EggXpert.com

For Cyber Monday, NewEgg advertised on both its site and in
its 8-million+ emailed newsletters the ability to get 20% cash
back when paying via PayPal.  The deal was offered through
the 28th of November.  (basically, 48 hours)

I was confused whether the 20% cash back worked for any
(every) item, or if it was limited to just a few items.  So, as you
can see in this thread here < link > I asked a question to that
end in the Eggxpert forums.  My post went up at 6:13 AM PST.

What followed was confusion on every level of NewEgg's
marketing and sales forces.  As evidenced by posters in that
thread and others, some customers were told the deal was
good only on select items.  Other customers were told the
deal was good for every item in stock.  NewEgg marketing
told a forum administrator that it was good on every item,
and then later informed the same forum administrator that the
deal was pulled altogether.

Now let me say I am not some conspiracy theorist.  I have
done good by the Egg and they'll continue to get my business.
My point here is that NewEgg should just avoid any affiliation
altogether with PayPal or other discount agreements not
entirely under their control.  Surely NewEgg would agree it is
more trouble than it is worth.  Just look at the confusion
caused *internally* by all of this.

The Egg comes out looking really poor by this lack of foresight
or internal communication.  (If anyone from NewEgg wants to
know how much I order from NewEgg ... just tack
on an @yahoo to my NewEgg forum name.)

Ironically, NewEgg responded in the referenced thread to say
that they would send a free gift to anyone affected.  One further
problem is that your customers do not know who is affected.
The deal was pulled arbitrarily, at an unknown time, leaving
your customers as confused as your own sales and marketing
forces were for most of the day.

(My personal opinion: The free gift should be offered to anyone
who helped sort this out from the customer side, not just those
who ordered on this day.  Those who ordered on this day don't
even know if they were affected by the arbitrary drop of the deal.
It's pretty crazy...)

In sum, I just think the Egg had better avoid marketing
agreements such as this one with PayPal.  Sure, it would be
sweet to get a 20% cash back on a purchase, but when people
within the company don't even know what's going on ... one
can guess the result of such a situation.  For all of these
reasons, the Egg gets a stink stain for today.

Thanks.   

It would have been nice if it would have turned out better.  But even then, dealing with PayPal is not my favorite thing to do anyway.  20% off is nice, too bad it was limited to just 50 bucks per paypal account.  When you're talking about electronics and computers, that quota is met pretty quickly.  But i think the problems here are a result of paypal, not the employees at Newegg.  They still had everything straightened out in less than 1 day of starting the promotion.  I can go to a local retailer with a 10% off coupon and spend 15 minutes or longer in line waiting for a CSR or manager to decide if they'll take the coupon they've had out for two weeks, or whether or not they'll PM a store that there website has stated they PM for the last 5 years.
At least the egg is throwing us a bone.  It's certainly better than nothing.

Newegg needs to make it very clear about what orders qualified and they need to do it ASAP.

 They would save themselves a good deal of money if they let the cancellations come flowing in before they start shipping all of this stuff out to people.

 I placed one order and it was for things that I wouldn't have had the 20% not been in the price equation.
 
 

 

 

Super:

Super wrote ... But i think the problems here are a result of paypal, not the employees at Newegg.  They still had everything straightened out in less than 1 day of starting the promotion.  

I respectfully disagree.  PayPal did not create the mass mailing which NewEgg sent out to NewEgg's customer email list.  PayPal did not inform certain departments within NewEgg of one thing, and other departments of something else.  The confusion was entirely of NewEgg's making.  How either of these phenomena can be rationally attributed to PayPal is beyond me.

Why did the deal end before people on the West Coast got home from work?  I don't have a computer at work (sorry) and had to wait to get home to order.  If I am correct, 6:30 PM is still Monday!

RedSauce:

Why did the deal end before people on the West Coast got home from work?  I don't have a computer at work (sorry) and had to wait to get home to order.  If I am correct, 6:30 PM is still Monday!

 

At least you know it is a dead deal.  Thousands of other people made orders under the impression that it was still active and now we are in limbo.
 

Actually, PayPal did send out an email



And here's a thread where egg staffers addressed this issue, and CindyLou has also another thread regarding this issue.  We probably don't need more of these in the forum.

Feel bad for NewEgg actually. This was a great promo... too good to be true actually. And it turns out that is the case. I don't place any blame on NewEgg, because there were a couple other sites I was trying to get a certain monitor from after I knew the newegg promo had ended, and they all told me it was still going on even though paypal pulled all their adverts. Simple fact is: PayPal screwed up and made it's partners look bad. NewEgg got shafted... for lack of better terms.

NE will remain the only place I buy my PC parts.

    The problem is that they should have stated up front that there was a limited amount of funds available for this promotion, and say that it would end when the funds were gone. The dates shown had nothing to do with the promotion. It was the money.

I still want to find out if my order at 11/26/2007 12:21:45 PM made the cut off or not...  Maybe someone could tell us who to complain to or go to for further information.  If I don't get the money back price, I could get it cheaper at another site.

WTF This deal is over? Seriously... WTF!!!

What a bunch of bull ****!

I put down the items I was going to order and I get home and now it doesn't work? WTF!

And here is the email sent out by NewEgg (image below).  My contention in the OP above, that NewEgg should really avoid these PayPal affiliations, stands.  NewEgg is responsible for the emails they send out (not PayPal).  NewEgg is responsible for organizing and coordinating their marketing and sales force internally (not PayPal). 

I also got home too late for this deal. Mon was a travel day for me and y the time I fired up the comp, the deal was long gone even though the ad said: "For a Limited Time" & "Expires 11/26/2007" on the same page. This led me to believe that the limited time was- today.

Anyway, the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth because it is identical to the tricks that B3stbuy and C.City play on Black Fri where they lure you in with the promise of a cheap laptop then tell you there were only 5 per store. I expected better from the Egg.

 

tommyhobbes:

RedSauce:

Why did the deal end before people on the West Coast got home from work?  I don't have a computer at work (sorry) and had to wait to get home to order.  If I am correct, 6:30 PM is still Monday!

 

At least you know it is a dead deal.  Thousands of other people made orders under the impression that it was still active and now we are in limbo.
 

Egg-zachary! I have an order that went in at 12:35:24 PT and was processed out to Newegg by PayPal at 3:39:50 PM  . . . when I placed the order, the promotion showed up ON MY PAYPAL CHECKOUT PAGE . . . AFAIK, I'm in . . . but reading the forums has me thinking that I'm 5 minutes late? Or is that 3 hours and 10 minutes late?

 The order if for $110 . . . which means $22 of rebate funds that I could use at another store is in limbo . . . unfortunately, this is not JUST about Newegg . . . I'd like to know if I still have money available . . . this is info that should come from PAYPAL, not Newwgg. 

I don't know what an agreement between PayPal & NewEgg is but from what I can see. At least one of them are just afraid of their own promotion effecting their businesses. It's good (or too good?) to offer the promotion but they just need to respect the decision they made, not trying to change anything by its official end. And, more importantly, they really should have a way to indicate in a receipt or whatever that the promotion was applied.

IMO, NewEgg is doing great so far on its own. But since there is another one--PayPal--has involved, please keep your work at the same level. What they should do by now is clarify any confusion to customers, such as, why this offer ended up this way? (sound stupid because we all know why but they just should state somewhere too), and if the promotion was applied to the order we already made or not? Please... otherwise I will cancel mine like many people do.

People before you ask yourself if you ordered at the right time or not here is what i think:

 There is no telling if paypal is going to honor all of these or any of these. If you would have not bought the item if it wasn't for the promotion I would suggest to cancel the order.

I m also very disappointed in Newegg going along with this kind of scam and this is what  it is simply a scam from Paypal. I was going to order a new CPU when i saw that this promotion was already dead which stopped me since i have to pay high sales taxes to order from Newegg which prevented that i shopped there alot lately.

I m sorry for all you guys who ordered and wish you the best of luck of getting the cashback but i wouldn't count on it.

From newsletter:

" Discounted prices and/or promo codes are valid on 11/26/2007. Once end date is reached discounted prices and/or promo codes will no longer be valid. After this date standard prices will resume and are subject to change without notice. Newegg is not responsible for typographical errors. All typographical errors are subject to correction. Offers valid only while supplies last. Use of promo codes is limited to one (1) offer per order and product. Promo codes may not be applied to multiple products within the same order or to more than one (1) item of the same product."

 Unless I am missing something, the only way this offer ends is when the end date is reached, or if there is a typographical error. It is obvious that is not the first, and it is not a typo. I don't see how Newegg or Paypal can just stop it at their will. This was just a scheme to get people to 1. use paypal 2. go to newegg's site 3. expect to get a discount after order and then find out the offer is over.To sum up, it looks like ZipZoomFly and TigerDirect just got a new customer.
 

 

brwright:

From newsletter:

" Discounted prices and/or promo codes are valid on 11/26/2007. Once end date is reached discounted prices and/or promo codes will no longer be valid. After this date standard prices will resume and are subject to change without notice. Newegg is not responsible for typographical errors. All typographical errors are subject to correction. Offers valid only while supplies last. Use of promo codes is limited to one (1) offer per order and product. Promo codes may not be applied to multiple products within the same order or to more than one (1) item of the same product."

 Unless I am missing something, the only way this offer ends is when the end date is reached, or if there is a typographical error. It is obvious that is not the first, and it is not a typo. I don't see how Newegg or Paypal can just stop it at their will. This was just a scheme to get people to 1. use paypal 2. go to newegg's site 3. expect to get a discount after order and then find out the offer is over.To sum up, it looks like ZipZoomFly and TigerDirect just got a new customer.
 

 

Yeah unfortunately this is for Neweggs Promotion and the 20% off is a Paypal scamotion to get new customers and Newegg just played along. I don't think Newegg knew it would end up like this but to leave the customers in the dark is Neweggs fault.

I think they should know who ordered after the funds ran out and who cancelled orders. Give all those a free gift or credit. Do the right thing. I would think that there are laws against this sort of thing. It was kind of crappy that there was no notification either way, you just had to wait to see if you got the $$ back. Even on PayPal's site there was no confirmation either way, just that it would show in your account by 1/31/08. Major BS IMO

They need to give everyone the chance for the 20% off. The definition of false advertising is "the use of deliberately false statements or deception in advertising, in order to gain a commercial advantage. As advertising has the potential to persuade people into commercial transactions that they might otherwise avoid" This seems to be what has happened