112 replies to this topic

[Brad]

Wal-Mart - threatens legal action and affiliate account closure if ad is posted Target - terminates affiliate account with no warning after ad is posted OfficeMax - sends cease & desist order demanding ad be taken down Radio Shack - threatens to terminate affiliate account if ads are not removed F.Y.E - terminates affiliate account with no warning a couple weeks after ad is posted Linens-N-Things - sends cease & desist order demanding ad be taken down Big Lots - sends cease & desist order demanding ad be taken down Lowes - sends cease & desist to several other BF sites (not us, yet) Macy's - sends cease & desist to several other BF sites (not us, yet) hhgregg - sends ad to us directly, then demands it be taken down Definitely more of these incidents than in any previous year, and we've still got 2 weeks to go

[nirvana4all]

Thanks for the warnings ..hint hint. This definitely sucks as far as a trend goes. Thanks for doing your best to take care of us brad.

[Tessangel]

I am sorry that you have had to deal with so much crap this year. Hopefully they will get a clue and knock it off. We aren't doing anything but trying to get the best bang for the buck. Considering the rest of the year they get our money without question why complain about this one time of the year???

[immortaljackwest]

I still say ... move the website to Cook Islands or Nuie... would love to see what the retailers do then. I am considering make a torrent on piratebay...if more keep this up with the yanking of add, we may have to go that way

[Marcster]

Have a beer on me, Brad...



To quote and edit the title of another thread: "So far... the stores suck..."

[Steakgoddess]

It sucks. Sucks big time.

[teebee]

UNBELIEVABLE!!!! I'm just wondering if I even want to go out on BF. These stores are just making me in a non-shopping mood!!!

[Marcster]

At least Pepboys hasn't said anything.

[amberjobryant]

wooohoooo auto parts for everyone this year!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Marcster]

wooohoooo auto parts for everyone this year!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, they have two GPS units up for sale... Leather jackets for $49.98 AR... And 7" digital photo frames for $39.98 AR... Radar detector... Remote Car Starter...

Quite honestly, it wouldn't be an awful Christmas if Pepboys was your only stop on BF.

Barring some other great deal, I'll probably pick up a TomTom One there (GPS unit).

[katiesmommy01]

jeez...i dont understand the problem...seriously! I wasn't even thinking about going to Sears on BF until I saw their ad and now i'm almost positive I may start out there...wouldn't have happened if i waited until Thanksgiving to find out what everyone had...I think this site is really good PR for these stores...so why don't they think so???

[bawker]

I'm not real sure if understand the rationale here by these stores. The economy is in shambles, gas is expensive, the housing market has slowed to a crawl....and it seems like every ad has either been disappointing or is giving sites like this (basically a FREE source of advertising) grief. You'd think that these places would want all the help they could get this season; you'd think places would want to get folks excited by their deals; you'd think there would be some sort of symbiotic relationship betweem stores and sites like this. I truly don't get it...and wonder if going out on BF is even worth it this year for the most part. When they figure out the take this year BF weekend, and the numbers come up less than what they hoped for....well, they'll only have themselves to blame for giving us lackluster deals and cutting off their nose (publicity here) to spite their face.

[Gurnee Al]

I think it will just get worse in future years. I'm preparing for the year that there will be no leaked ads (except maybe for Ace )

[sunnysky24]

Makes me upset what's that line again hmm.. that's it I AM GOING TO WRITE A LETTER... Like it will matter but it would go something like this.... Greetings ______, <----fill in store name here Just in case you were wondering Black Friday really has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with all of us, yes that's right us. Your only job is to come up with an ad that actually you (because you want to make some money) will leak out 3 days before Black Friday. You can actually sit back and make a game out of this if you would like to. In actuality you could even make more money by placing bets on who will have the info posted first, second and third. This may help you out as you seemed to be misinformed about the whole Black Friday thing. Thanks Us AKA The Black Friday Shoppers

[immortaljackwest]

I think this site is really good PR for these stores...so why don't they think so???

I totally agree...

To quote a wise Irish man , Brendan Behan - "There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary."

This may very well go for stores too, only change "obituary" to "store closings".

[Marcster]

...The economy is in shambles...

I wouldn't say that the economy was in shambles, that's a pretty strong word. You want to talk about shambles:
http://en.wikipedia....e_United_States

[emptynest-2]

Instead of Black Friday, why not Red Friday? Let the retailers stay in the Red. Unite and stand together.

[hinman]

I really think they do that so that other stores can not get ahold of their add and try to out price them. The longer they keep it quiet the other stores will not have time to get an inventory up to run that kind of special. That is what I was told by a member of mangement anyway.

[blakes_mommy]

Pathetic!! These businesses should be thrilled that we care about the buzz and what the deals are going to be! The free marketing should make sense!

[bawker]

I wouldn't say that the economy was in shambles, that's a pretty strong word. You want to talk about shambles:
http://en.wikipedia....e_United_States

Relatively speaking, though, this year, we are in worse shape than the past few since real estate has taken a hit in many major markets.

Forgive the hyperbole of "shambles", I'm a little ticked off at these stores treatment of the sites and people that are going to be their bread and butter for Black Friday...

[Brad]

All these stores doing things now - we are 2 weeks away. It's not like this is mid-October. Your competitors' ads are printed and sitting in a warehouse somewhere by now. Sure would be nice if one of the huge, multi-million dollar deal sites like Fatwallet or Slickdeals would challenge one of these stores in court and maybe get an effective legal precedent set. Being a one-man operation I don't have the resources to do something like that this time of year. I had a bad feeling coming into this year that things were going to happen like this. And like Gurnee Al said, things are going to get worse. Don't be surprised if a bunch of stores send out legal letters well before their ads come out next year like WM did this year. The good news is GD is open year round and we don't need BF ads to find great deals - just look at our Online Hot Deals forum lately and see all the great Black Friday-worthy deals being posted.

[amberjobryant]

i understand them not wanting the competition to see the ad, but once the ad is out it is out, the damage has been done, so what is the point of taking it down? it just creates negative image for them.

[blakes_mommy]

I think it will just get worse in future years. I'm preparing for the year that there will be no leaked ads (except maybe for Ace )

But don't forget we have fax machines too!!! If it gets to the point that you can't "post" them online, I would pay Brad a fee to get what he has to me sooner......

[hinman]

What if instead of printing the add Brad said I have info that blan and blank is going to be on sale at so and so store. What could they do.

[shanni]

I love everything about Black Friday, I could not even imagine staying home on it. But I do actually save more money with a little deal here and there;)

[Rebirth]

OfficeMax has nothing good on sale, why have sites take down their bad ad.

[Marcster]

Relatively speaking, though, this year, we are in worse shape than the past few since real estate has taken a hit in many major markets.

Forgive the hyperbole of "shambles", I'm a little ticked off at these stores treatment of the sites and people that are going to be their bread and butter for Black Friday...

Oh absolutely... I agree with you... But I just wanted to keep it in perspective.

[bawker]

Oh absolutely... I agree with you... But I just wanted to keep it in perspective.

Yeah, I know.

Thanks for reigning me in a little

[Marcster]

OfficeMax has nothing good on sale, why have sites take down their bad ad.

That was like LNT last year -- they made Brad take it down and I think the collective reaction from GDers was, "Oh, that really was your ad? That was your best shot?"

[amberjobryant]

I think that it has been a bad year for most of the country economically and if you are like me I was getting even more excited this year at the prospect of BF deals, and now all of this is just depressing, the ads aren't that great and then all of the trouble on top of it.