KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
Walmart has officially changed its price matching policy in an effort to stop shoppers from being able to abuse the system and end up purchasing Playstation 4 consoles for as low as $50. Several Amazon users were able to set up fake selling accounts recently in order to list consoles for less than $100, then walk in to Walmart and take advantage of the price match policy.
As expected, the company has wised up and is cracking down on things: “We launched online price matching because it's the right thing for our customers,” a Walmart representative said. “It's making a meaningful difference for people who want to feel confident they're getting the best price, and we're committed to matching online prices going forward.”
“At the same time, we can't tolerate fraud or attempts to trick our cashiers. This kind of activity is unfair to the millions of customers who count on us every day for honest value,” the spokesperson added. “With this in mind, we've updated our policy to clarify that we will match prices from Walmart.com and 30 major online retailers, but we won't honor prices from marketplace vendors, third-party sellers, auction sites, or sites requiring memberships.”
So there you have it, Walmart will now only match prices from specific online retailers, putting a stop to the cheap Playstation 4 scam.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: It would be interesting to find out if the store intends to follow up with any of the people that successfully managed to get away with a cheap Playstation 4. Most of you guys were pretty split in opinion when we reported the original story yesterday, some think this is fraud or theft, others think its a legal loophole. Do you think Walmart will attempt to get the consoles back following all of this?
Well, legally once you’ve paid a price agreed for by both parties for a product, and the product has been received by the buyer, it’s legally the buyers property. I’m not saying I agree with what these people did, but legally the consoles are theirs and Walmart can’t do anything about it.
I don’t think they’re going to waste their time going after a few. Now if it were thousands of dollars worth, then sure they would.
I doubt they’d waste there time on thousands of dollars too considering they’ve already made over a $100b this year alone
Factually, it isn’t fraud or illegal. You could argue it is unethical, but no, not illegal.
Nope, it’s a scam. They’re either knowingly referencing a fraudulent store front, or they made it themselves.
So if someone tricks you into buying the Brooklyn Bridge, you’re no longer entitled to fight back for your money?
That’s not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, since the legal entity (of a corporation, DBA, etc) would have no legal right to sell the Brooklyn Bridge due to a lack of ownership/title. Without ownership or legal interest in the Brooklyn Bridge, the seller is committing fraud (since they have nothing to sell) which is illegal, and you would have grounds for pursuing legal remedies.
However, if an individual sold you a car “as is”, and the seller’s agreement/contract clearly stated that as part of the conditions of the sale, and was sure to include some standard legal boilerplate that the written contract constituted the entire agreement between the parties, then, assuming that the title was properly conveyed and transferred into your name, you would have a difficult time pursuing a cause of action if it broke down a week later, since it would be assumed that you would have performed any due diligence you deemed prudent before purchase (having you or someone you trust and consider knowledgeable check it over). A seller could make any *verbal* claims (“only driven on Sundays by his grandmother”, etc.) but those would be immaterial due to the boilerplate, and would fall under the legal category of hearsay (basically, a case of “he said/she said”). You might find a sympathetic judge (but I wouldn’t bet on it), but even if you did, there’s not a lot of wiggle room for the judge to help you. It would come down to the fact that you signed the contract, and thereby signified your consent and agreement with all its terms.
The primary difference between the the two is that in the the first case you received no consideration for the value given. In the second case, you actually received ownership of a vehicle.
Some people do have a point. Walmart had up until money changed hands to pull out of the sales. At the point of cash exchange there is a contract between buyer and seller and the item on sale becomes the property of the buyer. I am, of course, speaking as a UK citizen, so it could be different in the US. Many a time I’ve gone into a supermarket and come away with a mispriced awesome deal, but then on the other hand I’ve also found an awesome misprice and had the cashier run a price check and tell me “we can’t sell it for the original price as the price is actually x, do you still want it?” I found an online deal which was a PS Vita for £30 due to a glitch in a special offer code on Vodafone’s website. Some people had their orders honoured because money was taken from their accounts, but my order was cancelled because they spotted it before they had actually taken any money.
But yes, the people who printed the deal and got it are scammers. The people who made the marketplace listing are the fraudsters, but the people who actually got a $90 PS4 scammed Walmart, and I bet 98% of them were aware the Amazon listing was fake.
One could just claim that they saw a cheap PS4 on Amazon and preferred to buy it in store, taking advantage of Walmart’s price guarantee. Said buyer was completely unaware of the fraud involved.
If there were too many people they’d waste more resources then they can gain by going after everyone. If there are just a few it’s easy to clean up and make an example out of those who are in the wrong so nobody else tries to find loopholes in wal-mart’s policies in the future. They just clearly have no legal basis.
Scamming isn’t always illegal, my friend. That’s just how the world works.
And if you unknowingly buy a stolen car, you’re still supposed to return it if you get caught.
Really? Please provide an example where a scam goes unpunished because there are no laws specifically designed for it. Because most are caught; it’s just a matter of enough evidence building up against said scam.
Case in point: most multi-level marketing scams only work these days by putting their headquarters out of government jurisdiction (usually in any country other than the one where their main business operates), but that doesn’t mean that what they’re doing is suddenly legal; they’ve only made it extremely difficult for someone to prosecute them.
But the PS4 you bought wasn’t stolen. The company you bought it from sold it to you based on their policy. They are obligated to honor the purchase, regardless of rather it was the intended use of the policy or not. There is no clause in the policy for that, if there was, every shopper using the policy would have to sign an agreement.
You may be right, but they didn’t become the company they are today by not caring about the small things too.
Sell someone a virtual good through PayPal, such as an ebook. Then don’t give them the item. Paypal policy says that they do not offer payment disputes for virtual goods. In that case, you’ve been scammed out of your money and there’s no way to get it back.
Also, yes, if the owner of the Brooklyn Bridge tricks you into buying it, you are not entitled to fight for your money back, as long as the price is agreed upon by both parties. You can be tricked into paying more than you wanted to via contract. It’s your responsibility to “read the fine print”.
In the case of the ps4, the cashier is acting on behalf of Walmart when he/she sells the product to the buyer. Even if price-match wasn’t used and he just gave you the PS4 for $1 just because he felt like it you would still not have to return the PS4. The cashier would probably be fined and fired, yes, but the buyer would have a PS4 for $1 and there would be no legal basis for getting it back.