Moved to Forum: Original Link
Found this whilst browsing the site. It seems a lot cheaper than all other retailers so it seems like a good deal.
[PRICE ERROR] Asus Eee Slate Ep121 Windows 7 Tablet - $122 Harvey Norman
LSuperCow on 26/12/2012 - 02:23
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It does when you are interested in getting a tablet worth 288 eg the 7 inch nexus 32GB. Also remember some enthusiastic ppl have purchased more than 1- No limit to # of purchases.
I still dont think that constitutes "great detriment". It possibly delays someone buying the nexus (to use your example) for a few days. Sounds like more of a slight hold up.
I guess the only way to clarify that is to ask the ACCC what exactly is "great detriment".
Hi,
I'm trying to work out how to answer the question…
The tablet is on sale both in-store and online.
When we realized the pricing error we made adjustments to make sure the stores did not get the orders (As this would cause disruption)
Apologies again for your inconvenience
Kind regards
Harvey Norman
How could stores get orders ?
The clearance deal was limited to online only.Hi hossy2011,
Thanks for the reply.
You didn't address the question. That's fine that HN didn't allow stores to order stock.
But that's not what I asked.
HN only offered and advertised the item, as and EOY Clearance item, ONLINE ONLY.
you know this is a mistake, then don't sent me an email saying that I am the one that cancel the order, your email should state you made mistake and apologize, i didnt get any formal apologize from your company till now
Mr Rep,
What are your intentions about compensating all these people who suffered from your terrible service? Do you realize "refunding" is not going an extra mile for the inconvenience you caused? Everyone got frustrated, some children got ultra happy for nothing when they heard a new tablet was on the way, some customers could not spend their money on something else because you held their money for too long for no reason, some customers even ridiculously got charged adjustment fees from their refund, etc.. Should I continue? You may have just prevented yourself from losing a million dollars, well how about losing -lets say- 100 customers who could have spent at least 10.000 dollars at your shops for the rest of their lives? I am not even counting the rest…
You could at least have offered another "genuine" deal, or gift vouchers, or discount codes…. So, what is it going to be? Losing a few bucks in short term, or losing way more in a longer term…I think you can stuff that 'competition' where the sun don't shine. Seriously, every time you 'social' advisor post, I swear you're trolling us. Competition? You got to be kidding me
I can picture it now - the prize being a "Monster" home entertainment pack, containing a 'High Definition Speaker', a pair of 'Monster Earphones', a 'Monster' powerboard, and a 'Monster' HDMI cable … 4 items, total retail value = $2245.
http://www.harveynorman.com.au/endecasearch/result/?q=monste…
Small article in today's Melbourne HS titled 'Tablet Headache', and I quote:
Unhappy Harvey Norman customers say its online store reneged on a Boxing Day deal after a website bungle that could have cost the retailer close to $770,000.
Harvey Norman chief Gerry Harvey said a mistake occurred when uploading the sale price of an Asus tablet, which retails for about $800.
It was supposed to be discounted to about $600 but instead was listed as $122, the amount of the discount.
"It went up as a mistake around midnight and by 4am our people were alerted to it," Mr Harvey said.
But not before about 300 people snapped up 1600 of the bargain tablets, according to Mr Harvey, who said it was the work of professionals, not everyday consumers.
"It was obviously a mistake and they knew it," he said.
Mukul Singh and many consumer forum members said they had bought the Asus tablets in good faith.
The ACCC watchdog would not comment.Professionals? What a load of rubbish. It is clear on this forum, that most people assumed that for an old product and the timing that is was a legitimate price. :-\
Thanks for posting that article.
The comment from Mr Harvey accusing the customers of being some kind of professional opportunists was really unfair I thought. I frequently use ozbargain to help me find deals and if I see a deal like this, I'll spring for it looking at it as some kind of a lucky dip - not expecting it to be honoured, but would be delighted if it was. There would be no malice or ill will behind it. For that I don't think I deserve his contempt! I was never a big fan of the store before, attitudes like this really make me think twice about shopping there.
"But not before about 300 people snapped up 1600 of the bargain tablets"
This article really makes Harvey look like the underdog. It also suggests that the 300 actually received the tablets and Harvey honoured the deal.
Lol…the work of professionals…. What a load of bull dust.
The price was too tempting to just get one. You threw a bait out to bargain shoppers early on boxing day. People bought one, two, three units for their kids, brother, sister, partner and close relatives…. It was just normal human reaction to a great offer… stop playing the poor victim.If HN were really concerned for the genuine consumers shouldn't you have put some safeguards in the e-commerce system to limit the purchases to oh maybe 2 or 3 each? If you are dealing with "professionals" shouldn't you also have a "professional" rather than an "amateur" e-commerce system?
Just honour at most of 2 for each delivery address. Enough said.
I find it offensive of Mr Harvey to describe me as some kind of criminal looking to cash in on a mistake. As a stay at home mum who only ordered one tablet for myself - and no I didn't know it was a price error (as others have said, it was marked as a clearance product), why can't my order be honoured? Why can't those people who ordered one tablet for themselves have their order's honoured? At least show some goodwill instead of trying to make out we're all scammers.
"Professional"-proof your e-commerce system, mate.
Which is what I believed it was…..a genuine deal. I don't like being painted as a greedy opportunist so I will not be shopping at Harvey Norman from now on if I'm to be treated with contempt. As a small business owner I honour mistakes that I have made as a gesture of goodwill to my loyal customers. Obviously as HN makes plenty of money they don't need to care about theirs.
How to chat????
Bought one for my daughter - payment went through immediately. But till now I have not got the email nor refunds!
Talking to CS and Live Chat is useless anyway.
Hi Dunsar,
Thanks for your thoughts & apologies again for any inconvenience you have suffered.
We have made 2 pricing mistakes online in this busy Xmas period:
$600 pricing error on a tablet
$5 gift voucher with no minimum spend
We happily honoured the latter whereas we can't the former.
If as a small business owner you made a pricing error that would put you in serious arrears or even out of business, could you honour that? We can't. We are very sorry for the delay in refunds and in communication.
When the mistake was discovered (at 4am) we took some quick steps to ensure that the Asus deals were separated from all the others so they could all be processed as fast as possible. Unfortunately this meant that we didn't link customers emails for a few days and thus communication to customers about the Asus was initially done through social channels and personal communication only. As soon as we had all the emails linked to orders we sent out our position on the deal.
We are sorry about the delay in this
We have ramped up our digital staffing to cope with all the additional orders and refunds to ensure everyone get's what they are owed ASAP
Kind regards
Harvey Norman Social team
Mate I think it is time you shut up..You are making it worse… Harvey Norman is not a small business so why even use that comparison.
So you think 2 mistakes within a month is acceptable? Do you intend to improve your system in future or just make good use of your pricing errors excuses and apologise later.
"We happily honoured the latter " -BS!! You withdraw batteries and giftcards. in effect pulled your original offer and replaced it with one not near as good.
wow, that's really unprofessional of you rep, I sympathise with your situation, your coming in here fighting a lost cause, but wow, not cool at all!
Thanks for your reply. I don't envy you fielding all the vitriol! If I made a business killing error in my business then I would deserve to go under and would take full responsibility for it. From reading this forum, I think people's main concerns are -
Delays in obtaining refunds (although mine was processed quickly with no fees)
Gerry Harvey's assumption that the customers who tried to purchase what they thought was a genuine special we're intentionally ripping him off,
No attempt to rebuild the goodwill by trying to honour what again was seen by we ordinary folk as a genuinely good deal.I don't think he has done himself any favours in his comments in the Herald Sun, any more than he has done in the past. We aren't fools….we know that he makes huge profits even in a bad trading year. He just keeps coming across as a heartless greedy man…..end of rant! Happy New Year!
Good point - that comparison is way out of scope.
If I was a small business, and I inflated my prices on products, preying on the average customer who doesn't know any better, I'd probably be able to wear the difference, or at least MAKE SOME EFFORT to compensate the customer… or I'd quickly rectify the situation, and refund the money ASAP (or not even take it without ensuring I have the goods).
However, if I was a business that had a 3-MONTH PROFIT of $50.1 MILLION, I think I could afford the loss to keep a number of customers, oops sorry, professionals, happy (or at least some loss - cancel the BIG bulk orders if need be).
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-07/harvey-norman-profit-s…
Load of crap, I have sent you two emails without any response. And now your topman has ballz to accuse us of being professionals? I only ordered one, would you honour mine? I know you won't! good day to you.
As the HN rep said we just all got upset over nothing as we misinterpreted Mr Harvey’s words. He called us “professional” that’s a good thing is it not? Thank you Mr Harvey a pat on the back for us at OzBargain!
Now why are we all upset again? OzBargain - Liar’s and cheats you say Mr Harvey… but you meant it in the nicest possible way, well thank you and sorry I misunderstood.
it is only 300 people took those offer by 4 am. You should just honour 1 for each customer then your total loss
300 * $600 = $180,000 instead of $770,000. this would be best christmas gift from mr harvey to us. and good publicity for your company.
Its not $600 as that's not the cost price. JB had it for $510 and its quite old etc. so cost would be around $400 or so that is if ASUS haven't given rebates to get rid of them. so 300*400 = $120K
'the work of professionals'
The work of Brodens.
Mate, HN store is only for non-professionals.
Professionals please buy from other better stores :) WTF
If HN feels that they were taken advantage of by 'professionals, not everyday consumers', why not simply reject the orders by these so called 'professionals' and honour the orders made by the 'everyday consumers'? Logic is too hard these days.
according to Mr Harvey, who said it was the work of professionals, not everyday consumers
Hahaha, I like the image. A gang of professionals, possibly in the pay of evil foreign Internet stores, pouncing on any small mistake by a poor little Aussie store to bankrupt it.
The guy just doesn't understand the power of social media to spread news quickly.
What a disappointing article… no mention of the fact it wasn't discounted to about $600, how they've charged these customers almost $200,000 (which most probably still haven't got back), or how they've since handled this mess. Seems they've taken poor old Gerry Harveys word for it. Guess they don't want to upset one of their advertisers :/
Why not give use 300 customers one each then - it'd only cost you $144,375. A small price to pay to keep 300+ customers happy (although its too late for that now).
lol the article came across odd. professionals!
after all that only 300 at under $500?. thats nothing. someone was suggesting it'd cost them millions. amazon sells them for $500, thought the cost wouldnt be over that
I am trying to shop local unless the prices are a huge difference or I can't get it in Oz. Wow Sights n Sounds in Underwood near my house closed down, Clive Peters closed down…I think it's sad as it means job losses. Businesses are struggling here, rather than saving a few dollars, we should try to support local businesses when possible. You can't compare it to an online overseas store…australian businesses has one of the highest overheads in the world, minimum wages, double time sundays, high rent, gst etc
On the 24th Dec I was at work all day and rang Harvey Norman Kessels Rd to check if they had any Homedics Foot Massagers in stock $99.95 down to $47. They had 2 so I asked the nice lady to put them away for me. Send hubby to go and pick it up, the lady had hid them for us lol Too easy, great service, great price and fabulous product! My friends loved it!! I had bought one the week before with a gift card and hubby and I have been using it every night..didn't realize how much knots I had in my feet. It's the best product ever. Deep reflexology massage and it feels amazing.
And your point is?
I started reading something about local shopping then I found myself imagining the knots in your feet.
Cool story…
knots? feet? what!? lol
Who's really to blame here? Personally, I think SuperCow should be banned. That or he should be forced to purchase a Slate for everyone that purchased the deal. I'm going to be calling my lawyer in the morning, I think I have a pretty strong case, if not ACCC will handle it for me.
He should be banned for posting a deal? He is not a rep fyi.
Successful troll was successful
If this is a joke can I LOL now?
May I ask that you guys support my post: https://www.facebook.com/henrybez/posts/10151596169924972 where they cannot remove my posts. This issue is about principles, not about money.
As someone who manages company Facebook pages, I would probably delete your posts too. Just Sayin'.
Dear Customer,
We refer to your order dated 26/12/12.
Due to a technical error, the Asus EP121Core i5 Windows 7 64GB Slate Tablet (EPAD-EP121) was advertised at $122 on our website on 26/12/12. The correct price of the product is $877.
Our records indicate that you made an offer to purchase the Asus EP121Core i5 Windows 7 64GB Slate Tablet (EPAD-EP121) at the price of $122.Pursuant to clauses 5(7) & 5(8) of the Harvey Norman Online Terms and Conditions of Sale (available at www.harveynorman.com.au/terms-and-conditions/), Harvey Norman Online may, in its sole and absolute discretion, accept or reject any offer made by you for any reason (or no reason), including an error in the advertised price for, or description of, the products on the website, or an error in your Order.
As such, we have not accepted your order and would like to arrange a full refund of the payment made by you. Your refund will be automatically processed with the next 1-2 business days.
We apologise for any inconvenience this error may have caused you, and note that the product remains in stock and is available for purchase at the correct price of $877.
Please do not hesitate to contact our Harvey Norman Online Customer First Team should you have any questions.
me: lol wut?
BUGGER
Paypal took the money out of my bank account, they should have sorted it out today before that happened.
Opened a dispute got an email back for the refund confirmation almost straight away
I'd advise all PayPal users to do it if you want you refund ASAP!Have you received the actual funds yet or just the automated email?
Unhappy Harvey Norman customers say its online store reneged on a Boxing Day deal after a website bungle that could have cost the retailer close to $770,000.
Harvey Norman chief Gerry Harvey said a mistake occurred when uploading the sale price of an Asus tablet, which retails for about $800.
It was supposed to be discounted to about $600 but instead was listed as $122, the amount of the discount.
"It went up as a mistake around midnight and by 4am our people were alerted to it," Mr Harvey said.
But not before about 300 people snapped up 1600 of the bargain tablets, according to Mr Harvey, who said it was the work of professionals, not everyday consumers.
"It was obviously a mistake and they knew it," he said.
Mukul Singh and many consumer forum members said they had bought the Asus tablets in good faith.
The ACCC watchdog would not comment.Is Harvey Norman turning this into a war with consumers?
-An easy solution for both mediums, would be to honour the deal for the 300 consumers who legitimately purchased the clearance sales. This way, Harvey Norman can be seen as a trusty household brandname. I cant imagine how much bad reps and how many years, this will cause the company to loose consumers if they continues to accuse us consumers as "professionals, not everyday consumers"
"Harvey Norman chief Gerry Harvey said a mistake occurred when uploading the sale price of an Asus tablet, which retails for about $800.
It was supposed to be discounted to about $600 but instead was listed as $122, the amount of the discount."Liar.
It was never discounted to $600. The best price they offered to us "professionals" was $877.
Wow only 300 people and 1600 tablets sold? I honestly thought they'd be more..
Who knows what's the truth.
@michael Where are you getting this from. Which Paper etc
It's from the melbourne's herald sun. I quoted this article a few hours ago http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/89032?page=11#comment-11775…
Cheers thanks
BTW, 877 - 122 = 755. What does he mean when he says it was to be discounted to about 600.
The numbers don't add (or subtract) up ;)
What is Gerry talking about? The discounted price is $877 not $600. He is full of lies and we're not 'professionals' either, we're just consumers looking for a bargain.
Wow, I didn't even purchase the tablet and I feel this response to be very rude.
But not before about 300 people snapped up 1600 of the bargain tablets, according to Mr Harvey, who said it was the work of professionals, not everyday consumers. "It was obviously a mistake and they knew it," he said.
Sure, heaps of people would have thought in the back of their minds "This is probably a price mistake, I hope I get it," but to be calling it out as a work of professionals? We're just shoppers, looking for a bargain. Who are we to know whether a deal is in fact a mistake. What would happen if this was a deal, and no-one purchased it?
My problem with his comments is that they don't fit with the reality. I don't have a problem with copping insults from shopkeepers, after all if the shoe fits you must wear it. But the fact is we ozbargainers are not some greedy opportunist as he makes us out to be, we're just ordinary shoppers.
The difference between the two is, IMHO, whether the pricing error was obvious or not. I'd argue there are many everyday consumers who would've thought this is just a good, discounted price. I I recall Big W selling once an android tablet for around $100 to $150, albeit one with much lower specs. This means it's not obvious to those who aren't tech savvy that this is a pricing error. If you want an obvious pricing error, that would be selling the tablet for maybe $10 or $20.
He may have thought it was 'obvious' because he had access to the cost price of the machine - when you see it sells for less than 1/5 of its cost price for no good reason of course you would suspect its a pricing error.
In all, his comments are very unfair and completely off the mark, IMHO.
You make a very good point. I had no idea what I was buying but I liked the price, I had missed the "Monday Madness" tablet deals, so when I saw this one I grabbed it.
so if were professionals, then by association with ozbargain, our purchases are tax deductible?:p
I thought you were going to say if we are professionals that means the incompetent Harvey Norman are amateurs.
LOL? Including the time we spent trying to con HN for a tablet is also deductible.
I guess its being paranoid but the OP has not put in one comment and has not posted anything at all before this. How many think it was all a ploy from HN from the start.
You are so right. I just looked up the OP's profile. This was their first post….
Yeah just read njninjar's post as well. This is real dirty tactics.
No wonder people are buying from Overseas.
Lol we can't come to conclusions yet, its possible that people are making new accounts to try to get the first post wonder badge. He/She has probably made another new account already. Although it does seem a little too suspicious but I don't think HN would go that far?
To confirm, tracing the IP from the OP's last login or any other logins from the same IP will shine all light which can only be done by the mods.
Winner!
Wait, you were serious?
Small article in today's Melbourne HS titled 'Tablet Headache', and I quote:
Unhappy Harvey Norman customers say its online store reneged on a Boxing Day deal after a website bungle that could have cost the retailer close to $770,000.
Harvey Norman chief Gerry Harvey said a mistake occurred when uploading the sale price of an Asus tablet, which retails for about $800.
It was supposed to be discounted to about $600 but instead was listed as $122, the amount of the discount.
"It went up as a mistake around midnight and by 4am our people were alerted to it," Mr Harvey said.
But not before about 300 people snapped up 1600 of the bargain tablets, according to Mr Harvey, who said it was the work of professionals, not everyday consumers.
"It was obviously a mistake and they knew it," he said.
Mukul Singh and many consumer forum members said they had bought the Asus tablets in good faith.
The ACCC watchdog would not comment.************ the above was posted in an earlier comment and needs to re-posted again & again maybe - Facebook, Google+? ***********
Professional what? Mr Harvey - from above quote "It was obviously a mistake and they knew it,"
… It’s now the consumers fault for purchasing? I did not think it a new concept to sell product at below cost they are called loss leaders you invented the concept Mr Harvey and put a lot of small operators myself included out business by selling digital prints at below cost to get customers in your doors to buy other product.
On Boxing Day a number of mass merchants advertise small amounts of product at well below cost to get a shopping frenzy and hence promote their brand as it gives them cheap advertising. So for you to assume that we should have known better and that it was our fault for purchasing at your advertised price may slightly alienate your from your consumer.
I was one of the first and in your words “professional” consumers to purchase the “obvious error priced tablet” and it was not so obvious to me. As I refreshed the comments from Oz bargain the news spread within minutes, I told my son who told his cousin about these cheap tablets and both purchased also. So good news travels fast but so does bad. Many thought it was a genuine deal as I did and expected the small amount of discounted stock to run out very quickly and the deal to be expired. I don’t take exception to the pricing error, but I do take exception to your unrepentant pious attitude of blaming the customer for making a purchase.
You claim that overseas online suppliers are unfair and want government intervention as the consumer has moved to purchasing overseas at cheaper prices than you can provide. Many good small business operators lost their livelihood because they could not compete with Harvey Norman on price, now you claim its unfair Mr Harvey because you no longer can compete on price? Well welcome to the world of supply and demand.
They are not worthy of our business because in their eyes, we are nothing more than shonky professionals… And they are the poor defenseless victims … boohoo…
Slightly alienate customers? Excuse me MR Harvey but you've just called me a liar and a cheat! The man is an arrogant idiot. Does he not realise that it is we the consumers who have made him a rich man? And then he tries to turn this debacle on ME…..I think not!
Do you have a picture of the Herald Sun article? Saves. me from walking to the milk bar.
Thanks Neil for posting the image of the Herald Sun article quoting Mr Harvey.
As the HN rep said we just all got upset over nothing as we misinterpreted Mr Harvey’s words. He called us “professional” that’s a good thing is it not? Thank you Mr Harvey a pat on the back for us at OzBargain!
Now why are we all upset again? OzBargain - Liar’s and cheats you say Mr Harvey… but you meant it in the nicest possible way, well thank you and sorry I misunderstood.
One good thing that has come out of the HS news article is that we now know exactly what Mr. Harvey thinks of his customers.
Hey guys, I also got the refund email, no surprises there. It has been asked a couple of times in this thread - does the $128ish that we paid for by Paypal from direct debit just sit in the Paypal account, or will it be returned to my bank account?
Not sure how long $128 will sit in the paypal acct (are there fees for moving the money back to my bank acct?)
Depends on how your PP account is funded. If you've linked it to your bank account, the refund will be credited to your PP account. You can transfer this back into your bank account without any extra fees.
If you've funded your PP account via a credit card, then the refund will go directly back on to the credit card.
It is refunded to the source it came from. No fees anywhere. Don't stress.
My credit card was processed with a refund on 28Dec. Never got the original confirmation email, or follow up cancellation email though.
For the lack of respect HarveyNorman is showing to its customers, can we have this company banned from ozb? That'll teach them
In future, I'll be posting a link back to this thread for every Harvey Norman deal that gets posted, assuming the ban doesn't go ahead.
Boxing day 2012 will forever be known for the "Harvey Norman Asus pad debacle" lolllll
Maybe a new verb could come into the ozb vocabulary - to be "Harvey Norman'ed" lol
Don't know how many people got original screenshots and order confirmation after made an order?
http://upload.ozbargain.com/2012/12/28/10259_harvey-norman-s…
http://upload.ozbargain.com/2012/12/28/10258_harvey-norman-o…
My bank account also was charged two days after the order made.
As there is order confirmation and money exchanged, there is a transaction or contract between seller and buyer?
The fact that they processed the transaction indicates they agreed with the contract of sale, so you would have a case.
It was a big stuff up on their part, I'm surprised they didn't offer people a refund & a $50 HN gift card as a way of apologising. Assuming it was indeed only 300 people, that would cost $15,000 in HN money, but think of all the good will they'd have received & sales from people using that $50 of funny money to buy something they probably wouldn't have.
Wrong, read this thread which has outlined exactly why this is wrong. It even specifically says on that order: Tax Invoices will be emailed separately. The two things you need as acceptance of offer (=contract) is a tax invoice and/or the goods. Read the T&Cs which you agreed to and it says exactly that.
Just because HN put something in their T&C, it doesn't make it any more legal then if I put up a sign saying "Trespassers will be shot".
Did you read the fine print at the bottom of the page on your 2nd link?
"……If your order is accepted, Harvey Norman Online will sell and arrange for delivery of the products to you….".
I see the operative words here being —— accepted —— sell —— arrange ——. You have no chance in my opinion :)
"if", that's funny, I hadn't seen an order confirmation yet. As if it wasn't clear before…
Haven't got any email back from them about my refund, or have my refund processed. Anyone else here in the same position?
I thought the same, but it was in gmail's spam folder
Look at the bright side. We should be happy and feel lucky that Gerry Harvey forgives us and refunds our money.
What are you smoking?
"The ACCC watchdog would not comment."
Its the ACCC's job to comment - is the accc really that hopeless?
Credit card got charged this morning….
"But not before about 300 people snapped up 1600 of the bargain tablets, according to Mr Harvey"
I think that has got to be an outright lie. 5.3 tablets ordered on average. Seriously? I ordered only one and most people did the same. There were a few over enthusiastic buyers, but still…
"great detriment to consumers of the tablet"
Theres you problem, you are not meant to eat it!
On a serious note: I find it hard to believe having $122 out of your account for a few days constitutes "great detriment".