bwsmom

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Links to all additional pricing sections are across the top of the table.

Don't forget $10 off $30 w/GCO.

Enjoy!

historyavenger

Anyone having trouble with google checkout? I cannot find it.

lordwow

I don't think there is GCO on JR

John Sinnott

Thanks for the heads up BWSMOM. Yes, J&R is a GCO company, they are even linked from Google's GCO page, but I can't get the icon to pop up either.

bwsmom

That's exactly what I'm finding.... you can link to J&R through Google Checkout, but then there's no Google Checkout once you get there.... I'll fire off an e-mail to both and see what kind of response I get.

In the meantime, this item, even as a pre-order, will give you free UPS Ground shipping on your entire order. Of course, if anyone finds anything cheaper, be sure to post it!

bwsmom

Okay folks, I got a response back from GoogleCheckout....

So who knows if/when it will come back up.....

John Sinnott

Well, at least they got back with you. Thanks for letting us know what they said.

bwsmom

Aha.... I think I found out what the problem was.... some NIMROD over on FW posted a thread about how you could get $30 JR.com gc's for $20 by using the Google Checkout discount. Of course, an entire legion of lemming nimrods then followed to partake of the "mistake" in the system. The folks over at JR.com didn't take too kindly to that sort of thing, so they've temporarily removed the whole Google Checkout option until they are certain nobody else gets through on that notion. (Buncha greedy idjits!!! )

seren

I don't see any problem with that actually. In any case you will use the gift card to purchase stuff from JR, not another retailer. So what is the difference?

bwsmom

It's the abuse factor. Since most sites that have Google Checkout allow consumers to use the discount more than once, people go hog-wild on glitches like this and can end up with (quite literally) hundreds of dollars worth of free gift cards and, subsequently, free merchandise. Couple that with the lure of turning right back around and selling that ill-gotten stuff on ebay for profit, and you've got a scenario that can do serious financial damage to a company. Big problem for those of us who would like to see decently-priced deals on a somewhat regular basis.

seren

Again, I don't think I can agree with you. Take buy.com for example. I have been receiving emails about many of their products which they actually advertise the price after google checkout. Add the fact that the coupon has no limit of usage whatsoever. So I am not sure whether this is all promotional with a cost attached to it or a method retailers are using to increase their sales.

This is not same as a recent glitch fye had in their system giving $10 off instead of %10 off. This is a legitimate sale these retailers advertise and ask people to take advantage on.

Now for some reason they may not want people to use the coupon on the gift cards (just as they do not let people use it for preorders etc.). In that case, it is the retailer's responsibility to take them out. Noone should be expected to know what they should and what they shouldn't use the coupon on.

When it comes to ebaying, I checked to see whether there are any j&r gift cards are on sale, and there aren't.

bwsmom

They're not reselling the gift cards - they use the gift cards to "buy" merchandise that they can then resell for profit or keep for themselves at what amounts to at least a four-finger discount (can't say it's a full five-finger discount since some money has come out of pocket for them!)

I don't believe the GCO promo was ever intended to be used on gift cards and was, more likely than not, an oversight on JR's and/or GCO's part not to restrict it from the promo.

Either way, it's a moot point now, since JR is taking the abusers to task:

Some folks were even bragging about how many "discounted" gc's they ordered, and others are now egging them on to contact their state Attorney General's office to pursue fraud charges against the two entities.

seren

Well it seems like you have a right to be upset.

bwsmom

Don't know if that's sarcastic or not, but I'm happy to give you the benefit of the doubt.

It's not that I'm upset, but I do wish retailers could find a way to outsmart the greedy ones out there..... either that, or maybe God could smite them all with 'rhoids!

seren

I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, but I can tell you that retailers usually do outsmart even the most greedy ones. Look at buy.com for example. They have been playing all the pricing games possible out there to prevent certain items to be combined, i.e. changing prices for DVD sets so that say they cost 49.98 and you end up adding another item to get the deal etc.

Add these to all the rebates promised and never paid and stuff like that.

John Sinnott

I agree with you Bwsmom. It's the greedy people who abuse deals that ruin it for everyone. The e-tailers who take part in the GCO discount obviously have to eat at least some of the loss (otherwise they'd raise the $29.95 titles to $30 and let people stock up) and getting dozens of gift cards so you can stack them with the next loss-leader sale just hurt the stores and makes them less likely to offer deals in the future.

bwsmom

Boy oh boy.... you've got that right about the rebates!!! Most times, I don't allow myself to get suckered in by the promise of big rebates, as my past experience with them (no matter the particular retailer) has been miserable!

I can tell you that at least one of the GCO affiliates has got the whole thing down to a science... DVDPlanet is very good about what they will and will not let you use the GCO discount with. If you've got items in your cart that aren't eligible for GCO, the GCO icon will still be there at checkout, but it will be greyed out. Too bad J&R couldn't have taken a lesson from them before the gc fiasco.

And I don't know what the deal is over at Buy.com... I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks their prices change by the hour. If their deals weren't so great (albeit short-lived), I'd be surprised if anyone shopped there at all.

Mosskeeto

I remember reading that thread on FW about a week ago and even then I recall the poster said something about that was the 2nd time they tried to post it. So this has been a known deal for a while and J&R or Google has had quite a long while to try to remedy it. Maybe there is another reason for the GC option undergoing maintenance. At that time those tightwallets were complaining about how they were going to get hit with double taxation (on gift cards and upon redemption).

bwsmom

Most of the time (though not always), the powers-that-be at FW are pretty good about shutting down threads that encourage abuse of an obvious error/price mistake. There are people on the thread now complaining that J&R is going to limit how many gc's they can use at one time, since some people bought several, using the same e-mail address for each order. J&R has now resolved the problem on their website by indicating that gift cards are not available through GCO. The question now is how long it's going to take for GCO to show back up on the site.

tonyc3742

If you buy a gift cert for 30, using the 10-off, then use the GC to buy something for 30, using the ten-off again, that's abusing the deal, you're using it twice on the same 'thing'. Just like coupons or discounts don't apply to gift cards in virtually any B&M.

Pricing games--a retailer can set the price for a product at whatever level he wants. If it sells, it sells.

Rebates are different--if I comply with the fine print of a rebate, they need to send me the money. Otherwise it's fraud, imho.

FW--overall, a bunch of greedy 'entitled' dealkilling ebay whores and assholes.

Bob511

This really wasn't possible with this deal, though, since you can't use a vendor GC and GCO, no?

Worst case, this seems like this would just potentially amount to an unlimited 33% discount (after J&R's long processing time, and in the event that you lived in NYC, or could convince a CSR to combine GCs) and a violation (on J&R's part) of Google's prohibition on using GCO to purchase "money orders, traveler's checks, and stored value cards."