Gore Book Sales Tank, Supporters Claim Unfair Tactics

Transterrestrial Musings ^ | November 23, 2002 | Rand Simberg

[NonZeroSum]

Seattle, WA November 22, 2002 (APUPI)

Former Vice President Al Gore's new book, "Spirit of Family," has been out for over a week and a half, but it's selling poorly, despite an expensive campaign by Al and Tipper, and much free publicity from the media. Yesterday, it was #11,231 on Amazon.com's list of top-selling books.

Supporters of the former Vice President are calling foul, however, claiming that the Amazon web site is very confusing, and makes it difficult to purchase the book properly. They have airlifted a large number of hired lawyers into Seattle to sue Amazon to force it to issue refunds on mistakenly purchased books, and instead send copies of the Gore book to Amazon customers. There are also allegations, unproven so far, that there have been police roadblocks and other Republican-funded tactics to prevent Gore supporters from getting to Borders and Barnes & Noble.

However, defenders of Amazon claimed that the Gores had tried to artificially inflate sales by busing hordes of people, who had never before used the Internet, to public web terminals, to allow them to purchase the book. In addition, many were given mistaken instructions, and told to "purchase a book on every page."

Though many of the site designers were Gore supporters themselves, there were many complaints of difficulty in using it. "When you go to the website, there are lots of flashing ads and things, and you have to manually type in the name of the author or title to get to a page that allows you to actually buy the book," said one frustrated customer. "They wouldn't take cash or checks, but only credit cards. I don't have a credit card."

Even those who managed to complete a purchase, didn't always do it correctly. Many accidentally purchased Pat Buchanan's "Death of the West." Several ended up with Segway scooters.

"Many of Mr. Gore's supporters were new to this, and had never even read a book before, let alone purchased one," said Gore's chief attorney, David Boyishness. "They had no experience with web sites, or reading material."

He went on, "It's ridiculous to think that people like this would want to buy a book by Pat Buchanan. His book is the antithesis of everything that Mr. Gore's book stands for."

The Gores are requesting that the court order a mandatory repurchase of all mistaken books, and have those mistaken purchases replaced with the Gore book. Amazon attorneys have argued that there's no way to determine a book purchaser's intent, except to look at the actual on-line orders.

"It wouldn't be fair to those people who actually wanted Mr. Buchanan's book to force them to return it, and have to read the Gore book instead," said an Amazon spokesman.

The Gore team doesn't accept this argument, and will ask the court to "estimate" the number of people who would have actually purchased the Gore book had the site been easier to manage, and randomly send them books while garnishing their wages for the cost of it.

Mr. Boyishness summed it up.

"It was very unfair of Amazon.com to make it so complicated and difficult to buy Mr. and Mrs. Gore's book. Buying and reading books are one of the foundations of our democracy. It's very important to make every purchase count, and we expect that the court will agree with us."

(copyright 2002 by Rand Simberg)

[Steven W.]

this is one of the DemoncRATs typically defenses ala "our voters are so stupid they " [couldn't figure out how fill in the ballot] [were confused by the web site] [didn't know they were dead] etc

[sweetliberty]

ROTFL! THIS IS SERIES!

[Clara Lou]

That's the thing-- it's just so plausible. I wouldn't put it past a Democrat.

[wayoverontheright]

Isn't it funny how when a liberal writes a book, the authors(Gore, Hillary, Stephanopolis, Begala, Carville, etc.) are all trotted out before us on the main stream media BEFORE the release of the book, and the very successful conservative authors are begrudgingly given facetime AFTER they become bestsellers? Examples that come to mind are Coulter, Hannity, Bernard Goldberg, Rush, etc. (I'm not sure Bernard Goldberg ever made it to the lefties' media.)

[Mark]

Let Freedom Ring

[jws3sticks]

Here's what the guys down the block have to say to AllBore and his bride, Tupper.

[AStack75]

What a crock. I just went to Amazon.com and it took me roughly two seconds to find Al Gore's book. How moronic do you have to be to accidentally purchase a Segway Human Transporter? Those things require a $495 down payment. You would think that it would set of some alarms in your head that something is wrong when you are purchasing a book and the total cost is $495. But these are Dummiecrats we're talking about here so I guess we really shouldn't be too surprised.

[sweetliberty]

One thing about liberals, it's getting harder and harder to tell real from satire. The two are that similar. Ever look at some of their websites? I swear the first time I looked at "Smirking Chimp" and "Bartcop" I would have sworn they were satirical.

[Smedley]

I hear that Charmin toilet tissue is at 1/2 price now. Is that the unfair competition Gore is upset about?

[muir_redwoods]

Amazon is engaging in unfair tactics because they unfairly structure their website only for people who can read. As is consistent with national Democrat policies(?) it is only fair that booksellers consider that many of their customers may be illiterate.

Particularly those that want a book by Al Gore

[Vigilanteman]

Who is Algore?

[Brad’s Gramma]

Yesterday, it was #11,231 on Amazon.com's list of top-selling books.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[HHFi]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195115252/qid=1038090621/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-5007088-0223950?v=glance&s=books

[NonZeroSum]

The Onion isn't the only website that does parody...

[cgbg]

It really would help sales if the cover was treated with chemicals guaranteed to start fires. Then all those crazy extreme trailer trash right-wingers who drive pick-ups and heat their homes with wood stoves would be more likely to buy it!

It also might help if the cover said "Each page has scent that your pet can't resist. Vet tested for guaranteed puppy training!" ;-)

[BonnieJ]

The funny thing is that most of us probably believed this story at least part of the way through! And that sure shows you what we have come to expect of Al Gore and so many Democrats the past few years!

[mombonn]

LOL! I can't wait to read the replies! What a great post!

[barker]

Heard on the news this morning that Gore will be in KC Monday for a book signing. Didn't hear where. Can't go because of work.

However, if I could go, would it be considered tacky, or perhaps meanspirited to wear my "I Stand United With President Gearge W Bush" hat and ask him to sign a Soreloserman poster?

[Paul Atreides]