People who do right, even when there’s nothing in it for them–the dozens of spectators and bystanders who ran into the chaos to help their fellow human beings, both in Boston and in West, Texas, the people in those places who opened their houses to the refugees without being asked or told to do so, the people who dropped whatever they were doing and rushed to donate blood when that was the only thing they could do to help, as we saw in Dallas, and in the communities surrounding Boston.
And now, we include the Razer company.
Through a fluke involving a test on their website, the company suddenly found its UK site swamped with orders with a false coupon code for 90% off. They decided to honor the false code, and make the sales at huge losses.
Three days ago, gaming hardware manufacturer Razer found itself in a bit of a mess. By simply typing in “1234,”customers at Razer’s UK online store discovered a rogue coupon code would give them an absurd 90 percent off any of the company’s products. Needless to say, thousands of orders piled up before Razer could put a stop to the scheme. But instead of invalidating those orders, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan has decided to honor the unofficial deal in order to generate more goodwill towards the company.
Razer’s quality control is hit and miss, but when they get a hit, they make some amazing gaming hardware.
Tan explains that while the deal “will likely cost us an insane amount of losses” due to selling the items well below cost, the company’s “customer comes first” policy directed his decision. “We want to do right by the community,”
Villago Delenda Est
“We want to do right by the community”
The man is a communist. There it is, right there in his statement.
PeakVT
I guess this falls into the “no such thing as bad publicity” category because I’ve never heard of Razer before.
Soonergrunt
@PeakVT: They make computer keyboards, mice, and mouse pads for the gaming market. As I noted in the column, they’re quality control has been hit or miss of late, but they’ve made some kick-ass keyboards and especially mice in the past.
oldster
I am a lot more confident that there are good people in the world, than I am confident that a corporation that is going to sell a lot of units is doing so from the goodness of its corporate heart.
Hell, if there really is no upside to this on the profit ledger, than that man is violating his “fiduciary responsibilities” to the stock-holders!
People can do good things, without ulterior motives. Corporations, never. It’s right there in their charter.
Mnemosyne
Feh. Pikers. nellcote linked to a story below about Costco (one of their part-time employees is the victim in an iconic photo of the event).
Just one of the reasons I’m a member.
Mandalay
@oldster:
Exactly. It’s not really even meaningful to claim that a corporation does “good” things. It makes about as much sense as saying that a shark does “bad” things.
mai naem
Not the most important question in the world but does Mass have the death penalty? Is there a way this guy going to get the death penalty?
I am glad they caught the guy but I am really sad at what he’s done and for what reason? I can’t get into the head of somebody like this. I just don’t get it. And both the guys seemed to be bright kids with good futures.
Also, I hope all the attention they got does not encourage copy cats. Unfortunately I can see some dumbass 17 yr old thinking to himself “Wow, I could become famous doing the same thing!”
Calouste
There have been cases before like this in the UK, and the ruling was that in general the customer could claim the advertised price, unless it was obviously a mistake. Putting things up at half price means the seller is stuffed, putting something up for 9.99 when the real price is 999.00 gives them recourse. 90% off with a hidden coupon would probably have given Razer a case, but they probably thought that the potential legal costs and the free publicity outweigh the losses.
Redshirt
Corporations are people, friends.
maya
Somewhere in the Romney compound ears are perking up.
Roxy
@Redshirt:
So sayeth the Supreme Court twice
Mnemosyne
@mai naem:
IIRC, Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, but these would probably be considered federal crimes, and there is a federal death penalty. Timothy McVeigh was tried and sentenced to death by a federal court, not by the state of Oklahoma.
Gin & Tonic
@oldster: What if it’s a privately-held corporation? I don’t know that that’s the case here, but let’s say the CEO is the majority (or sole) stockholder. If he causes the company to do something that benefits his customers but causes him to lose money, and his fiduciary duty is to himself, what’s your conclusion then? I don’t think it’s that cut and dried. Companies sometimes do things that we’d consider altruistic if they were done by an individual, in the hope that good PR may drive some future sales. Does that make what they did not altruistic?
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne: McVeigh blew up a federal building.
max
@mai naem: Is there a way this guy going to get the death penalty?
If the Feds try the case, and the Feds are currently in charge, then likely, but that depends on what Holder thinks.
And both the guys seemed to be bright kids with good futures.
And we don’t know why they did that. There’s a reason, even if it’s a *stupid* reason they did that. Since they brought the kid in alive, hopefully it’ll be easy to learn what it is.
Unfortunately I can see some dumbass 17 yr old thinking to himself “Wow, I could become famous doing the same thing!”
That’s pretty much every mass shooting of the last 7 or 8 years or more. (Maybe since Columbine.) That stuff is contagious.
max
[‘But people don’t want to look like morons, so if the kid turns out to basically have been dumb, it will tend to discourage mythmaking. Which is another good reason to have him alive.’]
arguingwithsignposts
@Gin & Tonic: I was going to say something similar. Corporations are as good or bad as the people who run them.
JoyfulA
@Mnemosyne: And he’s a part-time employee with full health insurance. I wish a Costco was within a reasonable distance from me.
Suzanne
@Mnemosyne: I love Costco so much. I don,t like to shop and almost never do for fun, but I will confess to loving to idly walk around Costco. (But not on the weekend.)
Mnemosyne
@MikeJ:
I think using an explosive device is an automatic federal charge, but I’m too lazy to look it up right now. Maybe once the cider has worn off.
Suffern ACE
@mai naem
I don’t want to go too far off topic, or go off on a commenter I like, but…one of the guys couldn’t finish college, had stopped boxing, was married and had a kid but no one has mentioned a job that I recall. And the other was failing most of his classes at university according to the times. Everyone (save the uncle) has said what good boys they were, though. But they weren’t.
There is no need to go ooogah boogah Muslim evil, which is wrong. But, I don’t know. If these guys had raped drugged women would we worry about their bright futures?
Right after columbine there were all of these stories about how they were picked on, or members of some mafia, or gay lovers, that turned out to be false. We now are entering the post crisis phase, and for some reason, the narrative is setting in that one brother is goofus being all muslimly and evil while the other is gallant. Gallant, however much his friends say they liked him, apparently went back to college on Wednesday after committing a murder and tweeted away like nothing happened. He may be good at manipulating others into thinking he’s a nice guy, but I don’t think he showed a lot of concern for others.
Redshirt
Ya ever wonder if Cole loves his Twitter account more than his Blog?
Calouste
This awful week is not done yet. Third major earthquake this week, this time in China. 6.6, two casualties reported so far.
Yutsano
@Redshirt: The blog keeps Tunch in his accustomed ahi supply, so the hairless ape has to keep it for that reason alone.
Violet
@Redshirt: Twitter’s easier. Don’t have to think as hard or write as much.
burnspbesq
@oldster:
As near as I can tell from publicly available information, Razer has only two shareholders, Tan and Krakoff. If they are both on board, there is no breach.
In any event, it’s not difficult to justify this as an investment in the development of a marketing intangible that will pay off in the future–indeed, that investment has already started to pay off in favorable publicity.
Good try, but do make an effort to know the facts next time, before you jump to an incorrect legal conclusion..
Odie Hugh Manatee
This is going to be insanely expensive but really good advertising. Still, I’ll stick to my Logitech G-510 gaming keyboard and G-500 gaming mouse. I run several game servers with custom controls and the extra binds go a long way in (ab)using the admin controls.
Anne Laurie
@mai naem:
No, no we don’t. If he’s tried by the feds as a Terrorist, theoretically he could be sentenced to death, which is why certain publicity hounds and death pornographers are already pushing for it.
One reason to keep Knucklehead alive is that ‘dead martyr’ is a lot more glamourous to dumbass 17-year-olds than a guy in a jumpsuit turning wan and grey in a cell. Especially if that wan greying dude gives interviews about how dumb he was, and if he had a choice he’d do things differently. Counterterrorists have done actual studies about this scenario, with failed suicide bombers — nothing turned off potential copycats like the mundanity of living with one’s bad decisions.
Spaghetti Lee
@Suffern ACE:
The older one was accused by several of his family members of abusing his wife/girlfriend, which certainly disputes the ‘nice boys’ part. It seems like the older brother being the instigator and the younger being roped into it is possible based on what I’ve read about both, but who the hell knows? Not me.
The idea that he just went back to class on Wednesday and no one noticed is pretty chilling, though.
Anne Laurie
@Redshirt:
I’m sure Big Daddy Cole loves all his little media platforms just the same, it’s just that the ‘special’ runt needs more day-to-day attention.
Anne Laurie
@Spaghetti Lee:
The older one (Tamerlan) was a Golden Gloves boxer. Frontal lobe damage & ‘disinhibition’ of violent impulses could be mooted.
LanceThruster
I cringed hearing Bill Maher tonight asking, in light of Boston, shouldn’t we act more like the Israelis? In context he meant the “keep calm, carry on” stoicism, but it’s a frightening meme to float out there that Israel knows how to keep their Muslims in line, can use the powers of the state as both culprit and enforcer, and that we should adopt their model to any degree. Maybe they offered to train our leaders and security forces in how to always be able to find patsies to pull off the most brazen acts in plain site.
Narcissus
I use and enjoy my Razer Nostromo. I don’t think it’s as nice as the Logitech g13, but it was cheaper and takes up less desk space and has more than enough functionality.
Villago Delenda Est
@LanceThruster:
The Israeli response to everything seems to be “make some Palestinian untermenschen suffer.”
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
Would be surprised if this guy has done anything that would invoke a federal capital prosecution. McVeigh killed federal employees on the job.
I don’t foresee the death penalty applying here. Will gladly yield the floor to a lawyer type.
LanceThruster
@Villago Delenda Est:
And every entity that does not rubber stamp this policy (and pay for it to boot at a kalaidascope of levels.)
Roger Moore
I definitely like my Razer Black Widow mechanical keyboard. The keys feel better, the click lets me know what’s going on with my typing better, and the mechanical switches last just about forever. If I could get a wireless mechanical keyboard, I’d never need another.
Hobbes
Soonergrunt, is your guild on Shadowlands recruiting?
Mary G
Last night I slept through all the excitement, now I am wide awake and everyone else is sound asleep. Guess I’ll go to bed too.
Mary G
OK, JC was drunk tweeting a couple of hours ago, I’ll go read that.
kdaug
Rational self-interest.
Ding.
MikeJ
@Mary G:
PaulW
Now I know where to buy my gaming keyboards!
Because, damn me all to hell, the WASD keys keep getting rubbed away from my greasy, sweaty fingertips… :(
Bobby Thomson
@mai naem:
I don’t know why you would say that.
Seriously, bow tie? “The most interesting man in the world right now is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspected Boston Marathon bomber who was captured alive on Friday night.” Seriously?
WereBear
The reason so many people melt down in their early twenties is that the free ride is over. Everybody up to high school will bend over backwards to get you help and get you out the door. Your dating life is easy, because every eligible person in the town is showing up at the same place and times you are. Your screwups are excused. Your clothes are washed and your meals appear.
This covers up a lot of lacks. Many of these people will show themselves incapable of the simplest tasks of self-maintenance, self-motivation, and self-control. And now they have no backup.
MosesZD
Razer: “We want to do right by the community,”
Me: Razer Naga mouse, Razer headset and a general fan of Razer products and will own more as things break down over time…
EA: People who vote us worst company in America are homophobes.
Me: No, it’s your over-priced, predatory-licensed, franchise-churning crap-games and asshole customer service that caused me to vote for you. Plus your games are such crap, I don’t buy them anymore.
MosesZD
@Gin & Tonic:
Fiduciary duty doesn’t mean ‘maximize profits at all costs.’ Rather, it means to act in the Company’s best interest.
Sometimes things like this are in the Company’s best interest. Dedicated customers-for-life will forgive you the small crap and will keep coming back, even if you’re a little more expensive because quality and reliability and customer service mean a lot to us.
For example, until Carly Fiorina destroyed HP by trying to ‘maximize profits’ on the backs of their dedicated customer base, I bought nothing but HP computers and printers (for business) from the late 1980s until 2008. I also recommended them to everyone (in business) even though the were, on average, a bit more costly.
But after she screwed HP over and drove one of the best computer design and engineering companies into the ground… And the products became cheap, Dell-like junk… Now I don’t touch HP computers and I recommend people find gaming computer companies, like Digital Storm or eCollegePC to buy reliable PC computers.
A bit more expensive up front. But far more reliable and they last longer before becoming obsolete so, in the long-run, they’re actually cheaper. Plus they have GREAT customer service.
pacem appellant
Razer makes a left-handed gaming mouse that I love. I used to mouse right-handed, but after some RSI on my right wrist, I switched to left. The mouse is great, designed well, ergo, and even if corded, I wouldn’t trade it. I’m considering one for work as well, as my supposed ergo Switch Mouse has a hit and miss hit rate on the buttons.