Circuit breaker and fighting "runners"
79I was typing out this as a reply to someone who missed out on chromebook at the 12am launch but I think it makes for a good separate topic. It ends up that we had a bunch of “runners” who bought these out from under you, @jmerenda. Runners is our term for resellers who try to buy promo merchandise to resell it at a higher price on Amazon marketplace (or eBay or similar).
We’ve since cancelled over 100 units of inventory from these runners who temporarily stole the inventory you wanted to buy and caused the circuit breaker to flip. This was a higher percentage of orders than normal but it’s not at all an unusual process for us. When you see quantities adjust to a lower number from the original 12am circuit breaker quantity-sold stat (on the front page) it’s usually this or fraud checks causing cancellations. Ends up it’s a benefit of the circuit breaker system that this inventory can get released for sale at all again. We run the same process on the 8am block to cancel runner orders and shift that quantity to our VMP release.
We are adding tools and cancelling runner accounts as we spot them. They often argue that we have some obligation to serve them up the multiple orders they place. We don’t. Instead, we have entire divisions of our company set up to operate as wholesalers. We aggressively refuse service to runners on our retail portals as it helps us effectively use below-market pricing to attract and entertain our community.
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Go @Snapster!
Does eliminating runners have anything to do with why the 8 AM block (much to the gnashing of teeth of the ‘It Should Be As It Always Has Been’ Crowd) seems larger than the 12 AM block or is that simply coincidence?
@jbartus sometimes it does but we’re also grappling with how to balance demand when it’s at its most extreme (lower quantity and higher demand). That’s of course another topic on its own.
Very interesting, and I love you for that
I was actually thinking about how many of the people bought the expensive, yet cheap, laminators in order to resell them…
@ELUNO crap, you just reminded me that I wanted to see if my mom needed a laminator for her business… oh well
@ELUNO
Yeah, tried for a laminator at 4pm. Fucking phone. Fucking lTE.
I Did Not Have All Night To Think About It And Buy One, since my brain was turned off until the 4pm “Impulse Zone”.
@jbartus They sold 99, so maybe they have an extra one for a fuku, so start collecting four-leaf clovers and try to get one!
@f00l @ELUNO Oh, did they sell out?
@jbartus Yup.
@ELUNO There are people that are active in the community that do this, and speak about. I am surprised they are not called out.
@conandlibrarian
How can you tell who’s buying and reselling?
@f00l There have been people on the boards over the time that Meh has been around that speak about. Not saying it is necessarily wrong, just saying that it happens.
If it was easier to search for things here, I would link to the conversations.
@conandlibrarian Only one I could think of and IIRC, it was mostly cheaper stuff like bluetooth speakers and keyboards for resale locally, not on eBay or Amazon.
@conandlibrarian I mean, I would be ok if they made one order to re-sell, but multiple orders/accounts are certainly not ok.
@f00l Laminators are $15 on Amazon today…
https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=lp_12471400011_gbps_img_s-3_5402_adae0150?rh=i%3Aoffice-products%2Cn%3A12471400011%2Cn%3A12471400011&ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&node=12471400011
@ACraigL thanks in for one
yeah! get those runners!
You are doing good for all of us that just want a product on the cheap. As for the runners (those Bastards)
As a long time MVP let me just say thank you for doing this for everyone. I know we don’t always make it easy. I mean, heck, if you just wanted to sell out then you wouldn’t care but you seem to actually care about the customers returning. So thanks.
@Fodder650 wtf is an MVP? This isn’t some sports event. VMP: Very Mediocre Person.
It isn’t Multiple Vascular Problem or
Most Vaunted Penis or
Miniature Vampire Pimple or
Mega Virtual Petstore
@baqui63 Mate I’m definitely the Most Vascular Person on meh. You can’t buy pythons like mine at a pet store, bro.
@baqui63 Meaty Venison Pie.
@baqui63 Mighty Viscious Pickles
@baqui63 @barney Mauve Violet Purple!
@Fodder650 Mocha Venti Panna
@Fodder650 The correct answer was Meaty Venison Pie.
@marfcake
@baqui63
@barney
/giphy Mauve Violet Purple
@baqui63 mushy violent peas?
@baqui63 Muppet Violence Please?
@f00l I love purple.
@baqui63 Make Vomit Purple
@Yoda_Daenerys One of the reasons I dislike grape soda is that when I was ~9 and feeling rather sick, my mother gave me some. It tasted ok going down, and quite frankly, it wasn’t horrible coming back up. And it it did indeed,
/giphy Make Vomit Purple
(If you adjust your monitor, that can be made to appear purple.)
@Fodder650 Most Venerated Person (not a runner)
Oh yeah, these circuit breakers are sooo awesome.
Pfffftt
Anxious to see if the laminators make it to EBay/Amz.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B010PK3G96/
@f00l if you missed out, Amazon has a smaller version as a gold box item today for $15.99
It looks like they also have the 12" version for $42.99.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01JQ98AZC/
That’ll teach those runners…
@mehdaf
Thx
YAY @snapster!
Now say for some reason, meh sells a catshirt. Will I end up being flagged if I bought a few extras of them, or is this only going to be applicable for items with a greater resale potential?
Congrats circuit breaker you have one good quality.
Thank you!
Now, if only other sites had these checks, and balances in place to stop these bargain thieves from grabbing up the good buys, that regular customers wait patiently to get, the 'net would be a nicer place.
Great job!
neat
I too like @snapster. I might even love him, but it is hard to commit to such feelings having never met him. I would very much like to do this at some point, if I’m ever down in Texas again.
LOL the “WE ARE ENTITLED TO YOUR PRODUCT” people remind me of this.
@PoopFeast420 Hahahaha! I enjoyed that.
@PoopFeast420 If the store doesn’t want my money - I won’t give it to them. Easy peasy.
@mfladd a poop feast is always enjoyable.
@PoopFeast420 oh my. we need to link to this when we sell out. maybe next fuko
@PoopFeast420 Thank you for that. Now I can post this every time my father rants about Meh being sold out
@PoopFeast420 this should be the new fuko anthem.
@PoopFeast420 This happened here in Toronto during the G8 Summit, where the Eaton Centre decided to lock their doors after nearby protest marches were breaking out into vandalism, and the guy was quite upset about not being able to go in and shop. Or maybe he just wanted his 15 minutes of fame. We’ll never know.
@PoopFeast420 @curtise WTF. This kind of moron just sets me off. Mall is almost certainly private property - they can close any time they want. And I’m pretty sure the right to shop isn’t constitutionally guaranteed.
@Thumperchick This is what autotune was made for.
@PoopFeast420 Is it bad that I get excited when the crazies aren’t American?
@PoopFeast420 Ahem, “”
@rv617
Excellent!!!
We protect what is ours.
/giphy fuck em I didn’t wanna go to heaven anyway
@connorbush This is the only heaven I will accept as real.
I love you for giving me a better word for those scalping assholes. Fucking fuckbags.
Also another pro bullet point to add for circuit breakers.
But no seriously, fuck runners. They’re cancer on obscure retail. It’s infuriating to miss out on a limited LP of a small label only to see dozens of them on ebay.
@snapster v. runner
/image blade runner replicant
@snapster = Deckard?
/youtube blade runner replicant
Turns out the number of runners today overwhelmed our process for returning them to stock before the 8am batch sold out. We didn’t catch this until the VMP batch lingered so now we’re exploring ways to revert back to “everyone can buy this” status. Standby for complete website failure.
/giphy don’t try this at home
@snapster hmmm ::eyeroll::
Oh, so now they punish VMPs who may have actually had a chance at these tonight. Sorry, VMP folks, you’re too slow for ol’ Snappy. They’re just gonna let every Tom, Dick, and Stinky buy these now.
These circuit breakers are so cool!
/giphy hard eyeroll
@snapster Will we have an OHSHIT report on what happened?
@narfcake we will internally but it’s essentially summary above plus “how to communicate better” suggestions.
/giphy not exactly bill and teds excellent adventure
@medz
Stillavailablealready.
@snapster I know it’s your job, and your passion, but I have to say, as an interested bystander (i.e., nobody depends on my judgement), it’s fascinating to hear details of the issues, and battles, and villains, and strategy of the ecommerce world. And I love the OHSHITs.
@OldCatLady very happy to have interested bystanders. Maybe someday we’ll have a podcast and we can ramble on at length without everyone shouting TL;DR!
@snapster Podcasts are too long. I demand bite sized information pieces delivered as IRC conversations as the footer to a daily email.
@f00l I don’t what this crap! I already have 2 Chromebooks.
/giphy bill and ted’s excellent misadventure
/giphy unbroken breaker
I think this should be the one case where you send out a super impersonal email.
“Hi there! We see you have abused our system to buy out as much inventory as possible, only to resell it to others for a higher price. That sucks. So we cancelled your order and shut down your account. Stop being a jerk.”
@Thumperchick So Say We All!
@mfladd ahem. that’s my line.
How can you tell who is a runner versus someone that just needs three for their family?
@RiotDemon I think they figured out that someone (or someones) was making multiple accounts to buy more than three for the sole purpose of reselling. I’m not sure, but I don’t think they care too much what we do with them as long as we don’t abuse the purchase limits. They’ve never said anything about the one or two loyal and active members who are open about reselling and my guess is that person doesn’t abuse it.
Meh, circuit breaker still sucks. Doesn’t it seem like these “runners” have something in common, like the delivery address that could be checked before processing an order? You could use a new fangled computer thingy to make sure they’re not going to an address that’s been used once for that item.
Just take care of those pretty “beauty sleepers”, cause, we don’t need no more ugly people. If they don’t get their “fair” share of cheap meh stuff, they gonna be really ugly.
In all seriousness, sorry you had a bad day, and thanks for trying. I hope you figure out a way to stop the runners for the fuku’s…they’re the real bad guys you need to catch.
Circuit breaker does not suck. East Coast will always have it’s back. Just say.n.
@beachhead
Not East Coast. Almost always stay up late. After some adjustment, like the circuit breaker thingie.
Wonder what a poll would show, out of curiosity. But keep the tweaking thing going pls.
@mfladd circuit breaker rocks, at least in principle, i am still staying up until midnight most nights…
Am I doing this right?
/youtube run like hell
@thismyusername
Yes. Did it right. V excellent. Thx.
Meh. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Seriously, though… I think it’s cool that Meh gives a shit enough to combat assholes like this. I’m sure there’s a way to do it outside of the lousy circuit breakers, though. #banthebreakers
@SpenceMan01 You know, people say that all the time but it simply isn’t true.
The clock over my coworker’s desk (a built-in electric powered wall clock) is NEVER right. You see, the minute hand came loose and always points to 6, except briefly, as the hour hand goes by, it will get almost up to 7 (call it about 33-34 minutes past the hour). The hour hand still rotates works properly, except that it is off by about 5 hours and 20 minutes.
It is true for the other clocks in our office (there are about seven total). But please, never again say that broken clocks are right twice a day.
@baqui63 Broken clocks don’t tick.
@DrunkCat @banqui63
/giphy tick tock
@DrunkCat The clock I described above doesn’t tick.
@compunaut now that is disgusting
@baqui63
You are incorrect.
I didn’t write a valid English sentence. Perhaps this,
“The hour hand still rotates through 720 degrees in 24 hours, but never indicates the correct hour anywhere on the planet.”
@baqui63 Because it’s not broken. If it were broken, it’d be right twice a day in the US and once a day in more civilized cultures.
@DrunkCat Eh… Tomato, tomato.
@baqui63 tomehto.
@baqui63
/giphy it’s bozo time
@compunaut looks more like /giphy “dick tock”
Thank you.
Although the entire presence of runners proves what nice deals you get us
Not all runners are bad guys.
@snapster Just send them an email that says their order was cancelled and include think link:
/giphy runners are bastards
Runner. But I don’t mind this one.
/giphy Usain Bolt lightning
Aha!!!
Re: 4-for-Tuesday: AwoX StriimLIGHT Bluetooth LED Speaker Light Sets
Where, O Great Meh, are your Pauses and your Circuit-Breakers today, may I ask?
What’s that, you say? Taking the day off, perhaps? Tired, are they? Need a wee vacation, do they?
/giphy bad product
@f00l Still sold over 700 units; maybe they let runners have free reign today?
I used to be a woot “runner” around 2008. It didn’t turn out well.
@JerseyFrank If you’re still sitting on some Leakfrog inventory I, uh, know a guy who might be a buyer.
I mean, not to encourage running or anything…
@JerseyFrank I agree with @djslack, I’m sure we could find a few buyers for leakfrogs.
@djslack @MrGlass I actually have a small stash of them. I probably have a dozen, unopened leakfrogs in the garage.
@JerseyFrank Open the boxes up, and take the batteries out and discard them, before they rupture and bleed all over those little green wonders. I own extras, myself, and used most of the batteries from the frogs not in use to power other things.
I don’t have a dozen, though (I think it’s closer to 6 or 7 idle, unused Leak Frogs).
@JerseyFrank If you’d like to part with some of your stock I have the same username at gmail dot com.
It’s been long enough that the transaction would probably be considered crawling, so no worries about being a runner
I run with the leakfrogs
/image leakfrogs
Why do you have to be so goddamned likable, huh, @snapster?
/giphy so goddamned likable
That’s a funny gif. It even applies obtusely. But to be clear, I’m in favor of your actions, even–probably especially–if some see them as the perversely sadistic amusements of a ninja saboteur.
@joelmw I do enjoy this gif a lot more if I think of myself as the ninja
Playing devils advocate here, but if runners sell to Canadians…? Hard for me to kvetch.
I think Meh is a pretty cool guy, eh stops runners and doesn’t afraid of anything