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So... Shopto (UK retailer) cancelled my PS4 preorder for complaining on twitter

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Bunta

Fujiwara Tofu Shop
While this is obviously a bad thing, if this gets picked up as a story by kotaku or another large media outlet, well, that's a lot of people talking about ShopTo.

They do say there is no such thing as bad publicity
Which isn't true.
 

Midou

Member
Anyone who thinks ShopTo's behaviour is justified or acceptable really doesn't understand how PR works or how it is appropriate to behave as an employee of a company. If you would cancel a person's order for making one negative tweet about your company, please never work in those kind of positions.
 
Would you say you deserve to be blocked from Sony games and services and purchasing items from Gamestop?


You said it on a public forum and "act[ed] like a jackass" by saying it and you actually directed it towards them so surely you concur if you were to be banned it would be deserved?

Of course it wouldn't, it would be completely unprofessional from them, a blatant over-reaction and a terrible, idiotic PR move from those companies.

MTH8zZP.png
 

mikelb7

Neo Member
Apparently on the internet we expect to be able to act like assholes without any consequences.

No, we expect to be able to act like assholes without being subject to consequences that are not legal.

If I walk by you in the street and you say "Fuck You" to me, does that give me the right to beat the living shit out of you? Should I not be charged with assault because you acted like an asshole and you're just getting what you deserved?
 
So there's been a lot of comments saying the same thing as the underlined (sorry to single you out supaflyryguy). Quite frankly, this has no basis in reality whatsoever. Whole lot of people equating this situation to "a wrong on one side, a wrong on the other, cancels each other out." Again, this interpretation of the situation couldn't be further from the truth. There's a reason why laws exist and there's also a reason why one's personal subjective morals have absolutely no effect on the law whatsoever. I know NeoGAF is a place where people try and be as fair/impartial as possible but seeing things in the above way is simply NOT how things work. Free speech in a public forum is almost always allowed. Going back on a legally-binding contract is almost never allowed. Anyone thinking that these two are the same issues need to give their heads a shake.

OP, did you give ShopTo any money on your preorder already? If so, you've provided consideration on your agreement to purchase the console when it comes out and the law would almost surely recognize this as a legally binding contract. Their term of "we can cancel whenever we want on whoever we want" is almost surely not legally binding, as it in effect states, "we do not intend to be legally bound to a contract which would be recognized as being legally binding". This is not how contracts work and this is not how a retailer gets out of a contract.

This in no way should be considered legal advice but if you gave ShopTo any money at all (and this really is key here, if you didn't give them money, you're likely fucked), there's a good chance you'd have a case in small claims court. Whether that's worth your time or money, and whether you'd actually win or not is completely up to you/UK law. The fact of this matter is, what OP did in no way shape or form provides any legal justification for cancellation of his preorder.

They obviously can't cancel his preorder without refunding his money, but they are completely within their rights to cancel the order at any time and return his money, which is what I believe is the case here. I don't see anyway whatsoever that what ShopTo did was illegal. The argument that it was an absolutely foolish move for their reputation and finances is a completely different one.
 
Acting like an asshole = Tweeting between friends only to have shopto jump in with PM's?

Shopto was acting like the power overlord here and probably did it to feel good, because you know, power.
 

nib95

Banned
You have to admit though, this is going to result in a spike in traffic to their website that would have not happened otherwise.

Their business model isn't centred around advertising revenue. That spike in traffic is meaningless. They will have lost a shit tonne of goodwill among consumers, and no doubt lost sales not just for the interim, but in future too.
 

Azull

Member
People cuss out ebgames/gamestop, Bestbuy, Walmart, etc., etc. all the time, do you see them cancelling their customers pre-orders? Jesus people defending this get your heads out of your asses for a second.
 
Apparently on the internet we expect to be able to act like assholes without any consequences.

No, generally if a customer is unhappy with your business then you should try to actually make it better, not throw a little hissy fit and force the customer away. That's bad business, and in my experience with retail my boss would have fired me on the spot once news of it reached him.
 

RaikuHebi

Banned
I'm on ShopTo's side here, sorry OP but you shouldn't have been rude.

No, generally if a customer is unhappy with your business then you should try to actually make it better, not throw a little hissy fit and force the customer away. That's bad business, and in my experience with retail my boss would have fired me on the spot once news of it reached him.
No, people who act like assholes don't deserve to be pandered to. I'd rather have lose some business than have to pander to assholes. It's one thing to complain appropriately and one thing to act like a prick. OP should've been more civil in his criticism.
 

Rutgurk

Neo Member
@shoptonet 11:14 AM
We will be making a small statement regarding this soon.
Uh oh... I wonder what they're going to say. For their sake I hope it's something like an apology. Otherwise I think it'd be best to stay quiet... As long as media outlets don't pick this up, and they stay quiet, there's nothing to report on.
 
You obviously rustled the feathers of whoever was monitoring the twitter account that day, wonder if they'll get spanked over it since it's caused them a lot more hassle than just one cancelled order. Idiots, talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
 
I'd rather have lose some business than have to pander to assholes.

Do you own your own business?

Generally, unless the business is reasonably exclusive, they need people to support them and buy their products.

If every business banned or refused service to everyone who complained, then no where would be open.
 
I find it baffling they would even engage in a conversation like this unless it was just with canned statements like, "We're sorry to hear about your negative experience as we always strive to put customers first," or something of the like. That they got pissy about it and publicly cancelled your account seems like a crazy move.

People say mean things about companies all the time. Don't know that I've ever seen this kind of reaction.

Edit: Looking forward to that statement.
 

Snubbers

Member
A little bit of entitled behaviour on both sides, but really ST should act more professionally..

Would it stop me ordering from them? Not really.. if the price is right, they've always delivered for me so far..

Their business model isn't centred around advertising revenue. That spike in traffic is meaningless. They will have lost a shit tonne of goodwill among consumers, and no doubt lost sales not just for the interim, but in future too.
Wishful thinking, people just go with who-ever is cheaper as long as they have a reputation for delivering.. I've seen it on many forums where a bad CS experience gets around, but people still crawl back when the next big release is out..
 

Paches

Member
I'm on ShopTo's side here, sorry OP but you shouldn't have been rude.


No, people who act like assholes don't deserve to be pandered to. I'd rather have lose some business than have to pander to assholes. It's one thing to complain appropriately and one thing to act like a prick. OP should've been more civil in his criticism.

If you refused to serve jackasses, you would be out of business pretty quick.
 

Taker34

Banned
Let's hope they give OP a free PS4. I really hope so, since no one wants to be in this situation here. Good luck, Carl.
 

RaikuHebi

Banned
Do you own your own business?

Generally, unless the business is reasonably exclusive, they need people to support them and buy their products.

If everyone business banned or refused service to everyone who complained, then no where would be open.
I don't but my parents do.

If someone said fuck you or whatever to me then I wouldn't want their business. Distinction between complaining and being rude. Complaining is fine and I love criticism, who doesn't! That's how we can learn our weak spots.

If you refused to serve jackasses, you would be out of business pretty quick.
Really? So people who swear at a shop's workers still get served? That's the norm in the world, because I'm pretty sure it isn't.
 

Baleoce

Member
It's either going to be "we balls up, sorry here have your account back sir" or "we followed uor sign up rules, no comment"

I wonder which it will be...

Yup, and either way, it will be enough for any website to pick it up as a story, when they have the other half of it. So it really doesn't matter at this point. It's going to end in bad PR.
 

mikelb7

Neo Member
They obviously can't cancel his preorder without refunding his money, but they are completely within their rights to cancel the order at any time and return his money, which is what I believe is the case here. I don't see anyway whatsoever that what ShopTo did was illegal. The argument that it was an absolutely foolish move for their reputation and finances is a completely different one.

I'm sorry to sound like a dick, but it sounds like you know absolutely nothing about contract law and the remedies one is entitled to upon breach of contract. This is especially true if OP can't go get another preorder from somewhere else.

Exactly what rights is ShopTo exercising here? I can tell you with almost certainty that they aren't legally recognized ones. Sorry to say but supaflyryguy's personal view of the situation and what's fair has no bearing on the reality/legality of the situation. Illegality doesn't necessarily imply criminality. ShopTo entered into a (likely) legally binding contract with OP, and OP (if he provided consideration) is entitled to the value he lost (i.e. his PS4) by having the contract breached. Saying "fuck you" on a public forum has no bearing on this situation whatsoever and reputation/foolishness of this decision plays no part either.
 

Eoin

Member
I'm on ShopTo's side here, sorry OP but you shouldn't have been rude.


No, people who act like assholes don't deserve to be pandered to. I'd rather have lose some business than have to pander to assholes.
huh? At no point was he rude to ShopTo, he was quite polite in his dealings with them.
 

Derpcrawler

Member
I wonder if they will backtrack on this and will come to some agreement with OP or if they will continue pushing their point of view on this.
 
I'm on ShopTo's side here, sorry OP but you shouldn't have been rude.


No, people who act like assholes don't deserve to be pandered to. I'd rather have lose some business than have to pander to assholes. It's one thing to complain appropriately and one thing to act like a prick. OP should've been more civil in his criticism.

Sounds like a winning formula for failure you've got there.

Why would a Canadian e-newsletter company give me a PS4?

Canadian?
 

Zafir

Member
It is wierd this thread popped up as I was talking with a friend about ShopTo only yesterday.

Basically I used to sing their praised from the rooftops and managed to get a pretty significant number of my gaming friends to start using them and I used them exclusively for several years.

The past few months however I've started getting a little bit miffed.

It started with them sending me a PC copy of Dead Island Riptide which had no activation code and got the usual crappy response that there was nothing they could do until I returned the box (which makes no sense whatsoever if you think about it).

When I started Tweeting about the fact I was a tad upset (no real details just a bit of a sarcy comment) I ended up in direct communication with Igor Cipolletta (not sure if this was because I have quite a large Twitter account) and low and behold within about an hour I'd got a code sent through (actually a photo Cipolletta sent me from his phone).

At this point I was singing their praises like their was no tomorrow as you can imagine - I really felt like they were offering an amazing service and although their prices were no longer as competitive I still tended to get games as much as 2 days before release.

Just recently though things have not been quite so good.

My The Last of Us Joel Special Edition came through the post absolutely wrecked (it had literally been put in a bog standard ShopTo envelope) and they basically were not interested in the slightest. My issue was not so much that I had to muck around downloading and printing return forms but the simple fact that the packaging used in the first place was completely inappropriate.

The same thing has happened since then - just really inappropriate packaging for very large items.

I think ShopTo built their entire reputation on getting games to folks early and at a good price. At the moment though their prices are far from good and of course they keep getting far too "personal" in their online communications (they did this with the COD and later on with the GTAV release.)

In the past 6 months I've probably used GAME and Amazon as much as I have used ShopTo because I no longer have as much faith in their ability to properly package up my items and their prices are just no longer as competitive as they were. If you had asked me who I used this time last year every game I bought was from them.
Yeah. I used to use Shopto all the time because they had excellent prices and delivered quickly. Now they just aren't cheap at all most of the time. Only exception is some of the less popular releases which are occasionally cheaper than other sites.

Next time I'm just gunna pre-order consoles from Amazon. If I'd have gone with them from the start I'd have gotten a mega bundle, and for a cheaper price. Instead of being stuck with the killzone bundle which is dearer than buying the console and game seperately.
No, generally if a customer is unhappy with your business then you should try to actually make it better, not throw a little hissy fit and force the customer away. That's bad business, and in my experience with retail my boss would have fired me on the spot once news of it reached him.
Pretty much. There's a reason why the saying "The customer is always right" came into existence.
 
If someone said fuck you or whatever to me then I wouldn't want them. Distinction between complaining and being rude.

Yeah, but he didn't say "fuck you" to one person, because I do agree with that, he said it to the company. Seriouly, people curse at companies all the time. I have done the whole customer service bit, very rarely does someone attack an employee directly, it's generally, as it was in this case, the company.

It's a completely different mindset you need to engage in when dealing with the public.
 
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