Kmart's Black Friday Sale: Why I Am so Disappointed

On Thanksgiving Day, I thought I had done everything right: I checked all of the sale circulars to see which sales were relevant to me and then I checked the store to see which time the sale started. Kmart had a great sale going on: buy 2 Lego sets and get 1 free. I proceeded to log on to Kmart's website in order to view what sets they offered and see which ones were in stock. The Lego Café Corner was on my list, but it was sold out. Pleased that they had the Ferris Wheel, Townhouse, and Holiday Train in stock, I decided these would be the ones I would get.

The next morning was the day of the sale. At 5:30 a.m., I logged on and was thrilled to see that these sets were still in stock. So, I proceeded to add them to my basket. By the time my basket was done, the sale had just started and when the last item had been added, the free shipping discount and 3^rd item free discounts had both been applied. Great! I thought.

Now it came time for checkout. I logged on to the Kmart site and before I began my checkout, was informed that all of the Lego sets that I had in my basket were sold out. What? It couldn't be past 6:02 a.m., and the sale started at 6:00. I tried for an hour, again and again, as the sets said on the display results that they were in stock. After another hour, I gave up; exhausted from lack of sleep.

I woke up again around 10 that morning, determined to still take advantage of the sale. Unfortunately, Kmart's website was down. This was still occurring at 11, and then at noon. Oh well, sale over!

What upsets me most as a consumer is that there was no way that all 3 sets were sold out in less than two minutes. Even if that was the case, Kmart should have at least honored the sale price and allowed consumers to pay upfront and just have their Lego's backordered. I would have been more than willing to do this, as it was over a $90.00 savings for me that day. Between what happened on Kmart's website and Target's (another "web adventure" for me), I will never trust another merchant's Black Friday sales ever again.

Note: If interested in the Target article, you can view it here http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/458059/target_stores_whats_really_going_on.html