CompUSA is selling a broken Sony DVD player for $179.98—that’s 40% off the sticker price! The Wife over at Bastion of Mediocrity noticed that the sticker also reads: “Defective,” “Does Not Work,” “As Is.”
She writes:
In any case, after wandering through two of the four remaining aisles, we came across a Sony DVD player that looked pretty solid and was discounted at 40% off. That’s when I read the hand-printed words on the sales tag.“Defective”
and
“DOES NOT WORK”
There was also an ‘As Is’ tag on the item, just in case you didn’t read the hand writing on the big yellow sales tag and decided to try and return it later.
Wow, $179.98 for a brick sounds like a deal to me! Thanks CompUSA! This is why you’re in liquidation now!
They also had a heavily-used tape dispenser for $2.00 and used, broken bar stool for $10. WOW! WHAT A GREAT DEAL!
The thing is, The Husband worked for Circuit City, so we price checked some of the other items in the store to see how good the discounts were. Many of them were selling at 40% off some inflated price so that the final discounted price was only $20 or so below the price of Circuit City or Best Buy right next door. I looked at a .Mac subscription pack, and it was selling for $10 below the price at the Apple store, though this was 40% off the highly inflated price. The pack was for a basic membership ($99.99 at apple.com) and was originally $179.99 (price of a family membership) and reduced to $89.99.
The Wife concludes: “Even in liquidation, CompUSA is still full of fail.” This is wrong. CompUSA is an innovation leader. In fact, we’ve been inspired to hold our own liquidation/garage sale. We have a rusty rake missing three tines. $80, no returns. Form an orderly line in the comments.
CompUSA: 40% off a defective DVD player that DOES NOT WORK [Bastion of Mediocrity]
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@bohemian:
My wife and I loved to shop liquidation sales BEFORE it became almost universal practice for said sale to be conducted by liquidation companies.There are no bargains as such to be had at these things now (not just at CompUSA but other chains) Liquidation companies are just another layer of cost piled on top of the already uncompetitive prices that these failed chains charge.Other practices such as bringing in merchandise from other failed stores (makes comparison difficult) and inflating the former “everyday” price means that only suckers think that they are getting a deal at a going out of business sale these days…Sad.
@rolla: I’ve sold non-working stuff before. I know there are a lot of hobbiest(sp?) out there that want to take stuff apart or make something else. I’m sure you can take the defective DVD player and pull the laser out and put it on a shark’s head (obscure?).
I always tell people it’s not working, and end up getting a few bucks for it.
I’ve said it before but…why does big business consider their customers the enemy?
That can actually be a pretty solid deal, as I’m sure it’s an expensive DVD player and buying it for parts would be cheaper than getting them from the manufacturer. A hell of a lot cheaper, in fact.
When I was in NYC last week, I also saw them selling a 40″ LCD TV with a cracked screen for $100. I could probably fix that for around $600, which is a good deal.
This is not compusa for the last time people. Blame Gordon Brothers, they are the one’s doing the pricing…
Also yeah at the CompUSA i was at, they were selling a 40in samsung lcd tv, $1600 retail 50% marked off. Labeled for $1000. I don’t think that’s 50% but above that it said Cracked Screen.
You want $1000 for a cracked screen LCD what are you kidding wtih me??? They also wanted $50 for their Carts.
@Frostberg: No. It’s just stupid to buy a defective DVD player at that price.
It’s a small, but important point: there’s no evidence that the DVD player ever got sold. Right now, it’s just offered for sale at that price.
The people who really should be complaining about this aren’t the customers, but the creditors. The customers have clear and fair notice that it’s defective. The creditors, however, should be annoyed — it will never sell at the current price, so they’ll get $0. But, if the price was cut by 90%, maybe somebody would buy it.
I just wanted to pitch in that I shopped my local Comp USA last week and had the same experience as what’s noted in the article. There was a broken laptop hard drive to be had for $160 and a 50″ plasma tv with a completely smashed screen marked to move at $2400.
I didn’t find anything in the store that I couldn’t get at the same price elsewhere.
fwiw – the prices on fixtures and shelving were actually pretty good.
but it’s a $300 value!
@cwlodarczyk: Now that’s pretty atrocious. A smashed laptop hard drive can’t be fixed or even salvaged for parts; there’s no point in even trying to sell it.
@Hawk07: I actually bought an ink cartridge for my printer and saved about $10. Those things never go on sale, and I checked on the net and still couldn’t find a better price, so I snagged one. But everything else I saw there was a terrible deal.
@rolla: What you have to realize is that CompUSA is no longer a company and you’re not actually dealing with CompUSA but the liquidation company. Stop beating a dead horse and start bitching at the people who ARE making these decisions.
Not sure about other stores, but the CompUSA in Wichita KS concluded it’s sale last week and is now closed for good. Lots of old display models for sale at the end, couldn’t have imagined it being too busy for the final week or so…
@thedanza: Watch out, if you complain about their news articles too much and ask for real news, you’ll get your commenting access removed no questions asked.
That’s what happened to a guy I know from another website.
But regarding this news, I don’t see the real problem with them selling the unit. They are selling it with full disclosure. Maybe the item is returnable, so it doesn’t matter if it’s broke. CompUSA probably doesn’t have the time to wait for it to be repaired/replaced.
Well at least they told you it didn’t work up front. I bought something their that didn’t work but was sold as new. I was just SOL.
@Bobg:
If you don’t think customers are the enemy, you’ve never worked retail!
The majority of them are perfectly sane and don’t cause trouble…. but the minority is vocal and stupid. That’s why it is so hard to find good help for retail – sometimes you deserve hazard pay.