Lenovo's WTF of the day: ThinkPad R400 for $200, marked down from $250!

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.]

[Sean @ Aug 6th 2008 1:58AM]

WTF

[phanbouy @ Aug 6th 2008 2:32AM]

spelled backwards is FTW

COINCIDENCE?

*you* decide!

[Jonny @ Aug 6th 2008 1:59AM]

LOL. All the upgrades are free!

Maxed completely out its 256 dollars.

THANKS LENOVO!

[John Doe @ Aug 6th 2008 2:02AM]

yeah...i added a blu-ray writer and it amounts to just 1012 with vista ultimate and office prof 2007 :)

this kicks ass

[John Doe @ Aug 6th 2008 2:03AM]

oh and yes i missed the 3 yr subscription of norton 2008 :)

[Techie @ Aug 6th 2008 2:38AM]

They fixed it now. It's back to it's original price.

[jon @ Aug 6th 2008 1:59AM]

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

[peter @ Aug 6th 2008 2:01AM]

Its times like these I wish I knew if mistake prices were ever actually honored.

[jon @ Aug 6th 2008 2:05AM]

i agree, but for me its too risky to just try

[Reader @ Aug 6th 2008 6:57AM]

Too risky? If it's not honored they'll refund you.

[I Like Pie! @ Aug 6th 2008 2:03AM]

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!

[abc @ Aug 6th 2008 2:06AM]

how do i buy this in USA ?

[Brendan @ Aug 6th 2008 10:12AM]

Agreed. Blast them not taking my US address even though I'm 70 miles from the border.

[Lazerface @ Aug 6th 2008 2:12AM]

you don't. you wish that you are a Canadian like me! weeeeeee!

[phanbouy @ Aug 6th 2008 2:35AM]

well i'll tell you what, i wish my name was Lazerface

[kdawg @ Aug 6th 2008 2:56AM]

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.

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

11,433.00?

[fiochmhar_rc @ Aug 6th 2008 2:06AM]

"Checkout (Our Systems are experiencing heavy volumes. Please resubmit the order after a short time.)"

It was worth a try, no?

[jon @ Aug 6th 2008 2:06AM]

keep trying!

[Zorn @ Aug 6th 2008 2:08AM]

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.

[fiochmhar_rc @ Aug 6th 2008 2:13AM]

Haha, guess who is in Canada, and is psychotically pounding the "continue" button on his order!

[Geof @ Aug 6th 2008 2:13AM]

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

[Tim @ Aug 6th 2008 2:42AM]

I'd be more worried about how lenovo missed it than engadget . . .

[webterractive @ Aug 6th 2008 2:18AM]

It doesn't make sense it might be a phishing site.

[webterractive @ Aug 6th 2008 2:19AM]

I'm in Canada and the site behaves funny, everything is $0 except the Bluray, OSes, and a couple of other things.

[Jon R @ Aug 6th 2008 2:23AM]

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.

[Sam @ Aug 6th 2008 2:27AM]

What if they put a disclaimer somewhere saying that they are not responsible for typographical errors?

[phanbouy @ Aug 6th 2008 2:30AM]

What if he's got a pointed stick?

[Mark L. @ Aug 6th 2008 3:15AM]

That's bullshit. The business owner has the right to refuse your money.

[takashisenke @ Aug 6th 2008 2:24AM]

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.

[nerdtalker @ Aug 6th 2008 2:29AM]

Between RFD and Engadget, the site has completely crashed. Completely.

Pages used to load, abeit slowly, but now they're just dead.

[diode3diode @ Aug 6th 2008 8:05PM]

@killermojo
Ah, I see...thnx

[killermojo @ Aug 6th 2008 2:25AM]

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.

[diode3diode @ Aug 6th 2008 3:00AM]

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.

[killermojo @ Aug 6th 2008 3:31PM]

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!

[Johnny Storm @ Aug 6th 2008 2:29AM]

Suckers. Paying $200 when the Canadian IdeaPads are free!

[phanbouy @ Aug 6th 2008 2:33AM]

You think they're suckers? My local OfficeMax is offering $99 instant rebates on $5 spiral bound notebooks!!!111

[dylanreich @ Aug 6th 2008 2:51AM]

To quote the great Weird Al Yankovick: I don't want to be a Canadian idiot!

[phanbouy @ Aug 6th 2008 2:35AM]

hey... are engadget editors allowed to say "fuck" in a posting, or only by acronym implication? =O

[creepinshadow @ Aug 6th 2008 2:50AM]

It's gone now :(

[ntlam @ Aug 6th 2008 2:51AM]

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! @ Aug 6th 2008 3:06AM]

I like pie.

[kirby145 @ Aug 6th 2008 3:09AM]

Then what is your favorite color kirby?

[dylanreich @ Aug 6th 2008 3:25AM]

I am SO sorry, Kirby, but it is not safe to talk to strangers.

[dylanreich @ Aug 6th 2008 3:26AM]

just kidding

[lucaiuli @ Aug 6th 2008 3:30AM]

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.

[danieln @ Aug 6th 2008 3:55AM]

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

[a @ Aug 6th 2008 4:25AM]

all 3 links are already disabled...

[danieln @ Aug 6th 2008 4:58AM]

Still works... clear your cookies

[a @ Aug 6th 2008 4:23AM]

i think they disabled the check out button or something. can't find it.