Hypothetical sale question

[Mr Wolverine]

Hypothetical sale question.

Next time we have a similar situation to what we have just experienced with the CZ 858 sale, how would you, the retail customer like us to handle it?

I obviously grossly underestimated the amount of interest in these firearms. I expected them to take at least 24 hours to sell. Whilst we have appeared to have pleased the vast majority of customers we have also received some “hate mail” and lost some customers for life, I don’t appreciate either.

One customer made a suggestion that we should sell draw tickets for a nominal cost ($10 - $20), (this income could go to a charity?) each ticket would give the purchaser the chance to be drawn and if successful they could then purchase the firearm at the previously listed price. Draw tickets would be sold for a predetermined time, for example a week.

I favour a “Chinese Auction” list the firearm at a very high price, so in the case of the CZ-858 sale we just had, I would have listed them at $1,995.00 and then lower the price $100 per day until all sold or my reserve price was reached.

Despite all our advertising we have had two customers contact us, when is the CZ 858 sale going to start!

Anyone out there with any other ideas we could consider?

[Marilius]

I wouldn't change a thing. Sure the website took a beating, and some folk missed out, but in the end, you are ALWAYS going to have upset customers no matter which was you do it. This was the best of a bad situation.

[LeducAb]

Nothing wrong with the way you did it.

The website just couldn't keep up. Besides charging $150 more per gun and using that money to upgrade your server I couldn't think of a better way that doesn't involve people trying to cheat the system.

[sTraTz]

Nothing wrong with the way you did it.

The website just couldn't keep up. Besides charging $150 more per gun and using that money to upgrade your server I couldn't think of a better way that doesn't involve people trying to cheat the system.

But is it really worth paying a high premium for a server that may only be needed a few times a year?

[IronCanadian]

Mr. Wolverine the reality is that you just can't please all of the people all of the time, to do so may truly be a fools errand.

[Light Infantry]

I agree with the 1st 2 posts...and I completely missed out on this sale.

No matter what you do, there will be losers whining and complaining.

Do a draw and you will be accused of fixing the winning tickets, pocketing the money etc etc.

A Chinese auction will make it look like you are gouging.

[kedirkin]

I chose not to participate in the purchase, but I would say having some experience on the customer/business side of things, that you were pretty clear about what the terms were. However, that clarity generally applied to customers who read them the terms (not all will), and the use of an online purchase system depends on a back end that can withstand heavy customer interest (i.e., the people who keep hitting re-fresh every 2 seconds).

Hindsight is 20-20, and you self-admitted your misjudgement of the interest in the sale. Lesson learned. Also, dissatisfied customers are always the loudest.

That said, if you wanted to secure sports in line with a charity donation or something like that, it would seem to not be unreasonable e.g., $20 towards a food bank, the Red Cross, or some other cause for the less fortunate - so long as it's verified that it goes towards the needy (for some reason gun owners are a paranoid lot so post the tax receipt or something), if I had chosen to participate in the sale I would have no problem putting something towards a good cause to help bring order to the chaos of the sale.

KD

[skoal]

Snooze you lose,if you didn't get one then that sucks but that's life and it's only a gun and if thats the worst thing to happen to them then I'd say they've got it pretty good. The cry babies saying that you lost them as a customer are just that cry babies,#### em! I agree that websites can down fast and hard when a big sale hits remember the pay drought a couple years ago? Well anytime a retailer posted up mags their website would crash harder then the Titanic, yet again that's life. You gave lots of notice on the sale and if people wanted one bad enough they had lots of time to get their #### together and make sure they were able to one,you can't make everybody happy so do what you can with what you have and if people can't see that then #### em.

[tobaman45]

I wouldn't change a thing. Sure the website took a beating, and some folk missed out, but in the end, you are ALWAYS going to have upset customers no matter which was you do it. This was the best of a bad situation.

X2-- you just can't please everybody and some folks not at all or ever, I'm sure some lost customers will return after a cooling off period and the next new just gotta have it gun/rifle comes in and on sale

[Dad003]

the sale was perfect like it was in my opinion right at the start not everybody could have get one , you only had 400 which mean that either way you proceed not everybody will have one and them make some people angry , people get easily offended these day , you might have lost a few customer but how many new one did you get ?

Ps tell your sale people to check their email i still havent got my tracking number for my cz858 ...