On the one hand, shoppers took advantage of new and expanded deals and doorbusters and bought on average of 7% more. On the other, for many it marked the end of their holiday shopping, rather than the beginning. In addition, the discounts were so steep, and stacked on already marked-down prices, it seems likely that overall holiday numbers will be down by the time Santa makes his run.

Good news for the makers of googly eyes* as home-made gifts are in this year.

Deep Discounts Draw Shoppers, but Not Profits [NYT] (Photo: Mr. Dtb)

*Just about anything can be improved with googly eyes, including plants.

At 4:55 this morning, a group of 2,000 shoppers began pushing at the doors of the Walmart in Valley Stream, NY. The mob broke the doors off of their hinges and pushed inside the store, knocking down Jdimypai Damour, 34. No one helped him as he lay on the floor.

The NYT says:

People did not stop to help the employee as he lay on the ground, and they pushed against other Wal-Mart workers who were trying to aid Mr. Damour. The crowd kept running into the store even after the police arrived, jostling and pushing officers who were trying to perform CPR, the police said.

“They were like a stampede,” said Nassau Det. Lt. Michael Fleming. “Hundreds of people walked past him, over him or around him.”

Mr. Damour was taken from the Wal-Mart to nearby Franklin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m., the police said.

The NYT said that crowds were allowed to begin forming at 9pm the previous night. The police were called at around 3:30 AM, but were apparently overwhelmed by calls from other stores.

At the time the doors were broken, several Walmart employees, including the one who died, were trying to hold the doors in place but were overwhelmed by the crowd.

Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death [NYT]

Black Friday Discounts on Macs Have Begun [MacRumors] (Thanks to David!)

1) Cash register, POS outage and Servers are down
2) 3-5 hours to checkout and sometimes the line never moves. See 1
3) No available shopping carts.
4) A line that wraps around the outside twice because of people waiting in line since Thanksgiving Day.
5) Checkout line that wraps around everything inside the store like spaghetti.
6) Parking lot is packed to a point you have to park on Walmart property.
7) Customers hording anything they can get their hands on.
8) Employees hording ad items.
9) Pushing, shoving, running, and running people over with a shopping cart.
10) Most sale items gone within 1 hour. Very low in inventory to begin with.
11) Customers punching each other in the face / and other fighting.
12) Customers and Employees getting away with stealing.
13) Customer walkouts.
14) Customers abandoning sales associates commission quotes.
15) Employees lying to you about items being sold out.
16) Employees lying to you to buy items they claim are on sale but are not.
17) Employees lying to you about the extended warranty and tacking it or other extras onto your quote. Beware of fake bundles.
18) Employees aiding customers to front of line for buying warranties, wireless installations, or fake bundles.
19) Customers cutting others in line.
20) Employees fighting over customers or commissions
21) Employees stealing other customers from each other.
22) Employees ignoring customers who are cheap.
23) Employees working odd hours from 3am to 12am midnight, with inadequate breaks
24) Customers start buying products they saw in the leaked Black Friday ad before Black Friday and try to get an Low Price Guarantee or price match on Black Friday will be turned away and be very frustrated.
25) Customers will steal products from other customers.
26) Your possessions will be stolen from your car while you shop.
27) People will get hurt.
28) People will get arrested.

Is the list complete? Add your predictions that he missed in the comments.

28 things that will happen on Black Friday 2008 at Fry's Electronics [Fry's Forum]

ConsumerWorld's Edgar Dworksy has "Top 10 Tips to Bag a Bargain on Black Friday" that should help, like making sure you properly price-check the deals. Just because it's splashed in the circular with a big yellow star blast around the price doesn't mean that price is actually a deal! Enter the items at online price-comparison services like ConsumerWorld's PriceChecker or BeatMyPrice.com. If ordering online, make sure you include shipping and tax, and scope out the retailer's reputation first at ResellerRatings.com if you haven't heard of them before. For 9 more Black Friday shopping tips, check out "Edgar's post" at ConsumerWorld.

From Time:

Best Buy is staging an essay contest: applicants vie to describe how important a family ritual Black Friday shopping is. The 25 winners get a $1,000 gift card, a limo ride and early admittance at 4:30 a.m. to the Black Friday deals. The electronics dealer will provide hot chocolate and outside movie screens showing holiday films to tired customers who wait in overnight lines.

Ah yes, the Black Friday ritual. At our house my dad used the flyers to start a nice, cozy fire, then laughed at the news reports about people trying to kill each other over a cheap TV. After that we ate turkey sandwiches. Do I win?

Can Retailers Get Consumers into the Christmas Spirit? [Time] (Thanks, Jeff!)
(Photo: Tengaport )

A Black Friday like no other: How the economy is changing Black Friday [Dealnews]

From Reuters:

"This a staggeringly bad number," said pollster John Zogby, referring to the number of people who said they would spend the same amount on gifts this year. He noted that with inflation, even flat sales means retailers won't be making as much.

"You're still going to have people standing in line at three in the morning at Wal-Mart, but the lines may be thinner this year" on Black Friday, he said, referring to the day after Thanksgiving in late November that kicks off the holiday sales season with a barrage of promotions.

Oh well. You'd have shot your eye out anyway.

Shoppers to cut back holiday gifts [Reuters]

Score another one for The Consumerist!
 
This morning I contacted Sears' Executive Customer Service Department. They attempted to contact the store manager on my behalf. I stress "attempted" because they were hung up on too.

Nothing is more satisfying than witnessing Executive Customer Service being treated as crappy (crappily?) as the rest of the world. From what I could gather, they were forced to submit a company e-mail to the manager...you know, the manager that doesn't have voicemail.
 
Just a few minutes ago I was contacted by gentleman from CitiBank (which runs Sears Card). His name was Mark Ennis. He informed me that he called the store and was blown off just like everyone else. It wasn't until he told them that he was with the Presidential Offices for CitiBank that people started jumping through hoops.
 
Mark saw the story on Consumerist (he mentioned it by name). Since he saw the article on your site, he didn't know my last name or address. So he had the store pull every TV purchase on Black Friday that was made by anyone named Tom. (This is like "Law & Order" for retail.) From there he was able to find my contact info and, more importantly, figure out what happened.
 
Apparently after they refunded my first TV, they immediately re-rang it. The prevailing theory is that when I called the store to complain they looked up the transaction, saw the initial refund and stopped looking thereby missing the fact that it was re-rang moments later. Once they saw the refund, they assumed everything was ok and stopped looking.
 
Mark also noticed that in CitiBank's notes it showed that they had asked me to prove that I didn't receive the TV. He seemed genuinely shocked by that because, as those of us that are NOT Tier 1 support can tell you, it's pretty much impossible to prove a negative.
 
I also informed him about the fact that their Dispute Department doesn't have a hold queue. He seemed pretty embarrassed about that fact. So, either Mark was an awesome actor or he was actually "taking this matter seriously".
 
The store has contacted me and it seems that they're actually refunding me the money this time. They were asking me questions that they hadn't before (like my address). So I think I'm finally getting this matter rectified.
 
Oh, and it sounds like Juan and Tanaka might have an awkward conversation with the Presidential Offices of CitiBank in their not to distant futures.
 
Thanks to Mark, Sears customer service and especially The Consumerist. You guys are better than the BBB when it comes to getting stuff like this fixed.
 
Oh, and thanks to the Sears in Chesterfield. I can't tell you how grateful I am that you treated the big wigs at Sears and CitiBank in the same shitty manner that you've been treating me for the last 4 1/2 months. I was afraid that these people would think I was crackpot. But thanks to your consistent substandard job performance you quickly established my legitimacy.
 
Thanks again,
Tom

I would like to inform you of a problem that I'm having with Sears. I purchased a TV from Sears on Black Friday. They had a TV with a steep discount and I bought it. Of course, it wasn't in stock but they assured me that they could order it. As I was leaving town in a few days for a week of vacation, this was not a major concern.
 
Upon returning from vacation, I contacted Sears and my TV was still not in. I waited another week and the TV was still not in. So, I complained to the manager and after several terse conversations they agreed to offer a similar discount on a different television. I purchased the new TV and left happy.
 
However, as of Monday, April 14, 2008 this TV still has not been refunded from my Sears Card. I have called the Sears location and Sears Cardmember Services numerous times. I have been consistently met with what can only be described as a systemic and calculated effort to prevent me from resolving this matter. Letters have been ignored or claimed to have been lost. I have been disconnected and/or hung up on repeatedly.
 
Did you know that Sears Cardmember Services dispute department doesn't have a hold queue? Yes, you read that right. If you get transferred to "Disputes" and they don't have an available operator, you get hung up on. But I'm sure they're taking this matter seriously. I've spoken with two people (Juan and Tanaka) that flat out refused to let me speak to their supervisor.
 
I've repeatedly contacted the Sears at Chesterfield Mall where I purchased the television. When you ask for the manager her extension rings repeatedly with no answer and then hangs up on you. Apparently Sears retail frowns on voicemail as much Sears Card does.
 
I've spoken with someone claiming to be the Manager On Duty named Rob. He told me a month ago that he had refunded my money. So imagine my surprise when I received a letter on Friday, April 11 stating that Sears Card had rejected my dispute.
 
I would challenge Sears to produced one piece of evidence that shows that I picked up this television. Personally, I don't think the TV ever shipped to the store. When I went in to buy the TV that ended up with, I inquired about the original model since it was still prominently displayed on the floor with a sale price. I was told that it wasn't in stock. Having a steeply discounted television displayed that is unavailable for purchase sounds dangerously close to "bait and switch" to me, but I'm not a lawyer.
 
All I want is for Sears to refund my $1,070.74 plus any interest and/or late fees that have accumulated and they refuse to do it. I never picked up this TV as it never arrived.
 
Any help you could give me in rectifying this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Of 52 items the Globe tracked over the five-week holiday shopping season, only five items were cheapest on Black Friday. The vast majority of the products either stayed the same price or fluctuated above and below the Black Friday price from week to week. Seven items were actually cheaper the day before Christmas than on Black Friday.

"If you wait it out, you'll often do better," said Joseph Feldman of the New York retail consultancy Telsey Advisory Group.

The Globe tracked prices of items ranging from digital cameras to laptops by checking advertising circulars from stores such as Best Buy, Sears, and Circuit City each Sunday, starting the weekend before Black Friday. To be included in the survey, an item had to appear in the circulars for three of the five weekends before Christmas. Five of the items were cheapest on Black Friday, including a JVC 30GB hard drive camcorder at Best Buy that rose $70 by Dec. 2 to $399, before climbing another $100 the following Sunday. The last time the item was advertised was on Dec. 16 at $399.

The prices for 20 items stayed the same, including a Sony PlayStation 3 from Circuit City that held at $399. On 20 items, the price changed from week to week - meaning some weeks buyers paid more than the Black Friday price and some weeks they paid less.

And late sleepers and the last-minute procrastinators could beat the Black Friday prices on seven items. For example, Circuit City featured a $119.99 AIPTEK camcorder that includes an MP3 player, voice recorder, and webcam on Black Friday. By Dec. 16, it had dropped to $89.99 - a 25 percent savings. And Best Buy offered a Nikon Coolpix navy blue digital camera for $199.99 on Black Friday. It jumped to $229.99 and then $279.99 in the following weeks, only to fall back to $199.99 by Dec. 16. It wasn't advertised on Dec. 23, the Sunday before Christmas.

For shopping early birds... [Boston Globe]
(Photo: The Searcher)

BILL MOYERS: Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

BENJAMIN BARBER: "Tell us what's going on? What's wrong with American consumers?" Which is kind of what you and I have been talking about. But the trouble is we're looking the wrong way. It's not what's wrong with American consumers, it's what's wrong with American capitalism, American advertisers, American marketers? We're not asking for it. It's what I call push capitalism. It's supply side. They've got to sell all this stuff, and they have to figure out how to get us to want it. So they take adults and they infantilize them. They dumb them down. They get us to want things.

And then they start targeting children. Because it's not enough just to sell to the adults. You've got to sell to that wonderful demographic, first it's 12 to 18 year olds. Then it's the 'tweens. The 10- to the 12 year olds. But then it's the toddlers.

BILL MOYERS: You used a word that went right past me. Infantilize? What do you mean?

BENJAMIN BARBER: What I mean is that grownups, part of being grown up is getting a hold of yourself and saying, "I don't need this. I've got to be a gatekeeper for my kid. I want to live in a pluralistic world where, yes, I shop, but I also pray and play and do art and make love and make artwork and do lots of different things. And shopping's one part of that." As an adult, we know that. But if you live in a capitalist— society that needs to sell us all the time, they've got to turn that prudent, thoughtful adult back into a child who says, "Gimme, gimme, gimme. I want, I want, I want." Just like the kid in the candy store. And is grasping and reaching.

BILL MOYERS: But isn't all of this part of what keeps the hamster running? I mean, it—

BENJAMIN BARBER: — It is. But part of the problem here is that the capitalist companies have figured out that the best way to do their job is to privatize profit, but socialize risk. That is to say—

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?

BENJAMIN BARBER: —ask the taxpayer to pay for it—

BILL MOYERS: Yes.

BENJAMIN BARBER: —when things go down. The banks now that have just screwed up so big, not one of those banks is going t go under because they'll be bailed out by the feds. 'Cause the feds, the federal government will say we can't afford this gigantic multi billion dollar bank to go under. Happened with Chrysler 20, 30 years ago.

BILL MOYERS: Got to keep the wheel going.

BENJAMIN BARBER: And, therefore, it's impossible to fail if you're a business. You never get punished. Now the whole point of profit is to reward risk. But what we've done today is socialize risk. You and I, and all of your listeners out there, pay when companies like sub-prime market mortgage companies and the banks go bad. We pay for it. They don't.

BILL MOYERS: But that is the creative destruction isn't it. That's at the heart of capitalism.

BENJAMIN BARBER: But, you know what? Democracy has a simple rule. The social conscience. The citizen trumps the consumer. We, Milton Friedman, with his help, we've inverted that. Now the consumer trumps the citizen. And we're getting a society that manifests the trumping by the consumer of civics. Which means a selfish privatized and, ultimately, corrupt society. And one no one wants their own children to grow up in.

BENJAMIN BARBER: Well, let me see, I think there's three things we can do. First of all we, as consumers, have to be tougher. We are the gatekeepers for our kids and our families. We have to be tougher. I mean, I ask anyone out there who needs to go out at 2:00 AM to go shopping? For God sakes, wait 'til Monday afternoon. Second thing is capitalism has to begin to earn the profits to which it has a right, when it takes real risks. And there are companies doing that.

I'll give you a couple of hopeful examples. There's a company in Denmark that's gotten very rich very fast making something called the Life Straw. It's a thing about this long. And in it are about nine filters that filter out all the contaminants and germs that you find in third world cesspool water. If you buy one of these for a couple bucks that's all it takes, a woman in the third world and her family can drink through that straw, and it doesn't matter what water they have available. It cleanses that water. A little firm in Denmark that makes that life straw is making out like a capitalist bandit we'd say. But properly so. They're being rewarded for taking a risk.

Inventing something that is needed. Folks working in alternative energy, some of them are going to make real money. And that's a good thing. That's what they ought to be doing. So capitalism has to start. And there are many cases of where—

BILL MOYERS: Creative capitalism and tough consumers. Third?

BENJAMIN BARBER: And, number three, we've got to retrieve our citizenship. We can't buy the line that government is our enemy and the market is our friend. We used to say government can do everything, the market can do nothing. That was a mistake. But now we seem to say the market can do everything and government can do any— nothing. Government is us. Government is our institutions. Government is how we make social and public choices working together. We've got to retrieve our citizenship.

There are several types of people out there, but I'm the kind of person who believes people should stick with what they say. Circuit City offered a Sharp 46" Aquos on Black Friday this year, but they weren't about to let me have it easily. Now, having done Black Friday in the past I knew I would be in for a fight to get my TV, but what I had to go through was just ridiculous.

First off, there was the battle to get in the store. When I arrived I was told we couldn't wait on mall property and had to wait in front of the Ross next door. So we had a line of cars waiting for 4am when the guard said it would be ok. A police officer from the Irving Police department showed up and told us at 4am there would be no running and we would go in an orderly line to the front of Circuit City. That didn't happen.

At 2:30AM a guard came up and motioned his hands to let us go over....this started a MAD DASH towards the front door. I got a pretty good spot near the front of the line. We waited until 5am when they handed out the papers for some of the laptops...and then began Mad Rush No. 2. People from all sorts of directions came running. They ran in from outside the line, inside the line, everywhere. I was about number 4 or 5 in the faster of the 2 lines. The first guy in the line wanted the same TV as me. He walked away with this smile on his face, and walked up to me and said "They didn't have any Sharps at all, so they sold me a Bravia!" Next thing I know I'm at the front of the line and the guy tells me "We never had any of those Sharps to begin with." To which my reply was," You had none? As in Zero? As in they didn't even bother shipping any to you?" "Yep, that's right, but I can sell you this Sony Bravia that's just as good as what you're getting. Everything is the same except is uses the Sony processor rather than the Sharp. It'll cost an extra 150 dollars though." Well, this sounded pretty good to me, so I took it, and went home to sleep.

8 hours after the mad rushes I get up and decide to do some research into the TV I just bought. I discovered the following:

Sony Bravia KDL46V2500:
Display Type: Flat Panel LCD
Screen Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Contrast Ratio: 7000:1
Connection Options: 2 HDMI, 3 Component, 1 PC input.
Height: 29.8" (31.7" on optional base)
Width: 44.1"
Depth 4.8"(13.3" on optional base)
Weight: 70.6 lbs.

Sharp Aquos LC46D64U:
Display Type: Flat Panel LCD
Screen Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Contrast Ratio: 10,000:1
Connection Options: 3 HDMI, 3 Component, 1 PC input.
Height: 27.5" (29.8" on optional base)
Width: 43.4"
Depth: 3.8"(12.9" on optional base)
Weight: 54lbs.

Well, now I'm pissed. The Sharp is better in many, many ways. It's smaller, has more inputs, and has a higher contrast ratio. Here begins the battle!

The local store won't do anything for me, they never had the TV in the first place, so I have to start my battle with regular Customer Service. Well, the phone system now has a button to press if you're calling about the Sharp Aquos 46"....it gives you a message saying they're out of stock and disconnects you. Nice. So I call 3 or 4 times, and talk to random people from Customer NoService. I keep getting told the same thing- There's nothing we can do, just go return the TV. Well, this just infuriated me even further. I mean at this point I'm pretty sure that I've been bait and switched.

The next step I took was emailing the consumer affairs email on consumerist. I gave them 3 days to respond before I filed a Better Business Bureau report. They didn't respond. Wow, that's some awesome service there guys! I file my BBB complaint. After filing my BBB complaint I did the all important EECB. The next day I got a call at 10:01AM, from the executive customer service division of Circuit City. Well, I was busy moving so I asked if they could send me an email back. I never received an email. I got the executive phone number, dialed the CEO's office and said," Hi, my name is Mitchell and I spoke to someone from executive customer service, they said they would send me an email but they never did." The woman on the other end was very polite, and within 30 seconds we tracked down the person I had spoken to. She asked how I got to her number again if I never got the email, and I told her. She sounded a bit amazed and scared at the same time. This started emails and calls back and forth between me and customer service, some of them follow:

1. Dear Mr. M, I am very sorry that this did not get to you yesterday per our conversation. I will get back to you as soon as I can with what I find from my researching your issue.

Thank you very much, and again my apologies.

[redacted]
Executive Response Specialist.
Office of the Chairman, President and CEO.
Circuit City Stores, INC. Corporate

2. Good morning Mr M, how are you? I'm sorry it has taken longer for me to get back with you about this issue.
I wanted to let you know that I heard from our Merchandising department this morning and they will be working with
the Irving store to get you the Sharp TV. Once I hear back from them as to the specifics of the item getting to the store
I will let you know.

Thank you again,

3. Hello! Per our conversation I advised the store that you said you would probably be there on Saturday, that is what I thought you said. The store has moved the item from their regular store inventory and are holding it for you. The amount you paid for the Sony will be used to pay for the Sharp. There will not be a refund and a recharge on your card. Unfortunately, I am not able to give you the total amount of what the purchase will be from the Executive Office. I can tell you that you will be getting the Sharp TV for the sale price offered on Black Friday. When you go into the store you will need to bring the original TV which will be returned and the credit will be used to pay for the Sharp.

Alright- everything looks great. As I've now moved I get up early Saturday morning and drive down to Irving and grab the TV from my parent's house. This is about 42 miles round trip, by the way. We go to the store, and about 30 minutes later we're told that no one knows what's going on and they can't give me the TV for the price.... Despite me showing them the email from executive customer service. They take a bunch of copies of stuff and told me they'd call the executive office and get back to me Monday. I decide to send an email to executive customer service (I never did get that call). The email read as:

"I went to the Irving store today and spoke with Drew Begole- Store Director. No one at the store had an idea of what was going on, and they said they called their regional manager who also didn't know what was going on. Could you please assist me with this?

If you need to call me I can be reached at [redacted]

Thanks,
Mitchell M."

Monday rolls around and I get a call from the Executive customer service, and they tell me I'll be getting a call from the Irving operations manager. I do. They said it will be a couple days and they'll let me know.

Wednesday night I still hadn't gotten a call, so I call and ask for the operations manager. She was busy. She called back and left me a message saying I could come in any night time and speak to sales manager and we would get it worked it. Today I grabbed my friend with a truck, went and got the TV. I even got 162 dollars back!

Moral of the story: it might take 3 weeks, a wasted trip to the store, 10+ phone calls, 14+ emails, and a BBB complaint, but if you were bait and switched there are options for getting what you were supposed to be offered originally.

- Mitch

Mitch, we salute you as consumer action hero of the week!

RELATED
Email Addresses For Circuit City Executives
Email Circuit City Executive Customer Service
(Photo: glindsay65)

(Emphasis ours:)

The popularity of this promotion surpassed everyone's expectations with over almost 16,000 orders successfully qualifying in the first few hours of the launch. The overwhelming popularity of the promotion quickly depleted all allocated funds, and once the funds were expired, we immediately removed the associated marketing materials. Unfortunately, some of our valued customers were in the process of making purchases and still under the impression that the promotion was in effect, and may have been inconvenienced or not received an expected benefit.

Newegg prides itself on always providing the highest level of customer service. Customer satisfaction is our primary mission. As a result, Newegg will review all purchases made utilizing PayPal between 2:30-5:30 P.M. (PST) on Monday, November 26th and apply the "20% off, up to $50" to each customer placing an order using PayPal during that time period.

Please know and understand that we have carefully reviewed the direct and online feedback from our customers regarding this activity. We will take all necessary steps to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction as we plan our next PayPal promotion.

At any rate, we're glad Newegg took this extra measure to do right by its customers, and we hope PayPal is paying for the extra discounts.

(Thanks to Kurt!)

RELATED
"Newegg's Scrambled Cyber Monday Promotion" [DailyTech]
"Newegg Makes Official Response Concerning Its Cyber Monday Promotion" [Daily Tech]

the techs put me through to a level-two tech who, and I quote verbatim (because I asked him to repeat the line to me multiple times) accused me of "breaking my computer by attempting to uninstall bloatware." I said, "do you even know what bloatware is," and he said "yes, and it may be your fault that your computer is broken because you tried to uninstall it." I asked if I was supposed to check with Toshiba every time I added or removed a program from my computer. He had no answer for that.

Oh, and after the bloatware incident, Toshiba sent our reader a new hard drive—to the wrong address. And they "forgot" to schedule a tech to come install it.

Toshiba does not sound like a good direct-sales destination.

(Thanks to W.!)

Roger Lee Dillon, 22, who had worked at the northeast Ohio company for about nine months, had security clearance and used a pass code to get access to areas where cash and checks were kept.

...[FBI agent Frank] Figliuzzi said that a purple pickup truck belonging to Nicole Boyd that was found in a parking lot in Salem, Ohio, contained receipts from buys made in the Beckley, W.Va., area, which led the FBI to focus its search there. A retailer led the FBI to Pipestem.

"FBI: Heist Timed to Holiday Shopping" [Associated Press]
(Photo: Getty)

The mouse was offered for $36.99 with a $30 mail-in rebate. Amazon sent an email out to many customers announcing that the mouse would be shipped late—too late for the rebate offer, in fact.

Here's their first email to Eric:

Although our pricing policy states that we're unable to honor the incorrectly posted price, due to the circumstances I am making a one-time exception.

I would suggest you to place a new order for Logitech MX Revolution mouse and write back to us with the order number from the link mentioned below.

Please visit the following link to provide the information we requested:

When we receive your order number, we will adjust the price for this mouse to $36.99. Also, when you contact us again from the above link, please use this mail for reference.

I realize that my colleague stated that they would make an exception and adjust your order to the incorrectly listed price. However, the current listed price of $89.99 for the item is correct and we cannot revert to the incorrect price. We regret that the price listed on our web site for the Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse was incorrect at the time you placed your order.

(Thanks to Eric and De!)

RELATED
Discussion #1 on SlickDeals forums
Discussion #2 on SlickDeals forums
(Photo: Getty)

I bought a 46" Sharp LCD TV online at Sears.com for $999.99 on Thursday night (11/22) because I saw the offer advertised for the Black Friday Sale. I figured they'll probably offer the same deal online, and I don't have to wake up early to fight the crowd. I can order it in the comfort of my own home. I placed the order, which went through and the website indicated to me that this item was in stock and ready for delivery (otherwise the order would not go through, right?). After finalizing the order, it indicated that the TV would be delivered on the following Sunday (11/25). Well, it's now Thursday and I don't see a new TV in my living room. In fact, I have been on the phone doing battle with their famous customer service reps trying to track down my TV.

After having made several calls to them, the conclusion was that they're out of this particular TV, and it looks like they won't be able to deliver the same TV any time soon. So instead they're offering a 10% discount on any other TV. After doing some research on their website as well as other stores that carry flat screen TVs, I can't find a deal that even comes close to the initial offer. $1000 for a 46" LCD TV made by a reputable manufacturer is just unheard of, and Sears won't be able to honor it. Now they're forcing customers who have made similar purchases to buy a more expensive TV. Do the terms "breach of contract" and "bait and switch" mean anything to Sears? My Brother-In-Law made the same purchase as well and he's getting the same runaround treatment.

So for any of you who are considering buying anything from Sears...DON'T. Sears is the epitome of what is wrong with Corporate America. Their primary concern is profit and have a blatant disregard for ethical business practices and preserving a brand image. I was a lifetime Sears shopper until this last purchase. Never again.

Sincerely,

Ian Y, California

1) I had to call their 866 number to order the guitar. OK, a little annoying, but I'll deal with it.

2) Their phone lines were completely down within minutes after the sale started at 8am. I just got a generic phone company message, no busy signal or anything. For an hour.

3) I found their live chat, and got in Queue....at number 21

4) After almost 40 minutes I finally was number 1 in line, then got a message that all agents were busy, with a button to click for an email form.

5) I filled out a fairly polite email as my children and wife ran around me getting ready to meet my sister for breakfast.

6) I finished and moved my mouse over to scroll to the submit button........NO SCROLL BAR. Just a word of advice to etailers out there, you MIGHT want to support Macs. It is the 21st Century.

7) After much cursing I managed to copy and paste the web address into Safari where the form did have a scroll bar, but I also forgot I copied the text of my email prior to that, and lost it. So I had to type it all over again, much angrier this time.

8) I hit submit and got a page that said nothing about my message, and had a "create account" button. WTF? So I clicked the button and got a page that offered generic solutions to problems I didn't have, then in small type at the bottom of the page was a line of text asking if I was sure I wanted to submit my email. I did. At 10:05am. My wife and kids were now waiting in the car at this point, and we ended up 20 minutes late for breakfast with my sister.

9) 11:30pm Friday night I got a reply from what sounded like a high school kid with bad grammar, but he said I could call any time and still get the 20% off, b/c "We only had a few reps on the phone and there were hundreds of calls in cue."

10) Sunday night at 5pm after family had left I finally had some time to call and order (again), so I called their 866 number. Another high school aged "dude" told me (after putting me on hold for 5 minutes) that I needed to respond to my email and tell them to create an account for me with a note that I could get the 20% off. I asked if he had any way of doing that. He said no. I offered the "incident number" from my email, but still no go. Ridiculous.

11) I sent a quick but slightly obnoxious response to my email from Friday, and asked for them to create an account for me, blah blah blah. Then I went downstairs to make/eat dinner.

12) 2 hours later I checked my email to find a generic response stating that my response had to be written between 2 very specific lines in the email or they could not process it. WHAT?! I then sent a very nasty response back about how it seems like they are trying very hard to keep me from purchasing the guitar at the sale price. This all happened almost 72 hours ago, and their email form states that a reply will be given to all communication within 24 hours.

13) I just checked back through my communications with them, and found a link to their site that has cataloged the emails I've sent. This is probably the only thing I can say they have done well so far. Yet it says the status of my complaint is "solved." Great, now I get to start from scratch—thanks Guitar Center. I wonder how many other 20% off purchases they successfully stopped this way? I'm going to continue until I get my guitar at the sale price!

Jon

Anyone have any advice for Jon?

(Photo:Random Hero)

I don't even know what Kohl's is. I'm guessing some sort of mass-crap superstore, like Best Buy or Target or T.J. Maxx or a weird amalgam of all of those and it doesn't really matter because last Friday they opened at 4 a.m. for the mad rush of Black Friday shoppers, because if there's one thing you want to do when your body is groggy and sleep tugs at your heart and your dreams have turned vacant and sad, it's grope cheap waffle makers before sunrise.

Until there's a profound shift in how we approach the world, in how we view the goods we buy, in how Black Friday and the rape of Canada are grossly, inextricably connected, we cannot effect much change. Much as I love the green movement and the Buy Nothing movement and the Slow Food movement and all the rest, in the face of the countless billions still to be made by raping the planet for oil, they're merely the equivalent of trying to water the rainforest with an eyedropper.

Best Buy Employees Hoarded Black Friday Laptops? [Notebooks.com]

"It's kind of encouraging that Black Friday didn't suck all the wind out of shoppers' sails," said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which monitors 45,000 retail outlets. The weekend turnout, he added, "bodes well for the holiday season."

ShopperTrak found in-store sales Saturday were up 5.4% over last year and the Friday-Saturday total posted a 7.2% increase over 2006.

Online traffic rose 10% from a year earlier, according to data released Sunday from research firm Nielsen Online.

As in past years, "doorbuster" deals coaxed many to open their wallets. In addition to pushing flat-screen TVs, last year's must-have item, retailers have used less expensive electronics to bait consumers who vow to spend less this year, Krugman said. Hot sellers included digital photo frames and cameras. Deals on laptops were also common.

Many shoppers who rushed to the stores early found only a handful of some advertised bargains in stock, said Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group. "There were a lot of unhappy customers," he said, adding that some stores said they didn't get their shipments.

We then bought a KitKat bar because there were tons of registers open and basically no line. Delicious.

Store traffic doesn't let up [LA Times]
(Photo:Tengaport)

When KING 5 asked about this at the customer service desk, one employee said: "Oh they stopped doing that. They weren't supposed to." The employee said the store manager put a stop to it.

Fry's shoppers offered chance to cut in line - for a price [KING 5 News]
(AP Photo/Don Ryan)

Early Start to Black Friday [Orlando Sentinel]

Holiday shoppers get rowdy at Tanger [Newsday]

I got a Navigon 2100 from Staples ... nope, fooled you ... we sold out before the 6:00am opening [Slacker At Work!]

The pile of flesh is so great that the first shoppers literally have to pry and pull themselves into the mall. Screams are heard, one girl is crying and holding her face, and a pregnant mother is barely able to get her belly inside. It's like watching a herd of hogs trying to pass through a thimble. Even with this commotion, the overall mood is bright and exuberant as shoppers race to get their hands on holiday deals.

VIDEO: Thousands smush through doors into Boise mall [KTVB] (Hat tip to WhatThe...!)
Bumps, bruises & broken doors as 10k jam into mall [KTVB]

Tag your photo with "Black Friday" or "shopping" and the name of the store where you were shopping. Thank you!

(Photo:oldmanmusings)

(Photo:oldmanmusings)

Buy Nothing Day [Adbusters]

After weeks of speculation, Wal-Mart unveiled its Black Friday ad early this morning, and while it isn't short on great buys—including, for example, a sub-$800 42-inch 1080p LCD and a sub-$1,400 50-inch 720p plasma—it seemed to lack the punch of last year's promotion, which triggered severe price drops on a highly rated Panasonic 42-inch plasma HDTV.

This year, TV promotions are centered largely on models from Polaroid, a secondary brand whose models haven't done particularly well in CR's HDTV Ratings. For example, as part of a Friday-only, 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. doorbuster sale, Wal-Mart is offering a 42-inch 1080p Polaroid LCD TV for $798, while a 32-inch 720p Polaroid LCD TV is priced at $448. Other TV deals good only during that time include a $448 26-inch Polaroid LCD TV/DVD combo, and a $198 Emerson LCD TV.

For all you Black Friday obsessed folk, Walmart also plans on unveiling some additional deals on Thanksgiving Day via walmart.com

We plan on keeping up our usual Black Friday tradition of sitting at home, sipping eggnog and watching Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Those are not pillows.

Wal-Mart Black Friday Ads Lack Last Year's Fireworks [Consumer Reports]
(Photo:kandh07)

2: Many Black Friday deals are bait-and-switch scams. They may sell you a very cheap product with a very expensive warranty, or use a given price, but add software, accessories or other over-priced add-ons as a required but unadvertised part of the purchase. You'll find out about this only at the register. If the price at the register is significantly higher than advertised for any reason, ask to speak to a supervisor and insist on the advertised price. If they still refuse, threaten to write a letter to the attorney general.

"Black Friday is a zero-sum game," writes Mike. "Either the store wins, or you do."

10 Black Friday Secrets Retailers Don't Want You To Know [Datamation]