It looks like
Dell's undoubtedly busy webmaster has let his or her e-commerce guard slip, and if you're clever and quick enough, you should be able to bag a black 30GB Zune for the low, low price of $109 (as pictured above). According to the clever folks at Audio Junkies, if you head over to the "accessories" branch of the Dell site and follow their specific browsing instructions (which include but are not limited to adding a pink
and black Zune to your cart), you should find yourself in near-possession of an alarmingly affordable Microsoft music player. The AJ crew are even kind enough to suggest using PayPal for an additional 10 percent off, just in case the price cut wasn't deep enough for you. So, if you're looking for a bargain today, you might want to quickly read the step-by-step and then motor in Dell's direction, because this won't last for long.
Update - Well friends, all good things must come to an end, especially when they're at the expense of large corporations -- and this good thing has ended. If you made it in under that cut, congratulations. If not, there's always next time...
posted August 13th 2007 1:54PM
my brother has a zune. i have a 5.5g ipod.
if any of you apple fanboys could get over the fact that the zune wasn't made by your lover, steve jobs, and tried one out.. then you'd actually realize that the zune is a superior media player compared to the current gen ipod. in fact, if the zune was a couple mm thinner i would've bought one myself.
there's always the rumored next gen Zune to look for. They might actually make it thinner and cooler with higher capacity.
I have used the Zune and I do really like the interface a lot. However, I'm waiting for MS to open it up from the Zune specific player/store before I give it a serious look. I would like to use it without having to lock myself into a proprietary store/player (one of the reasons I gave up my iPod oh so long ago).
LOL, yeah, that's pretty much what Steve Jobs wants you to say.
If this, if that... You ponied up the dough to Apple in the end didn't you?
i made the cut, put it says the status is in "pre-production"? and the ship date is 9/5/07? is that normal?
Wait at least a day for them to process the order. Usually, when I buy things on Amazon they have crazy ship dates for the free shipping. But it ends up arriving at my house by the end of that week. So don't trust that.
Now let's hope we don't get an apology email from Dell in a few days saying they are sorry they made a mistake and must cancel our orders. "But here is a coupon code for $80 off our $249 Zune as our way of Thanking You".
I also made the cut ($104.73; saving myself almost $150 on the iPod I was about to purchase) and my order says "In Production" with a 9/5 shipping date and an estimated delivery date of 9/10-9/12. I sure hope that gets moved up a bit sooner.
Also, I was really hoping for a different color Zune -- any thoughts on whether Dell would actually change/exchange the model without pulling the deal?
C'mon guys, if it was a glitch they'd be canceling orders. This is merely an effort to unload the things. That's not a judgment for or against these things. I use Apple stuff, but if you want a Zune, good for you! I think the Halo 3 themed ones look pretty sweet.
They never cancel them same day. But they definitely will before they ship if it was truly an accident.
I have an ipod. I like the idea of the Zune, and would buy it but for one may reason. Ipod controls so much of the market share, that most aftermarket companies cater products specifically for the ipod. My main caveat is the fact that many cars that have an mp3 player hookup have ipod hookups. For example, my BMW has an ipod hookup where I can see, scroll, and control my ipod through my car. There is no other mp3 player out there that I can use with my car. New models of some cars as well as what Ford is rolling out lets you plug in practically any USB mass storage device, which is a better alternative, unfortunately I don't have a model with that feature. Until I do, I feel I have no choice in the mp3 market other than an ipod. When I do, goodbye ipod, hello zune.
yeah, Ford Sync (the feature you mentioned) is crazy awesome, and going into most of their models across brands. I hope that it changes the landscape for this type of product across the industry. It's time for the auto industry to support more players (iPod, PlaysForSure, Zune, and generic USB mass storage all in one package) and wean themselves from the teat of Apple.
the gigs up now. lol just tried and it didn't work....
I'm waiting for the retraction and some reference to the small print allowing them to change the order back to the correct price.
Isn't there a website that aggregates internet store flubs like this? I overheard some people talking about it one day, but I don't remember the URL.
TIA
Am I the only one who is now questioning Engadget's credibility as a reputable news source? Between this and a few irresponsible posts last week regarding lasers, I'm really wondering where the integrity is.
An exploit is an exploit, regardless of if it involves big evil corps like Dell and Microsoft. If I wanted to see this type of stuff I'd be at SD or FW.
100% agree. I posted a similar comment earlier in the comments. I also just emailed the senior editor. It's basically encouraging online looting and I'm so happy to see that there are some other people who agree with me and I'm not just being an over-active boy scout.
I dunno, I think you people are being too hard on Engadget. They didn't actually list all the instructions, all they did was tell you where you could read about it.
This kind of thing is something I'm curious to read about... I find it interesting, and it did help to alert Dell of the mistake, and it was Dell's mistake.
Sure the people who do take advantage of it are being dishonest, but that's up to their own conscience. And a few Zunes is not going to bankrupt Dell, so leave it up to divine retribution or whatever you want to call it, but let the people who want to read about this for entertainment do so.
Too bad I missed this, because I most definitely would have purchased one. I've used the Zune interface, and considering it was 30GB, $100 was a total steal.
I think more of the people bashing the Zune should trying using it first. It really is a very nice media player.
Miller is Michael Dell everyone!
It's hardly an exploit or online looting, and I think it's over reacting to call it that, maybe they just had excess inventory in black. They can easily retract all sales, it's in every online sellers terms and conditions. I don't see anything wrong with Engadget posting this, major player in the business makes a mistake, its news kinda like the exploding batteries. Btw...I did get one for $109, although I'm not expecting it to actually ship
Ok, i got my order in, but it says the estimated ship date is 9/5!!!! Are they using this as a precautionary measure? I know they have had some severe shipping delays with laptops and such.
The whole thing smells like a pr-move.
Couldn't agree more. With the new Zunes on the horizon, I bet they wanted to offload some of their inventory before huge price drops set in everywhere else. What better way to do it than through an accidental extra discount.
it definitly would if it lasted any longer, but because it was so short i'm not sure.
i did get one, even after the order corrected itself half way through, i went through the steps again and it worked.
Dell will just cancel any and all orders they don't want to honor. Which could be all of them. They have a clause to get out of "Pricing Errors" and there is no recourse. They just send out .. "Sorry maybe next time" emails the next day.
For the Abe Lincoln guy that thinks this is stealing, you are a moron. It's not as if Dell Blindly ships the items out without knowing what people are paying. Before they ship Dell will decide if it is a loss to them or not. They won't lose any money in the deal.
In all of the various lists for why someone should/should not consider a Zune there was one glaring omission. Zunes are Windows only. If you don't use Windows you're out of luck. iPods are at list Mac/Windows, and neither of them play well with Linux, although the iPod can at least be used with it grudgingly. I'm not sure about the Zune. Anyone?
But heres the thing, Windows makes up the majority of Operating Systems... They should make it compatible with Mac OS X, but you see, if they don't, it won't make much of a difference in sales, not to mention most Mac owners are people who are sold on the iPod (not all of them, but most).
I have been noticing that there are a lot of angry, bitter and really rude people here on Engadget anymore! Please, mellow out lest thy cardiac system explode!!! Please, enough with this "fanboy" stuff! People like what they like, that's why there's more than one company! :)
They're free now!
They canceled my order.
I bought one and they canceled my order!!!!!!.
Yup. They canceled my order as well. No e-mail. Nothing. I'm a bit bothered by the abruptness of this.
Any word on calling customer support?
I called customer support, and they said to call sales and get it replaced with a equal product!
then sales told me "Oh, sorry. that was a pricing error, we can't honor that price. i can transfer you back to customer support to get a discount voucher if you'd like." exact words
no thanks, so close, oh well.
If anyone is still following this story, Dell has canceled my order with no apology email. I wanted an iPod anyway.
They have now removed the offending product from the site...
My order was canceled without an email also. I called the sales department to find out why the order was canceled. The dell sales rep told me it was canceled because the item (black 30GB zune) was out of stock. Long story short they are shipping me a WHITE 30GB zune for $98.10 including shipping.
Same thing happened to me. I tried the online chat and it was unsuccessful. What number did you call and what did you tell them?
Call the Dell sales support # (1-800-289-3355). Ask them why the order was canceled. If the rep tells you it was canceled because the item is not in stock, tell them that you would like to order the WHITE Zune for the same price. That is what worked for me. Good luck.
They canceled my order, I called, we are out of stock, I say I'll wait, you will have to talk to my manager, manager says there is a problem with my paypal account, I check and say no there isn't, he says try placing the order again, I said I would but it is at a different price and I want my original price honored, he says it was dells mistake and there is nothing he can do, have a nice day, and hangs up. Basically they lied about the paypal thing. Good luck to anyone else.
All of you that are always talking about how worthless the Zune is, have you ever used one? I have 2 Ipods and a Creative Zen Vision W, but I'm still jealous of my friends who have Zunes sometimes. The screen is a lot nicer than the Ipod video screen. It's actually big enought to watch stuff on. The interface isn't quite as nice as the Ipod's, but it works very well. The Zune can even handle larger file sizes than the Zen Vision W on playback. The Zune is a really nice player. I just can't force myself to be an apple fan boy, even though i do have 2 ipods. Maybe it's because i don't wear turtle necks or have an ego too big for my head.