VOUCHER CODE DEALS CONCEPT PLAN!

[Unseul]

No I agree, its not going to please everyone, just feel a little disappointed probably because I'm one of those who's been wanting an upgrade for ages. Think I'm on 370 ish posts over 7 years or roughly 1 per week. IMO I'd say I'm part of the community. I predict this brilliant initiative from OC will be done once its gone to the main forum and gets abused. I'm also sure there are tons of people who sit in this middle ground that are likely to miss an opportunity as a result... such is life ......

It's why they're looking at a mid point, not the large cutoff of the Members Market, but equally, not something that a bot is going to be able to easily access either.

Plenty of people have been waiting ages, I'd given up entirely, but this initiative gave me the chance to grab a card I'd not dreamed of getting, due to the insane prices, and speed of bots etc. It's not perfect, but it's far better than bots/scalpers grabbing 90% of the stock.

 

[Goosy]

Really curious as to what Gibbo and Scotti will come up with, guess time will tell.

 

[Nicholas Eagle]

Sorry, please extend my apologies to your missus too. We have no way of separating the genuine orders from the scalpers/miners and they cleared us out of pretty much all graphics card stock. So we had to made a choice.

We couldn't realistically allow the orders to go through since it would mean, not only, abandoning the plans to do more controlled sales via the forum, but also essentially closing down sections of our system build business for a week or two whilst we rebuild the stock.

We are looking into a way to create a private forum for less active members such as yourself in which we can post deals away from the prying eye of the bots. It's not as simple as it sounds but hopefully it'll happen and you can still get your card. Either way, now that we've managed to stop the orders there's still a public voucher test due Monday I believe.

Rest assured, we've done nothing to brand last nights customers as bots (apart from a few actually seen scalping).


Sorry again, as I mentioned yesterday

we discovered shortly after this that the sudden surge in traffic to pages with stock (this is how we know it was caused by bots because the stock feed us hidden from public view) somehow managed to break the pages so that the buy button could be seen. We were so busy trying to fix the hidden issue that we weren't watching the website itself. We're still at a loss as to what exactly happened there, our system was telling the website that these cards were not available to order but the website was ignoring it.

We have, and are investing heavily in a new website and a number of new internal software packages but nothing is available "off the shelf" for a company such as ourselves. It has been a multi-year process involving countless man-hours and it's all due to go live later this year.

please accept my apologies, please see above.

Thanks for taking your time to respond, it really is appreciated.

Can I float an idea?

So bots and any monitoring system is generally going to cause issues for any site regardless of age or ability.

I personally was using the notifications on stockinforme.co.uk this is obviously polling your site and item pages for changes in the stock field or number of available.

So I'd rather not sit here waiting for a notification.

The idea would be to put different pages behind the login, (wall off public access to the GPUs pages or anything like this)
I suspect they would then just create a login to poll the site, you could monitor activity on accounts for suspicious web traffic just looking at GPU or all of them at the same time and maybe quarantine those accounts from seeing the GPUs.
I'd probably add additional checks or have a SMS 1 time code for finalising the purchase just before payment.

 

[teh_captain]

This is a very cool idea and i'll definitely be keeping a close eye on it. I've had to resort using a Discord server for stock alerts and I've nearly bagged a 3070 twice, but each time in the process of either logging in or creating an account for that site the card has disappeared from my basket

OcUK has generally been more on the expensive side compared to other e-tailers but if this system doesn't get abused (time will tell I guess) then everyone has a much fairer chance of finally getting a GPU.

 

[ShivP]

Thanks for taking your time to respond, it really is appreciated.

Can I float an idea?

So bots and any monitoring system is generally going to cause issues for any site regardless of age or ability.

I personally was using the notifications on stockinforme.co.uk this is obviously polling your site and item pages for changes in the stock field or number of available.

So I'd rather not sit here waiting for a notification.

The idea would be to put different pages behind the login, (wall off public access to the GPUs pages or anything like this)
I suspect they would then just create a login to poll the site, you could monitor activity on accounts for suspicious web traffic just looking at GPU or all of them at the same time and maybe quarantine those accounts from seeing the GPUs.
I'd probably add additional checks or have a SMS 1 time code for finalising the purchase just before payment.

This all takes a huge amount of time though... I don't think it is cost effective. End of the day OCUK is a business and not setup purely to sell cards directly to gamers

 

[John Kim]

Have you seen the Newegg Shuffle? What do you think about that for cards?

Must log-in
Must reply to 'win' within 2hr period
Keep record of who won and exclude for next batch

 

[Nicholas Eagle]

This all takes a huge amount of time though... I don't think it is cost effective. End of the day OCUK is a business and not setup purely to sell cards directly to gamers

In that then why even look at any solution.

I already said it earlier, a business is there it make money and sell services or items, oc said it too they could have just taken the money and let all those orders go last night. But they didn't..

They are obviously looking at ways to help the community so there's no harm in floating ideas like this.

End of the day, any idea they use or come up with will have gone through some sort of validation to see if it is cost effective (Id like to think that who ever got the short straw sorting the orders for last night will get compensated for their time accordingly)

All actions to help, will cost oc and ultimately drive up cost of service.

 

[Nicholas Eagle]

Have you seen the Newegg Shuffle? What do you think about that for cards?

Must log-in
Must reply to 'win' within 2hr period
Keep record of who won and exclude for next batch

I've not but sounds good, I mean putting anything behind a login like this is going to be good.

 

[Harlequin]

As said above, anything `new` would require a new employee - and the ability to work from home, all set up instantly.

 

[Lyon85]

If I couldn't access MM but I had been around here for a fair while I'm sure I'd feel a little left out, but it's so refreshing to see a store that shares our frustration with scalpers/miners. They don't have to do anything, they literally don't even need to try.

Where I work we sometimes do hardware giveaways, we can't always logistically offer this in every region, or publisher relations don't allow us to offer certain products or discounts in some regions. Sometimes the negative feedback from those people who missed out are extremely callous and disconnected to the reality of the situation. These things aren't super easy to orchestrate. Just be aware that everything has a cost for them. They can't magic up the perfect solution, these gestures take time and effort on top of their daily routine... and they don't even need to do it!

There are a lot of rational people here that are just a bit dissapointed, but if you have a better idea to the MM then just be aware that it's probably quite costly to implement.

 

[danlightbulb]

OK
Apologies up front if, by some fluke, any genuine customers got caught up in this but there shouldn't have been any cards (above 2060) for sale this evening. We had an issue with a hidden stock feed for about half an hour which a load of auto-buy bots...and possibly stock watch bots managed to latch onto.

We received about a thousand orders in a matter of minutes which managed to bypass the lack of a buy button.

Every single one has been identified, frozen and is in the process of being cancelled.

There's absolutely no way to find out if there are any genuine customers involved, there shouldn't be unless there was a second but involved.. but none of the cards should have been orderable so all orders are being cancelled.

There were even a few that made it through the warehouse buy we've grabbed those too so no scalpers are getting their cards tonight!

No customer who ordered a product that is supposed to be on sale should be affected.

Obviously the surge in traffic is causing some slow down, sorry

**applause**

I saw some 3070s for sale last night on wonky looking webpages. I did wonder why, having set up the MM system with such success and reception, that ocuk had then dropped a bunch of stock on the main site.

Just goes to show how extreme the automated buying issue is now.

Really good news to hear you're cancelling all these. Sorry if genuine buyers have missed out but its better than hundreds of cards going straight to bots.

 

[rare]

For all the people moaning, try getting this level of interaction with any of OCUK’s competitors. Not happening. OCUK should be applauded for trying a different approach.

They don’t have to do this. They could sell every card they have at a higher price if they wanted. They don’t actually owe anyone anything, if the stock sells it sells. They are taking a cut in both profit and man hours to try and get cheaper cards to people. It’s not going to be perfect. But it’s a damn sight more than anyone else is doing.

 

[HungryHippos]

For all the people moaning, try getting this level of interaction with any of OCUK’s competitors. Not happening. OCUK should be applauded for trying a different approach.

They don’t have to do this. They could sel every card they have at a higher price if they wanted. They don’t actually owe anyone anything, if the stock sells it sells. They are taking a cut in both profit and man hours to try and get cheaper cards to people. It’s not going to be perfect. But it’s a damn sight more than anyone else is doing.

Couldn't have said it better.

Plus they are trying to find a middle ground for people who have been members for a long time but don't have enough posts, so before moaning at them, people should wait and see what that looks like first.

 

[Nicholas Eagle]

For all the people moaning, try getting this level of interaction with any of OCUK’s competitors. Not happening. OCUK should be applauded for trying a different approach.

They don’t have to do this. They could sel every card they have at a higher price if they wanted. They don’t actually owe anyone anything, if the stock sells it sells. They are taking a cut in both profit and man hours to try and get cheaper cards to people. It’s not going to be perfect. But it’s a damn sight more than anyone else is doing.

Hey I just find it interesting that points out others for moaning are generally going to have over 1000 posts, just an observation maybe if the shoe was on the other foot.

OC is a business like any other and they are here to make money.

 

[ScottiB]

The idea would be to put different pages behind the login, (wall off public access to the GPUs pages or anything like this)
I suspect they would then just create a login to poll the site, you could monitor activity on accounts for suspicious web traffic just looking at GPU or all of them at the same time and maybe quarantine those accounts from seeing the GPUs.
I'd probably add additional checks or have a SMS 1 time code for finalising the purchase just before payment.

Unfortunately, both of these are beyond our current website's capabilities and we can't really invest time & money into a site which we are expecting to replace in a couple of months. Our resources are focused on getting all of our new system live and tested before the "Q4 rush"....that phrase is hilarious to me at the moment since demand is currently higher than any Q4 that I've ever experienced, but still, we have a lot to do to achieve it so we'd never get the sign off to divert the development team.

 

[Nicholas Eagle]

Unfortunately, both of these are beyond our current website's capabilities and we can't really invest time & money into a site which we are expecting to replace in a couple of months. Our resources are focused on getting all of our new system live and tested before the "Q4 rush"....that phrase is hilarious to me at the moment since demand is currently higher than any Q4 that I've ever experienced, but still, we have a lot to do to achieve it so we'd never get the sign off to divert the development team.

Hey unprecedented times, previous models can't really be used anymore.

 

[Txeptsyip]

**applause**

I saw some 3070s for sale last night on wonky looking webpages. I did wonder why, having set up the MM system with such success and reception, that ocuk had then dropped a bunch of stock on the main site.

Just goes to show how extreme the automated buying issue is now.

Really good news to hear you're cancelling all these. Sorry if genuine buyers have missed out but its better than hundreds of cards going straight to bots.

I dunno I wish they could have perhaps checked account age and/or purchase history or something (although the orders were probably cancelled with a big script and not individually stopped)

 

[Harlequin]

I dunno I wish they could have perhaps checked account age and/or purchase history or something (although the orders were probably cancelled with a big script and not individually stopped)

The products were not supposed to be live - so, to even let *1* through could have had complaints to Trading Standards. So, in the interest of legal fairness - they cancel everything (pricing mistake). Happens all the time on HUKD.

 

[ScottiB]

OC is a business like any other and they are here to make money.

On a personal note I'd argue this to a point. Yes we are a business and we have to make money to survive but as a company OcUK's hiring policy has always been "are you passionate about PCs and gaming?"

My job interview...about 20 years ago now basically consisted of being asked what PC I had and a quick look at my CV...when I said " I have a Intel Pentium Northwood overclocked to..." they gave me the job instantly.

Gibbo and I have over 40 years combined experience in this industry and, frankly, we grew up in this company. We both left OcUK, experienced other companies in the industry for a few years and then came back, it's definitely more than just a job for us.

 

[Txeptsyip]

The products were not supposed to be live - so, to even let *1* through could have had complaints to Trading Standards. So, in the interest of legal fairness - they cancel everything (pricing mistake). Happens all the time on HUKD.

oh yeah... didn't really think about that end of it

I'm just a tad salty I guess