Even in today’s digital world, the old analog classic dubbed “Black Friday” gets all of the attention for sales. And while this year’s Black Friday was on par with previous “good years”, the real talk of the town is Cyber Monday. According to PRNewsWire, Cyber Monday sales topped $1 billion in sales for the first time in history. Specifically, the total Cyber Monday figure stands at $1.028 billion — a 16% improvement over 2009′s $887 billion sales figures.
Looking at the bigger picture, it appears that Black Friday is finally losing its luster. And honestly, why wouldn’t it? Who wants to stand in endless lines winding through cold, dark mornings for a product that is almost certainly going to be sold out long before you ever get up front? It’s exponentially easier (and far more enjoyable) to sit in your warm chair and simply click “buy”? Were you part of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or both?
Those of you hoping that the holiday creep would crawl back into the hole it came from will be sorely disappointed with Newegg — well, that is until you score an awesome deal from their new “Black November” sale. Instead of having one day of awesome prices, Newegg is going to have a handful of killer deals evey day starting now!
If you were holding off on that PC upgrade for any reason or simply looking for a deal here or there, you definitely don’t want to miss out on this!
Newegg: Black November
It isn’t often that we here of the little guy, the consumer, the real victim in the great corporate sandbox getting what is dully theres. When Sony removed the other OS feature from the PS3 with the recent 3.21 update, a fair share of geeks around the globe were pretty upset. Granted, a “fair share of geeks” is quite small considering the overall global population. But it doesn’t really matter how many people actually used the feature. The point is, Sony lied and senselessly removed a feature that didn’t have to be removed. Here in the US we’ve got nothin’. We can choose to not upgrade but then that makes the PS3 even more useless, cutting off online access entirely.
For EU gamers it’s another story however. One distraught gamer by the name of ” Iapetus” from NeoGAF Forum actually notified Amazon and demanded a refund as his PS3 was no longer operating as it was marketed the day he purchased it. Specifically, he cited these two clauses in Directive 1999/44/EC:
“The goods must:
- comply with the description given by the seller and posses the same qualities and characteristics as other similar goods
- be fit for the purpose which the consumer requires them and which was made known to the seller at the time of purchase.”
Shocker: Amazon complied — partially. While Iapetus didn’t get his full dollar amount back, he ended up getting a solid 20% returned after citing EU law. That 20% by the way ended up totaling £84.00! I’d say he made out pretty well, wouldn’t you? Below is the reply and receipt from Amazon…
We are writing to confirm that we have processed your refund in the amount of £84.00 for your Order 666-5327564-4432412.
Item Refund: £71.49
Item Tax Refund: £12.51
This refund is for the following item(s):
Item: Sony PlayStation 3 Console (60GB Premium Version)
Quantity: 1
ASIN: B0007SV734
Reason for refund: Account adjustment
The following is the breakdown of your refund for this item:
With this persons success, we’ll have to wait and see if other EU dwellers follow suit and seek monetary compensation as well. Doing so could awaken a bloody battle however between consumer and stifling corporate body. I’m sure Sony has plenty of loops holes to slip through and an equal amount of paid for lobbyists holding parliament seats.
Here in the US, again, we haven’t got the slightest chance for any consumer retaliation. If anything, class action rings in the back of my head. But I fear it’s more a dream than reality.
Who’s up for a little Euro-road trip?
Overclockers.com > Playstation University
- November 20, 2009 4:35 am
Saving a buck or two is always a good thing especially with jobs not looking so hot and dollar bills going much less farther than they used to. We all hope to score a nice Black Friday deal each and every year but tracking all of the prices, stores, and items is a small chore to say the least. DealVista has got your back as they’ve compiled on massive spreadsheet highlighting the items, prices, and locations of all the best Black Friday deals. Being the tech head that I am, the gadget deals are naturally my top choice. See anything good? Share it with us! There’s 5,512 deals in all to be had, so what are you waiting for?
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