HP’s Response To A Price Mistake: A True Class Act.

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Price mistakes occur more often that you think. They are often posted to the DansDeals Forums.

I rarely run them on DansDeals.com as practically none of them are ever honored and I’d rather not have my inbox flooded with hundreds if not thousands of angry emails from people about the deal not being honored and “how dare I waste their time.” The next day I would then receive emails from hundreds of my feedburner daily email subscribers asking why I’m sending them emails after the deal is already over. (Folks it’s a daily digest of yesterday’s deals, if you want instant alerts then follow @DansDeals on twitter!)

This past Sunday I posted a price mistake on DDF to get a fully loaded $3,000 HP desktop for $100. I wrote there, “Chance of being honored: 0.0000000000000001%” but posted it there for DDF members to have fun with and kill some time on a Sunday. I even ordered one souped up model myself just for the heck of it.

Of course we all had our orders cancelled, but then came the surprise. An email with the subject line “A Sincere Apology for Our Mistake‏”

Most companies blow off people that take advantage of a price mistake and rarely even bother to apologize.
A notable exception is with airfare where the government enforces price mistakes.

But HP put itself in a class of it’s own with this gem that dozens of DDF members received,

“Dear Customer,

We made a mistake. There was an obvious error that listed the final price of your recent order at $120 instead of providing you with a $120 discount. While we have to cancel your order, we don’t want you to be too disappointed. In addition to our sincere apology, we are offering those who ordered the HP Pavilion h8-1300z desktop PC on August 5th the choice of two offers. You can either have:

-A coupon worth $200 off just about everything we sell.
or
-20% off an HP Pavilion h8-1300z desktop PC configured just as you’d like.

You should see a refund on your credit card or the payment account you used within 3 to 5 business days, depending on your bank’s processing time.

Making sure customers have a positive experience is a priority for us here at HP Direct. We hope you take advantage of our offer, and again, we are really sorry about our error.

Regards,

Dave Hill
General Manager
HP Direct”

Wow, just wow. What a way to generate customer loyalty!
If you did catch the error on Sunday be sure to check your spam folder as many DDF members have reported it going there.

And sorry folks for not posting here on the main DansDeals site, but it’s just another reason why you should be following the incredible DansDeals Forum community!
Ducking from the nastygrams headed the way of my inbox.

Leave a Reply

25 Comments On "HP’s Response To A Price Mistake: A True Class Act."

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

jj1000

And hear I thought I was all smart sitting this deal out :(. So what is the best item you can buy for $200? Probably be nice to post that for whoever did receive the coupon.

yair

Kudos to HP, but having bought some HP gear (most recently an HP touchpad), I won’t be buying HP anytime soon, because their post-sale support is just absolutely awful. I mean, IVR hell in India, “I’m sorry you feel that way” awful.

anon

my order got cancelled did not receive a coupon not even in spam any idea who i can contact to try and get a coupon

Mow

There is a all in one laser printer for 209 and a 23 in screen for 199
Any other ideas
Thanks Dan for another 200 bucks for free

Dan

@Mow:
-Printer Ink
-Webcams
-Wireless Keyboard/Mouse
-External DVD Burner

Lots of good stuff you can get for free, congrats for following DDF!

John

At the bottom of the HP’s shopping cart page the following terms appear “Despite our best efforts, a small number of items may contain pricing, typography, or photography errors. Correct prices and promotions are validated at the time your order is placed. These terms apply only to products sold by the HP Home & Home Office Store; reseller offers may vary.”
I interpret this to say all prices are validated and corrected at the time the order is placed–meaning the price IS valid. My order was cancelled by HP and I was offered a coupon for up to $200 off of an item from their site. $200 is nothing when it can’t even be combined with online instant rebates. A lot of the rebates are more than than $200, which renders the coupon worthless. I don’t think HP is being sincere in their efforts to meet their obiligation of fulfilling items prices that were “validated” at the time of placing my order. At a minimum I believe HP should sell 1 of the computers to each customer that ordered one at the advertised and “validated” price and offer a $200 plus coupon combinable with other discounts for all other computer orders it cannot fulfill.

Dan

@John:
Sorry but they are under no obligation at all to honor a price mistake.

The fact that they gave a voucher that can get you a free 23″ HD LED is more than generous in my book.

Sunny

Im waiting for the people to come and say “Did you ask a shaila?? bla bla bla…. Even if they give you a coupon who said your allowed to use it??….

Jon

Dan, a 3,000$ pc for 100$, why wouldn’t you mention it on dansdeals.com instead of solely putting it on DDF?

jong

@Jon:

haha seriously?

join ddf – its a nice family — we don’t bite…. too hard

Avid Reader

Wow! This is an amazing response from HP. I’m really surprised!

Thanks Dan for posting this deal and follow up email (which went right into my spam folder)!

Gershon

Just picked up a webcam and a 21″ Monitor.

Thanks Dan!

Nate

Dan please post all these kinds of price mistakes or deals on the main sight so we can get a tweet about it. Don’t listen to the 1% and just leave it in the form it’s only 1%
of the visitors that complain! We ALL (99%) want this!!!!

yankle

any updates as of 08-09-12 on if elal is going to houner the tickets?

Springbachur

@Nate: Huh? Just join the ddf forums it’s very simple

deal lurker

@all the complainers.

Dan didn’t post this bec of past times that he posted deals that probably weren’t going to be honored – and weren’t honored – and got hate mail for weeks about how he posted illegitimate deals.

Those guys blow it for everyone.

Join ddf and you’ll find out about almost every deal BEFORE it hits dansdeals.com. in fact many price mistakes/questionable deals never even make it to dd.com

Bentzy

Hey Dan,

Thanks a ton for the heads up. I also didnt think that I would get a $3000 computer for 100, but I gave it a shot. Luckily I looked in my spam folder and found that I had got a 200 ticket, which I spent on a $200 printer (150 after rebates).

It may have worked, I will definitely consider HP in the future.

WINNIE

got my cancel email this morning from HP.but no coupon or reason y they cancel it

Jefff

Same here… got a cancellation no coupon in spam or junk mail.

Dan

@WINNIE:
Give it a day, it comes separately.

Sarah

I got the wifi enabled 3d blu ray player. Showed up yesterday, 1 day free shipping. Color me happy 🙂

Jefff

Still havent received the coupon..

Fig

HP has jacked up the price of all its monitor by $100! Coupon is a joke now.

alex

^Fig’s right

seems like they upped the price of everything on the online store
anyone who uses their coupon after 8/9 has the $200 value significantly decreased

$200->$300 monitor (would be free, now $100 bucks)

betting they’ll put all the prices back to normal as soon as the coupon expires 8/18

Jefff

I have been back and forth with HP, and I am yet to get my coupon. Not sure if Ill even get it at this point.

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