Blue Nile pricing error!!!!

[Jennifer5973]

No offense, but it's CARAT, not carrot like the kind you eat.

I just find it highly ironic that after all this big stink about Blue Nile's "deception" you can't spell a fundamental diamond term correctly.

Also, "a lot" is 2 words, not one..."alot" is NOT a word. This is just a general fyi.The English teacher in me is getting cuckoo.

No offense meant but I just couldn't take it any more.

 

[Blueman33]

A similar type title concerning WF was edited rather quickly. This one has not been.

Dave----------------[/quote]


And is this a surprise to anyone on this board?

I am not trying to be flamed here, but really, honestly, is this a surprise?

 

[Blueman33]

I'm not sure what's going on, but it SEEMS, ok seems, that BN could have been more accomodating for their mistake.

Do they need to take a $3000 hit? maybe not, but they could have, and should have, made an effort to satisfy the customer since they were in error.

Would I scoop up a stone for cheap, and possibly mispriced? sure, be honest, most people would. if they TOLD me it was a mistake, would I make a big deal of it? no, who cares?

I know that there are some of you, like none, who would pull up to the pump and refuse to fill their tank because the price of gas was $1.50 instead of $2.10, but most of us would just fill up.

I see no problem in purchasing something that is undervalued. If there was an error in pricing, I think the vendor should be nice, whether or not they take the loss.

 

[perry]

1) People Make Mistakes:
* Highly trained on a task about 15 per hour,
* Normal people 20-25 per hour
Ref: NASA, Military,& INPO Studies.
INPO is the Nuclear Power Plant
group who focuses on inproving
nuclear plant operations).

2) People Make Mistakes dealing with People:
* We all have good days and bad days
* Tone of vioce and emotions are more
meaningfull than words.
* We make all kinds of assumptions on the meaning
of what we are told and read. Often leading
to miscommunication of actual intent.

3) Some people hold grudges long after an
incident.
* This usually dramatically affects their
productivity and personal life for the
duration. Typically destructive.

4) The customer is not always right and how
well a business succeeds will depend on how
they sort out those situations.
* The fact is that Blue Nile seems to be doing
well, thus I must conclude that in general
their customer service is acceptable.

I am not claiming to be a saint; and I have been on both sides of this type of situation.

Whatever the actual facts; my point is:
"Get Over It, and Move On With Life."

How much more productive could your business, family, and personall life have been (and be in the future) if you had focused your energy into those instead of a multi-day rant.

My personal rule, If something really bothers me after two days (and I am trying to get down to 1 day) - something is wrong with my priorities in life. I can't change what is done, and it is far more productive to just move on to achieving what my goals are.

 

[aljdewey]

----------------
On 10/23/2004 2:17:24 AM Blueman33 wrote:





I am not trying to be flamed here,
----------------

No, but as usual, you *are* trying to be inflammatory.....which is *also* no surprise.

 

[fire&ice]

----------------
'Get Over It, and Move On With Life.'


----------------

Spoil sport.

And, actually an interesting post.

 

[fire&ice]

----------------
On 10/22/2004 8:06:24 PM Mara wrote:


...who's wearing the white off rice now?

----------------

It is too bad stupidity isn't painful.

But, I have to say, I liked "you - out of the gene pool" better.

 

[phoenixgirl]

At least twice in my life, someone, usually some teenager with poor math skills, has tried to give me more change than I deserved. How many people here would pocket the change? I never have. It's called civilization. The wheels only go round if we look out for each other and refuse to take advantage of each other. You do it for others and hope they'll do it for you.

Antignos knows he doesn't have a legal leg to stand on. That's why he's not suing. Instead he has some pitiful need to get strangers to tell him he deserves more out of this situation. I'm just not sure what standard he is appealing to. I know that neither my father nor any of his colleagues at the Wharton School would be an expert witness in this case on Antignos' behalf. Maybe Jesus could get on the stand and tell Blue Nile to give Antignos their cloak after he stole their tunic, but Blue Nile is a corporation, not a person concerned for his soul.

In my general experience dealing with people, kindness and generosity is usually the best approach, but there are exceptions, and those exceptions are the people looking to take advantage of you. Being magnanimous isn't even just about being a saint; some people get ticked off too easily, and it's easier to placate them then to deal with their ire. I know this is certainly true with my high school students (but at least feeling like the world is out to get you is only a phase experienced in adolescence for most people). If someone is really unreasonable, is really trying to screw you, then you have to be stern. I would have been stern in this situation as well.

Really, I can't believe how whiny this guy is. I didn't complain this much when I was charged $134 for two burgers that cost $13.40, even after the restaurant owner screamed, "You try running a restaurant!" at me while trying to explain that it was impossible for him to refund my money. That's because I knew that I had a legal and moral right to my money, and I would get it back sooner or later. Sure I complained, but not in a sniveling manner, and I doubt I would have persisted after the majority consensus was that I was out of line.

 

[joemok]

hey speaking of gene pool,

maybe this guy could check out www.darwinawards.com
its hilarious.

++++++++++++++++++++

my reply is out of the topical intent...

 

[Mara]

----------------
On 10/23/2004 9:58:41 AM fire&ice wrote:

----------------

I liked 'you - out of the gene pool' better.
----------------

hmm, can't say that I am surprised.

 

[kevinng]

I'm very amused at how people here get really worked up. I mean really emotional.

There are 2 camps here. 1 camp thinks that Paul tried to take advantage of BN. Then BN refused, and rightfully so... so Paul's character is questionable. I do not agree with this, but it doesn't really matter.

The other camp says BN's customer service sucks. It could be they made a simple typo. It could be some guy in BN is a slacker and did not check the prices like he should? Or it could be some guy in BN decided to quit, so he put in the wrong price just to screw the company up? Then BN brushed the mistake aside and offer nothing. Great.

As this tread grows longer and the readership grows... assuming half the people fall into camp one, and the other falls into camp 2... BN's reputation suffers, regardless.

In the past, when I was looking for a diamond, I would look through BN's list to see if there's any stone worth considering. I found them rather over-priced, but that's not important. What is important is, I will never look through BN's list again.

Why?

I may pick a diamond I like, and think that the diamond's price is reasonable. Then I proceed to buy it. After I wire the money to BN, they may turn around and say that their prices are wrong. So they are going to refund my money. What then? I am not from the US, so I have to suffer the Foreign Exchange loss both ways. That wouldn't be very nice, would it?

What if diamond prices rose by 25% over the couple of days I am completing the purchase? Would BN come back and say, "Oh... sorry... wrong price. Now go fly a kite?"

 

[python55]

I believe this thread is only serving one purpose. Just from reading this thread, I would never purchase a diamond from BN. Regardless who is in the wrong, BN reputation is shot. just my 2 cents on the matter.

 

[LesleyH]

Our legal department brought this VERY interesting case study to our attention (2000):

Amazon wins small-claims fight over price mistakes

By Monica Soto
Seattle Times technology reporter

Does online retail giant Amazon.com have to honor a sale price listed on
its Web site, even if that price is a mistake?

That's the question customer Barry Sweet posed to a District Court judge
yesterday in small-claims court in the first case of its kind for the
Seattle-based retailer.

At issue: Sweet purchased an RCA 36-inch television on Amazon last
August. The TV, originally priced at $1,049, was marked down roughly 90
percent to $99.99.

After completing the order, Sweet said he received a confirmation e-mail
and a shipping date. Two days later, Amazon notified Sweet that the
price was a mistake and canceled the order.

Amazon later offered Sweet the item for the correct sale price: $849.99.

Amazon attorney David Zapolsky told the judge that the TV was part of a
group of RCA products that customers could pre-order on the site.
Roughly 6,000 customers ordered the TV at the incorrect price; all the
orders were canceled.

Zapolsky said a unique aspect of conducting business on the Internet is
that when the company makes a pricing error, that news passes quickly
through cyberspace to buyers "trying to purchase it in hopes of a
windfall," he said.

Zapolsky said if Amazon was forced to honor every incorrect price on its
Web site, it could not stay in business.

Amazon's pricing policy holds that if an item's correct price is higher
than its stated price, the company, at its discretion, will either
contact the customer for instructions before shipping the item or cancel
the order and notify the customer of the cancellation.

Zapolsky said a customer's credit card is not charged until the item
enters the shipping process. Sweet's credit card was not charged in this
instance, he said.

District Judge Eileen Kato said the case reminded her of one she studied
many years ago in law school: whether a Chicago store had to honor an
advertisement that incorrectly listed fur coats for sale at $1 apiece.

The lesson she gleaned from the former case: "If it's too good to be
true, it's too good to be true."

Kato said the contract was not complete because Sweet's credit card had
not been charged. She also said the terms of a contract are applicable,
whether a customer reads it or not.

Sweet said he figured he might lose in court but wanted to bring up the
point anyway. He said he bought his Christmas presents on Amazon and
plans to continue shopping there.

His take: Beware a good sale. "I guess it means just because you're
buying something on the Internet, it doesn't mean you're going to get
it," he said.

Monica Soto: 206-515-5632 or [email protected].

--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
[email protected], voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176

LesleyH
www.whiteflash.com

 

[perry]

Kevinng:

I take it then that you will apply the same rules to everyone and stop internet and international purchasing.

Standard legal practice is that an order is not an order until the company accepts it.

In this case Blue Nile never accepted the order for that diamond, and never charged this person's Credit Card for it.

If you wire money to Blue Nile, or anyone else, they have the right to review your order and accept it or return your wired money.

I have actually had one company return my order paperwork and check for a product that they could no longer supply at the catalog price (and all catalogs have fine print that prices are subject to change - so do all internet diamnond sites).

Concerning the daily changes in international exchange rates and the possibility of your taking "losses" both ways. That works both way's as well. You might profit a lot in a few days as well. Anyone who orders internationally should know and understand how currency fluxuations can affect what happens (both on the order, and on any money returned). The service charge for changing currency is usually minor, and again a standard part of dealing internationally.

If you cannot handle the "risk" associated with the changes in exchange rates, and currency conversion fees - you should not be ordering anything internationally - from anyone.

I have not heard anything that indicates that Blue Nile has every had problems with refunding money for purchases returned - which is what their stated policy is for all orders accepted.

Lesley H: Good research. Some of us knew that up front, but did not have our fingers on the actual court ruling.

My final comment on this situation (I hope) is that whatever the moral/ethical/service issues related to Blue Nile customer service in this case (and we only have heard one side of the story on that: who knows if it is in fact true?). The fact is that Blue Nile apparently did nothing wrong from either a legal or common business practice standpoint. Some people find this offensive and will not buy from Blue Nile; if so, I ask them to apply their same rules to all other internet companies. The fact of the matter is that all companies have similar complaints against them. Logic would indicate, then, that you could not buy from any of them (or course, people are not logical beings). Personally, I tend to think that in many cases that I can get a better stone (with more information) from other vendors at the same of lower prices. However, that does not stop me from searching Blue Nile. Some people are specifically attracted to the Blue Nile Signature diamonds. Fair enough.

 

[reena]

i think blue nile DID charge the customer's credit card in this instance, but not for the full purchase price--just for $1 to see if the card was active.




if that's the case it does not seem to me that there was a legal acceptance of the customer's offer here.

 

[kevinng]

I cannot agree that just because Blue Nile has poor customer service, then all internet companies are the same. I have bought things over the internet for years, which explains why I am brave enough to buy a big ticket item, like a diamond, over the internet. I have encountered similar situations before on 2 occasions, but I was never told to fly a kite. Let me recount the instances:

In the first instance, I bought my very first handphone over the internet. I selected a preferred phone number from the list given online. Unfortunately for the company, there was a mistake. The number I have selected was in fact a golden number (one that is very easy to remember) and is worth at least US$500+. They did not tell me to fly a kite at all. They offered a few other golden numbers for me to choose from, but I liked the initial one the most. They just told me to wait a couple of days because they did not have the number in their inventory. After searching with their HQ, they found the location of the number and gave it to me. All these were done before they charged my credit card.

I have been their loyal customer ever since (partly because I have a golden number) and I have not stopped recommending my friends to them. Their system may be a little faulty, but their customer service was top notch. A company can only be as good as its employees.

In another instance, I ordered a shaver over the internet from a company in Australia. They confirmed my order, but they did not have the item in stock. So, they apologised and promised to try to locate a replacement. After searching for a week, they concluded that the item has been discontinued, and a replacement could not be found. Naturally, I was disappointed, but I appreciated their courtesy and their willingness to go the extra mile to locate the shaver.

All my other internet purchases have been trouble free.

I'm not saying that the company should bite the loss, but at least they should be courteous and try to make things right. For instance, Blue Nile could have offered to sell the diamond to Paul at wholesale + shipping. Telling customers to fly a kite may be legally acceptable and within Blue Nile's rights, that does not mean that customers should like it.

The risks of buying over the internet is real. Everyone understands that. Everyone is wary. Which is why we check and we check and we check. We check with the JVC. We check friends. We read testimomials. We come to priscscope and do a search. Can I bear the exchange loss? Of course I can. It's about 3-5% of the cost of the diamond. (The likelihood of making a FX gain with the bid-ask spread is small, so be realistic.) But do I like to bear it? Of course not.

Buying over the internet is risky, especially when I am overseas. I always tell my friends that. Check carefully before you buy. There are many risks involved, which is why we rely on the vendors' reputation. If you think that Blue Nile is a wonderful place to buy diamonds even after this incident, please carry on, because it's your money.

 

[phoenixgirl]

I liked this part of the Amazon article: "She also said the terms of a contract are applicable, whether a customer reads it or not."

It seems to me that our society has gotten incredibly lazy when it comes to informing ourselves. I'm a high school teacher . . . we give the students an interim (between report cards) report that they have to get signed by their parents, and we upload our grades onto an internet program which the parent can sign up for and check constantly. We have back to school nights and parent visitation. Still, this isn't good enough. We're required to contact the parents of all students who have Ds or Fs in the next week. Why? Because there is always that parent whose child fails at the end of the year who makes a big stink about how s/he had no idea, and it's all the teacher's fault for not personally showing up on their doorstep (and we're not talking about five-year-olds, we're talking about teenagers). Where does our personal responsibility for informing ourselves begin? As parents, shouldn't we seek out the information about our own child's progress? As consumers, shouldn't we inform ourselves when making large purchases?

Antignos tried this excuse too. It took me literally 3 seconds to find the disclaimer that Blue Nile doesn't honor innacurate pricing. It was one click away from the home page.

Boo hoo! One click is an impossible thing to ask of a man as busy as he (busy obsessively checking a website to find pricing errors)! A Blue Nile representative should have flown to his front door and read it for him! How could he possible be expected to know the terms of the contract he was entering? Poor man! When will the terrible oppression of the lazy and sniveling end?

 

[fire&ice]

----------------
Telling customers to fly a kite may be legally acceptable and within Blue Nile's rights, that does not mean that customers should like it.

----------------

Please stop saying that the poster was told to "fly a kite". It's very defaming to keep saying so. He was not literally told to "fly a kite". In his own admission, he asked (after insisting that they sell the diamond at the mistaken price) "what they were going to do about it." They simply replied "nothing". Faced with the same situation, as a vendor, I would have possibly responded with same, especially when faced with an unyielding client. Sometimes it's the kindest way to *end* a conversation.

Good Read, Lesley. A ruling I was certain of though.

Perry, I agree with everything you wrote. And, I do follow your logic. The currency exchange senerio has happened to me quite a few times.

 

[pearcrazy]

Dave,

I went back and read the original post. He states that he was "pretty much" told to "go fly a kite" Whatever their exact words were to him isn't expressed, just the nature of the sentiment. So I don't think Kevin was off the mark there.

 

[reena]

come on, though, did anyone REALLY think that the blue nile representative actually stated "sir, go fly a kite"? of course not. it's a figure of speech. we all knew what the OP meant.

 

[Mara]

Dave...for someone who doesn't want to keep perpetuating the 'defaming' of Blue Nile...you keep pushing this post up to the top of the pile with every rebuttal made...seems you are working against yourself?




As said about two days ago, not everyone is going to agree on this thread...so the continuing discussion on the nuances of phrasing and actual vs stated has long since become seemingly pointless.

 

[solange]

There is nothing educational about this post and anything that can possibly be said has been repeated over and over again. I do not think anything further can be learned here. There are far more interesting threads in which people are helpful to each other and give good advice or learn from other's experience. That is no longer happening here.

 

[pearcrazy]

Dave, I did go back and read Kevin's post.

I think you're splitting hairs, whether she said exactly "go fly a kite" or specifically implied it is irrelevant. Sheesh.

CrankyDave was a good choice for a username BTW.

 

[kevinng]

I agree with Solange that there is nothing more to be learned here. Can we all agree to disagree and remain online friends?

There's one thing I'd very much like to hear though... which is Blue Nile's official position.

 

[pearcrazy]

Kevin,

I don't think that you will see Blue Nile coming over here to explain their official position. But here it is stated plainly on their website for all to see:

"If you're interested in a piece of jewelry that is currently on back order, call us and we can tell you when the item will be back in stock. Sometimes with the volume of orders we receive, an item can go out of stock before we're able to post notification to the site. If this happens, we will notify you personally so we can help you find another item.

Infrequently, data may be inaccurately displayed on our site due to system errors. While we make every attempt to avoid these errors, they may occur. We reserve the right to correct any and all errors when they do occur and we do not honor inaccurate or erroneous prices. Our prices are also subject to change without notice. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of our diamond and jewelry consultants at [email protected] or 800-242-2728. "

Perhaps the OP neglected to read their disclaimer before he attempted to order. OP doesn't say whether he spoke to anyone before placing his order. One would assume that he didn't and was contacted the next day by an operator to clear up the pricing error.

 

[kevinng]

Thanks for the information, Pearcrazy.

 

[Antignos]

I can not believe this went on this long. WOW
Here was my biggest issue with this whole process. A disclaimer does not in any way supercede the law. I can write a contract, a disclaimer, whatever, but it has to apply to the laws of that state. So let’s forget the whole disclaimer for now!
Next big issue said I had agreed to buy the diamond and I was NOT a smart diamond shopper and paid $1,000 to much for the diamond. Does anyone here think I would have got a call 2 days later from BN accounting telling me it was a mistake and they are sending me a refund? No way!
Sure mistakes happen, every business looses money on occasion, and some like Wal-Mart and your local grocery store do it on purpose to get you in the door and keep you as a customer. Sure I found a mistake and almost got a great deal. All I was pointing out is customer service, customer retention, and their goodwill is not as up to par as say Nordstorms. I''m sure they are a good company, but that was a bad business decision because every single person that has read this will think twice. If I could fork out 1/100000 of my annual budget to keep 1 customer I''d do it all day long.
I can say that them not even offering to sell the diamond at wholesale cost has cost them way more in future revenue then the few thousand dollars they would have had to eat. Would have been cheap advertising. Heck you''d all be on their website daily looking for more mistake!
Bottom line it was a very poor business decision and not one I would have made.

 

[pearcrazy]

This thread only went on for 4 days. YOU are the one who is trying to revive it after 3 weeks. Sheesh, move on already!!