Buds.Com Responds To Black Friday Complaints

[runco]

Saw this on Facebook.  Its long, and I had to snip it in 3 pictures:   

 

[URL=http://s963.photobucket.com/user/runco0318/media/BUDS1_zpsdef68511.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[URL=http://s963.photobucket.com/user/runco0318/media/BUDS2_zps5aa6db99.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[URL=http://s963.photobucket.com/user/runco0318/media/BUDS3_zpsa657bb2c.jpg.html][/URL]

[Garufa]

The first sentence says it all....keyword "reasonable".  People that actually expected to get the good deals, then did not, are nothing but immature cry-babies.

[Raoul]

The first sentence says it all....keyword "reasonable".  People that actually expected to get the good deals, then did not, are nothing but immature cry-babies.

Agreed. Although the retailers who buy into this Black Friday crap get what the ask for.

Just generally stupid all around.

[TNMTBik3r]

I hoped for a fair chance and I did not get it.

 

The website was down for over an hour and I never had a chance to find the item (until I came back 2 hours later) much less add it to my cart and attempt to check out. If the website had been functional but the item sold out before I was able to checkout that would be a different situation. Really I am glad I did not get a chance to check out, with the website constantly crashing failed checkout attempts would have been even more infuriating. 

[Dustbuster]

I'm going to carve ozzy into my arms until I get that emperor shotgun for 39 bucks I have a right to buy and gouge lol . Oh well at least they addressed it.

[bersaguy]

Sure am glad all of my Black Fridays are many years in my past and they have been gone so long  am almost able to walk without a limp from the Last Black Friday of my life at a Radio Shack of all places. I don't even have night mares about them any more........ :rofl: 

[D3vo]

Buds is trying to frame this as a bunch of people that didn't get their door buster when the truth is Buds showed their disdain for their customer base in the aftermath. Twenty-four hours before the post above they started deleting any post or comment from their FB page be it negative or neutral. I am not suggesting it was not their right to do so, but in doing so they were effectively saying your questions, feedback and suggestions don't matter. Their initial response was a lesson in what not to do in public relations.

Clearly their FB page is a fan page and not a business portal. I don't feel my post like so many others that were deleted was inappropriate.

Edited November 30, 2014 by D3vo

[Hershmeister]

I think their post sounded better in their head.
They shoud have said we're sorry or server couldnt accomodate the crush of people, and we'll try to do better next time, and thank you for your understanding that superduper deals are just that and are limited in quantities.

[Fourtyfive]

I see their dual stock numbers as sales trickery , I did not attemp to purchase their cheap crap at cheap prices and will never attemp to do so , F them.

Oh , by the way , that is their chimney in my avatar .... Edited November 30, 2014 by Fourtyfive

[Smith]

Evidently you just can't make some people happy.
It was a crap shoot and everyone knew it. Crying about it is just silly.
What happened online is no different than what happens at any retailer who offers that good of a deal whether online or in person. At least you got to stay in your underwear fighting the crowd at the cyber door, instead of getting trampled in the cold ;-) Edited November 30, 2014 by Smith

[runco]

I have to agree, how is this any different than standing in line at Walmart for one of those $99 32" tv or like my wife stood in line for one of those $210 50" tvs.  Walmart had security everywhere, and yet people were upset, pushing, screaming, etc. who did not get their tvs (my wife did, whew).  This is just internet version of the same. 

 

However, I also agree, a simple straight forward response from Buds would have been better.  ................We knew we had a lot customers, and potential new customers, we apologize for the server crashing, we now understand the governments Obama care websites crashing too, we will do better next time.

 

Its been my experience when dealing with owners or executives of companies (other than sales), that they usually are made of stone, and carry a chip on their shoulder that they simply don't care and get their undies in a wad if people attack their business.  Their PR guy or Sales leadership is probably just cringing or will cringe when Monday rolls around and when they review what happened in a business setting.

[TNMTBik3r]

Walmart doesn't randomly shut their doors and keep people from accessing the stores during a sale though.

Shows poor planning and a weak web server but maybe tomorrow's sale will go better. Edited November 30, 2014 by jonathon1289

[DaveTN]

I would not have thought a VP would write something like that; it sounds like a low level IT guy that was butt hurt because there was a perception he couldn’t do his job. His “selling at a loss” comments are also ridiculous. Not many other gun dealers sold guns at a discount; they don’t have to. They did it to get new traffic and get buyers off the fence; its appears to have worked.

Reasonable people already understand what happened; he didn’t need to explain to them. It sounds like he just wants to take a shot at the crybabies. It won’t matter to them and will just make them make that much more noise.

I am a Bud’s customer and have purchased several guns from them. I didn’t have a problem with their “Black Friday” marketing non-sense, but I think his FB post was very unprofessional. However, apparently he isn’t interested in hearing comments from his customer unless they are positive; so I will post my comment about his childish post here.

[JPR1959]

If you are an on-line retailer, and you market yourself as such, then you should be able to handle YOUR own Black Friday traffic.  If you cannot, then do NOT try and say it was the consumers fault that your website crashes.  This is the same company that for a long period of time did not protect your credit card data.  I cannot fault consumers for negative comments towards them.  It does not mean I wouldn't shop there.  I just can't afford to purchase all of the deals Bud's has.  :usa:

[Will Carry]

Since the Obama Boom in gun sales, Bud's has made millions. They are a Gun Dynasty. I don't think they would conspire to do anything underhanded. They already have the business they just need to keep their customers happy.  The apology e-mail they sent was too long. They should have made it short and to the point.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Will Carry

[TNMTBik3r]

They responded again - sale tomorrow is at a different time and only for prior customers.

 

[musicman]

Yep, I saw that. I tried to get a Canik Friday to no avail. A little bummed, but I didn't cry or cuss Bud's. If I remember this on my lunch break tomorrow, I may give it another shot. I qualify, bought two guns from them around July this year. Shipping was slower than PSA, but I saved over $150 between the two, and couldn't even find one gun I wanted across 4 counties in Mid TN.

I don't think they handled it as well as they could have, but whatever I'm not gunna flip out about it.

[peejman]

When has an online "door buster" type sale where supplies are "limited" ever worked? I guarantee the web geeks at Buds knew it would blow up their system but their bosses laugh all the way to the bank. It's worse than eBay snipers. A bunch of people inevitably get butt hurt, but at least no one got trampled.

[Grayfox54]

I've never done business with Bud's and really don't know much about the company or its business practices. So I can't comment about them.

But I did read several really nasty rants by PO'd customers on a couple of different forums. Each and every one of them amounted to the same thing. Some person missed out on a deal they felt they should have been entitled to get and immediately jumped on the internet to whine, cry, blame and generally act like a spoiled child. 

So for the benifit of those who may have missed it when growing up: Life ain't fair, you don't always get what you want. Deal with it. 

 

[Mark A]

When has an online "door buster" type sale where supplies are "limited" ever worked? I guarantee the web geeks at Buds knew it would blow up their system but their bosses laugh all the way to the bank. It's worse than eBay snipers. A bunch of people inevitably get butt hurt, but at least no one got trampled.

 

No one injured? I had to go to the ER with a sprained clicker finger from clicking so much... Injuries aren't just for pro athletes you know...

 

 

Of course, I had no idea of their sale but now that I know there is one today I might just poke around for a sec and see what there is to see...

[JayC]

No reason for a business today to have a web server crash on black Friday or cyber Monday...  IT team needs to be taken out back and shot ;)

 

everything should be setup so they can spin up more front end VMs as load requires (even better if it's fully automated).  

[DaveTN]

No reason for a business today to have a web server crash on black Friday or cyber Monday...  IT team needs to be taken out back and shot ;)
 
everything should be setup so they can spin up more front end VMs as load requires (even better if it's fully automated).

No doubt, if you have the resources of Amazon, BestBuy or Sears; I would guess Buds Guns does not have that level of resources. But that’s just a WAG I don’t know that.

[tnguy]

We use Amazon's AWS and have had trouble obtaining new instances for what we do from time to time. Seems to be worse this time of year (probably for what should be obvious reasons). Anyone relying on just one cloud service is taking a gamble IMO.

Edited December 1, 2014 by tnguy

[JayC]

The thing is, everybody has access to the resources of Amazon, via Amazon Web Services...  You to can have you website located in multiple data centers with super fast internet connections and able to handle a million users at a time...

 

And they're using Rackspace, which has a fairly robust cluster system of their own...  as I said, today there is no reason you can't handle 10,000 or even 100,000 customers hitting your site at the same time...  the system should be setup to run more frontend webservers, and backend database servers to handle the load...  and since you're charged by the hour, the cost only happens when in theory you have enough extra customers to pay for it.

 

I host a weather related website, that normally has 5 to 10 users on it at a time...  certain weather events happen and we'll have 10,000+ users show up all of a sudden...  as the primary server reaches 75% load, the software automatically starts to launch more web frontends...  it might get slow for 10-15 minutes but the site doesn't crash even if 100,000 people show up all at the same time...  once the rush slows down, it automatically turns frontend servers off...  the costs to do this are less than $100 a month... well within the price range of a Buds.

 

As I said, the IT department needs to be taken out back and shot...  I have interns who work for me that could have handled this level of traffic better.

 

No doubt, if you have the resources of Amazon, BestBuy or Sears; I would guess Buds Guns does not have that level of resources. But that’s just a WAG I don’t know that.

 

[JayC]

I've never had problems getting instances, only getting them at a cheap price...  but even still between rackspace, amazon etc you shouldn't have a problem finding instances to turn up even on black Friday.

 

I know I didn't when some of my sites had a rush of traffic on Friday and today.

 

We use Amazon's AWS and have had trouble obtaining new instances for what we do from time to time. Seems to be worse this time of year (probably for what should be obvious reasons). Anyone relying on just one cloud service is taking a gamble IMO.