Microsoft is still trying to sort things out following a glitch on Friday that prevented people from getting a promised 40 percent cash back on purchases made on HP.com via Microsoft's Live Search Cashback program.
A crush of traffic led to a glitch that apparently led to a number of problems. Some shoppers were credited with only 3 percent cash back, rather than the promised 40 percent. Microsoft has said all those who made purchases through Live Search during the Black Friday promotion would get the higher rebate.
But some folks were unable to make their purchase at all on Friday. A Microsoft spokesperson told CNET News in a statement Monday that the HP promotion would be restarted in the coming days. However, that statement appears to have been premature.
In a blog post late on Tuesday, the software maker offered a much more vague statement.
"We're working actively to determine next steps for any specific HP promotions," according to the post, which was attributed to Rajat Taneja, Microsoft's general manager of worldwide commercial search. "We regret that we don't have more specific details at this time, but we can point customers to other Live Search cashback merchants with great deals on HP products, including eBay, which is currently offering 20 percent cashback."
The glitch was an unfortunate blow to Microsoft, shifting what could have been a banner day for Live Search cashback into another online black eye for the company.
Circuit City posted a steep quarterly loss on Friday and warned the operating losses will continue into the current quarter, which includes the bulk of the holiday shopping season, traditionally when retailers make most of their money.
"We are very dissatisfied with our third quarter results," Circuit City CEO Philip J. Schoonover said in a statement, adding that the company saw fewer sales of profitable items like accessories, services, and extended warranties.
"We believe that these issues are primarily self-induced and are within our control to improve," he said.
I can't say I was surprised given my Black Friday experience at Circuit City. My partner and I waited for hours in line, not because there were so many customers, but because its system for handling a crowd was so poor.
In addition to the $208 million loss from continuing operations that Circuit City posted for the quarter ending November 30, it said it will have a "modest" loss for the current quarter, which spans through February.
My partner and I decided to brave the Black Friday crowds and got up at 6 a.m. to do some bargain hunting.
We planned to head to Circuit City first, given that its day-after-Thanksgiving sale had the most things we wanted. When we arrived at the suburban Los Angeles store--nearly two hours after the store had opened--there was a long line of people just waiting to get in the store.
Customers, including AJ, wait in line at Circuit City in Van Nuys.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET Networks)Figuring that the most-sought-after items were likely gone anyway and that the line might be shorter in a few hours, we headed to the nearby Best Buy in Sherman Oaks. The parking lot was certainly well filled and the store busy, but neither was overflowing. I'm sure there were plenty of people in line at 3 a.m. for the cheap flat-panel TVs and other doorbusters. But when we got there, some of the smaller items were still available and we walked out with $40 worth of stuff, including one season of the Office, the movie Borat and a Wii game that AJ wanted.
We moved on to Target, which didn't even seem busy for a weekend day. I picked up another season of the office and a couple of shirts and we made one other stop, before heading back to Circuit City. This time, we made it in without a line. Nearly the whole store, though, was filled with people waiting in line. After a quick assessment, AJ grabbed a spot in line while I picked up a few items from our list, including a 2GB flash drive for $7.99 and some West Wing and NYPD Blue seasons for around $15 apiece.
After half an hour, AJ had hardly moved forward in line. I left to get him a cup of coffee and returned 20 minutes later and he had still only inched forward in line. We tried to investigate the source of the holdup.
Whereas Best Buy had specific lines for the types of products people were buying, Circuit City had the lone checker for each line, head throughout the store to pickup big ticket items, such as a PlayStation 3 that someone ahead of us wanted. That move, along with what seemed to be the most outdated computer system I'd seen at a electronics retailer in some time, slowed things to a crawl.
The sign on the floor at Circuit City read 'wait,' and wait we did.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)I took the time to interview a few of my comrades in line. Matt Kaplan of Sherman Oaks had just a few DVDs, but told a friend on his cell phone that at that point it had become "a matter of principle," though he told me he was probably not saving enough to justify such a long wait.
A few spots further in the line, Nestor Gomez of Van Nuys said he didn't mind such a long wait, saying the price for two Acer laptops justified the standstill.
We were finally nearing the register, so I put my notepad away. But as we were only a couple of people away from finally checking out, I noticed that some people were breezing through a nearby register. What had been assumed to be a "cash only" line was actually an available checkout spot, though the place had no means to handle a queue and was thus not advertising its services.
Checking out our dozen items took him some time, but still saved us probably another 15 minutes over the line in which we had been standing. Who knows how much more time might have been saved for all concerned with a bit more organization. What were your Black Friday experiences like?
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