Customers Mad at Amazon Over $99 3DS Deal
By Rob Gordon 22 November 2016
Amazon faces criticism over its handling of a special 3DS deal this Black Friday, with Nintendo fans left frustrated over being unable to pick up the deal.
This Black Friday has seen a huge number of tantalizing deals left open to the gaming community. Although plenty of retailers offered up their own discounts to gamers, Amazon understandably has been drawing in the crowds after a bargain of their own, such as the Black Friday discounts for the PS4 Slim and Xbox One S. However, it turns out that not everyone has been happy with the online retailer and its sale methods during this season.
Amazon gained plenty of traction from Nintendo fans over one deal in particular, which saw either a black or white limited edition Super Mario-themed Nintendo 3DS up for grabs for a paltry $99. Marking the first time that the handheld console was available for under $100, this Black Friday deal understandably had many gamers excited and ready to take advantage. However, when the deal became available, many found that they were unable to successfully purchase the console.
This was down to the fact that the deal was, somewhat bizarrely, available for pre-order as early as November 23. Savvy Amazon purchasers snapped up the pre-order stock quickly, resulting in those who were waiting for the deal to officially go live being met with sold out notifications. To make matters worse, those who had been able to get in early were then listing the device on the site at nearly double the price.
Understandably, those who felt cheated by the perceived blunder then took their frustrations out on Amazon itself, leaving less than positive reviews on the limited edition console’s page. “My kid went around and did jobs for neighbors in hopes of scoring one of these with his own money, managed to save it up in time, and stayed up until midnight refreshing the screen to get his hard earned prize,” wrote one of the angry users. “He was rewarded with the lesson that big businesses often do dirty deeds to their most loyal customers.”
Since that point, Amazon has sporadically added more stock, but these updates have been few and far between. As it stands, the product is still standing as sold out, aside from those selling the product as a third party at a much higher price point. Thankfully, Amazon was not the only retailer who had the deal up, with the 3DS available alongside other Nintendo discounts at shops such as Walmart and Best Buy, but the anger for Amazon still remained.
It’s not the only time that a Nintendo product has suffered from stock shortages, with the NES Mini crashing Amazon after selling out, and the limited availability of the Pokemon GO Plus peripheral even leading to a statement from Nintendo on the matter. Hopefully, this 3DS deal will be on the receiving end of some kind of increased availability soon.
Source: Polygon
