Pissed off about Logitech Harmony 880 deal

[edubbrulez]

So who here bought a Logitech Harmony 880 less than a month ago from dell.com and paid the "great" price of 174.30? (This price does not include the $50 rebate or the tax and shipping).

 

Well I see today that Dell.com has the SAME remote for $129.00 (this does not include the $10 off paypal code or the $50 rebate).

 

I've emailed them to ask for a refund of the difference. I doubt I'll get it though. If I don't this will be the last time I buy anything from them.

 

Erik

[RossMAN]

Moved to Deal Discussion as a rant doesn't really qualify as an online hot deal

 

BTW I feel your pain.

[edubbrulez]

Rossman - Thanks for rerouting to the appropriate forum.

 

FWIW, I would never have bought this remote if it wasn't for this site. While I don't exactly like getting burned by a deal, what bothers me is that I told my sister about it too. And she bought one as well.

 

I guess from now on, I'll have to question these dell "deals". I see that since January of this year there have been 3 "deals" for this remote. All have very different price points. Makes you wonder how much this remote is really worth.

 

Erik

[RossMAN]

If it's any consolation I bought a Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW LCD for $484 .. 6 weeks later it was on sale for $380

 

That was about a year ago and to this day I still get miffed reliving the experience.

[edubbrulez]

I understand this site is a business, but why would you continue to promote them if you yourself got burned?

 

Erik

[Guest DigDoug]

Deals are deals.... you can sit around and wait for something better to come along or not. I don't see how you figure you got burned.

 

No one is privy to Dell's sales strategies so you don't know when the deal will get better or worse.

[Guest Frieked]

Makes you wonder how much this remote is really worth.

Look, if we all sit around waiting for the killer deal, no one would ever buy anything. YOU and many others I'm sure obviously thought this remote was worth $174+ when you bought it so why are you asking what it is "really" worth now? To you it is obviously worth $174, to others it is not. It is simple economics, P's an Q's. Quit your bitching and move on.

[mugs]

You didn't get burned, you got a good deal. Just happened that a better deal came along. Doesn't mean you got a bad deal. The best deals are when you pay LESS than the item is "worth" - i.e. loss leaders, where the seller is taking a loss on the item to get you in the store to buy other stuff. I doubt Dell is making a dime selling the remote for $70 AR when Amazon.com is selling it for $230.

[edubbrulez]

Look, if we all sit around waiting for the killer deal, no one would ever buy anything. YOU and many others I'm sure obviously thought this remote was worth $174+ when you bought it so why are you asking what it is "really" worth now? To you it is obviously worth $174, to others it is not. It is simple economics, P's an Q's. Quit your bitching and move on.

Look, the reason I asked the question as to "what is the remote is really worth" is because it's not typical for a retailer to offer something like this at such a huge discount (more than a 50%), especially when others aren't even close to that in price.

 

I worked in retail for many years, and you would NEVER see price swings like that. I thought the 30% off was a good deal, so I jumped. Now I know that dell.com pricing can't be trusted. So another retailer will get my money instead.

 

If you read between the lines you might have understood that.

 

Erik

[edubbrulez]

No one is privy to Dell's sales strategies so you don't know when the deal will get better or worse.

Your right about that. But I know enough now not to give them any more of my money.

[edubbrulez]

You didn't get burned, you got a good deal. Just happened that a better deal came along. Doesn't mean you got a bad deal. The best deals are when you pay LESS than the item is "worth" - i.e. loss leaders, where the seller is taking a loss on the item to get you in the store to buy other stuff. I doubt Dell is making a dime selling the remote for $70 AR when Amazon.com is selling it for $230.

I don't think this item is a loss leader. I'm not even sure that loss leaders exist for online retailers. It's not like you have to walk to the back of the store to buy the "loss leader" product.

 

Besides, I would be willing to bet that cost is less than 20 bucks. And I'm sure that Dell has some type of deal going with Logitech anyway.

 

Erik

[Guest Frieked]

I thought the 30% off was a good deal, so I jumped. Now I know that dell.com pricing can't be trusted. So another retailer will get my money instead.

Whatever man, buy from whoever you want... Dell's deals are still better than most places even though occassionally they may come along and beat there own deals a couple months down the line.

[mrn8]

It was a loss leader. They were coupling it with a good sale on their 50" Plasma, and most likely hoping to make the money up on TV sales. Dell would most likely not have had this sale in the works when you got yours. You got a great deal on that remote, and if you bought it from them less than 1 month ago, you still can use that $50 rebate.

[edubbrulez]

Whatever man, buy from whoever you want... Dell's deals are still better than most places even though occassionally they may come along and beat there own deals a couple months down the line.

Don't you wonder why Dell ALWAYS has deals? If something always has a % off, shouldn't it just be that price?

 

Dare I say it, it's almost false advertising.

[edubbrulez]

It was a loss leader. They were coupling it with a good sale on their 50" Plasma, and most likely hoping to make the money up on TV sales. Dell would most likely not have had this sale in the works when you got yours. You got a great deal on that remote, and if you bought it from them less than 1 month ago, you still can use that $50 rebate.

Your kidding right?

 

Dell's plasma's have never been a good deal. Heck, they don't even manufacture them. They are samsung plasmas rebranded as dell, and then marked up.

[mrn8]

Don't you wonder why Dell ALWAYS has deals? If something always has a % off, shouldn't it just be that price?

 

Dare I say it, it's almost false advertising.

It's not false advertising. They are showing you the % off of retail price. But, if you want to pay what Best Buy charges for everything, be my guest.

[Steakgoddess]

 

I thought the 30% off was a good deal, so I jumped. Now I know that dell.com pricing can't be trusted. So another retailer will get my money instead.

 

 

30% off WAS a good deal. A better deal came along later. That's it.

 

I bought cereal last week for $.75 a box after coupons. This week I discovered it could be free after coupons. It is just this week's deal was better. I did not get burned. I still got a good deal.

[edubbrulez]

It's not false advertising. They are showing you the % off of retail price. But, if you want to pay what Best Buy charges for everything, be my guest.

My point is when a retailer offers the same thing every week for 10%, then that should be the everyday "low" price. MSRP is BS anyway. I would never pay MSRP for the remote.

 

I know why they don't do that, but it doesn't make it right.

 

I understand how Best Buy runs their "sales". There are certain weeks were some things are on sale, and others are not. Wait a couple of weeks, and the opposite is true. Most people don't see the cycle.

 

Erik

[mugs]

I don't even know why we're bothering to try to convince you that you didn't get burned. If you don't want to buy stuff from Dell anymore, that's fine - more Dell deals for all of us.

 

Happy deal hunting.

[edubbrulez]

30% off WAS a good deal. A better deal came along later. That's it.

 

I bought cereal last week for $.75 a box after coupons. This week I discovered it could be free after coupons. It is just this week's deal was better. I did not get burned. I still got a good deal.

It's all relative. Your correct, 30% off at the time was a good deal. Now that a 50% coupon is available, in retrospect, 30% isn't such a good deal.

 

Not to downplay your cereal deal, but you would have to have bought 60 boxes of cereal to feel my pain.

 

My problem really has to do with the timing of the deal (less than 30 days). If this would have been a big box store, I would have taken in my receipt and demanded a refund for the difference. But because the purchase was made online, I'm stuck.

 

Erik

[Guest Frieked]

My problem really has to do with the timing of the deal (less than 30 days). If this would have been a big box store, I would have taken in my receipt and demanded a refund for the difference. But because the purchase was made online, I'm stuck.

You're still not understanding the economics of it all. Dell said to themselves, hey, look how many of these things we sold when they were on sale a this price X... I bet we could sell even more at this price Y... oh look, it worked... laughing all the way to the bank.

[edubbrulez]

You're still not understanding the economics of it all. Dell said to themselves, hey, look how many of these things we sold when they were on sale a this price X... I bet we could sell even more at this price Y... oh look, it worked... laughing all the way to the bank.

I totally get the economics of supply/demand. Perhaps you should have a look at:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand

 

There is a fixed number of units in the case of the 880's. It makes no sense to drop the price 50% unless they were NOT selling at a lower % off. However, they did sell at a lower % (but obviously the demand was lower).

 

The 880's have been sold out for a couple of hours now, which means that they could have demanded a higher price therefore maximizing their profit.

[Steakgoddess]

It's all relative. Your correct, 30% off at the time was a good deal. Now that a 50% coupon is available, in retrospect, 30% isn't such a good deal.

 

Not to downplay your cereal deal, but you would have to have bought 60 boxes of cereal to feel my pain.

 

My problem really has to do with the timing of the deal (less than 30 days). If this would have been a big box store, I would have taken in my receipt and demanded a refund for the difference. But because the purchase was made online, I'm stuck.

 

Erik

 

It's all relative. You still got a DEAL.

[mugs]

It's all relative. You still got a DEAL.

60 boxes of cereal for $45 is a CRAZY good deal. Sounds like a Deals4Me deal

[edubbrulez]

It's all relative. You still got a DEAL.

Yeah, yeah I get it. For all the flame that I got, I'm surprised that the only support I got was from Rossman. I was just looking for someone else that might be in the same boat as I. But, noooo, you all had to jump all over me.

 

A deal is a deal, but if you could choose between 50% off and 30% off, no one here would take the 30%.

[Stowasser]

I think if you wait long enough everything will go down. If I find something significantly less than what I bought it just a month or two before, I look on eBay and see if it would be worth my while to buy it again at the lower price and resell it on eBay. Sometimes it works out. I just sell the new one after it comes for the original sale price I bought it at. I collect dolls and do this all the time, the dolls go on sale or I find a bargain and I resell one of them at the original price. If this was a fantastic deal and the other was a good deal, you probably could sell it elsewhere for the original good deal price.

[firebird]

Even though I love dell - I understand your pain. I get frustrated when that happens too - but that is just the luck of the draw, right? But - that doesn't take away the irritation of finding out you could have saved more! Unfortunately it happens with just about every retailer. Sales and clearance change all the time.

 

As for Dell - I ordered a computer from them when it was on sale. I had been watching for a few weeks and found a sale I liked. I waited til the last day of the sale and ordered it. Then - I checked the sales a couple of days later (just so happened - the computer was scheduled to be delivered the next day) and the sale was even better on my computer and it came with a 3 in 1 printer! So I called dell and asked if I could get in on that deal since I just ordered mine last week. They said sorry - but the deals change from week to week. Then I asked, since the computer had not been delivered yet, if I could get all my money back if I refused the delivery and then just reordered the computer to get the deal. She told me to wait a minute and when she came back she said they were shipping out the free printer to me! Yippy!!

[firebird]

I forgot to add that I was really impressed with them because I had ordered the wireless keyboard and mouse not knowing that they came with a usb hookup instead of the serial hookup that I needed to hook up my barcode scanner to the keyboard. I asked them if I could return the mouse and keyboard - as I paid $34 to upgrade to them, and they said sure - we will credit your account. I then asked how I needed to send them back and she said I didn't need to return them! Wow! So I bought the keyboard I needed for $10 on ebay and I sold the wireless mouse and keyboard on ebay for $20!

[Guest Frieked]

I totally get the economics of supply/demand. Perhaps you should have a look at:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand

 

There is a fixed number of units in the case of the 880's. It makes no sense to drop the price 50% unless they were NOT selling at a lower % off. However, they did sell at a lower % (but obviously the demand was lower).

 

The 880's have been sold out for a couple of hours now, which means that they could have demanded a higher price therefore maximizing their profit.

...or how do you know they weren't trying to just clear their inventory FAST to make room for something else?

[mugs]

Yeah, yeah I get it. For all the flame that I got, I'm surprised that the only support I got was from Rossman. I was just looking for someone else that might be in the same boat as I. But, noooo, you all had to jump all over me.

 

A deal is a deal, but if you could choose between 50% off and 30% off, no one here would take the 30%.

See, here's the thing... if you came in here and said you were disappointed that you bought the remote previously (at a good price) because you're missing out on the even better price, then you'd get a lot of empathy from us - we've all been there. I buy stuff on clearance at Target all the time that I KNOW will go lower if I wait longer, but I don't know if it'll last that long - so I buy it when it's at a price that's worth it to me. And if it goes down I buy more. My wife gets pissed that I have a several year supply of deodorant, toothpaste and cleaning supplies, but I got a good deal.

 

But you came in here all pissed off at Dell because they screwed you and so on and so forth. That's why you're not getting any sympathy from us, because most of us don't feel the same way.

 

With electronics more than ANYTHING, the price you buy it at will almost always be more than the best deal you can get in the future. That's an almost universal truth, at least now that the dotcom bust happened and companies actually need to make a profit.

 

C'est la vie.