For the second time in 10 days, the company posted super cheap erroneous prices for products online, this time for the Latitude E4300, which was offered at a 75 percent discount. If the ridiculously low price was honored, Dell would have a revenue shortfall of more than NT$2.5 billion ($75.8 million), according to Taiwan News. The Latitude E4300 notebook -- normally priced at NT$69,000 (US$2,102 ) -- was changed to NT$18,558 (US$565) on Saturday night after buyers entered certain configurations.
Dell did not discover the error until early Sunday morning, at which time it closed the site. While it won't honour the discount, Dell is offering E4300 buyers who acted on the error a discount coupon worth NT$20,000 (US$609). Dell Taiwan president Terence Liao told The Liberty Times that the prices had been incorrectly advertised and that the company had suspended online purchases for a thorough review of the problem. The latest pricing foul-up follows another mixup on June 25, in which Dell mistakenly listed 19-inch monitors for $15.26 on its Taiwanese Web site instead of US$228.84. Roughly 26,000 people placed orders for almost 140,000 displays, according to The Taiwan Consumer Protection Commission.
The heavily discounted monitors were advertised for eight hours, and after correcting the price, Dell said it would not fulfill orders. Subsequently, the Commission was inundated with complaints. Dell later agreed to reimburse buyers with an NT$1,000 ($30) discount coupon, said Taiwan News. See original article on CRN.com
Issue: 277 | March, 2010