There's a part of me that wants to say that I'm surprised people are being such pricks about what was obviously a pricing error... But then I remember that we've seen this time and time before... A company makes a mistake, and the deal community (or at least a fraction thereof) is ready to pounce on the lawsuits. I have a few problems with all that's been posted here:
a) This was obviously a pricing mistake. Anyone that went into this deal thinking it was a _legitimate_price_reduction_ doesn't have their head squarely attached to their body. And if they do... I'm thinking they're really flexible, as that head must be stuck somewhere particularly aromatic. When something is so obviously a pricing error, you can't expect that they're really going to fill all those orders and take a horrific loss on the transactions...Even if it's negative PR (which I'll return to later).
b) Some have said that if this happened in a B&M store, they would have honored all the prices, and wouldn't have cancelled orders. This is just hilarious. Of course it wouldn't happen in a brick and mortar store. The dynamics are _completely_different_. If I was walking through a store that had a "priced as marked" policy, and I found a 17" flatscreen marked at $3.99, there's a chance that they'd honor it, figuring that someone screwed up in printing $3.99 instead of $399. But you can bet your hindquarters that they'd be back there in a heartbeat to fix that problem. That doesn't happen online, because humans aren't involved on the selling side of the transaction. We know this as the rule that you don't _call_ to confirm deals, because as soon as you do, the deal is over for those who didn't get in before you alerted them to the mistake. So you expect dell to put alerts on their site to tell them when things are selling too well? God forbid they might have a good day and move a lot of a given unit... Yes, this is different... Yes, they probably should have caught it earlier... But they didn't. Deal with it.
c) So you called and had to deal with an angry/frustrated CSR... I wonder why they were frustrated... I bet it was because the previous 10 calls they'd received that day were from pricks who were trying to argue with them and threaten them with lawsuits over a pricing error. I guess I'm just willing to bet that those of you who called in weren't the nicest, and if you started out nice, you rather quickly turned sour at finding they wouldn't work with you... I don't know about you, but if I'd received 10 calls in the past hour which turned from pleasant to lawsuit in just under a minute, I'd bet that the 11th caller who started out pleasant would be going to the same place. As a CSR, I'd be pissed too. Especially given that I probably wouldn't have the authorization to fix your problem anyway. I'd be the messenger, and I'd be blamed.
d) My final point... About Dell's reputation... I've bought many things from Dell. The vast majority of them have been their normal price. A few times I've gotten in on decent deals, but never one of this magnitude. The fact that I ordered one of these systems and the order was cancelled does NOTHING to change my opinion of Dell. In my opinion, they make great systems that are extremely stable at a good price. The fact is that Dell is a smart company that isn't willing to lose money to keep from losing face in front of misers. So many of you talk about how you'll boycott Dell if this keeps up. You're kidding. If you started that, and a deal came around the next week, you know you'd be running back.
e) Ok, I have another... This isn't bait and switch. Bait and switch occurs when you _go_ someplace, find out that their teaser deal was bad, and then proceed to be upsold to something comprable (but more expensive). When I checked my order status at Dell, I'm pretty sure I don't remember seeing "Click here for a comprable deal!" If CSRs had called me and said "Oh... We can't do that deal, but for just $300 more, we can give you _this_" You might have something with your Bait and Switch Rhetoric (BS Rhetoric, now that I think of it)...
Quit your whining. It was a price error. They cancelled your order. Deal with it.
a) This was obviously a pricing mistake. Anyone that went into this deal thinking it was a _legitimate_price_reduction_ doesn't have their head squarely attached to their body. And if they do... I'm thinking they're really flexible, as that head must be stuck somewhere particularly aromatic. When something is so obviously a pricing error, you can't expect that they're really going to fill all those orders and take a horrific loss on the transactions...Even if it's negative PR (which I'll return to later).
b) Some have said that if this happened in a B&M store, they would have honored all the prices, and wouldn't have cancelled orders. This is just hilarious. Of course it wouldn't happen in a brick and mortar store. The dynamics are _completely_different_. If I was walking through a store that had a "priced as marked" policy, and I found a 17" flatscreen marked at $3.99, there's a chance that they'd honor it, figuring that someone screwed up in printing $3.99 instead of $399. But you can bet your hindquarters that they'd be back there in a heartbeat to fix that problem. That doesn't happen online, because humans aren't involved on the selling side of the transaction. We know this as the rule that you don't _call_ to confirm deals, because as soon as you do, the deal is over for those who didn't get in before you alerted them to the mistake. So you expect dell to put alerts on their site to tell them when things are selling too well? God forbid they might have a good day and move a lot of a given unit... Yes, this is different... Yes, they probably should have caught it earlier... But they didn't. Deal with it.
c) So you called and had to deal with an angry/frustrated CSR... I wonder why they were frustrated... I bet it was because the previous 10 calls they'd received that day were from pricks who were trying to argue with them and threaten them with lawsuits over a pricing error. I guess I'm just willing to bet that those of you who called in weren't the nicest, and if you started out nice, you rather quickly turned sour at finding they wouldn't work with you... I don't know about you, but if I'd received 10 calls in the past hour which turned from pleasant to lawsuit in just under a minute, I'd bet that the 11th caller who started out pleasant would be going to the same place. As a CSR, I'd be pissed too. Especially given that I probably wouldn't have the authorization to fix your problem anyway. I'd be the messenger, and I'd be blamed.
d) My final point... About Dell's reputation... I've bought many things from Dell. The vast majority of them have been their normal price. A few times I've gotten in on decent deals, but never one of this magnitude. The fact that I ordered one of these systems and the order was cancelled does NOTHING to change my opinion of Dell. In my opinion, they make great systems that are extremely stable at a good price. The fact is that Dell is a smart company that isn't willing to lose money to keep from losing face in front of misers. So many of you talk about how you'll boycott Dell if this keeps up. You're kidding. If you started that, and a deal came around the next week, you know you'd be running back.
e) Ok, I have another... This isn't bait and switch. Bait and switch occurs when you _go_ someplace, find out that their teaser deal was bad, and then proceed to be upsold to something comprable (but more expensive). When I checked my order status at Dell, I'm pretty sure I don't remember seeing "Click here for a comprable deal!" If CSRs had called me and said "Oh... We can't do that deal, but for just $300 more, we can give you _this_" You might have something with your Bait and Switch Rhetoric (BS Rhetoric, now that I think of it)...
Quit your whining. It was a price error. They cancelled your order. Deal with it.