I wish they announced this before it happened... I want some free crap.. I mean free good stuff.

That is just awesome. Nice that they had a sense of humor about it!

Pinching myself but I'm not waking up.

When Roz gave us all those extra consonants during Th NR ncdnt, Consumerist was nice enough to let us keep them. That very weekend, I cleaned up on the Strip Scrabble tourney we held at our house and they came in handy. Very handy indeed!
In a kingdom of the naked, the man wearing only a sock is KING!

Their perspective on the situation will give them free positive publicity. Sometimes being nice and giving things away will earn you more money in the long run!

@Trai_Dep: I have nothing useful to respond, except that I just got broken up with and you toooooooootally made it all better! hahaha. Thank you for that.

Lng lv th NR ncdnt!!!

@Trai_Dep: Yet another witty comment that keeps me from de-hearting you when you infuriate me with a political comment.

@Trai_Dep: And also a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I wonder if this is some kind of reverse psychology? Are they trying to guilt people who received free stuff into sending it back?

According to the law, once a merchant ships an order they have "accepted the terms of sale" so if I $1,000 item is processed on an order as FREE the merchant has accepted that by shipping the package. They can not go after the money nor charge a credit card on file the balance.

They know this, they are pretending it's a wonderful thing on their part. They had no choice. Anyone who sends the stuff back is a fool.

@PLATTWORX: But if the customer agrees to pay, and they fail to charge, can't they STILL?

@Trai_Dep: And remember If you don't move your vowels often, you become consonanted.

Well, Think Geek marks up their crap so much that they can afford to give some of it away for free.

@PLATTWORX: I doubt the orders had shipped by the time they realized the problem. They could have canceled the orders or reprocessed them.

@Michael Belisle: I was waiting for that highly accurate point to be made. Sorry, but it's true. It doesn't stop me from buying stuff from them when I can stack some coupons though. Anything to fight Corzine's stupid taxes.

And of course, I want my Taun-Taun sleeping bag!

@KTK1990:
It's hard to announce a server glitch

@GitEmSteveDave_HasAList: Bwaa ha ha ha ha ha!

@GitEmSteveDave_HasAList: I was just checking the site; sorry to hear about the NJ tax problem. Of course, it's also a problem in Virginia. You could move here to the bucolic environs of New York City.

As for my wishlist item, I'm still waiting to pull the trigger for the 15" Gigantor Digital Photo Frame. It's down to $150, but I will have to wait now until I'm back to being one of the employed.

@Michael Belisle: Totally agree. I love all their stuff though, I was just browsing through some of their home gadgets for my apartment I'm moving in to. Thinking about getting one or two of those sweet temp-sensitive LED faucet attachments.

@KTK1990: Don't you mean "Priceless goodies"

@HogwartsAlum: Ahahahaha! I don't know which of you (Trai or GitEmSteveDave) to crown as the winner of this thread so I bow to both of you.

@sonneillon: It's also hard to detect humor.

@Trai_Dep: About strip scrabble:

ThinkGeek is a wonderful online store. Their "hypercaffeinated monkeys" ship stuff out so fast it makes your head spin. And I think their prices are generally pretty fair. They also write hilarious copy describing their products. I recommend them highly to any geeks looking for toys...

Smart move. The good karma resulting from letting their customers keep their free stuff (not to mention all that good, free publicity) will far, far outweigh the monetary losses the incurred.

OTOH, trying to collect all that money would not only have been a drain on resources, it also would have resulted in a lot of free publicity. This time, however, it would have been the bad kind that can take years to repair.

Way to go, Think Geek. You are a class act!

The only thing that beats free advertising is good free advertising.

ThinkGeek customer service is excellent. About two months after I ordered a beaker mug amongst other items, the bottom cracked when I was filling it with room temperature tap-water. I was crushed, because that was my favorite soda beverage holder!

When I called customer service and explained what happened, they said they normally don't replace mugs or glassware, but he was able to see from my order history that I was a longtime and loyal customer, so they shipped out a replacement that arrived days later.

ThinkGeek rocks.

@MostlyHarmless: ZING

I didn't even KNOW I could like them more. But I do.

@Michael Belisle: That, and their shipping and handling scales could use some work, too, given that they sell a lot of small, tiny things that don't warrant a $6 shipping charge.

Example: my friend just got a car, so I thought it would be a cute, unique gift to get him one of the nerdy bumper stickers they sell for around $3. The lowest shipping they offered was UPS for $5.40. I guess their shipping scheme isn't set up to handle stuffing something into an envelope and sending it USPS registered. Sure, I could have gotten myself a t-shirt to make the shipping more palatable, but I just wanted to get my friend a small, cute gift, not turn it into a shopping excursion.

@Michael Belisle: Marked up perhaps, but if the difference is providing good service and the ability to get any problems resolved quickly (ala newegg.com), then I'll pay more for the peace of mind. I'd rather pay more to thinkgeek (who always ships on time, and provides good customer service on the oddball chance I've ordered the wrong size of a shirt, say) and their ilk then find the best price from a vendor I don't know or trust.

@Jabberkaty: This. I love you, ThinkGeek!

@Trai_Dep: tube sock?

@Moosehawk: If you were anywhere near me and wanted the shower-head attachment, you could have mine. Seriously, I picked up one free with an order, then I moved before I could use it to an apt with a shower head I like better, so now I have this shower head just lying around in the packaging. I guess I should find someone who wants it.

Oh, and despite markups, I <3 ThinkGeek! Though I have shopped around for some of the things I've purchased, and they were often either the only one selling it, or were only a tiny amount more than a competitor. When the price difference is relatively small, I choose ThinkGeek, and since I live in Philly and they ship from NJ, I pay for standard UPS Ground and often still get my order within 24 hours - which is a big bonus to me. And stories like this are why I will keep going back to ThinkGeek. Kudos
@aloria: I do agree, however, that I would be happier if their shipping scales were adjusted, I've run into a similar situation as that before.

@PLATTWORX:

Is this a state by state law or is this a federal law? What if they charge you while the box is in transit? Is that OK?

@aloria: The Sharper Image of the Internet age, eh?