Moved to Forum: Original Link
Found this whilst browsing the site. It seems a lot cheaper than all other retailers so it seems like a good deal.
[PRICE ERROR] Asus Eee Slate Ep121 Windows 7 Tablet - $122 Harvey Norman
LSuperCow on 26/12/2012 - 02:23
Related Stores
Comments
Modokun, that's an accusation with no logical entailment. We're not playing victim, nor did we try to make Harvey Norman one.
We're looking for answers. We're monitoring this thread to see status of everyone's "progress" in getting their money back. It's reassuring.
And you're not receiving others' alternative views well, either.
What you're saying: consumers tried to "kill" Harvey Norman. (Paraphrasing to the max)
The situation: Harvey Norman listed an item, consumers purchased. Whether some consumers' intentions were "impure" is irrelevant. Harvey Norman took money when they shouldn't have. Harvey Norman has not apologized for the direct "mistake" but, instead, have pushed the blame on consumers. Harvey Norman have not acted in a satisfactory customer-oriented manner. Consumers are seeking closure elsewhere.
A number of consumers are never to return to Harvey Norman. A future saving of $50 or $100 is not tempting when you know you're going to be met with a headache.
Intentions are never irrelevant. that is what you are unable to fathom.
Why on earth are you agreeing to t&c's that you obviously don't agree with?
This is not just about whether people agree to the t&c anymore. This is also abut how HN handles the situation.
I have got the email about the cancellation of the order. When I received the email, my PayPal charge on my credit card was still showing 'pending' however the next day the transaction went through meaning I got debited on my card. It has been more than 2 days and I still haven't received my refund yet.
I don't know of others, but when I first saw the deal, I never thought it to be a price error, as the item said EOY Clearance Sale.
I had already bought Batman Archam City ($12) and Battlefield ($16) for unbelievable prices earlier this year from HN. This was not a brand new line of slates, so price looked genuine and it was Boxing day where we were waiting for great deals and I am sure most of us were disappointed with the discounts. Something like $10 or $20 might have looked doubtful and error.So for people who are defending HN and explaining customers who bought the deal to be taking advantage from the so called mistake is not completely true.
Secondly HN should have accepted the mistake and an simple apology would have closed the chapter. Also they could also have send some discount codes for people who bought the deal for next purchases as a goodwill gesture.
If you purchase online from Dicksmith/BigW or zavvi or thehut UK using Paypal, they dont deduct the amount from your account. It is when the item is delivered from their warehouse, paypal account is charged. HN could also do the same.
I hope I will get the refund soon in my bank account and carry on my life. I think its of no use to stretch the topic.
For those, who are not getting complete refund can complain to either HN, Paypal or ACCC.
Peace….
Can you please show me the best current price on this item?
I think it is around $600-$700.
How could you not think this could realistically a price error?
Especially as it was not promotedI'm speaking for myself here. I honestly believed it was a genuine sale. If the product was not listed at that price for Boxing Day sales, with the red label "EOY Clearance", then I would have done comparison shopping and speculated. It was at 2am, I just bought. Among the other tablets, it was such a good deal.
It was not promoted because if it had been, then Harvey Norman would be caught conducting obvious bait-and-switch. Under the guise of "pricing error", this is what Harvey Norman are hiding behind.
Hossy2011 - Are you actually a Rep for the HN Social Team, or do you just like trolling?
Some of your comments such as suggesting a lottery for compensation are just a bit too far fetched and sound like the crap people use to incite anger in other members.A few things are a bit suss.
1) You thanked someone for a Kogan TV deal here http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/74323#comment-938977
2) You used the same account to post about the Civ deal here yesterday http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/89516I suppose it's not impossible for a rep to post on matters unrelated to their own company.
However your account is less than a month old and I think you are new here and feel like trolling.Just my thoughts, I suppose you could authenticate yourself by posting your real name and HN contact number if you aren't actually trolling.
Hossy2011's profile says joined December 2011.
Hello Gummibear,
I have been a spectating member of the Ozbargain community for over a year. I work for HN, and the social team in particular.
I became active on this thread primarily because we had been communicating to customers about the Asus error via social channels and this thread was by far and away the most active. One of the key criticisms of us was communication to consumers who went for the Asus pricing error and consequently we stepped in to answer some of the most common/pressing issues.
In response to your questions/observations:
- A personal account was forsaken to post a response here. This was an innocuous legacy comment
- Massive Civ fan, this was a great deal and I originally had a question for the poster which I subsequently edited
- The competition was a bad idea that seemed like a good potential compensation idea at the time.
Thanks for your feedback and if you or anyone else have specific queries or requests then please get in touch @harveynormanau on twitter or facebook.com/harveynormanau. Alternatively use the contact us tab on the website. www.harveynorman.com.au/contact-us
Gerry Harvey accuses everyone who bought a tablet of being "professionals". Rather than being unprofessional and offending some of his customers (we've all bought from Harvey Norman before), you guys could have explicitly apologised for the pricing error and issued all of us affected with a $5 off voucher for wasting our time.
Ordered 26/12/2012, received my refund today 01/01/2013. Case closed. If anyone 'wasted their time' its not HN's fault we chose to take a gamble.
not even close dude.
Comparing rape victims to people exploiting a pricing error.
Wow.
Ignorance is not a defence.
If its too good to be true …………
If you expect 'compensation' out of a genuine pricing error then you're wasting your own time.
How many tablets did you order?Waits for pmupsinep to edit his/her post….
For people who are supposed experts on the law and everything else you have a hard time interpreting what's in front of you. I did not compare sexual assault victims to a pricing error. I was implying that that his line of thinking would lead to such a view of blame the victim. It's all of you that have joined these unconnected dots. Sick.
You compared two situations that are completely different in order to highlight how you have both suffered as victims…
Yeah… We are the sick ones…
Nope, not even close.
Can't edit a post after someone has voted on it… Too late to back peddle so its full steam ahead.
You can edit a post that's been pos voted. However I am unsure about neg voted - you'd be the most experienced person to be advising in that situation though so I'll take your word for it. My foots been flat to the floor the whole time, not too concerned about people who cannot interpret basic concepts.
How many tablets did I order? 2.
I bought them before the deal was "popular" at 2am in the morning. In other words, this was when hundreds of people were fighting to get through to the site, and to get the tablets into my cart, I spent 45 minutes clicking the refresh button like mad, whilst believing the deal to be a genuine "clearance" deal.
Harvey Norman has had 50% off Windows 7 laptops before (since they are getting rid of laptops that aren't optimised for Windows 8), so I genuinely thought that this deal was real.
Pissed that Gerry calls us "professionals" for attempting to buy something that was marked as clearance.
I was in complete agreement until you mentioned rape victims dude
If you're going to suddenly disagree with someones argument for merely mentioning something that you prefer not to hear, even though no connection was being made to any of the events that took place.. well that's your prerogative!
Guys I am able to escalate my paypal dispute to a claim in a couple of hours - Should I wait for HN to refund or escalate? If I escalate and someone from HN finally decides to get around to refunding me then will they be unable to because I escalated to a claim?
You're refund is coming minus the PayPal fee. Its been 3 business days, and you have already been advised it is coming. PayPal won't even bother with it if you do escalate it.
Seems like after a tiring week long wait I have finally gotten my refund. I paid via Credit Card. I didn't get any apology email from them though.
You got your money, say thanks to HN :D
don't expect any apology mate, you are dealing with HN
Took money from credit card 2 days after order placed. Refunded this morning. NO correspondence at all from Harvey Norman. VERY displeased. I know this was a pricing mistake, but a simple "we are sorry" or even a "your order was not able to be processed" email would of been appreciated and SHOULD of been sent. I WILL be sending a very angry email tomorrow.
Before you all jump at me for trying to capitalise on a pricing error, let me say this. I'm not upset they didnt accept it, i never really expected them to. Its the fact they sent me NO correspondence what so ever which is an absolute joke. How do they even process legitimate orders with a system this broken?
Not to mention the interest they must of made just holding all these orders for a few days in the bank before refunding. Absolute JOKE.I will be avoiding Harvey Norman like the plague unless they fix there act up.
Complain and don't ever buy from them again. I don't know why people buy anything from HN even if on the off chance its cheaper.
better doing a price-match elsewhere… they're just not worth the hassle
i got refund on my credit card. but no refund on my paypal
Still waiting for my CC refund to go through, although my other order paid with PayPal has been refunded.
Modokun, ask yourself and Gerry if the pricing error is by charging a much higher price than RRP instead of much lower than RRP, will HN send an email to reject the orders or just keep quiet? Not everyone does research or compare prices when they jump on a deal that seems to be good and more often these people are ripped off big time and meet Gerry's definition of everyday consumers.
I can answer that one for him.
Pricing error in favour of buyer - buyers fault for exploiting the system.
Pricing error in favour of HN - buyers fault for not doing research.
Perfect analysis!
He gave an analysis of my opinion without me saying what it was. That is quite a skill!
Why would you buy something without knowing what it is worth? Take away both consumers being ignorant as and/or opportunistic and you have no issues all round.
The problem with what you are comparing is that one is willful ignorance, the other is human error.
Not quite as cut and dry as penispump has inferred.
Not quite as cut and dry as penispump has inferred
Actually, it is. You're saying that if someone pays too much for something without any research into prices it's willful ignorance, but why can't it work the other way? Why can't someone with little knowledge buy something cheap without being labelled opportunistic?
Explain what the point of this website? People are here for bargains, but you're saying that if anyone snags a bargain price for a product on a boxing day sale, labelled with indicators that reinforce the cheap pricing(i.e clearance) that they're an idiot who deserves to get financially penalised (refer to your other posts regarding non refunded fees).
You're saying no one on reading this website has ever legitimately obtained an item well below market rate without having a predatory mindset.
Do me a favor.
Go back to page one.Read how many people instantly knew this was a pricing error. Then tell me why they were able to figure it out instantly, and almost a week later, you still can't… Even though others have been pointing it out to you… And still are.
I really want you to explain that.
Thank you for failing to respond to any part of my comment and chose to present me with an irrelevant challenge that proves nothing. Says a lot about the strength of your argument really. Deflect deflect deflect…
I can understand a new user buying this, without reading the first page…. , but long term members of the ozb community would have read comments before purchasing, knowing completely the risks they were taking.
I knew what risks were involved, purchase and refund is all complete. No hassles, and I'm not losing sleep over this.
I have answered your questions many times before.
You still can't explain why you were unable to figure out something that most others, including myself, could.
You still can't explain why you were unable to figure out something that most others, including myself, could.
You entered this deal/thread after 4 days of existence & a huge volume of discussion, and also after the real facts started to filter through(quite possible even after official comments were made about it), then claim you had it figured out from the beginning. That is an amazing talent you have there.
As I said earlier, I saw the deal the morning it came out. Didn't take the deal due to a moral standpoint (which I am not arguing you should have).
So despite how vocal and energetic we've found you on this whole topic, you had absolutely nothing to say for the first 4 days? You had no opinion on the topic, or even bother trying warning anyone from purchasing it. But something suddenly clicked and now you're averaging 15+ comments a day, mostly bashing everyone for partaking in the purchase.
Yah, sure thing.
Both are human errors like pmupsinep said. The ticket or advertised price is higher than the RRP on the manufacturer's website. So ask yourself if you think HN will email and reject your offer and tell you the correct price is RRP and lower than their ticket or advertised price? Please give me a direct YES or NO answer.
One is a deliberate action, the other is not, that is where I differentiate the two.
- The hn rep did not deliberately enter 122 on the website. That's what actually happened.
- The customer deliberately paid the higher price, which they believed it was worth.
Quote distinct from each other from the customers perspective.
Keep in mind the same could be said for pretty much any business.
If i put a product on special i am not going to email my customers from the past month and tell them they can get a refund.
Note: HN will refund the difference if a competitor advertises a cheaper price.
I have to say i agree with modokun here. The two are completely different situations, HN has done what pretty much any business would do when making a $700 pricing error. How they have handled it is what is different.
@Modokun & Duff5000
WTH are you talking about! All the time I'm asking you about the pricing errors made by HN not about customers' intention to pay higher or lower price.
- HN entered lower than RRP by mistakes
- HN entered higher than RRP by mistakes
Will HN email customers and reject the offer higher than RRP and tell them the RRP is in fact lower that is what they are suppose to pay?
Please note I'm talking about at the offer stage not the refund or goods have already been received by customers months ago!
Of course they wouldn't, they don't have to. Businesses having things for sale is an invitation to treat.
ACCC definition: An invitation to open negations with a view to forming a contract. Displaying goods for sale is an invitation to treat, not an offer.
Regardless of whether an offer is high or low both the company and consumer has the right to negotiate a contract for sale. Until the contract is finalised all is fair in love and war on both sides. In this situation it was an offer and it was declined.
In your hypothetical the mistake would likely go unnoticed because not many people would purchase higher than RRP, therefore extremely low volume. This is the buyers fault really.
So if they put it at $9000? Wtf are you doing thinking a tablet is worth 9k?
It is a pointless exercise as people are not going to go and buy a $9000 tablet. Why would people be buying at far higher than RRP?
Price is a good indication of quality, where is this $9k tablet you speak of, sounds pretty sweet. The covers must be pretty expensive too I guess.
Of course not. because it is a different situation to what occurred.
In the situation they benefit…Do they have a moral obligation? Possibly. Do they have a legal obligation, no. Our legal system is not based on morals.
If retail outlets were forced to honour pricing errors, nobody would do business in this country.
Our legal system is not based on morals.
Our legal system isn't, but our laws are created based partially on morals and ethics.
If retail outlets were forced to honour pricing errors, nobody would do business in this country.
LOL, so now you're saying the entire Australian economy will collapse if businesses were forced to honour advertised prices?
Oh…. OK……
If they are forced to honor pricing errors yes, our retail sector would greatly suffer. That is why they don't have to.
Almost all small business would be operating 1 typo away from bankruptcy.
@Modokun, Duff5000 & bxpressiv
Ok, do you all agree "moral obligation" and "pricing errors" do not apply to this situation, i.e. regardless we intentionally took advantage of "pricing errors" by offering lower or higher than RRP, HN reserved the right to accept or reject our offers for no reasons as both parties have no "moral obligation". It all comes down to "LEGAL OBLIGATION", do you all agree?
Does it mean that the following comments made by Gerry is meaningless and do not explain why our offers are rejected?
"It went up as a mistake around midnight and by 4am our people were alerted to it," Mr Harvey said.
But not before about 300 people snapped up 1600 of the bargain tablets, according to Mr Harvey, who said it was the work of professionals, not everyday consumers.
"It was obviously a mistake and they knew it," he said.
Pricing errors definitely apply in this situation.
I dont believe he has a moral obligation to accept your offer. Mistake occur, learn to deal with them and you will have lower blood pressure and a happier existence.
Regardless.. This is about law, not about morality.
He had no legal requirement to honor this error, you need to move on.
@Modokun, Duff5000 & bxpressiv
Cool. Lets "move on" to LEGAL OBLIGATION
As mentioned by bxpressiv the whole procedures included invitation to treat, offer and accetance or rejection of offer (i.e deal or no deal!).
- midnight on 26 Dec I noticed HN advertised such Asus tablet at $122 - invitation to treat
- 2am 26 Dec I placed an order for such Asus tablet $122 - offer
- 28 Dec I received email from HN my order made on 26 Dec was rejected - rejection of offer i.e. no deal!
- 31 Dec, my CC account was debited (i.e. NOT authorisation only) $122 + delivery - change of mind to accept my offer or illegally stole money from my CC account i.e. a fraud conducted by HN?
Can you please explain which situation for point 4 best fit what HN has done? And more importantly does LEGAL OBLIGATION exist?
You are confusing incompetence and fraud. They have not stole your money, they just haven't acted very quickly in reversing a transaction that you started.
Call 02 9201 6111 (HO) say where T.F is my refund. get your refund don't shop there again.
@Duff5000, I don't have moral obligation to believe it is due to incompetence and so as HN has no moral obligation to believe we ordered the tablet in good faith. The money was taken from my CC account without my approval is legally defined as "stolen". It is a fraud conducted by HN.
Thats a load of BS. If you really believe that go to your local police station and report it as theft.
Come back and post what the station says.
The money wasnt taken from your account without approval, you gave them approval. They rejected your offer and are just taking their time doing the refund. Should they actually refuse to give you a refund you may have a point, but that is not the case.
In the time it took you to reply you could have picked up the phone, called them and asked wtf is going on with the refund.
don't get into business and don't get into law.
Thanks to all the comment posters who are clearly part of the Harvey Norman in-house and outsourced social marketing team as they seem to have ready access to information that only staff would. I don’t wish you guys to take this the wrong way as you are just doing what you’re paid to do, protect Harvey Norman.
I think most of us here on OZ bargain have now identified you as you have clearly had the most to say on the subject with some claiming that they have been victims as well but just trying to show a sense of fairness. I think that some of your comments have been worthy but some have probably done more harm than good for Harvey Norman as you have missed the points being made by the true victims, the customers who made a purchase of a tablet or tablets on Boxing Day “IN GOOD FAITH”.
Most are not upset as much by the price error wether deceptive or genuine but rather the resulting manner it was handled along with the comment made by Mr Harvey that the people who purchased his advertised tablet showed Malice and that he is the victim in all this.
An apology an admission of guilt and maybe even some form of restitution would have gone a long way and probably caused Harvey Norman far less harm than has been caused by all this.
In just counteracting the tactics of the possibility that some employees of Harvey Norman social team that are masking themselves as having got a refund and now moving on, the rest of us will remember the words “divide and conquer” diffuse a situation by saying it’s all over now let’s all move on and just forget about it - ACCC won’t act etc. as they know many will give up because they see the situation as being hopeless.
I have sent my email to Harvey Norman acknowledging that a refund is not acceptable, had no reply so will now move on to the next stage of making the formal ACCC complaint.
Who's in this in house team?
Every ozb member who thinks this deal was a pricing error.. I would assume from MMM's comment.
Harm? A bunch of people who wouldn't ordinarily buy from him will continue to not buy from him. Think you are over estimating your impact.
People claiming to have refunds are undercover hn operatives infiltrating oz bargain… Lol. That made my day. To protect and serve!
I might have to start making tin foil hats to keep up with demand from your friends here Modokun lol
Hi MMM, I can understand and empathize with your frustrations. There is one active, and announced, Harvey Norman representative on this thread (hossy2011).
Regardless of whether there are Harvey Norman "undercovers", their comments would not merely be enough to offset the current anger and disappointment in their customer dealings.
Harvey Norman are not going to honor the sale, as it was not genuine sale but a "pricing error". A refund has been promised, but not yet truthful. Just hope that you can get the refund back ASAP.
It's good to bring this case to the attention of the ACCC if you believe that Harvey Norman has conducted themselves in a manner that is unfair to mass consumers.
I think Hossy2011 Identifying himself as a HN Rep was helpful and when I said that some have made some worthy comments I was talking about him as he has admitted that it was not handled in the best manner. I don’t agree with him in that we misunderstood Mr Harvey’s comments published in the Herald Sun.
I am still however left with a few unanswered questions.
Why did this offer remain on the table with some orders accepted at 5:30am when Mr Harvey stated they had been alerted to the “error” at 4am?
Why did some who purchased not get charged till two days later, well after the announcement that it was an error?
Why was this tablet not available to be picked up from in-store at the time of purchase? Please don’t state that it was 2am as I mean in principle. If it was at $899 and I paid that surely I would have been able to pick up in store later that day.
Mr Harvey’s stated price reduction was intended to be $600 for the tablet markdown of $122. It was later offered to the Boxing Day purchasers for $877 as the correct price. What is the correct price?
If these questions have already been answered then I apologise in advance for restating them, but as to date I am still waiting for answers from official Harvey Norman personnel not conjecture from what we think might have happened.
If any have valid further questions that I have missed, I would be happy to include them in my submission. If Harvey Norman management are not at liberty to answer then I will be asking for answers from the ACCC.
- Work a real job. You will find that things often take more than an hour to get resolved, especially when involving multiple departments as this would have… At 5 in the morning.
- Look at the time of year you tried to pull this stunt. If you don't know why that is relevant, stop reading now.
- Online specials have been going on for years. Your assumption is wrong.
- $877. Read the entire thread regarding the price.
- No you should not contact the ACCC. They have real enquiries to deal with and not waste their time on your foil hat conspiracies.
Thanks, so against all claims Modokun in past posts that you are not a rep from HN am I now to understand that you are from Harvey Norman? It’s just that within seconds of anyone posting you seem to have a reply.
I also asked for an official reply so you may need to identify yourself if you are saying this is an official reply from HN.
I'll update my status to a rep when I start working for them. How about that?
I'm able to give you an answer because its pretty straight forward if you really think about it.
Back to this again. Disagree with something = undercover HN sleeper agent of doom.
It would be just as easy for people to say you are a JB employee trying to drum up hate against a competitor.
Nothing that modokun said is incorrect. Early in the morning on a public holiday stuff isnt easy to fix.
Does that mean HN are perfect? Far from it they have handled it very badly. Maybe they dont care about sorting the refunds fast as they know most of us are not HN shoppers, only when there is a absolute bargain. Then again, my business bank transfers have been slow at this time of year, maybe that is causing delays? Shouldnt have stopped PP refunds though.
But Duff5000, don't you know Gerry Harvey and Harvey Norman as a company are in cahoots with the banks too, and all against the (poorly suggested) professionals here?
Yeah, i don't have a problem with the way he handled it, i guess it was more one of those think it but don't say it things. Its the conspiracy theory thing that is going on here that is driving me nuts. I still don't believe anyone thought this offer was Gerry,
Looks like they are buying it. Your plan worked. There's a pretty cluey guy called MMM who is onto us, but I am trying to convince others he is crazy. I'll be in touch in 3 hours with a status update.
So for the record you have no affiliation with Harvey Norman or any of its contract IT or marketing depts. Yes or No?
I think many of us for the record are waiting for an official response from Harvey Norman.
Its not true that I have no affiliation. I have been lying this whole time.
The truth is… When I was for years old, i was friends with a kid whose dad knew a lady from work who used to play mixed basketball with a guy who once sold a car to a guy whose niece twice removed bought a toaster from Harvey Norman.
I am now at ease with my web of deceit.
Edit: I also bought a limited edition Xbox from them three months ago and resold it for a profit.
- Find "error", remove item from online availability (takes a minute), stop future purchases, not take money. HN technicians were fixing technical problems at 2/3am. (Site traffic too great for servers? What page were views directed to?)
- Update and apologize to consumers that a mistake had been made at 8/9am, or earlier if possible, at Harvey Norman's fault. Look at the timing that Harvey Norman made this "error". If anything, it is poor timing for consumers to have funds taken.
- Inform consumers that money will not be deducted, or if it has been, that a refund will be given.
- Return money ASAP to consumers instead of causing consumers to chase up, regardless of time of year. Read up on the HS article: Gerry Harvey said that the tablets were to be discounted to about $600.
- If consumers are not satisfied with a way that a business has carried itself, and that this impact has spread to a mass, then yes, the ACCC deserves to know that the business had conducted themselves in a manner that was unfair to consumers. This is to protect the welfare of future consumers. Ignorance leads to indifference.
- Whether the ACCC investigates is up to them. What's a "real" enquiry if no one ever reports?
Modokun may not be an undercover HN rep, just a "volunteer" ridiculing others and not respecting anyone else's views. Ridiculing is not a form of solid argument.
Only going to tear apart point one because the rest would take too long.
Here's what could have happened:
1. Problem goes unnoticed for half an hour.
2. Networks notice spike
3. Networks wait to see if spike in volume maintains.
4. Networks Contact boss.
5. Boss contacts product manager.
6. Product manager says I'll get back to you.
7. Product manager contacts networks boss to verify price error.
8. networks Boss contacts web developer on call after hours number.
8a. Web developer considers destroying humanity.
9. Web developer updates webpage.Not exactly 1 second.
Here's what I think actually happened.
- Someone messages someone at Harvey Norman saying " you guys are going to have a shit night" and links thread.
- Ring around are made by people who don't ordinarily work with each other.
- Someone manages to find a guy who can update it.
- Problem is resolved after a few hours of panic.
Edit:
Also, disable the entire webpage from taking payments? Are you out of your mind? You think HN are going to effectively shut down their business because of ozbargainers?I actually forgot that the servers went down due to the traffic caused and surely that would have got somebody’s attention. Thanks Modokun, please don’t take this as ridicule as I don’t wish to retaliate but I do think you are now finally helping as bambooBee has just presented some more very valid facts.
In that case, skip straight to point four. Pure speculation of course though.
You guys just come across as the same kind of people who would go to the TIO for international roaming charges.
Ok, you did say it’s an obvious price error? Modokun
Your points…
6. Product manager says I'll get back to you.
7. Product manager contacts networks boss to verify price error.Ok, you did say it’s an obvious price error? We should have known before purchasing so why again would HN people need to take all these unnecessary steps if it was such an obvious price error?
BTW, what is a Harvey Norman volunteer? Is it kind of like in Blade where there are vampires, and then there are people who want to be vampires, so they work for the vampires first in the hope maybe one day they will become one?
Because companies have processes they adhere to when faults are raised. By following processes step by step in all situations, you become more efficient overall. You know how your IT desk asks 'is it plugged in?', they do this because its a step in the process which does save time in the long run.
A company i worked for had its page hacked and vandalised with some hacktivist message. I noticed it late at night. Took hours to get sorted getting on to one person who contacted the next ect ect.
What is the point in agruing over if it took 1 hour or 5? Personally i think getting it fixed in the middle of the night after Christmas Day was a pretty good effort.
Edit: If only they were as quick to email everyone…….
ROFL!
Yes, thats exactly what it is, dude!
Hahahaha
Nothing that modokun said is incorrect.
actually, it would be better to list what he has said that is true, than what he hasn't been right about
Hi Modokun, thanks for that input (genuinely). Why are you getting so emotional? No need.
Anyway, Gerry said techs were alerted to the problem at 4am. Site servers went down at 2am. Page was removed much later. We'll never fully know.
To clarify my point 1, had HN removed the page, this would have prevented futher purchases. How is disabling payment for 1 web page going to "destroy" a business? Even if the entire HN site was down at 4 am, it would not have caused the business to "shut down". Technical difficulties. That's understandable. Business resumes.
Even to remedy the "price error", correcting the numerical values takes how long? Even until now Harvey Norman have not re-offered the item at the "corrected" price ONLINE. Remember, the item was only available for sale online, subject to the online T&C'S.
If I had made a mistake and 'dodgy' consumers tried to take advantage of my error. I would start correction ASAP and own up to my error. Whether the consumers were "professional" crooks or sweet grannies is irrelevant. It was my fault, not theirs.
Repeat patterns of unfair conduct may become take noted of, but only if people report. Whether the ACCC investigates is up to them.
I'm not emotional, I am also not ridiculous either.
You are saying that you have the expectation that the largest electronics and
household appliance retailer in Australia should have to completely shut down their operations because 300 ozbargainers at 4am on a public holiday tried to take advantage of an obvious pricing error, then apologise to you?And you wonder why Gerry Harvey was pissed.
You Said —- "Gerry Harvey was pissed".
I think most were, its New Year.No, I did not say that - you did.
If there is a serious technical difficulty, which there was at 2am and the site was off-bounds, business will resume as normal when the problem is fixed.
Regardless of whether it was Harvey Norman, Julia Gilliard, or the small local newsagency clerk, if a mistake had originated from you or your business, you own up to it.
Customer service. Harvey Norman, please try it.
Ever been in a hospitality role? You cop the most BS of customers, yet you need to smile, apologize and have them return to do repeat-business, or prevent them from spreading the bad word about your business (if you decide to send them the cold shoulder). It sucks.
I spread a bad word about a dodgy business once to 20 people. The chain is still going strong whenever a "key" word is elicited in a convo.
Comparing a level entry hospitality job to being a CEO of the nations largest electronics retailer. Sure, that's a valid comparison.
Except he made the comments days before New Year… cool joke though.
So just because he's the CEO, he's exempt and gets to do whatever he wants and treat people however he likes? That's realistic. You're right. But not egalitarian.
Should you bow and kiss his stinking feet?
F no.
I cannot believe you approve and are defending him.
I'm perturbed at the CUSTOMER RELATIONS aspect. The WAY that HN have conducted and handled the matter. Conflict resolution - so poorly carried out.
That's objective. Consumers are merely reacting to an action. Does anyone see pitchforks and blood?
Yes, Gerry did make the comment before the New Year. But it is 2013 and a number of people are starting to get their money back. What a way to start the year, aye?
Happy New Year, Modokun.
I don't wonder why, cause he should be pissed at his own company's mistakes.
I think you should stop making the statement of taking advantage of pricing error. If you missed one does not mean it was a pricing error.
Edit: I did not know, it as a pricing error and I ordered one as usual and I am sure more than 50% of users did not know that. This is ozbargain and not oz pricing errors.
I didnt say he should just then, I was saying he is in a position where he is able to call situations as he sees them, and he saw ozbargain as taking advantage of a mistake that one person in his company made.
He probably didn't get to where he is in life by bowing to people who have tried to take advantage of him, and whether you believe you tried to take advantage of him or not, thats the way that he saw it at the time.
There is nothing wrong with having morals, if you think they are super hero like, I thank you for the complement.
I don't really care about negs. Why would I care about a system where people vote with up and down arrows anonymously instead of being able to build their argument?
I am sitting in a thread that is largely monitored by people who are still sooking and playing victim, when only a few days earlier, they tried to make someone else one.
Providing an alternate view point is never going to be received well.