WARNING! on Buy.com $20 off Google deal

First, THANKS! for notice of this deal. I registered with Google checkout, and started shopping. Like many of us, I shopped in $50 increments to best take advantage of this deal. (Nothing says you can't, only that you can't use the $20 off to buy product for reselling.)

I made about 30 orders, most of which would have totaled from $50 - $55, but they were all $20 less than that because of the deal, plus no shipping and no tax. I was filling in a lot of holes in my collection cheaply!

Today, I went to buy more. But then I check my e-mail and received this message from Google Checkout:

Hello "X",

In an effort to provide a safe purchasing environment for all of our
users, Google reviews orders on a regular basis.

During a recent review, we noticed you've placed several orders using
our recent promotion. This promotion may not be used to purchase items for resale, and we also do not allow buyers to split orders to unfairly
take advantage of the discount provided. For example, an order containing 2 items that total $60 should not be split into two orders of $30 as a
way to receive additional discounts.

We review accounts regularly to ensure a safe purchasing environment
for our buyers and sellers. We hope you understand the reason for our
policies, and we trust that you'll make use of the rules and promotion
requirements outlined above. Keep in mind that continued use of this
promotion that does not comply with the previously mentioned guidelines
may result in order cancellation or account closure.

Sincerely,

The Google Checkout Team


It's their call, obviously - but it's pretty weak that they don't point this out in the first place! (And it still says nothing about it when you click on the "What Is This?" tab by the Google Checkout logo on Buy.com.) I looked at the terms of use, and they don't say anything about this specifically, only that you can have your account cancelled at their will - boilerplate legal language.

I do love the phrase "unfairly take advantage" coming from a corporate behemoth who left the door wide open!

 

No need to get nitpicky IMO, considering that you were able to place 30 orders before they cut you off.

 

What if I simply decided to order something later?

 

I've placed quite a few orders too, BTW - at least 12 when you put CDU, buy.com & bestprices together.

 

Two e-mails from friends now, both saying that they too were cut off, after five and eight orders each. The difference between them and me appears to be that they placed orders over a couple of days; I did mine in rapid succession. So do it fast, if you're going to do it!

And who's nitpicky? I ought to be able to place a jillion orders if there's no rule against it!

 

Sorry, but he has every right to be mad. I just read the rules at Google Checkout. Outside of some "ineligible" categories there is only this:

Google should have anticipated order splitting and multiple purchases and put that into their rules. They did not. They probably are getting hosed now and should have expected it. Their letter to aswyth is over the line.

Now that said aswyth, should just log on on another email and use another credit card for future orders.

 

I wasn't mad at all, I just wanted to let everyone know - mostly because it was obvious to me that if you made a lot of orders more quickly, you're chances of having them go through was higher.

And I agree, a company as large as Google should have figured this out; it wouldn't have taken a genius to anticipate it.

 

I've placed 11 at buy, 3 at CDU and one at bestprices. No email yet. In any case, I can just use another card and another email id.

I think Google decided that they were getting screwed and decided to pull the plug.

And what's with the order splitting? It's obvious that I'm going to do that if I save money that way. Me says, Google is being a spoilt-sport.

EDIT: Lol, I didn't realize I'd already posted in this thread. Haha...I should spend less time on the Hoffman forums

 

Has someone noticed that buy.com has raised prices? The Sony SACDs went from 15.98 before the GC discount to 18.70 now.

 

Some of the CD's in my cart from a few weeks ago are about 50 cents higher now. Had no Sony SACD's in the cart.



Sorry - just double checked - yea - prices are up to $1.50 per cd...

 

This promotion was a great deal and had to end sometime. I have placed about 25 orders, mostly music and children's Christmas gifts. I haven't placed an order in a few days now and it sounds like prices may have gone up making it not as attractive

I first started shopping using Google Checkout during October and prices went up on music after the first few orders sometime in early November so this would be the second time Buy.com has raised prices during this promotion. I think I bought about 30 high resolution discs and a few CD's during the promotion so no complaints here.

Chris

 

Well, I just went back to Google Checkout and made another Buy.com order:

1 Best Of Silk Road (DVD-A) $18.79
1 Flamenco A Go Go (DVD-A) $12.98
1 Metallica (DVD-A) $18.79
Shipping & Handling (Budget: 7 to 9 business days) : $0.00
Tax (AR) : $0.00
1 Google Checkout & Buy.com Holiday Bonus - $20 off orders over $50 (Bonus may not appear on Buy.com's emails.) -$20.00
Total: $30.56

I think the prices went up enough on those three combined to get to $50, I think I tried in November and it came up short. That was my 30th order since starting in October. I guess none of mine look like splitting orders since they are separated by days usually.

Chris

 

Yeah, after my original post (the first of this thread) I made a zillion orders, splitting them by a few hours, and no problems.

 

So far I've done 65 orders (usually spread out to 2-4 a day, I think the most I placed in 1 day was 11). No problems so far.

 

The prices of the AP CCR SACDs just went up too. I had ordered them for $27.30 each, they're up by a $1 now.

 

when did this deal end?

 

Dec.26th I believe.

 

There is now a $10 off $10 (before taxes and S&H) for new users of GC at buy.com. By new user, they mean you need to use a new non-Gmail email id (Gmail doesn't work for some reason) that was not previously associated with GC.

Here's the trick though, you can use the same card info over and over again with different email accounts as long as you keep removing the card info after placing orders.

So, to summarize, here's how you can use this offer multiple times with the same credit/debit card (and different email ids):

1. Create new non-gmail email id.
2. Go to buy.com and shop. While checking out, choose GC.
3. Click on the "New to GC" option. Set up a new GC account with the email id from step 1.
4. Place your order with the $10 discount.
5. Go to GC and remove your card info.

Lather, rinse and repeat.

$10 CDs end up costing $1.90 + tax. I know buy.com charges tax in CA and doesn't charge tax in FL. Don't know about other states, but their help pages should have some info. Or while you're checking out, it will show you the tax before confirming your order.

 

Yea, don't you just hate it when you get out of the shower and realize you forget to apply conditioner and your hair is all sticky?

 

Ordered 3 CDs for $2.88 each shipped! Here's what I got (till now ):

Magic Sam - Black Magic
Ry Cooder - Into The Purple Valley
Fleetwood Mac - Shrine '69

Also ordered the Tommy Deluxe Edition SACD for $16 shipped!

With the books I ordered for school, I've just about used up all the email ids I had. Off to create some more! That's the bottleneck - creating new email ids.

 

http://www.buy.com/corp/promos/google_offer.asp

New to Google Checkout? Try it and save $10.

To take advantage of this offer, sign-up with Google Checkout before February 15, 2007.

Offer valid for new Checkout customers only. Limit one per buyer only.

New Google Checkout buyers may earn and redeem a maximum of one sign-up bonus only. Google reserves the right to cancel bonuses or take other action.