Warning - Shady deal at Musician's Friend?

[bjporter]

GOOD NEWS: Response from Musician's Friend (see page 3):
"My name is Luke and I am a supervisor at Musician's Friend. Unfortunately with this offer we oversold the Effectrix licenses and are not going to be receiving more licenses from sugar bytes. I understand that this was a key feature and determining factor in making your purchase and the last thing I would want is for you to feel like you got less than what you payed for. bjporter I will be emailing you directly and working with you to take care of this for the hassle and I encourage anyone else that had Effectrix cancelled off their order to email my team at forums@musiciansfriend.com. We want to make this right for you and ensure you feel valued."







I just realized today that I should bring this to your attention. Is this normal?

Opinions so far:
1 says it's not shady
1 says it's shady


CLIFF NOTES:
1. I was super excited for this deal - Biohazard + Effectrix.
2. Received the BH
3. They said Effectrix was out of stock, but will ship so 'We sincerely appreciate your patience'
4. They cancelled it, and will not get Effectrix

FULL STORY:
I bought the Biohazard + Effectrix + 4gb samples deal at Musician's Friend. The deal was set up so if you buy Biohazard, you get the others. All three were to be shipped to my place. I received an email telling me to be patient waiting for Effectrix, since they are out of stock.

Biohazard + 4gb samples arrived just fine.

A few days later, they email me saying Effectrix was cancelled, and will not be delivered.

Here is my email promising me they will ship Effectrix:

"Thank you again for your order #S13152551. We have yet to receive the out of stock item(s) noted below, but we have more on order with the manufacturer. We will ship them to you as soon as we receive them. We sincerely appreciate your patience.

Sincerely,
Musician's Friend Customer Service"


Here is cancellation:
"Thank you for your recent order #S13152551.

The item(s) noted below have been cancelled from your order."


I politely emailed them telling them I was really looking forward to Effectrix, and asking them if they can do anything, or perhaps give my money back, here is the response:
"Thank you for your response.

I apologize about the cancellation. Was there another software that is similar to this one that you might be interested in that we can take a look into?

Please feel free to contact us if you have any other questions or concerns, or if you are not completely satisfied with the service you have received from us today. We appreciate your feedback.

We appreciate you choosing Musician's Friend. Have a great day!"


Just a warning! Is this normal guys?

[Tricky-Loops]

This happened to several people, including me...

MF obviously had not expected so many customers of the deal and they hadn't enough licenses for Effectrix.

Of course it's very sad, but I wouldn't call MF "shady" only because of this deal.

[bjporter]

This happened to several people, including me...

MF obviously had not expected so many customers of the deal and they hadn't enough licenses for Effectrix.

Of course it's very sad, but I wouldn't call MF "shady" only because of this deal.

Thank you! That's what I suspected. Also it seems either very incompentent, or planned this way...

I have a lot of experience in web technology... it's very easy to keep track of inventory. I learned that in high school programming class:

if(buys == in_stock) sale = CLOSED;

[Nanakai]

That really sucks, but they do say on the deal's site that this is restricted to available stock. Of course, they don't tell you that you might not get it if you do order, they just leave you to assume that if the page is up, the deal is on. It's not necessarily the nicest thing to do, but I wouldn't say it's shady.

[bjporter]

That really sucks, but they do say on the deal's site that this is restricted to available stock. Of course, they don't tell you that you might not get it if you do order, they just leave you to assume that if the page is up, the deal is on. It's not necessarily the nicest thing to do, but I wouldn't say it's shady.

That's totally understandable... and I expected that. But whats up with the 1980's technology? They should have ended the deal when the number of buys equaled the in stock count. Something strange happened

[Tricky-Loops]

if(buys == in_stock) sale = CLOSED;

Of course, this would be a much more elegant way to terminate the deal generally than first sending out emails claiming Effectrix being "out of stock" and then another email that they aren't available any more.

Maybe they don't have a stock organization software...

[Examigan]

I am glad I bought-in when they still had everything in stock

[bjporter]

Maybe they don't have a stock organization software...

That is a disturbing thought! It makes sense, the system still works with the assumption that the product will be back in stock. Perhaps their finance and sales department calculated the odds of people getting caught in the off case that it will not be in stock. Probably very low, so they can get away with it.

[bjporter]

I am glad I bought-in when they still had everything in stock

Let me know when you get tired of Effectrix, PM me

[Nanakai]

Unfortunately, stock listed in inventory does not always equal stock on hand. Software doesn't use itself, and people who are paid to do inventory aren't usually paid well enough to do it right. Things will get broken, lost, stolen, miscounted, etc.

[Tricky-Loops]

I was so happy to get Effectrix and "Murnau" asked "MoniB" to order the MF deal. We wanted to apportion it - Murnau wanted to have Toxic for $20, and I wanted to have Effectrix for $20. But then MoniB got no Effectrix because MF run out of licenses, and in the end, everyone was disappointed...

[bjporter]

What irks me too is that I promised people I would donate a copy of Effectrix to the One Synth Challenge prize pool. Now I have to say 'sorry guys... no Effectrix'

Forgot to mention I bought 2 Copies

[bjporter]

Updated OP with real life pic

[Nanakai]

I dig it. Is that crayon or marker?

[bjporter]

I dig it. Is that crayon or marker?

Excuse me sir, are you saying that my physical modeling attempts are childish?

.... colored pencil