You don’t plan to fail but you can fail to plan.
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That’s the lesson to be gained out of Dick Smith’s disastrous gaming sale, which kicked off on Monday last and left thousands of consumers sour faced-after the mammoth sale went horribly wrong.
Some were even branding the $7m clearance sale a “scam” after Dick’s website crashed with enthusiastic consumers wishing to get their hands on massive bargains including Sony’s PSP for $40 and Assassins Creed 2 for just $5, while others arrived instore to find out the sale goods were not even in stock.
A document leaked online which listed everything – including consoles, gaming titles that were to go on sale was part of the problem, a ‘mystery’ DS employee told Gizmodo.
Read: Scorned Customers Lash Out Over Dick Smith’s $7M Sale ‘Scam
The leaked list didn’t mean every item would be available in every store, the staffer added.
“To us staff, we can translate that document immediately to see what’s in stock and what isn’t, whereas anyone else would have looked at it and thought ‘EVERYTHING IS ON SALE!”
The leaked item list forced the retailer to fast forward the sale to April 02 – a full ten days before it was actually scheduled to take place on the 12th.
“We were meant to be given a week to price all the games and have it ready for sale come April 12th but due to the leak the entire thing was bumped up, giving us staff very little time to prepare for it,” the employee revealed.
And was it a way for Dick to flog gaming stock due to discontinuation of its gaming department?
No it was “just to clear out old gaming stock,” the mystery employee insists.
“Dick Smith is certainly continuing to sell games because no new games were put on sale and our system is still being actively stocked. I’d wager they’re trying to liquidate old stock as Woolworths do want to sell the business off.”
Dick Smith’s General Manger blamed “the unforseen popularity of Dick Smith gaming sale” for customers leaving the store empty handed.
“We understand a certain amount of misinformation was published online last week that led some customers to believe certain products were on sale when they were not or they were a different discount.”
