So far, Lenovo's shotgun launch of its new ThinkPad T, SL, W, R, and X-series has been a lesson in retail clumsiness. It started yesterday with that
128GB SSD freebie and culminates (after several missteps in between) into a Canadian $200 for the
14.1-inch ThinkPad R400, uh, Eee PC killer. This is not just a simple typo mind you, the pricing issue is systemic as that baseline price increments as you adjust your options all the way to checkout. There's no guarantee that they'll honor your order of course, in fact they likely won't. But at the very least, they should be paying our readers for doing the quality control they seem incapable of handling themselves.
P.S. While we have your attention Lenovo, how about axing those contrived "Sale" prices. You're not fooling anyone.
[Thanks, Geoffrey A. and Rahul G.]
posted Aug 6th 2008 1:50AM
WTF
spelled backwards is FTW
COINCIDENCE?
*you* decide!
LOL. All the upgrades are free!
Maxed completely out its 256 dollars.
THANKS LENOVO!
yeah...i added a blu-ray writer and it amounts to just 1012 with vista ultimate and office prof 2007 :)
this kicks ass
oh and yes i missed the 3 yr subscription of norton 2008 :)
They fixed it now. It's back to it's original price.
indeed, i dunno whether to buy it or to laugh. its quite a deal, but i'd be worried they wont honor it, plus it doesnt meet my needs in enough areas to warrant wasting my time with them screwing me
Its times like these I wish I knew if mistake prices were ever actually honored.
i agree, but for me its too risky to just try
Too risky? If it's not honored they'll refund you.
Hey! Lenovo! What's going on! Did someone get their hit in the head or something? Are you having those interns do your work for you again? I thought we talked about this yesterday? Shame on you!
"Checkout (Our Systems are experiencing heavy volumes. Please resubmit the order after a short time.)"
It was worth a try, no?
keep trying!
how do i buy this in USA ?
Agreed. Blast them not taking my US address even though I'm 70 miles from the border.
you don't. you wish that you are a Canadian like me! weeeeeee!
well i'll tell you what, i wish my name was Lazerface
Suck it Canada...I bet you can't score a nice X200 for $11,433.00 with the base options! Only in the USA, Baby! ;)
Guess that's what Lenovo gets for hiring unskilled labor.
11,433.00?
It won't allow you to check out unless you are actually in Canada, it demands a "province" and will not allow you to specify a US state.
Haha, guess who is in Canada, and is psychotically pounding the "continue" button on his order!
The USA Site has even better prices!!!!
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/webca/LenovoPortal/en_CA/systemconfig.runtime.workflow:LoadRuntimeTree?sb=:00000025:000019EA:&smid=71B5861F7B7A4D2D8E6D5ABC43C80769
He's right!!! It's $0.00 on this page!!! HAhAhahha
i don't know.. i mean every upgrade is the same price at $0.00. seems greedy to not have price differentiation
On the page it says Canada - English. When I change it to United States the cart empties and I can't get the free laptop. :(
ffs how does engadget miss the $0 W-Series http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/webca/LenovoPortal/en_CA/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087¤t-category-id=DB2DE710F65544D99FCE30CBF84F5627
I'd be more worried about how lenovo missed it than engadget . . .
It doesn't make sense it might be a phishing site.
Oppps link I posted is still Canadian, US has the actual prices :(
I'm in Canada and the site behaves funny, everything is $0 except the Bluray, OSes, and a couple of other things.
Actually their website is entirely beyond messed up.
The US site lists everything for free. Let's hope they honor the prices.
Well I ordered everything but LoJack and nearly 30 accessories. ALL FOR FREEEEE.
Between RFD and Engadget, the site has completely crashed. Completely.
Pages used to load, abeit slowly, but now they're just dead.
@killermojo
Ah, I see...thnx
I'm far from an expert, but I know my state (and many others) have consumer protection laws under which retailers must sell goods for the lowest price advertised. For example, last week I bought $250 cufflinks for $100 because the store marked them incorrectly.
Do these sort of measures apply to online retailers? If so, I would imagine Lenovo would have to sell the laptop for $200 to those who put their orders in now. If you're in the market, I'd say it's worth a shot.
What if they put a disclaimer somewhere saying that they are not responsible for typographical errors?
What if he's got a pointed stick?
That's bullshit. The business owner has the right to refuse your money.
It's gone now :(
These guys have been pounding the everloving shit out of their site:
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=619802
The orders will get canceled anyway, Lenovo is notorious for this.
You know, when you go to: http://lenovo.com/us/en/
then from their go to the R400 you get the original price of $9xx but if you follow the "redflagdeals" site and link to the lenovo shop there, it gets you to the $200 price...is someone fishing cause this sounds a little rotten.
The redflagdeals site is Canadian, hence the big maple leaf at the top bathed in a bright red color scheme. As a result, they link to Canadian sites, or in this case the Canadian version of Lenovo. You linked to the American version. Not the same!
Suckers. Paying $200 when the Canadian IdeaPads are free!
You think they're suckers? My local OfficeMax is offering $99 instant rebates on $5 spiral bound notebooks!!!111
To quote the great Weird Al Yankovick: I don't want to be a Canadian idiot!
hey... are engadget editors allowed to say "fuck" in a posting, or only by acronym implication? =O
It was a mistake...the link is dead and the prices are changed right now to the real ones. On the US page it's a script error on the page. So...too much talk for nothing, I mean, nothing that could be real.
sound familiar with those low cost airliner pricing scheme? you got yo book it early and get a good price. and price will definitely increase after the 1st few lucky one get theirs ;-)
good new selling plan from lenovo.
I like pie.
Then what is your favorite color kirby?
I am SO sorry, Kirby, but it is not safe to talk to strangers.
just kidding
On the US Lenovo site, you can pull up the W500 (model 4058CTO) and the R400 (model 7443CTO) for $0.00 each. Both of them say "Transactional" as in test for the shopping cart. Make sure you add some accessory to make the value not $0.00 like the slim power adapter for $95 or the 1GB usb key for $17. On the cart, if you look at the page source you can see where the checkout button was and continue checking out by using http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/checkout.workflow:StartCheckout which will start the checkout process and check you out. Complete the checkout and pay. You'll get the e-mail confirmation shortly after.
R400: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/systemconfig.runtime.workflow:LoadRuntimeTree?sb=:00000025:000019F6:&smid=1CB9ACA6FD6C4BF49968F2C20F490CDB
W500: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/systemconfig.runtime.workflow:LoadRuntimeTree?sb=:00000025:00001A16:&smid=DB2DE710F65544D99FCE30CBF84F5627
all 3 links are already disabled...
Still works... clear your cookies
Gone now on US site too.
i think they disabled the check out button or something. can't find it.
Well hot damn, can it get any better than this?
This is all just a way to promote the company, I think. Think about it, how many of us sitting here discussing Lenovo and their computers. It is the ultimate commercial! :) lol
ya, can't find checkout button either
Yeah no checkout here either... just the option to save cart?
the check out in the shopping cart is gone.
They Probably caught it now. Every way to that page seems off limits.
And here i thought i would get my first laptop for free :'(
Um, guys, I just got an email from Lenovo... you know that 128GB SSD mistake yesterday? Turns out they are giving everyone a choice of a 64GB SSD or a 200GB 7200 RPM (lol) for no extra charge!
I also got the letter.. mmm thinking what to do because I dont really need a laptop, but because of the offer I was tempted to order one.. not what to do....funny enough you cannot order the X200 anymore. why?
First the 128 GB SSD debacle now this??? Someone at lenovo is either illiterate or using lab rats to do this work for him...
You'd think their programmers would have some way of checking that everything was set up properly before making the page or site go "live."
I guess if you thought that....you'd be 100% wrong because Lenovo doesn't seem to know how to fact-check before it puts up new products.
All their people are working on the Olympics.. No body is watching the store...
are they all gone darn and I wanted one but now they are all over 600 big ones http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/sl-series