Lenovo X200 128GB SSD order option gone, offers 64GB SSD for free

That wasn't fun at all, actually. Turns out the $-70 128GD SSD option for the ThinkPad X200 was not only a mistake, but the part isn't even available. Eager orderers received the following e-mail from Lenovo this morning:

Dear Valued Lenovo Customer,

We are contacting you with regard to your recent Lenovo X200 order.

Please note that we recently experienced a web error which caused the price of the 128GB Solid State Drive to be erroneously listed at $0.
Unfortunately, we are unable to honor this pricing; in addition, the part is currently not available.

As a token of appreciation for your patience and understanding, we are pleased to offer you a substitute of either a 64GB Solid State Drive
or a 200GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm) free of charge in place of the 128GB Drive.

To accept this offer, please reply to this email and fill out the below fields by Monday August 11th with your selection.

*** If we do not receive a reply by that date, your order will be cancelled at that time.

We can't exactly hate on Lenovo for not honoring the mistake, especially since they're offering a 64GB SSD in exchange for free.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Crazy J @ Aug 6th 2008 10:34AM]

I'm satisfied. 64GB SSD for 70$ discount. Glad I decided to pull the trigger.

[Jason @ Aug 6th 2008 10:37AM]

Shit yeah.

Now I wish I had pulled the trigger.

[Crazy J @ Aug 6th 2008 10:38AM]

Sorry. I worded that wrong. It's really a $900 discount. Free 64 GB SSD ($830 option) and $70 discount to boot. I respect Lenovo for at least giving us this option.

[broli @ Aug 6th 2008 10:41AM]

I feel bad for the people who went for the 64GB ssd option during this period.

[OneLove @ Aug 6th 2008 10:42AM]

wow!

[Jason @ Aug 6th 2008 11:52AM]

Already got somebody trying to flip one. What a douche lol.

[John Doe @ Aug 6th 2008 11:58AM]

i wonder how they would compensate for the $250 R400 glitch

[Tony @ Aug 6th 2008 1:17PM]

Hello Jason,

As a thank you for your offer, I am signing you up for a years worth of FREE spam!

[rock99rock @ Aug 6th 2008 1:43PM]

The only party that I applaud here is Lenovo. I can understand wanting a "good deal", but advertising this obvious "good steal" is a tad lame on engadget's part. There are other sites for this sort of ruckus.

Also, everyone trying to take advantage of Lenovo and their (again, obvious) error should be ashamed. ASHAMED I TELL YOU.

(I rescind all comments if someone offers me said laptop with free SSD at their cost).

Seriously though, bravo Lenovo. I now will look in your direction for future purchases seeing that you have a soul.

[Josh @ Aug 6th 2008 10:35AM]

morons...is there really no point in the purchase process where a contract is made and they have to honor the advertised price?

[Mike K @ Aug 6th 2008 10:54AM]

If an error is made in "good faith" during an advertisement or the sales process the seller is not obligated to honor the mistake. This happens all the time in print ads where a decimal point is misplaced during the edit process and the news paper goes out to 10,000 customers who show up wondering why they can't by that new car for $2199 instead of $21990.

It's great that they are providing some compensation to people who jumped on what was obviously an error.

[fashionista @ Aug 6th 2008 11:01AM]

The moron is anyone who purchased this thinking Lenovo was actually offering the drive for $0. Anyone with a brain would know this was a mistake, and anyone who made a purchase was hoping Lenovo would not catch it. Your attitude is unreasonable, and jerks like you make it harder for normal people like me to get decent service.

[Grey Acumen @ Aug 6th 2008 11:03AM]

Maybe, but they will be getting mad customer respect and satisfaction with this response. maybe in your eyes this makes them look stupid, but in my eyes, this makes it look like if they screw something up, I can count on them to not leave me as the one screwed over.

[Josh @ Aug 6th 2008 11:49AM]

@ fashionista...how am i the jerk, when the people jumping on this "obvious error" clearly did so with hopes of ripping off lenovo and getting the SSD for free?

this wasn't some print ad typo, it was an obvious error that should have been caught before it was published to their public site and made available in the sales process...it also took them a decent amount of time to correct it. so yes, whoever was overseeing that mess is still a moron.

yeah, it's great that they are offering something, and i was asking an honest question about their legal obligations...it's jerks like you that troll around message boards making it a worse place to read

btw, i didn't even order or try to order one of these, and you know nothing about my character otherwise.

[Seminole @ Aug 6th 2008 11:58AM]

"
this wasn't some print ad typo, it was an obvious error that should have been caught before it was published to their public site and made available in the sales process..."


This may come as a shock, but there are these things called humans that work at Lenovo, just the same as you and I. These humans also tend to make mistakes sometimes. It was a very easy mistake to make and overlook. At least they are giving the people who were trying to screw them over on a mistake something instead of telling them to piss off like I would.

[B @ Aug 6th 2008 3:56PM]

Hey Josh, the next time you forget to put pickles on someone's burger, I'm going to talk to your manager and have McDonald's fire you. Now please crawl back under the rock you came out of and finish the bowl of corn flakes that someone pissed in this morning.

[Alex Padilla @ Aug 6th 2008 10:35AM]

Yeah, there's no way you can honor an error about a product that doesn't even exist. However, the fact that they are offering two great substitutes free of charge is really, really awesome.

[Anthony @ Aug 6th 2008 10:36AM]

I totally agree. I'm really surprised. Everyone's allowed to make mistakes, even corporations (& governments, to some extent). Folks mad about them not losing 1k on every one are, quite frankly, just jerks.

[farfisa @ Aug 6th 2008 10:43AM]

Wow, yeah--the "free" $830 64 GB SSD isn't exactly nothing!
Amazing that they don't have something in their fine print that covers them for web errors like that. Maybe they will now....

[CanisMinor @ Aug 6th 2008 10:53AM]

@farfisa

"Amazing that they don't have something in their fine print that covers them for web errors like that"

They do. Their order fine print clearly states that mistakes on the website will not be honored. This is good customer service from them to still hand out nearly $1,000 for each order!

[farfisa @ Aug 6th 2008 12:28PM]

@CanisMinor
Well then it's more than "good customer service." More like philanthropy.

[Reece @ Aug 6th 2008 10:35AM]

A 64GB SSD for free?

Sounds like a good idea to me.

[Kamokazi @ Aug 6th 2008 10:36AM]

That's still a 64GB SSD for the price of an 80GB hard drive...heck of a bargain. Nice of them to offer that on what was clearly an error to most people.

[sr1329 @ Aug 6th 2008 11:48AM]

No, even better. The 128SSD was calculated at $0 which is even less than the 80GB HDD. If you added the the 80GB HDD it would be about $50 more.

[thatrotierkid @ Aug 6th 2008 3:26PM]

Could you point me to the site you're getting your HDDs from because I will jump on that!

[Stelliot @ Aug 6th 2008 10:37AM]

It's very curtious of them to offer a 64GB SSD, this still makes it a fantastic deal

[Jamma @ Aug 6th 2008 10:38AM]

Meh, could be worse, the 64GB SSD is still a good alternative, saving the $900 more that you would normally have to pay

[Yuan Zhao @ Aug 6th 2008 10:38AM]

A free 64GB SSD is fine by me too. They didn't have to honor any part of it at all, so this is quite nice.

[luzzio @ Aug 6th 2008 10:42AM]

This might just be the very precedent used as a Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. equivalent for internet purchases...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlill_v._Carbolic_Smoke_Ball_Company

Or is there already law concerning revocations of a contract for the internets?

[Le Big Mac @ Aug 6th 2008 10:52AM]

Not really -- she purchased the product and then they decided not to honor the quality/performance specs promised.

More likely this case:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartog_v._Colin_and_Shields

How many people placing this order knew the price couldn't be right? Probably all of them. Even so, Lenovo offered quite generously to cover for the mistake.

[Pradster @ Aug 6th 2008 10:43AM]

you kidding me, I get a 65 gb ssd for free, hell yeah!
I would so hit that again, sorry you got your hopes up engadget!
:P

[André @ Aug 6th 2008 11:31AM]

If I am not entirely mistaken, you did plunge down over $1,400 in the proces, right? ;)

[broli @ Aug 6th 2008 10:45AM]

I feel bad for the people that went for the 64GB option in this period.



...



On second thought I don't. Anyone who has this much money to blow on something that isn't even that useful obviously has too much money in his pocket.

[Matt @ Aug 6th 2008 11:06AM]

Your opinion has been duly noted in the "Big Book of Shit Nobody Cares About". Thanks, have a nice day.

[Minilap @ Aug 6th 2008 10:54AM]

This was a stunt done by Levono. They made the EXACT same price error and then offered the exact same offer for the X300 in Canada about 2 months ago, and it went well so they decided to do it again.

[Crazy J @ Aug 6th 2008 11:10AM]

Can anyone else confirm this? Seems unlikely that a corporation would pull such a stunt, but hey you never know.

[Minilap @ Aug 6th 2008 11:42AM]

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=598975&highlight=lenovo+price+error+ssd+laptop

[unityblue @ Aug 6th 2008 3:35PM]

Yep. The cheap marketing/advertising stunt just got cheaper. Well played Lenovo. Well played.

I remember some years ago finding a bug in Ticketmaster's online system, whereby tickets came out as $0. My order was processed, transaction fees applied, and confirmation number given. They called me up and offered me SFA (waiving transaction fees). Losers.

[diode3diode @ Aug 6th 2008 9:39PM]

@minilap
Maybe Lenovo is just establishing a fan-base, instead of making haters. Stunt or not, it's the reaction to the err that matters.
For myself, I will be looking closely at Lenovo, not to take advantage like this, but for purchasing a product. For all the obvious reasons.

[Bsouid @ Aug 6th 2008 11:00AM]

i just replied and said i wanted the 64gb ssd.

[rv @ Aug 6th 2008 11:03AM]

Holy shit free 64gb ssd. What do you mean move along? That is awesome for those who ordered. I think thats a big deal... shit man, I wish I was up at 5:30.

[Skazer @ Aug 6th 2008 11:17AM]

WOW. This is an amazing deal. Damn, now I wish I would've jumped on it, but I had thought that they wouldn't have honored the price error.

[digitallysick @ Aug 6th 2008 11:21AM]

Thats good of them to throw in a 64gb ssd for free, i wish i would of jumped on that deal , Lenovo rocks for this!

[DutchGuy @ Aug 6th 2008 11:24AM]

"We just hope whoever is responsible is getting the what-for. Sorry, people, move along on this one."

Why do you want to see someone punished for a mistake that was so obviously a mistake that you could spot it from miles away? It's not like you're unexpectedly disappointed and need therapy to get over it now. In fact you all *knew* it was a mistake and you consciously wanted to take advantage of it.

Greedy immoral American society at its best.

[Sarig @ Aug 6th 2008 11:31AM]

I quite agree with this! And kudos to Lenovo for actually giving one hell of a deal to everyone who tried to take advantage of the situation.

[Fx @ Aug 6th 2008 11:27AM]

Minilap : its a conspiracy ! =x

- maybe they just did it to push the number on sales o.O could ssd be that cheap to them ?

[Minilap @ Aug 6th 2008 11:39AM]

I have provided a link, go read it.

[Booshack @ Aug 6th 2008 11:27AM]

Holy shit this is completely extreme of lenovo. I can't believe it, they totally deserve for this to go viral all over the place. HUGE props.

[ShadowKain @ Aug 6th 2008 11:33AM]

I'm glad IBM /lenovo acted appropriatly as a 128 GB drive would have been way worse a hit money wise. To offer the 64GB SSD drive or 200 mb 7200 (nice speed for a laptop) was a novel move by lenovo. +1 for beign honorable champs Lenovo! :)

[Rhino @ Aug 6th 2008 11:48AM]

Remember the OCZ 64G is only less than 300 bucks now! This is absolutely a bad deal!! They should give us a 64G SSD installed inside and an extra 64G SSD!