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Dell accidentally sells 19-inch monitors for $15 in Taiwan
Taiwan consumer regulators have ordered Dell to honor a pricing slip-up on their website that offered 19-inch LCD monitors for only NT$500 (around $15). The pricing mistake was posted late Thursday, and while it has been fixed since, news of the supposed bargain spread quickly via email, blogs and sites like Twitter. In the eight hours before Dell corrected the listing to the intended price of NT$4,800 ($148), 26,000 people had placed orders for nearly 140,000 displays.
Dell apologized and promised to offer “reasonable discounts” to those who ordered the incorrectly-priced monitors. Naturally, people were not happy. Taiwan’s Consumer Protection Commission said it has received 471 complaints about the mix-up and ordered Dell to complete orders for customers who had only ordered one monitor. Those who had ordered more than one should receive discounts on the second and further units.
According to the agency’s statement, if Dell doesn’t follow the directive, they will consider it a violation of Taiwan’s fair trade laws and seek legal recourse.
Dell apologized and promised to offer “reasonable discounts” to those who ordered the incorrectly-priced monitors. Naturally, people were not happy. Taiwan’s Consumer Protection Commission said it has received 471 complaints about the mix-up and ordered Dell to complete orders for customers who had only ordered one monitor. Those who had ordered more than one should receive discounts on the second and further units.
According to the agency’s statement, if Dell doesn’t follow the directive, they will consider it a violation of Taiwan’s fair trade laws and seek legal recourse.
User Comments (30)
Post a comment| Guest on July 1, 2009 2:28 PM | Maybe those from taiwan should learn to read english better.
There is a disclaimer right on the site that says they are
not responsible for miss-prints and typo errors. Dell has
canceled thousands of US orders in the past due to this.
Everything from a PC for $99 to a 50 inch tv for
$299. I hope dell doesnt mail a single one. The last thing we need is a struggling US PC brand shipping all of its product out of the country to lose money. |
| tekkaraiden on July 1, 2009 2:52 PM | Maybe you should read the article more closely. It was on
Dells Taiwanese site.
http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=tw
&l=zh&s=dhs&cs=twdhs1&kc=&oc=S14E1909WTW They added that disclaimer after having a similar issue in the US a few years ago. Back then the government made them honor the price. That's why you should always triple check everything that goes online. |
| raybay on July 1, 2009 3:03 PM | There is a lot of misinformation here... Dell says they were not required to honor prices... nobody is... the international business community has resolved this decades ago... long before Dell was in the International marketplace. It is in every business law text book. |
| tengeta on July 1, 2009 4:47 PM | You can make a disclamer, its the law. They have no choice
but to honor the price tag. Dell takes a slap in my book if they don't, its that simple. |
| Wendig0 on July 1, 2009 5:28 PM | tengeta said: Maybe you should brush up on business law. They
don't have to honor the price with the disclaimer in place.
You can make a disclamer, its the law. They have no choice but to honor the price tag. |
| Guest on July 1, 2009 7:14 PM | Who knows... $15USD is probably above their cost price so they might've still managed a profit? Moving 140 000 monitors in 8 hours is brilliant - might even inspire Dell to venture into the 'cheap' shop market! |
| Guest on July 1, 2009 7:40 PM | Should have order six of them when I had a chance,
eh? Heh. |
| Twister123 on July 1, 2009 7:57 PM | You can make a disclamer, its the law.
They have no choice but to honor the price
tag. there's no way they'll honor
that,some companies have there own policies ,tesco{my
friendly local supermarket} has a policy , if you pay more
at the till than marked price you get a refund and the
product free ,some people got barred ,because they went
around the store's checking prices , buying a trolley of
beer then saying the price was wrong and getting it for free
. but if the cashier notices during the transaction you get
nothing ,no cash was paid no t.v.'s
Dell takes a slap in my book if they don't, its that simple. |
| raybay on July 1, 2009 11:29 PM | Baloney! Too many people on this subject, and too little
knowledge of product law... business law, or common
sense. They, of course, do have a choice. |
| captain828 on July 2, 2009 2:25 AM | Disclaimer or not, people can sue them if they
wish. Why? they marketed a very low price and had huge orders for it and now, since they found out about the mistake, those people are supposed to pay the much higher price. Taiwan has the right to sue them since you cannot place a price, get orders and then change the price 180 degrees. IMO, since it was a typo, they should just cancel all orders instead so people would have to place their order once more. By the law they are allowed to cancel any product, at any time, so no one can touch them this way. I sincerely don't see what's all the fuss about since we all know that things end well in the end. |
| Badfinger on July 2, 2009 5:54 PM | Consumer greed knows no bounds, how about Ford places an ad
for the new Taurus and it's goofed at $199.00 instead of $19,900? TELL ME ALL ABOUT HOW THEY HAVE TO HONOR THAT. |
| tekkaraiden on July 2, 2009 9:22 PM | To the best of my knowledge ford does not sell cars online. Now if it was on ebay... |
| snowchick7669 on July 2, 2009 9:28 PM | If I listened during my Business Law course then a price tag
is only a 'offer of purchase' and must be confirmed or
denied. Even if a shop displays a price tag, they can counter offer it when you go to purchase it quite easily by law (most shops will honor the tag however). A disclaimer would completely waive the price tag issue and Dell would have grounds to argue honoring the price tag (most likely by saying "read the fine print") This is however in my country, unsure of American/Taiwan laws |
| Guest on July 2, 2009 9:48 PM | As far as the Taiwanese are concerned, the law that applies is that of Taiwan. If Taiwanese law does not allow such disclaimers, the disclaimer does not apply. Analogy: implied warranties; you can claim any exceptions you want in your paper warranty, but if the implied warranty law of the applicable stay trumps it. |
| trinitibt on July 2, 2009 10:39 PM | That was no "mistake" or "misprint" and if you believe that you are crazy. It was a brilliant move to cleverly attract record sales virally and then attempt to use a legal loophole to try and get out of it. This is far from being a new marketing technique. It is dirt old. That should have surged sales nicely in this down economy BUT, it was dirty and deceptive. And to boot, it was not their first time doing it. Man c'mon. Make them pay it all and it will never happen again. |
| Zeromus on July 3, 2009 12:49 AM | Loloollol. Yeah, you want a mature response to that? Too bad, it's just that funny...what are people gonna do with 140, 000 displays? Besides sell them. |
| Guest on July 3, 2009 1:49 AM | well....maybe there's no disclaimer right showed on dell taiwanese website~ why don't you go learn chinese better and try to understand what was going on over there before you expressing your BS here??? |
| Guest on July 3, 2009 1:50 AM | Maybe those from taiwan should learn to
read english better. There is a disclaimer right on the site
that says they are not responsible for miss-prints and typo
errors. Dell has canceled thousands of US orders in the past
due to this. Everything from a PC for $99 to a 50 inch tv
for $299. well....maybe there's no disclaimer right
showed on dell taiwanese website~ why don't you go learn
chinese better and try to understand what was going on over
there before you expressing your BS here???
I hope dell doesnt mail a single one. The last thing we need is a struggling US PC brand shipping all of its product out of the country to lose money. |
| ahal on July 3, 2009 4:50 AM | Dell should sell them on at cost for these people, that's more than fair. I live in Ireland and if something's mispriced there's no obligation on the seller. It's called a 'mistake'. |
| Guest on July 3, 2009 6:57 AM | Reminds me of the recent microsoft technet free accounts. Shame MS where not forced to legally honour those! |
| Guest on July 3, 2009 7:00 AM | Who knows... $15USD is probably above
their cost price so they might've still managed a profit?
Moving 140 000 monitors in 8 hours is brilliant - might even
inspire Dell to venture into the 'cheap' shop
market! Really doubt that, there is so much more to
think about than just the raw cost of the parts to assemble
the item.
|
| Twister123 on July 3, 2009 6:38 PM | Dell should sell them on at cost for
these people, that's more than fair. I live in Ireland and
if something's mispriced there's no obligation on the
seller. It's called a 'mistake'. so do I c my post
above ,checkout tescos there always f?@king up the price ,I
get loads of stuff free.
|
| Twister123 on July 3, 2009 6:50 PM | That was no "mistake" or "misprint"
and if you believe that you are crazy. It was a brilliant
move to cleverly attract record sales virally and then
attempt to use a legal loophole to try and get out of it.
This is far from being a new marketing technique. It is dirt
old. That should have surged sales nicely in this down
economy BUT, it was dirty and deceptive. And to boot, it was
not their first time doing it. Man c'mon. Make them pay it
all and it will never happen again. thats right,the
titanic sank an iceberg , the earth is flat and the sun goes
around it , have u any idea of the headache this cause a
company,public and corporate image,they might honour the
first 50 or so orders to help p.r. but image, is everything
and there's is a bit blurry at the moment.
|
| Guest on July 3, 2009 8:33 PM | this practice is called bait-and-switch. its purpose is to generate interest. make dell honour it and they might learn to play fair. on a side note i live in ireland and like a previous poster mentioned, Tesco often charge more at the till than the price displayed,but heres the strange thing: in my town, limerick, there are 4 tescos 1. city centre branch......mixed clientelle........some mistakes at till 2. suburban branch...soutside.....middle class shoppers......mistakes at till 30% of time 3. suburban branch....northside.....mixed clientelle.............i don't shop there. 4. council estate area.........deprived area..............0% mistakes at till. the mistakes at the till can be in tescos favour or the customers favour. but in my opinion, the split is 90:10 in favour of tesco coincidence.........i think not. tesco have a no-quibble-guarantee, but how many customers would spot the mistakes in the deprived area probably all of them how many would spot the mistakes in the more affluent area, very few. so the overcharging in very profitable in the affluent areas and the no-quibble-guarantee keeps them out of court. sounds like a winner to me. BTW......dunnes stores, tescos main competitor in ireland NEVER make mistakes at the till and don't have a no-quibble guarantee.....................go figure thanks for reading . |
| Twister123 on July 3, 2009 9:10 PM | I don't know about that are your stats based on personal exp' , I think there just unable to run a supermarket in some areas , it doesn't seem worth it from there point of view for a few dollars more ya know |
