BUYER BEWARE...Shady online Atari dealer (Best Electronics)

[3DOMan]

Actually, what I was trying to do was buy some games.

 

There's NO explanation as to why an item is one price at the start of a transaction and a higher price at the end of it. These prices are fixed, this isn't ebay here.

 

While there are both positive and negative feedback about the seller here, the majority of it seems to be negative, or at least questionable.

 

I rest my case

Edited May 16, 2014 by 3DOMan

[mkiker2089]

Well all I can say is they treat me well. The prices aren't cheap but they have quality stuff and ship quickly.

 

Here's something that I have a hard time fully grasping. I ordered a game with other stuff. The game came with the other stuff but wasn't invoiced. I got it free. I tried to pay and he said not to bother, since it was their mistake. It's great customer service but how did the game get in there if they didn't have it invoiced.

 

My point is that they have great stuff but as others have said, may not have the best logistics.

 

I also want to add that I don't know who the real boss is but most people deal with Bradly. He acts like he's at the mercy of whomever writes the website though so I assume he isn't in charge of the inventory/ pricing but simply in charge of customer service. That would explain how he doesn't always have the most up to date info. He should if the other part of the team is on the ball, but doesn't. I have ordered things only to be told the warehouse wasn't able to find them.

 

Summary time since I rambled too much, I really like B-E and would order again if need be. I doubt I will as I have the stuff I need though.

[mkiker2089]

Let me add one thing to those who haven't ordered. It's really easy to order if you want to. Call them. If you are afraid of phones then you can email an order with you address and CC info. I've done both but for security sake I don't fully recommend email. It just feels funny.

[toiletunes]

I notice in the Best reply that the items in question do have a kind of footnote:

 

"1 Loose Ballblazer U$D 15.95 (down to the last few of them)

1 Loose Donkey Kong U$D 20.00 (Non XE case version U$D 8.95)"

 

I took this as an explanation as to why the prices were different.

 

 

What it should say is that he did a price check on ebay and decided he could get more for the games.

 

Instead, we get this line of crap which only an idiot would fall for.

 

I offered an observation, and it is inferred that I am an idiot. There is only one proper way to respond at this point.

 

[3DOMan]

I didn't mean that I thought you were an idiot, just that the seller clearly thought that I was an idiot by offering such a BS explanation and expecting me to fall for it. Hope this clarifies things. I wasn't attacking you.

[Charlie_]

Best is great for having these rare Atari parts even if the prices are a bit high on some items.

The customer service is extremely lacking. Bradley can be very helpful and pleasant, call again in a month and he may talk to you like you are bothering him.

Even the email responses scream of sarcasm. The repeating of your 1st name every chance he gets. Quoting and answering things like "I'd like to place an order"

With "I'd like to take that order" is just weird. Still, you need the parts, you can't let it bother you.

If he had changed prices on some items in an order I placed, I probably would have just canceled those items, unless I really needed them.

Like a GLUE chip for the ST or something...

[ghost1313]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the information, I won't be buying anything from them.

 

Bobby

[+wood_jl]

I offered an observation, and it is inferred that I am an idiot. There is only one proper way to respond at this point.

 

 

I haven't laughed so hard on this site in a long, long time!! Thanks for making my day! backin89 has been gone so long that this has become something of an "inside" joke. We need a thread explaining the backin89 situation, with links to appropriate posts in his thread....

 

[Trebor]

3DOMAN, from your OP:

 

"Q. Did you just change the price on Donkey Kong and Ball blazer? Those were not the prices when I looked.

A. Yes and No. Your Atari order pointed out a couple of mistakes at the Best Web site. The Best Catalog addendum has the correct price for the loose 8 bit Ballblazer game but the same price change never updated on the XE Game software listing page. The second mistake was we listed the 1st generation 8 bit Donkey Kong loose game for U$D 8.95 which we have a lot of them in stock and but we have very few of the XE versions Donkey Kong left in stock. Both corrections / updates should be done by our Best Web Master this afternoon."

 

...the seller clearly thought that I was an idiot by offering such a BS explanation and expecting me to fall for it.

 

What part of that explanation implied you are an idiot, or is BS? Checking the addendum, there are updates to prices, both increases and decreases as well as products being listed now as sold out. If Best Electronics would have replied back stating something was out of stock, should it too be presumed the worst, that they were lying about what products they had in stock since another page on the site showed they were in stock?

 

A section or sections of the website being outdated is far from a shocker. To think that perhaps something was overlooked on the Best Electronics website is not a stretch of the imagination. Indeed, (previously) you and many others (previously and currently) have placed orders with Best Electronics without issue. Having to receive another sale of ~$400, does it seem reasonable or logical, they were being "shady" for ~$15? Remember too, Best Electronics has been in business for (close to) 30 years.

 

Considering they declined your order, perhaps the posting here and the response in the email thread to Best was a tad bit pessimistic in nature and just a little antagonizing - Thinking the worst of the situation and making accusations. Understandably, you feel slighted not being able to have the products you wanted, and there are obviously some (don't see the majority claim though) that had a less than ideal exchange with Best Electronics as well. "Quirky" exchange (As mentioned earlier) would be a fitting term.

 

In none of the experiences, though, does Best Electronics come across as "shady". Agreeing with your point in post #51 that some things can seem questionable (Such as maintaining a website that looks like something from the mid '90s), but as far as overall experience and product/delivery, stating Best Electronics is a "shady" seller - there appears to be some strong subjective opinion rather than any objective proof.

 

Stating Best Electronics can/may be quirky to deal with - Sure, absolutely. Starting a topic stating they're "shady" with the information provided - Sounds like bitterness talking.

[jesusc]

Everyone here who has taken a business law class raise your hands.

Remember the section about about offers and acceptance?

When a store puts a price on an item, an offer has not been made.

The offer is made when the customer takes the item to a cashier.

Say you walk into a grocery store and see an apple with a price sticker of $1 on it. When you grab that apple and take it to a register, you are saying "I will offer you $1 for this apple."

The store doesn't have to sell you the apple for $1. The store can decline your offer. That is one reason why they can fight miss priced items.

Though it has become customary, in an effort to keep a happy customer, for stores to honor the prices they put upon stuff, mistakenly or not, they are not legally bound to. It is not the store offering to sell you the apple for $1 and you accept. You are offering to pay $1 for the apple and then the store has to accept.

Would I personally screw over $400 for $15? No.

But for whatever reason, Best Electronics would, and had every right to do so. They are not "shady" for declining your offer, and from what I saw in the email, they even pointed out why the price change in their initial response to you.

It's jerky, but it's their right to be jerks. It's your right to shop somewhere else. And you did come across (to me, because of course tone is in the eye of the beholder) a bit jerky in your response in the first place.

Edited May 16, 2014 by jesusc

[Rhomaios]

Everyone here who has taken a business law class raise your hands.

Remember the section about about offers and acceptance?

When a store puts a price on an item, an offer has not been made.

The offer is made when the customer takes the item to a cashier.

Say you walk into a grocery store and see an apple with a price sticker of $1 on it. When you grab that apple and take it to a register, you are saying "I will offer you $1 for this apple."

The store doesn't have to sell you the apple for $1. The store can decline your offer. That is one reason why they can fight miss priced items.

Though it has become customary, in an effort to keep a happy customer, for stores to honor the prices they put upon stuff, mistakenly or not, they are not legally bound to. It is not the store offering to sell you the apple for $1 and you accept. You are offering to pay $1 for the apple and then the store has to accept.

Would I personally screw over $400 for $15? No.

But for whatever reason, Best Electronics would, and had every right to do so. They are not "shady" for declining your offer, and from what I saw in the email, they even pointed out why the price change in their initial response to you.

It's jerky, but it's their right to be jerks. It's your right to shop somewhere else. And you did come across (to me, because of course tone is in the eye of the beholder) a bit jerky in your response in the first place.

 

The shady part wasn't changing the price. It was changing the price without informing him upfront.

[Trebor]

"Q. Please send me the total, thanks!

A. OK here is a complete break down of costs for your Atari order”

1 Atari Jaguar Sensible Soccer U$D 39.95
1 Atari XE Airball U$D 34.95
1 Loose Ballblazer U$D 15.95 (down to the last few of them)
1 Loose Blue Max U$D 9.95
1 Loose Donkey Kong U$D 20.00 (Non XE case version U$D 8.95)
1 Loose Fight Night U$D 10.95
1 Loose Hardball U$D 9.95
1 Loose One on One U$D 4.95
1 Loose Rescue on Fractalus U$D 9.95
1 Lynx Pacland U$D 29.00
1 Lynx Pinball Jam U$D 14.95
1 Lynx Rampage U$D 28.50
1 Lynx Roadblasters U$D 19.95
1 Lynx Rygar U$D 14.95
1 Lynx gauntlet U$D 29.00
1 Lynx Block Out U$D 19.95
1 Lynx Awesome Golf U$D 29.00
1 Lynx Slime World U$D 14.95
1 Lynx Baseball Heroes U$D 19.95
1 Lynx Electrocop U$D 19.95

Shipping U$D 12.35

Insurance U$D 6.75

------------------
Total U$D 415.85"

The shady part wasn't changing the price. It was changing the price without informing him upfront.

 

Best Electronics makes the changed prices stand-out by placing notations with a brief explanation next to them.

Then, when the buyer wants a more detailed explanation, Best provides the response noted earlier.

None of this appears "shady" or the work of a shady seller.

[3DOMan]

"I have decided to charge you more for this because I am running low"

 

Sorry but if you fell for that line of crap I could sell you a diseased elephant. It boggles my mind how anybody could give this claim even one cent of credit or legitimacy, other than somebody being biased by being friendly with the seller and making excuses for them. I mean just the way that is worded SCREAMS that he checked going prices and decided he could get more for the games. Using your example about apples. You don't bring the apple up to the cash register, and the cashier goes over to the produce dept and realizes there's only a few apples left, and decided to charge you $10 for the apple instead of the $1 price tag that is on it, because they decided that they think can get more for it.

 

I'd like to say thank you to those who linked the other threads. This one was the most helpful.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/213582-best-electronics-problem-with-ordering/

 

You can see that long before I made this post, this seller has a history of:

 

-Changing prices on the fly. Even though he already has the items on hand.

 

-Refusing orders, refusing to do business with certain people.

 

-Making up ridiculous or BS charges. "Restocking fee" and "Shipping quote fee" are my favorites.

 

-Avoiding and dodging e-mails for lengthy periods of time, and being short or rude with responses. Absolutely horrendous customer service and unwillingness to work with people.

 

-Compulsive lying, many have claimed his insisting that he has a 'shipping department' 'accounting department' 'warehouse manager'. Either he is outright lying to defer blame for his shady business practices when he gets called out on his bullshit, or he is delusional suffering from a multiple personality disorder. I know for a fact that he doesn't have an entire staff working for him. Somebody who has an entire staff to pay wouldn't turn down $400 orders on a whim.

 

Either he does so much business that he can afford to push customers around and turn down orders whenever he sees fit, or he is overestimating how good business is and losing money left and right with every customer he turns away. I'm leaning towards the latter. Clearly this is not his primary source of income and something he does on the side.

Edited May 16, 2014 by 3DOMan

[bojay1997]

"I have decided to charge you more for this because I am running low"

 

Sorry but if you fell for that line of crap I could sell you a diseased elephant. It boggles my mind how anybody could give this claim even one cent of credit or legitimacy, other than somebody being biased by being friendly with the seller and making excuses for them. I mean just the way that is worded SCREAMS that he checked going prices and decided he could get more for the games. Using your example about apples. You don't bring the apple up to the cash register, and the cashier goes over to the produce dept and realizes there's only a few apples left, and decided to charge you $10 for the apple instead of the $1 price tag that is on it, because they decided that they think can get more for it.

 

I'd like to say thank you to those who linked the other threads. This one was the most helpful.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/213582-best-electronics-problem-with-ordering/

 

You can see that long before I made this post, this seller has a history of:

 

-Changing prices on the fly. Even though he already has the items on hand.

 

-Refusing orders, refusing to do business with certain people.

 

-Making up ridiculous or BS charges. "Restocking fee" and "Shipping quote fee" are my favorites.

 

-Avoiding and dodging e-mails for lengthy periods of time, and being short or rude with responses. Absolutely horrendous customer service and unwillingness to work with people.

 

-Compulsive lying, many have claimed his insisting that he has a 'shipping department' 'accounting department' 'warehouse manager'. Either he is outright lying to defer blame for his shady business practices when he gets called out on his bullshit, or he is delusional suffering from a multiple personality disorder. I know for a fact that he doesn't have an entire staff working for him. Somebody who has an entire staff to pay wouldn't turn down $400 orders on a whim.

 

Either he does so much business that he can afford to push customers around and turn down orders whenever he sees fit, or he is overestimating how good business is and losing money left and right with every customer he turns away. I'm leaning towards the latter. Clearly this is not his primary source of income and something he does on the side.

Just because you don't agree with the reason doesn't mean it isn't true. There are many, many sellers including people who sell on this forum regularly that may have multiples of an item and when that inventory starts to deplete, the price per unit goes up. In fact, that's the very definition of supply and demand driven market pricing. If you look at historic price lists for Best, B&C and many other vendors, they all follow the same pattern and as their impossible to replace supply goes down, they increase their prices. That's just how the collectors computer and video game market operates. Like I said, this isn't Amazon and it's not Target. Best can't replenish 99% of the items in their stock as they just don't exist in that condition anymore, at least not from a steady source or in a way that will allow them to generate a profit.

 

You've beaten this issue to death at this point and frankly, you've insulted a lot of people here and completely ignored many rational arguments that a number of us have put forward. It's pretty clear to me that while Best didn't act in the most consumer friendly manner in your interaction, you are your own worst enemy and a big reason that this deal fell apart. Frankly, I will continue to buy from Best and I will be sure that you're not someone I will ever deal with as I have a feeling that you regularly get into disputes with sellers over imagined slights against you. It must be really hard to go through life that way, always blaming everyone else and not realizing that you're a big part of the problem.

[atari2atari]

As happens eventually with all threads around here after they have gotten good and well-beaten . . .

 

IT'S SHATNER TIME!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lul-Y8vSr0I

 

(action begins at 0:51)

 

Let's blast this thread off . . . with some ROCKET MAN!

Edited May 16, 2014 by atari2atari

[Gulfman]

Did I just walk into the ladies bathroom? Coz there's a whole lot of 'bitc#ing' up in here.

[SoulBlazer]

Not being a collector and not having a stake either way in this argument, from what I've read here and in other threads and places about Best:

 

Can he be a jerk, rude, confusing to work with, insulting, strange, and not very professional? Totally.

 

Does he have the right to act this way, understanding that it may cost him sales? Also totally.

 

If you really want the stuff, either find it online somewhere else or ask someone here if they can place a order for you and act as the middleman.

[+Ripdubski]

No problems with them from me over the past 15+ years. Does a vendor have the right to alter the price? Absolutely. Should they? Depends. If there is a small discrepency they should probably let it slide, a bigger one maybe not. Was this handled right? Not sure. But i stand by Best as a good company to do business with!

[+wood_jl]

Everyone here who has taken a business law class raise your hands.

Remember the section about about offers and acceptance?

When a store puts a price on an item, an offer has not been made.

The offer is made when the customer takes the item to a cashier.

Say you walk into a grocery store and see an apple with a price sticker of $1 on it. When you grab that apple and take it to a register, you are saying "I will offer you $1 for this apple."

The store doesn't have to sell you the apple for $1. The store can decline your offer. That is one reason why they can fight miss priced items.

 

Good grief! You would make my Business Law professor proud! You speak the truth, and I only remembered it because you mentioned it. That *is* the way things work. Anything on top of it is a courtesy on the part of the selling business, with the expectation that the courtesy will be appreciated and reciprocated in the form of additional patronage which equals more profit.

[+madman]

I've had largely good experiences w/Bradley. Yes, he refers to other "departments" even though it's just him and sometimes he will just flat out say they're too busy to fulfill your order for whatever reason, but those are the breaks. Personally, I'm glad he's around to sell NOS parts for 25+ year old consoles and computers.

[boxpressed]

[atarian1]

Just because you don't agree with the reason doesn't mean it isn't true. There are many, many sellers including people who sell on this forum regularly that may have multiples of an item and when that inventory starts to deplete, the price per unit goes up. In fact, that's the very definition of supply and demand driven market pricing. If you look at historic price lists for Best, B&C and many other vendors, they all follow the same pattern and as their impossible to replace supply goes down, they increase their prices. That's just how the collectors computer and video game market operates. Like I said, this isn't Amazon and it's not Target. Best can't replenish 99% of the items in their stock as they just don't exist in that condition anymore, at least not from a steady source or in a way that will allow them to generate a profit.

 

This reminds me of a truly shady Atari dealer back in the heyday - Bill Yerger, owner of Microworld / ST Plus in Berkeley, CA. He would pull this sh*t all the time even though all he had to do was call up his distributor to order more.

 

I remember wanting to buy Gauntlet II when it first came out. It was the hottest ST game released at the time, and I remember calling him to ask if he had it in stick and the cost. The answer: "Yes, we have it in stock and it costs $39.95." I went there, picked it up, went to the cashier to ring it up and then it popped up $49.95. I told the cashier that it was $39.95 that Bill quoted over the phone. The cashier said it was the last one and he asked Bill who also confirmed it. I told them that it made no sense since they could just reorder some more copies. (Not only was it selling well, it just came out. Why would anyone not make more copies if it was selling well?) Bill just kept saying it was his last copy. WTF?! I didn't buy it from him and left the store frustrated. Luckily, Berkeley had another Atari dealer (believe it or not), so I bought it from Winners Circle Systems at $39.95. It was a good reason why Microworld died sooner than Winners Circle.

 

In this thread, I can understand Best raising the price of low stock items because, once they are gone, that is it. It would have been nice to give him a heads up though

[galax]

I think when dealing with a business that has such an amateurish and chaotic website it would be a good idea to follow the rule: "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

[BILLYonaire]

I paid for an order during PayPal's 5% discount promo but they refused payment because I didn't mark it as a gift. Not that I would have repaid but if I had, I wouldn't get the 5% discount because they refused payment ater the promo expired. I haven't bought from them since then.

[jetset]

Not sure he's necessarily "shady", but clearly over $15 bucks on such a large order he could give a crap less about his customers. Within reason, if you go into a supermarket and something is priced wrong they give you the product at the marked price THEN make the correction. We're not talking a huge difference here, and for that difference he lost the business completely. Shady? No. Jerk? Definitely.