Well….If what Mike has said is true, then we do have a bone to pick with Amazon. I agree with the others, this is no “tip”.

I suggest to all that they write to customer service about this incident (sorry Mike). Whether or not Amazon takes action will most likely be reflected in the amount of complaints they receive. If these three individuals received preferrential treatment like this, who is to say that 997 other “friends” did not receive the same tips?

In my eyes, this is definitely a firing offence. I plan to write Amazon about this, to just question the validity of this occuring, and I hope others join me.

Well for those of you that thought the $100 360 was a scam it wasn’t. I work at Amazon.com in Fernley, Nevada and all the 360’s were set up ready to go. Of course the systems would strain. What were some of you thinking? That all of you were going to get a 360 for a $100. I am sure that over 1 million were on to buy one.

Hey, does anyone know if it is illegal for employees, their friends, and family to participate in contests?

Cause it is really unfair for an employee to modify the system so his/her friends can get one at the discount.

We weren’t allowed to get one

coulion: I already emailed @ 11:45.

Wonder what amazon might say…

The units most likely sold to those who knew in advance (or correctly reasoned) that the httpS server was up and running and as most people were hammering the main http server, the httpS server hummed along and took orders. I am still calling total BS on this though. What a stupid way to run a sale - it even took the main amazon page down for a good 10 minutes. I am shopping elsewhere. Stupid.

Saxbum : read these:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....ent-434387

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....ent-434435

Whoa we are moderating comments now?

Saxburn read comments 118 and 133

Sorry, but SCAM SCAM SCAM!! I already wrote to Amazon to tell them what scam artists they are. How could these systems be sold out in seconds if no one could even get to the page? Apparently there had to have been insider information and preferential treatment to those on the inside. I wonder if we’ll see large amounts of XBOX 360’s soon on EBAY for $200. I for one, will never buy from Amazon again. What a scam.

One of the XBox promo codes sold on eBay for $510. Why would anyone pay that when they could buy it direct for $299?

Funny cause they are only worth 1/10 of a cent.

And seriously I couldn’t connect to amazon on firefox (with one account) after 10:58, I had to use IE on another compy with another account.

This is something I read in the amazon forums:

yeah they went fast, but their definately gone. it turns out that the server got hit with to many users and blacked out most of them. I tried pinging from different proxies in the US and even one from the UK with no luck. Amazon CS is saying their submitting a report to upper management to see if a concession can be offered for the people who couldn’t access the website.

Could mean amazon will make it more fair.

Everyone needs to stop crying. What’s the first thing everyone thinks when they here about a deal like this… “I’m going to wait until exactly five minutes before they go on sale, then refresh the page like a maniac so I can get one before they sell out.” News flash!! Internet bandwidth is finite! No one, not even Amazon.com can handle that many http requests within 10 seconds. It’s not Amazon’s fault. They offered a great deal, and the masses rushed to it. And remember, this isn’t your local community Walmart crowd. This is a customer base spanning the world. Give them some credit for hooking some customers up.

I heard there would be another sell tonight @ 11:00pm. The sell would include, from what i heard, the core system priced @ 100.oo dollars.

After reading all your comments, I don’t feel so pissed off over not winning.
Hey, we came in second place, not bad. Good thoughts overall, if you want to save time, money, and effort: Walk away from this frustrating topic.
Enjoy the holidays, think of our troops fighting and press.

For those of you who want to try to complain via email or phone, its no use. Here is the response I got to a polite, yet irritated, email:

–

Thank you for writing about this situation which you encoutered with
our web site.

First, please allow me to express my sincere apologies for any
frustration that has been caused. It is certainly not our intention
for our customers to have anything but a pleasant experience at our
store.

We are working hard to provide a stress-free and convenient holiday
shopping experience at Amazon.com. Unfortunately, we have not met
that standard in this case. Please accept my sincere apologies.

Please note many customers voted for X-BOX 360 and were waiting to
place their orders at 11 A.M. this caused high network traffic and
hence our web site was slow.

We utilize top of the line servers, internal routers and network
connections. Although we often wish we could avert this problem,
many issues regarding speed are actually a result of complex
routing patterns over the Internet itself. Even the best Internet
services can’t get around this fundamental problems.

We here at Amazon customer service continuously strive to assist the
customers in each and every way can and feel disappointed when we
are unable to address customer’s concerns. I hope you can understand
our limitations in this regard.

Please be assured that each and every Amazon customers are always
esteemed in our sight and we will not let them down at any
circumstance.

Unfortunately, this item is no longer available at the promotional
price. Please note that voting for an item does not reserve that
item for you.

I’m sorry you were not able to purchase the item at the price you
desired before we sold out. It may still be available for purchase
from Amazon.com at the regular price or from third-party sellers on
our web site.

These discounted items are only available in limited quantities
immediately after the winners of Amazon Customers Vote go on sale
each week. You can vote, make purchases, and find more information
at our Amazon Customers Vote page:

http://www.amazon.com/customers-vote

Each week, we post information on how many units of each product are
available at the promotional price and when they can be purchased.
As soon as we sell out, we make every effort to put this information
on our web site immediately.

The full terms and conditions for Amazon Customers Vote are
available here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/holiday/cv/fineprint

As a representative of Amazon.com, I want to assure you that we
value our customers’ trust above all else–it’s the foundation on
which our company was built. Please know that we’ll continue
working hard to ensure that you receive accurate service, and to
minimize the chances of anything like this occurring again.

If you are still experiencing the same problem while using our web
site in future, please use the direct link below to e-mail our
appropriate department and select a subject for your e-mail
as “Other questions & comments”, so that we can investigate further:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/.....tions.html

Please copy and paste the URL into your web browser to reach the
specific page.

Rest assured that when we receive the email from you using the form
above, we will investigate and take any actions available to us to
resolve the problem.

However, if you require immediate assistance, here are our Customer
Service Department phone numbers:

=======================================================
Customer Service is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
——————————————————-
U.S. and Canada: 1-800-201-7575
International: 1-206-266-2992
=======================================================

In addition to a wide selection of items, one of our aims at
Amazon.com is to provide a convenient and efficient service; in this
case, we have not met that standard.

I am truly sorry that we were not able to fulfill your expectations
for this level of service. I hope you will be able to take advantage
of our future promotions.

Again, we are very sorry for this inconvenience. We appreciate your
business and hope that we will see you again soon at Amazon.com.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:

If yes, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=hdcgcrdy3351314931
If not, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=hdcgcrdy3351314931

Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept
incoming e-mail.

To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help
section of our web site.

Best regards,

Ramya A.
Amazon.com Customer Service

–

I cant believe all you crying babies over this, a sale on an xbox. At the top of this page….posts filled with doubt and unbelief, hatred, and pure garbage. Then its confirmed and people still talk shit. THEN people get mad when they dont win it.

GUESS WHAT…..I logged on, won the code, and bought a core system.

No scam, no bullshit. GROW THE FUCK UP.

You win some, you lose some.

Very disappointed..sat here for hour before buying was suppose to start at 11pst started hitting refresh a good 10 minutes before 11pst. nothing what makes upsetting is I got a wife with cancer and five kids and this was my chance at getting them this for christmas. I was a first time customer with amazon and read the tips page and thought I had done every thing right. Quess you need a T1 line and a state of the art computer. Kinda who has fastest computer and connection wins. A lottery might have been better. Im not mad just disappointed because Ive bought a lot of stuff on line with good results and this was not.

I got one. I actually got onto the you’ve received this offer page (or whatever it said) on two of my Firefox tabs, then they had me answer a simple math question. I added it to my cart then bought it for $100. I had other items in my cart, about $200 worth (which I quickly deleted). I wonder if this assisted me winning the code?

Marshall - I wonder how willing you would be to “grow the f*ck up” if you hadn’t gotten one?

I am SO PISSED OFF by all the amazon / xbox360 SCAM that I bought a domain and placed all my talks with them in there: http://www.amazonsuck.com

THEY CANNOT BEHAVE LIKE THAT. THEY PLAY WITH US, CUSTOMERS.

how rude are you to say that
but any ways u r right in every way
they dont know how to treat customers kindly
but it would feel nice to have an x-box

Is this really true