MadonnasManOne

I can't believe that they are personally going after Speedy. This really pisses me off. They have made this a personal vendetta, and I, for one, want to see Circuit City lose their ass! They couldn't be happy with their ads not being posted. Talk about kicking someone when they are down.

I am sure they won't get any information about who Speedy really is, and I hope they don't. Speedy, if you are reading this, you have my complete support. If there is anything that I can possibly do, let me know.

The fact that Circuit City has now taken legal action against DVDTalk and CAG, and are going after Speedy, proves one thing. They are desperate. However, I feel after this incident, they are digging their grave.

stingermck

Yeah, when I worked at WM, we would grab the paper on Sundays, and start discounting whatever we saw.

But you know, these ads do not appear out of thin air. From designing, to printing, to delivery who knows how many people see them. Its not like hes the only person who could lay hands on them. In a digital age, hes just the first to get notoriety for posting them.

darkside

Now I'm really pissed. Whether or not he really did anything wrong (and he didn't) there is probably no way he can afford to defend himself.

As usual money will win out over what is right.

I'm definitely done with CC now. Like it matters. Those fuckers are on a freeway to disaster anyway. They fired all of their experienced employees to save money and the idiots they have left are intolerable.

pinata242

Dugg - and I don't do that much.

DVD Josh

Speedy - I stand with you. CC won't see another dime of my money. They may however, find a turd on the desk of their CEO. I claim no responsibility.

Iron Chef

We should write a folk song about Speedy

Matt

The CAG people discussed this in a little further detail in their podcast today.

Starts at about the 15:00 mark, goes on for four or five minutes.

LiK

we support you Speedy! this is LiK from the CAG forums

canaryfarmer

Speedy,

Cardsfan111

Interesting stuff.

Like everyone else, I feel bad for Speedy. His posting of ads was never done with malicious intent, but instead practically encouraged folks to head to these retailers.

nothingfails

one thing a lot of people here don't think about is that....

some of us aren't made of money, some of us have to budget ourselves. Sometimes if there's a DVD or CD that we want, it's nice to know that it'll still be on sale next week so we don't have to get it now, we can get it next week. The consumers deserve the knowledge that something will be on sale next week so they can budget in if they want to get season 3 of _____ for 19.99 next week.

I've planned out a lot of DVD and CD purchases from these threads

And I personally hope that Speedy continues to post Target and Best Buy ads. I generally hate CC anyways and usually take their stuff to BB to pricematch.

The Valeyard

I posted a portion of this over at CAG:

tjn007

To tell you the truth I'm surprised that Speedy's postings lasted as long as they did. Naturally they were very welcome and helpful but they were basically under the rader for the most part. Once the PS3 news hit I wondered what impact that would have to Speedy and his weekly postings. Well we didn't have to wait long for that answer.

Yes it is shorted sighted on CC's part but they are struggling to survive and any competitive info that leaks prior to the sale they feel must damage them in some way. You would think it would encourage more sales for them.

Unfortunately the fall out from this will probably also torpedo the BB and Target sales news as well. Assuming he has a laywer, he will probably have to make some sort of deal not to post anymore pre-ad deals period.

What a shame.

darkside

He won't get off that easy if they get him. For one thing his job may have been a reason he was getting those ads early. That will be gone. They are going to try and make an example of someone doing them a service in reality. He drove a lot of business to CC they wouldn't have normally received. That company doesn't exist to most consumers.

I expect it to get ugly if they find out who he is.

Mosskeeto

I wonder if Sony is the driving force behind this harsh reaction that CC has displayed. This price drop should have appeared simultaneously in other sale ads too or was it only advertised at CC? Seems like the CAG Founder has already stated that he's retained a lawyer and has no intention of complying with their demands. I assume the position at DVDTalk is pretty much the same.

One of the posters at CAG who claims to work for CC says that they have copies of the ad a month ahead of sale dates sitting in the "back".

tonyc3742

I'm not sure I've gotten an answer:
Regardless of CC's legal tactics, does anyone think the "right" thing to do, is to leak or "steal" and post sale ads for three major corporations two to three weeks in advance? (And I don't buy the "information wants to be free" bullshit, of course the ads are printed in advance, the people involved with the ads and pricing are supposed to keep the information under their hats.)

What if I knew a company's stock price was going to go from 50 today to 30 three weeks from now? Shortselling it today is the exact same thing as buying now and pricematching later, based on advanced insider knowledge, except there are laws against it because it's not right.

What if the final exam questions were released three weeks before the exam? After all, we'd find out what they were anyway.

I know, I'm oldfashioned, I'm actually concerned about the morals/ethics of things, and the fact that everyone seems to feel entitled to proprietary pricing information weeks in advance bothers me.

Dr_Evil

It made it to the front page about an hour ago. Hadn't even heard about this until I saw it there. These strong-arm tactics never go over well in the court of public opinion.

VOODOO1194

Is CC really losing money over this?

Jah-Wren Ryel

Terrible analogy. You can't know what the share price will be in three weeks. CiCi sets their sale price, but no one sets a share price on the open market, and while one can guess what effect a piece of news might have on share price, you can't account for the effect of other unexpected events in the meantime, nor the market's ultimate valuation of that news. Additionally, the postings were completely public, thus not insider knowledge.

Furthermore, CiCi is free to change the price any time they want to up to time of publication and then even after publication by calling it an error, which it technically it would be if they changed their mind but the printed ad didn't/couldn't reflect that change.

And last, but not least, if someone buys NOW and price-matches later, CiCi actually SAVES money because that's one item that does not take up shelf space and is not carried on the books. If they wait until the sale, then those two costs accrue for every day the buyer waits.

Rubix

maybe someone should start a boycottcc.com webpage explaining what's going on and asking people to not shop there anymore until they drop the legal nonsense or whatever.

i bet that if the page can hit slashdot and digg it'll spread all over the net from there. it could cause them lots of headaches and maybe some noticeable loss in sales too? i don't know. just an idea.

tonyc3742

What if we did? (And some people do, or at least which way they will go. Most of them are in jail now, or at least much poorer, for insider trading).
We're not "supposed" to know what CC's sale prices are in three weeks.

What postings? The ad postings? Yes they were (made) public. That's the problem. They were *originally* insider knowledge, until someone decided to leak them.

*laugh*. Yeah....I've seen how that goes when a company calls things a "price error". Yes, they can do that. That's like saying "See? You should have gotten an alarm system" after robbing someone's house.

If someone buys NOW and does NOT price match later, CC actually MAKES money. Which of course is what all companies want to do, and ideally their employees want that too. Besides, that "savings" is negated by the wasted ad costs above.
Anyway, this is all just semantics. Here's the question again:
Was leaking, or stealing and posting, the information about CC's (and others) future sale prices the right thing to do? Not the "legal" thing, not the "anything goes if I can save ten bucks" thing, but the *right* thing to do?

Jah-Wren Ryel

Answer: YES.
Reason: It all comes out in the wash.
Advice: Don't load your questions with prejudicial terms to the point of making them rhetorical if you really want serious answers.

MadonnasManOne

Yes, it is the right thing to do. As mentioned many times, it hasn't caused any harm to Circuit City, or any other retailer. If anything, it has created business for the retailers, because the consumer is better able to plan their budget. These retailers already know what their ad prices are going to be, many weeks in advance, and someone posting the ads earlier than they are released to the general public isn't going to cause those prices to be changed. It hasn't in all the times that the ads have been posted. Why shouldn't the consumer be allowed to know these prices? In the end, what harm does it do? NOTHING. People are going to shop where they are going to shop. If an ad comes out, and entices people to go to a specific store, great. If the ad comes out, and you decide to go somewhere other than you would normally go to get that item, and price match, great. Having the ads two weeks earlier, or two days earlier, isn't going to change consumer behavior. It won't change mine. If we don't get to see another ad posted a week or two earlier, I will still shop the same as I always have.

You need to come off of your high horse. If you feel it is wrong, then fine. Don't read the ads. However, don't judge others for doing so, or for being upset that those in charge at Circuit City are being major jerks about the whole thing. Because they are. If they don't want the ads posted earlier, fine. Just ask that they don't be posted earlier. Don't go off, being sue happy about something so petty. Knowledge is power, they say. Apparently, Circuit City doesn't want their consumers to have knowledge, or power. They want us to be good little consumers, and take whatever crap they feed us. The thing is, we don't have to play by their rules. There are many other retailers out there that will appreciate the consumer who has knowledge and power, and who have money to spend.

By the way, Speedy, if you are reading this...I miss ya! I'm sure many others do, as well. Even if you never post another ad, we'd still like to see you around.

MrDs10e

All I can say for myself is that I never shopped at Circuit City until I started reading their ads posted here. And since then, I've spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars there. I know this: companies that turn to litigating with message boards are usually companies in trouble. If the state of their business is so unsound that what's posted here on DVDtalk has them worried enough to lawyer up, I'd sell the stock short.

Circuit City is doing the classic corporate move of wanting to have their cake and eat it too. They want to publicize their prices, but they want to control the dissemination of that information on their own terms. In a free society, the dissemination of information cannot be controlled. Forget whether it is right on wrong to spread it, the reality is, it WILL spread. It is an absurdly impractical idea for Circuit to think they can keep their prices secret until the day of the sale. It is irrelevant whether they have the RIGHT or not. It is not living in reality to think that is possible.

I'm sure now there are not only a lot of us upset with CC, but a lot of people inside the company upset too. Regardless of how many lawyers CC assigns to this matter, as soon as they set their prices, the info is going to make in into the cybersphere one way or another. If CC management is too stupid to realize that, and use it to their advantage instead of suing people, they should all be fired.

For my part, I'm done shopping there unless they back away from this position. I don't do business with companies that turn to litigating with people for planning to shop at their store.

MrDs10e

Sorry if this has been posted, I didn't read every page in this thread, but here is an article from just a week ago, about about how Circuit City is a corporate mess and their stock is in the toilet.

http://www.thestreet.com/s/circuit-c...FREE&cm_ite=NA