Best Buy IdeaX

[#1]

Well...I'm here to tell my 2 cents on how gamers could get a graphics card without the interruption of scalpers and miners interference. This is more of an idea that I'm hoping BestBuy sees or a high ranking employee sees and tells someone higher to possibly implement my idea. I don't want credit or anything; I just want gamers (including myself, lol) to have a fairer chance at getting a graphics card at MSRP instead of those "scalper prices". Ok with that being clear, let's get into it.  Alright so my first idea on this thread is that BestBuy implements a pausing period and a 1 graphics card per graphics card drop rule. A pausing period stops all of your graphics card purchases on BestBuy's website until 1 or 2 (you can pick any amount of time, BestBuy) graphics card drop(s) ends. Let me give an example. On January 19, 2022 you purchase a graphics card from BestBuy. After your purchase, your pausing period begins. fast forward to the next month...a graphics card drop happens on Febuary 21, 2022. You can't purchase nor put a graphics card in your cart because your still in pausing period. Skip to the next day (Febuary 22, 2022) your pausing period ends because its the day after the graphics card drop. If the pausing period is more than 1 drop (say 2) it would end the day after the second drop. Pausing Period should also be linked to your IP Address to stop users from making another BestBuy Account to avoid pausing period. The 1 Graphics Card Per Drop idea kinda links to Pausing Period because it prevents you from getting a card from the same drop. What i mean is you create a order for a RTX 3080 then go and create another order for a RTX 3070. Pausing Period should also start as soon as you order the first graphics card to prevent this. OK...you may be thinking, "what happens if the graphics card order cancels because the user went over the limited graphics card supply quantity?" Well no problem. Pausing Period should end when the cancellation email goes to your email inbox, then an additional email should go out notifying you that your Pausing Period Has Ended explaining why it has ended. The "Pausing Period Has Ended" email should also go out when it has officially ended after 2 drops. Well that was my idea for today! Sorry if it sounded kinda empty. I've never been good at writing in school and out of school, lol. See ya Later  - yours truly, CJ

[#2]

Why only a month, make it 6 months or a year?

Blocking IP address would not function very well. I could have my computer on my home network, my laptop going hot spot on my phone.  And if I was that into it I could have several phones all hot spotted to laptops or tablets or just simply use different phone to make the purchase. 

Multiple accounts are also a very easy thing to do. 

I don't think bots are as big of a deal as conspiracy makes them out to be.  More of an issue is the twitter people who alert millions of people when an item drops.

I managed to get a PS5 on my first try.  Simply by finding out ahead of time when they were dropping. If I had been set up with multiple accounts I could have gotten more than one. 

The best and possibly the only way to make more available is to get over the chip and other shortages.  The other way to stop scalpers is to get people to quit buying from them.

However, it does irk me quite a bit to go to auction sites and see GPU's and consoles going for a lot over msrp.

[#3]

Sir you clearly didn’t read my post..

[#4]

Thanks for the suggestions. I can assure you that we are consistently working on ways to better improve our business. Any other thoughts on this? Make sure to vote for an idea if you like it.

[#5]

Rather than a pausing period, Best buy introduced the wait list while for the Add to Cart button to appear. Yes this still allows for people to scalp if they pay attention. But it lessens the chance for Bots to get access. You are most likely fighting real people when trying to buy a graphics card right now.

My thoughts on this would be to implement what Sony has. Which is a wait list + captcha + CC number check + limit the number to 1 per customer. Yes this does allow a user to create a new account and use gift cards. But it makes it more competitive for programs to make it accessible. I personally have no issue buying console or graphics cards. This is due to watching drops, but also understanding how Best Buy currently handles purchases on such items.

Your method could make sense, but that will require a whole new table of information to save into a database keeping track of dates, whereas using existing information would just require references to existing tables allow less work for database administrators to deal with. Maybe they can add some sort of cool down time, but that's not exactly fair with consumer standards.

[#6]

It appears that now with Total Tech you can get access to a limited quantity of hard to get items.

I believe you can only buy so many in a given time period.