posts
15 upvotes
consumerPI wrote:I was successful checking out at BB after 15 mins of time out errors but not at FS.ca
perhaps BestBuy is a much larger franchise with a more mature online infrastructure.
Newbie
Dec 18, 2004
36 posts
7 upvotes
If FS can't handle Boxing day volume, they should stay away from it. Overhype and underdeliver will alienate their customers.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Jul 5, 2004
27438 posts
6807 upvotes
I am beyond angry at FS and BB!
They hyped up their boxing day sales so much just to let everyone down.
I couldn't login at all, so it was kind of hard to buy anything.
I tried two different browsers from two different computers.

Screw FS and BB!
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 31, 2001
8234 posts
627 upvotes
Toronto
I suspect that it was easier due to little to no advertising BB.ca.

FS on the other hand was hammered with ads everywhere.
emacs wrote:perhaps BestBuy is a much larger franchise with a more mature online infrastructure.
Sr. Member
Nov 27, 2005
657 posts
3 upvotes
Toronto
emacs wrote:perhaps BestBuy is a much larger franchise with a more mature online infrastructure.
Doesn't BB own FS now?
Deal Expert
May 30, 2005
49009 posts
10302 upvotes
Richmond Hill
This is my first year dealing with boxing week shopping online, and by far I was very dissapointed in how poorly the rush of orders was managed last night. I wasted 2 hours of my time just trying to checkout my purchase, but didn't work. Luckily, I was able to check everything out that I wanted this morning, even the Sharp Plasmacluster.

I do hope that in the future, they will add a few extra servers to process all the requests in time. The company makes so much money that I'm sure it's definately wise to do so, especially while developing online shopping for the better, with efforts to making the most profits and reducing expenses from brick and mortar stores. Best Buy on their part seemed to have solved their checkout issues quicker than Futureshop, but it may also be because there's less people dwelling around there. I do appreciate Futureshop restocking every few hours.

Now I just hope Best Buy will restock. FutureShop associates, if you are reading this, please help us ask your friends working at Best Buy when they will plan to restock their products as well.

Last note for whoever's in charge of the online Futureshop and Best Buy merchadising department:

RFD has over 36,000 members with over 2.5 Million posts and thousands of visitors per day, bringing Futureshop and Best Buy millions of dollars in profit each year. It might be to your coorporation's advantage to allow RFDers to have a special opportunity at big sales such as this Boxing Week deals, as most of us here are your big customers, spending at least $1000 a year. Just look around at the many TV threads at RFD. This forum is full of people who are willing to spend money for electronics but want to find the best deal for them. [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=167]Dell[/rfdlink] has previously offered RFD members exclusive deals in the past. If Futureshop and Best Buy follows a similar relationship with Ryan and RFD, I'm sure it will be for both the benefit of your income as well as for more than 36,000 members here at RFD.

Thank you for reading my rant.
Tons of things for sale!
Silver Coins and Numismatics | Heatware
Member
Oct 7, 2003
362 posts
I had the item in the cart and couldn't check out :mad:
and having 10 mp3 players for a whole country is kinda ridiculous
Sr. Member
Nov 27, 2005
657 posts
3 upvotes
Toronto
astrix wrote:and having 10 mp3 players for a whole country is kinda ridiculous
That's the fun of Boxing Day shopping, except online is safer since B&M BD sales might get you in a hospital.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 31, 2001
8234 posts
627 upvotes
Toronto
Yes.
nolookingca wrote:Doesn't BB own FS now?

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