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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
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It was a tablet. The OP (who has since remained silent) saw this good "deal" and shared.
Tablets are worth around $250 ish +. Some are around the $100 mark.
This tablet is chunky as, heavy, weird dimensions, and cannot be readily upgraded to windows 8. Old stock.
The advert listed the product for $122, with vivid red banner "EOY Clearance" directly below. It was on Boxing Day. 2am. Unofficial OzBargain Click Frenzy race. As the page views increase, as does panic and you just try to "grab" a bargain with one minute to deliberate any logic. You don't want to miss this bargain! Adrenaline vs. Logic, which do you think will win? (Set aside all "But I'm realistic". Since that's the case then, observe the many views and not just yours to capture realism, objectively.)
What was the item? A tablet.
What was it worth? Around $250. But it was an "EOY Clearance" product for $122.
Why did I buy it? … My god… I could list endlessly. Everyone had a different reason. (Note that some buyers were "professional" consumers; they're intentions may have been "impure").Among the other tablets, listed on the Harvey Norman site, it looked like a good "deal". Came with a free keyboard!
Are you even affected by any of this? As in, did you purchase this item that was not for genuine sale?
Why were "so many" others able to spot it as an error and "we" weren't? Because of the above. I didn't have time to do comparison shopping. I did see the first two comments. But it didn't occur to me. It was "speculation"; a word that you've applied to any views besides yours. It didn't matter, because it was BOXING DAY!! Time for retailers to rid stock. Why miss out a one-day-a-year opportunity? We all know what Boxing Day is meant to be about.
Then… I found out that the advert was a "mistake".
Ok. So refund me.
Bye Bye, Harvey Norman.
So you had no idea what you were buying, you had no idea what it was worth, you chose to ignore logic and other people warning you because you were getting a rush from buying one.
you are going to get burned far worse than this in the future if that is your attitude towards your finances.
btw, all of my comments are speculative. most of them turned out to be right though.
I knew what I was buying. I knew it's worth (assumed it to be $200. If I was wrong, so be it. I own up to my idiocy). There was no "warning". It was speculation.
This isn't toward finances.
It's toward a tablet. $122.
At "worst", there'd be a refund as assurance.
A number of your comments are accusatory. Should I go to prison for my lack of logic? No.
Did you buy this tablet or are you a mere observer with a lot of time?
"I knew it's worth"
- No… you didn't.
There was no "warning", It was speculation.
- that is a warning.
"This isn't toward finances"
- yes it is, you spent money.
"At "worst", there'd be a refund as assurance."
- Which is exactly what would have happened, and exactly what is happening/happened.
"Should I go to prison for my lack of logic? No."
- Nobody said you should.
"Did you buy this tablet or are you a mere observer with a lot of time?"
- Just someone who is intrigued as to how far people will go to people shun personal responsibility and try to blame it on the big evil corporate monsters.Theres just a couple of things people should have realised:
- There was a 0.01% chance of getting the tablet.
- The a retailer would probably be pissed that you were crashing their website costing them quite a bit of money in after hours on call work on a public holiday.
- That in the event a refund occurred, it would take longer than normal to receive a refund due to the weekend/3 public holidays combination.Yes, I assumed its worth, wrongly, I spent a finite amount that I was willing to forgo in exchange for an item. Exactly, I am not disputing the refund.
Lol… You just had to dissect and nitpick my comment regarding the prison.
Scenario: boss at a retail business, in physical store, sells $100 item for $25. 20 units had been sold. The consumers that had purchased "knew" that the item was a pricing error sale.
The boss realizes this error and is mortified at this mistake. But… It's the customer's fault. Not his.
Logical, right??
Same opinion here, definitely not worth $600 as claimed by Gerry, you can see my earlier comments on why it is not worth that much. If I were to spend $600, I will have bought Microsoft Surface. This is a very old tablet ( 2 years in technology terms is maybe 10 years for other products). At $122, I bought it to try out Windows OS on a tablet. Will I buy it at $250, no I will not because I can get a Nexus 7 for that price with the latest technology. I do however on 50/50 whether it is a genuine clearance or a price error, but the marking of clearance item convince me that it may be a real deal to get rid of old stock. Did I buy more? No, I didn't because $122 is still a lot of money and it is hard earned monies. Of course, there may be other that buy a lot and try to sell in ebay but I guess most of the buyers will be in my camp.
I pointed out the prison bit because I don't think you did anything illegal, that was what I took your comment to mean.
Not logical at all, at least not to me and a few others.
You can't expect apologies when knowingly try to take advantage of unintended human errors for personal gain.
you might want to inform every other seller of this tablet that it isnt worth $600 as the cheapest on static ice is $730.
How you could even compare this to a nexus 7 is completely beyond me.
So let's assess the hypothetical scenario that I had set up above.
Q: who was at fault, or who is to be held accountable for the human error?
And yes… The boss can be upset at the consumers. But he cannot blame them. The consumers in my example were "crooks". And if they were grannies who unknowingly bought a cheap item, innocently oblivious?
There you go again, an accusation. Of course it was for personal gain, why else would I purchase an item for usage if it wasn't gainful? I was not aware that it was a human error. I wrongly assumed it to be a genuine sale. You can't tell me "but I'm right, you're wrong, you're lying". It's irrelevant what you think of me and other consumers. Assess the situation.
Look, I know where you're coming from. I am not expecting Gerry to apologize to "us". But Harvey Norman cannot shift the blame and hold the consumers accountable for their "losses" (which they haven't incurred, financially on this item).
It's not a moral dilemma that consumers are burdened with.
An innocent oblivious granny buying possibly multiple tablets discounted by almost 90% at 2am on boxing day? Really?
Do you really think they incurred no financial loss as a result of this?
1. On call IT work at 2am on a public holiday.
2. Website crashing for any sales which people may have been trying to snap up.
3. The amount of back of house processing required to sort this situation out.
4. the ACCC costs that will arise from them having to waste time to respond to complaints.You are looking at impacts far too simplistically.
The "grannies" were part of the hypothetical scenario. haha, Do you get it? Two "grannies" were there and purchased 1 unit each. One "granny" purchased two for her two grandkids. The rest were "crooks".
So what if a "crook" purchased 10 units? They're going to be refunded. Nothing they can do, now, but wait in this real scenario.
And for the financial COSTS that Harvey Norman have incurred due to their human error, that's their doing.
The ACCC was set up for a reason. If not used, they might as well be de-constructed.
Your "unbiased" view, which you have invested a lot of your energies in, makes sense since you are not a "sucker" of this "deal".
You are looking at this matter without objectivity. Realistic? Yes. Objective? No.
I understand the hypothetical situation, but the problem is that your situation isnt realistic to begin with. the Grannies that you are painting a picture of don't lurk ozbargain at 2am on a public holiday persisting through server timeouts to grab tablets that are 90% off RRP.
Gerry Harvey wasn't having a go at grannies. He was having a go at ozbargain users who at 2am on a public holiday tried to pick up tablets with a 90% discount at higher than a 4 units to 1 buyer ratio.
how am I not an objective party? I have no connection with HN, and I didn't purchase a tablet so i belong to neither parties.
edit: to be fair, I never labelled people suckers. I did label them opportunists though.
And my point is that regardless of the type of consumer, it was HN's "mistake" (human error we'll leave it).
Does not matter who purchased and with what intent. Does not matter that they were OzBargain users.
Objectivity is when you can see all the points of view and and not lean towards one.
Modokun Umm, I was asleep at 2am and when I did purchase (several hours after Gerry's "people" were on to it) I had no server disruptions at all. Please don't generalise…use facts not fiction!
I AM a granny and I can tell you I was surfing various sites before I went to sleep….found the tablet and believing it was a genuine clearance bought one straight away. I'm not a technical idiot, I felt it a reasonable price for many of the already stated reasons…and I purchased at 10.25pm WST so was more than likely one of the first to buy….and I didn't get the tip from OzBargains! So go ahead and stereotype me lol
I said the Grannie he was painting for the purpose of his example. if I misunderstood what he was painting, I apologise. I don't think that people over the age of 40 are technologically incapable.
I would still be surprised if you werent aware that this is a pricing error given the level of discount.
You were asleep at 2am and when you did attempt to purchase one, you were aware that HN staff were working to rectify the fault? Could you be any more open in the fact you were trying to take advantage of the error?
I don't have a sleep curfew…
I browsed the OzBargain site. Is that wrong?
I purchased a unit. Is that wrong?
Whether or not I tried to "take advantage" is irrelevant. If HN don't sell, HN don't sell. It wasn't a genuine sale. Do I cry? No. Was I frustrated when HN did not email to inform me of the status of my order and transaction in a timely manner? Yes. Did HN email and engage in conflict resolution soon enough via automatic emails? No.
Was it an inconvenience for consumers? Yes. Has this caused an incurred cost to HN? Yes.
Can you verify that I was a "professional" who had purchased 10 units? No.
Edit: sry, I realized you were responding to someone else.
No I didn't say that…I think you have been on here too long and are starting to read things that aren't there. What I did say is that I made the purchase "several hours after Gerry's "people" were on to it"…I did not say that at that time I knew that there was an error… I found that out later when Gerry made his infamous statement to the Herald Sun. Again…facts not fiction!
'Whether or not I tried to "take advantage" is irrelevant.'
Exactly this. What is the relevance? How does our INTENT change the outcome of events? Seems to be Modokun's main argument in all of his posts. Btw how much is HN paying you?
It's a dog - eat - dog world. Big name corporations like these take advantage of the consumers everyday, but wait, we're not allowed to ever take advantage of them? HN openly admitted to taking advantage of Coles Myer with one of their deals (albeit a seemingly honest sale, they certainly did not expect for someone like HN to pull their stunt).
All in all, I don't see how "we were taken advantage of" is legitimate defense and means we should suffer because "HN is a victim" in all of this. That seems to be one big assumption you've made in all of your posts and yet you've never justified it. Or are you just playing God, we were immoral and must BURN!
How does intent change the outcome of events? Intent matters more than outcome for many situations in life. Look at or legal system for instance.
Harvey Norman are paying me in virtual hugs. I have earned 374 of them thus far. Once I get a thousand, I can trade them in for as limited edition photo of a guy dressed as Gerry Harvey's dog walker.
Modokun, are you trying to defend Harvey Norman because you view that consumers have lacked a moral obligation to act honestly? What about when/if it's the other way around (e.g. bait-and-switch)? This isn't a case of "revenge". There may be consumers who had purchased out of genuine oblivion to the error, and there may be consumers who had purchased out of intentional ignorance. The outcome is that consumers will be issued a refund and that a harvey Norman have lost a number of consumers, regardless.
Here's a direct question: you view us consumers as the "evil" ones, yet, under your judgement, you deem it okay for Gerry to act un-egalitarian and justify this for him.
A bit of double standard don't you think?
When I presented the hypothetical retail scenario, analogous to this example, and asked you if it was logical if the boss blamed the consumers, you had responded "Not logical at all, at least not to me and a few others."
Yet, you agree with Harvey Norman to shift the blame to the consumers in this real life scenario.
It's one thing to try to be humanistic and uphold your moral standards, as should be the goal of most people in my opinion, but it's another to stubbornly refuse acceptance to see other points of view. Purchasing this item was not all immoral, it may have been "opportunistic" in your view, but the implications don't outweigh the weight of intent. There was no devastation to either parties. Both experienced disadvantage. What if the the price of $122 was true? Would intent have mattered? Human reaction.
And… I know that $122 has been announced a "price error", now. Intent is irrelevant.
If it was a small business, people might have reacted differently. That's just how it works. Different situation, different outcome.
Hi bambooBee,
Just to confirm - we don't blame any consumers for this. The mistake was ours and we 100% apologise for any inconvenience caused by this.
Hi hossy2011, it's just a discussion with Modokun. More geared toward your boss' comment and views. Thanks for the clarification.
I don't agree with bait and switch, but this wasnt a case of bait and switch. For bait and switch to be present, you need to have two items you are selling, 1 to drop below what it is worth, and the second to replace with the first at a slightly higher price, when you explain that the first was a pricing error. This didn't occur.
I didnt say you were evil, I said you were opportunists, and if you are going to be an opportunist, there is a possibility you will get burnt. I understand your point of view, I just don't agree with it.
Long story short, HN was to blame for the error, some consumers were to blame for intentionally taking advantage of it.
But that's the thing… Consumers aren't to be blamed for anything in this situation. What is their fault exactly? Taking advantage? That's an action, not a fault. Their "fault" for getting burned? Not really a "fault", but a consequence as a result of taking a risk (for those who knew), which is the (ridiculous) T&C's that they must now accept. So for this whole fiasco, the blame for the negative outcome is attributed to HN. Consumers (that knew) were at "fault" for their disappointment, but HN are at fault for causing the dissapointment.
You don't have to agree, and you shouldn't expect all others to agree with your views either.
P.s. lol, don't take everything too literally, by "evil" I meant your opinion that we are "opportunists".
Are you really that delusional to think we all knew its a pricing error? I remember when they used to have fridges sell for $1 on boxing day sales. Thats not a pricing error.
I very recently bought a 10 inch tosh laptop for $170. Thats not a price error. These are old stock. Why wouldn't you be clearing them out.
Oh also FYI I saw the ad at 11.00pm (yes there are other timezones in Australia) and though thats cheap but I just bought a tablet and didn't think more about it. I never thought its an obvious error. Heck even the first people people who worked for Harvey Norman though its a pricing error.
You are not doing you or Harvey Norman any favors here!!
They used to have $1 fridges on boxing day specials at Myer which were retail events where hundreds of people camped outside the door, then sprinted around a multilevel shopping centre like manics. They would also record the footage, put it on the news and heavily publisize the prices before hand. It was an event. Even online takes the same turn of events with this. look at a CotD sale. Facebook announcements, newsletter announcements, ozbargain posts made….
This was an online price released at 2am AEST (which is important to note because it was the updaters time, not our local time here in Perth) with no publicity whatsoever.
Thanks for pointing out that there are other time zones in Australia. Living in Perth, I was completely unaware of this.
Why would I care if I was doing Harvey Norman favors? I'm not doing it on their behalf.
"Modokun on 01/01/2013 - 20:18
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."
Hummmh comon…….You come in after it was confirmed price error, guns a'blazin', posting endlessly the same repeated narow-minded, biased argument (in favor or HN). You label everyone selfish and immoral for ordering a tablet cos it was an 'obvious' error. You accuse everyone of taking advantage, victimising and exploiting HN for ordering a tablet. You say all fallout is everyones fault for ordering a tablet because they were selfish and got themselves into this, and should be taught a lesson for trying to exploit an 'obvious' error and putting more workload onto HN to fix the mistake (It's HNs website that is open for people to shop, they put the price up there, they made the mistake, of course it's their responsibility whether or not consumers knew for sure it was a mistake -and how could they.). You post unesscarry snide comments just cos you don't agree with someone. You are judgemental for someone who not long ago did the same thing in an deal you didnt get cos of price error, and now ya come here whinging and judging others for doin what ya did and just encouraging more debates. You reply to coments directed to reps.. if not a rep it's useless assumptions. You use baseless arguments in favor of HN; you argue that a 'lot' of people for example just purchased to resell to defend Gerrys comments that it was not normal consumers who bought the tablets. When someone says it's probably only a small percentage that did as such you quip back they are in denial and the 'ratio speaks for itself'…. what ratio? you dont have none just an empty defense without anything to support it
Hummm and that obvious thing…… is rediculous cos its subjective. You repeat it was "OBVIOUSLY" an error. Obviously, Obviously, Obviously. gag. Well obviously was NOT an obvious error to everyone. Ppl gave valid explanations why they felt it was not obvious error. But you're unwilling to accept everyone is different, have different levels of knowldege, see things differently. So you argue against their opinion and attempt to dissect it based on your own assumptions that they are esentially idiots or liars if they didn't think it an obvious error.
Your first thought in your assumed scenerio of how the mistake was handled//fixed, was HNmanagement contacted 3 or 4 people to find out if it were a price mistake, not obvious enough to pull down right away. You tried to liken this to IT support asking if equipment was plugged in as a proceduare thats always followed. IT does this (other then it being over the phone), cos they could be talking to anyone & they understand that everyone is different not all find everything obvious (some ppl will not have it plugged in). Like not everyone whom bought a tablet didn't think it an obvious error.
One comment you admit a chance it wasnt a mistake— so not obvious error. Then revert back to judging ppl for exploiting an 'obvious' error. If so obvious there's notta chance that it was anything but an error. But even yourself believed there was a chance it wasn't an error ..you.. with self-proclaimed expertise on evetything business management, marketing, technology, value, pricing, profits, losses, etcetc (stuff that everyone does not //should not be expected to know) still saw a chance that it was real. Can't jump from there's a chance it was not a mistake (not obviously an error) to argueing that it was 'obviously' an error.
Too many illogical arguments and ya blindly ignore evidence that puts HN in a negative light, downplayin or carryin on about how it means something else, or that theres not a similarity though there's evidence there. Theres the letter Gerry wrote calling coles "idiots" for a misprice that he was boasting about takin advantage of. Your response to the quoted letter was there were no errors, it was an intential price, Gerry didn't take advantage etcetc (but in black & white Gerry was claiming he DID). Funny you have Gerry boasting about successfully taking advantage of a price he claims was not intended to so low, yet you make out he didn't.. yet when ppl here claim they didn't think tablet price was obvious error you argue they did.
Essentially you defend HN to the extreme, present lota assumptions as fact, create illogical explanations, ignoring facts to paint HN in a good light . While you do the opposite for others.. still illogical though.. attempting to make them come off as bad guys, not accepting their opinions that they didn't find this an obvious error and basically condemning them as a bunch of immoral liars, cheats and idiots. That is being bias. It's not oh hahah say one thing in favor of HN everyone jumps to crazy conclusion. You may not work there but you are extermely biased in favor of HN as someone working for HN or connected is more likely to be then a random who this should mean nothing to. Doubt you work there as doubt HN would be that stupid to hire a plant to argue like this not the best way to go about it would put me off HN more then anything.
Obviously you haven't read all of my posts.
I said I personally wouldnt try to cash in because it is against my morals to cash in off obvious pricing errors. Do unto others etc…
I said that I don't blame you for giving it a go, but don't play a victim when you get called out on it and have to wait 3 days for a refund.
Great story though.
FYI: the ratio was 1600:300 last I read. Your argument of " he did bad so I will to" (not that I agree with it) is a fantastically nature approach to life too.
maybe he wont cash in HN error, but will other company's error especially smaller ones?
or maybe some people just like to criticize & judge others without first looking at the mirror? :)
or just a trollololol :P
I didn't buy from centre com. Well, not on this deal.
The different in their price was 50%. The difference on this one was 90%.
Read my further comments in that thread posted at the same time.
Cheers for stalking me though.
oh, that was a reply to pmupsinep.
50% or 90% doesn't really matter.. even a 20% mistake, if its about morality.
That comment was made to them saying it was an error. I said it could go either way as being genuine or as pricing error as it was only 50% of and pink hardware frequently gets massive discounts.
I said the worst that could happen was you would get a refund if it did turn out to be an error.
Turns out my assumption was correct again.
hmm… "a gamble" for potential pricing error still goes into grey area when speaking about morality. regardless the % in price difference.
shouldn't professionals know better laptop margin is only between 10%-30% for small businesses and smaller businesses generally cannot afford to sell below cost, while the big corporation does it all the time for obvious reasons. ;)
Modokun 16 hours 13 min ago new
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?OzBargain….. its still a better love story than twilight…..
Except I was referencing Blade…
Hi MMM,
Thanks for your questions and apologies for any inconvenience this has caused you.
Just a quick FYI, the Harvey Norman team are all in house. We don't outsource any of our digital response team.
As to your questions:
This was a technical limitation. Overriding it would have brought down the whole site given the time of year. Also see Modokun's response below which is fair.
This was an automated process with the payment gateway. We did not choose to process the funds at this time.
We often do both online or instore only specials. This happened to be an online only deal.
The correct price is $877. Gerry may have been misquoted in the press as the numbers were not quite accurate
Kind regards
Harvey Norman social team
Hi hossy2011,
Just regarding point 3. This "deal" has not been "offered" (or rather posted as an invitation to treat) online again.
Regarding point 4. He may have been misquoted, or he may have been quoted correctly.
Most importantly, regarding point 1: Why were confirmation emails not sent? Is this not an automated process as well? Or is there one clerk doing manual email sends and was lazy that evening?
here's a genuine question to HN rep, not intending as an aggression or an attack.
On purchase by CC, and money is Authorized by the bank, but no money taken out until HN banking is processed at end of day, in this case The money taken out of the CC a couple of days after the purchase time (by that time the team are aware of the error), when an offer is rejected, does Harvey Norman have no capability to cancel the transaction before the transaction is processed (or let it lapse 1 week for some bank)? rather than take the money and then send a rejection notice that the money will be refunded in 2 days?
And is it too difficult for HN to implement a shopping cart module (Magento in HN case) that will "flag" an item sold way below cost and ask a manager to confirm on prices before actually publishing it?
(I don't think Modokun have an answer to this so i wont ask him) ;)
Easy answer to the below cost part would be that the web site would not have costs. Their old POS system would not be linked to the online system like that. Also the costs would actually be very very difficult to calculate.
Each store would have different batches of stock that arrived at different times and different prices. I assume online pays the store that supplies the stock whatever the cost is on that stores system.
ummm… i assume you know the operation of HN? are you a rep? ;)
firstly, we are not living in 1990 we are in 2013. if they have to do manual entry from the "old POS" system to the "Magento cart", there is something wrong there, this can be done using batch files, so data entry is only done once not twice… so if the actual costing can be calculated before it hits the cart, in-house system great should that not be even easier?
but this is cost from ASUS to the HN franchisee not from the HN franchisee to the individual brick and mortar shop. (oh by the way, it was online EOY only deal by the way no local pickup)
(off topic, but man sucks to be a small HN franchise to get worse pricing than the bigger store, i thought buying power HN helps the franchise to get good deals across the board)
maybe we see what a rep have to say? yes? or tough luck?
omg not this again. No i am not a rep, i worked there ages ago. Back when the cost of a product was written backwards on the price stickers.
I was only providing some insight to how the costings work there. I assume the stock for these orders comes from the stores holdings (that could be incorrect in this instance but for many products that is the case). All the stores have different costings depending on when they got stock in and what batches of stock they still have left. I cant see how they could easily have online know the cost.
RE: small stores get different pricing: No that isn't what i meant. While large store may strike a better deal with a supplier rep for the most part the stores get the same pricing. They may order 30 units @ $50 and the next month 30 units @ $70. Hence different stores will end up with different priced stocks.
LOL…. that was rhetorical by the way. :)
FYI, making assumptions doesn't really help, i can make assumptions they tricked us to the site, but i don't make that assumptions, look at all my thread i have not make an argument based on assumptions, it's how a situation is handled. so can we put assumptions aside for now. please duff5000.
anyway this is between "ASUS" and the "franchisee", not the "franchisee" and the "franchise". the franchisee can see how much it cost them easily , i don't think a business selling items with no way to measure profit/loss from item cost will work out well, and Gerry have a billion dollar, so i think he knows. ;)
lets put a 50% margin for error, if this practice/system is in place they will not sell items from 1200 to 122. it will be $600 bucks, even at 600 buck a manager or a second person have to confirm it.
LOL… can we go back to my original question to the reps please, or this is a diversion? ;)
And hossy2011, could you please reply? It looks a bit suss that you won't. Thanks.
Hi bamboobee,
There's a few things here and sorry it has taken me a while to respond. I want to make sure all information is as accurate as possible.
Firstly, we do send emails automatically through Magento. Secondly, as part of the damage limitation exercise we undertook when offer was picked up, we re-routed all Asus into a separate file. This meant majority of confirmation emails were not sent. Unfortunately it also meant we had to manually add email addresses back into this file. This was why there was a delay on sending out an apology note confirming the pricing error.
Again we're really sorry for any issues this has caused. Vast Majority of refunds have all been processed.
Uncool,
We are looking at various different solutions for the near future. The reality is that it is the job of the HN online team (us) to prioritize the work on our site that has the best net benefit to all our customers and how we provide a service to them.
This issue has flagged a few changes we need to make and we will prioritise them accordingly.
It's great to get your feedback so please keep it coming
Thanks, hossy2011. Seriously, tell Gerry to try waitressing. He'll pick up a few needed skills. Customer service (and ethical conduct), everyone likes it and it's an economic sustainer :) Have a nice day
Edit: sorry, just too curious: emails stopped sending at about 2:30am. Gerry said technicians were alerted by 4am. If emails were re-routed, that means that it had occurred way before 4am. I'm picking up that he meant after the 4am point that's when "action" could have taken place by the technicians. Bit weird.
hossy2011—— You said —- 1.This was a technical limitation. Overriding it would have brought down the whole site given the time of year. Also see Modokun's response below which is fair.
You are using Modokun's assessment? Surly you would be privy to what really happened so unless you have already given him the job of being your spokesman. I would suggest that you avoid quoting him as he has little credibility round here, when it comes to his assessment of what happened.
better to hear from the horses mouth, not some random over zealous poster defending HN with little substance.
in my opinion they make outrage towards HN much worse. and then making a joke to offer them a job is probably not the smartest move either. ;)
accepting that there is a limitation, and a change is underway is a good start. as long as it gets done.
(and i hope Gerry feels the same way)
so I appreciate your reply.
at least the response is not rude like the customer service rep over the phone, it was shocking.
PS. send you the bill later. :p
Apology note? Im glad you have admitted that the mistake was HN, but i got no apology note. What if i was just a general consumer, confused as to why my order hadnt been processed? Im glad you understand that you need to send them out, but i never got one..
Maybe you guys need to make sure you dont drop orders or something. What if i was a customer odering a $3000 loungeroom suite?
I still haven't got my refund. Thought it was going to occur when I got the invoice for a refund. This is really not good enough to take around a week to refund through PayPal.
Wait for PayPal to clear their end first, then to clear your end, seems realistic the timeframe, given public holidays in the mix.
no refund from cc
good job HNI was deeply affected by the HN pricing error. I hit the drink when I found out my family were not getting slates for christmas.
Today I was called by a member of the HN HR department and they apologised for the inconvience the pricing error caused me and my family. They offered me counselling sessions free of charge and gave me $100 store credit. They said the refund would be done over the next few days.
God bless Jerry Harvey.
Congratulations
PayPal refund email issued on the 27th of December. 6 Days later no I have yet to receive my refund or any news on the situation. What a nightmare.
I got the refund into my Bank account today from Paypal. The amount was full, i.e. $127.95 including shipping charges and no amount was deducted.
I am not sure, why few people have been charged from paypal for a refund.
Did you request a refund via PayPal, or let things happen by itself?
I think if you open a dispute with paypal, you will get a refund shortly, else you may wait for a while for a refund as HN don't seem to handle refunds quickly. Either way, as it is a price error as stated by HN, you are not going to get the tablet anyway. My initial response for this deal is it is a 50/50 case that it may be a genuine clearance item as well as a price error, just not happy that HN does not apologised quickly and refunds all the buyers asap. Think they can handle better in this case but Gerry Harvey comments on the Herald Sun really make the matter worse IMHO.
I myself will never ever buy anything online from HN as a good price may turn out to be a price error.
Opening a dispute with PayPal ensures you get a refund quickly… We must be talking about different PayPals.
If you open a dispute with PayPal, you will need to show you have attempted to resolve the situation with the seller and given them ample time to respond. Then if you are still unhappy, you escalate the claim, in which time they will be in contact with the retailer. Then they will be in contact with you after that.
PayPal escalations are there for when you don't think you will be reimbursed, not for when you want to speed it up. By escalating to PayPal, you are likely to wait longer as you have turned a 0 step process into a 3 step process.
Don't know where people get the idea that escalating speeds things up.
1 week is more than enough time for them to do whatever is necessary, if you think 1 week is too short for HN to make a refund, then HN should not try to sell anything online. Unique Mobiles refund me within 24 hours after they realised their price error previously, taking into accounts the holidays, 7 days should be more than sufficient whatever their excuses is.
Its been 3 business days. Most companies will give a 5 business days as the figure when advising refunds.
Regardless, I'm not arguing that they are doing the refunds urgently, I am stating that escalating via Paypal will not speed it up. it may in fact slow it down.
Whilst I agree it's a good idea not to escalate immediately due to the limited time that has passed I disagree that paypal will side with Harvey Norman and not the buyer.
My current paypal dispute has various entries I have made providing all the relavant information etc. Nil entries from HN staff - no proof that it has been sent by them or that they intend to refund.
If a paypal staffer has to investigate you seriously think they are going to call HN on the phone and ask them what's going on? Have you ever escalated a dispute from an ebay transaction? Escalations are pratically automatically approved if the other party does not comment or provide any proof to prove the buyer is wrong
Not saying you won't win, it just won't speed things up. If anything it will slow it down.
Harvey Norman have indicated they will provide refunds. The team looking after those will no doubt be related to the team who look after PayPal disputes. Might just cause a ton of double handling making things take twice as long.
I doubt PayPal would want to piss of someone who gives the as much business as Harvey Norman do. Yes he is a small fish in the grand scheme of things, but you can bet your ass that they don't want to lose his business.
I doubt PayPal would want to piss of someone who gives the as much business as Harvey Norman do. Yes he is a small fish in the grand scheme of things, but you can bet your ass that they don't want to lose his business.
Since Harvey Norman online is the only part of the business processing Paypal payments, and with Gerry Harvey publically stating the online business is a dud, there would be virtually bugger all Paypal transactions being processed from them.
Yet people are here complaining about it right now.
I hope I don't have to explain why your point just now didn't make sense.
assumptions assumptions assumptions assumptions assumptions assumptions
please just stop doing it, makes you look like the biggest douchebag on OZB instead of providing valid advice.
escalation helped.
You got your refund at the same time as others did… I am sure it was the escalation that did it and not the fact they were in the middle of processing them.
No I did not do anything. All done from HN side. I just waited.
I got refunded for my first order paid via paypal (from savings though it still hasn't reflected back on my savings account yet) but still waiting for the refund on my second order paid via paypal from credit card.
What's the point of the ACCC?
When's the last time they acted against HN?
My complaint is not against HN, because they are expert cons and have pulled this scam before. My complaint is with the ACCC that doesn't hit HN with Fines for their scams.
Why does the ACCC even exist if they are so useless?
Because perhaps, what they are doing is perfectly legal, and the as ACCC judge each case on law, and not the volume at which angry people yell.
That doesn't exempt the ACCC from responding to all the angry people who have filed complaints. Even a standard reply would be sufficient
ACCC in November 2012 was the last time over misrepresentation of replace / refund procedures at a number of franchises.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-20/accc-takes-harvey-norm…
Instead of hiring social media dummies to post messages here that end up heating up the issue Gerry should have used the expenses to give away vouchers to people whose orders were canceled.
he doesn't need to spend money hiring social dummies, they got Modokun and co. :)
(though seems like the post doesn't really help)
I purchased this at 4.00 am boxing day morning via cc. Eventually got my funds back today. Longest Wait ever….
its funny reading all this people who are ready to fall on the sword for Harvey Norman. tell me why they need any reps here?
hardly normal: "those "friggin idiots"! willing to defend me all hours of the night!" lol
Somebody with access to media please notify Today Tonight or Aust Current Affair so they can investigate and show it to the public how HN run their online business.
I am retracting my earlier conspiracy theory of HN operatives trying to disrupt and hijack real comments by effected OZ bargain members.
These guys have worked very hard (some making 60 -70 comments) at keeping this thread going by making comments that have incensed the rest of us who are involved. I think this might have blown over if it was not for their helpful comments, so a BIG THANK YOU!
Now I am convinced that you are not working for HN as you have been most helpful to the cause and in keeping this thread active.
Most people were smart enough to pick up on that after about my third post, but didn't feel the need to make a post pointing it out to everyone.
…what makes you think I was referring to you??
/facepalm
"These guys have worked very hard (some making 60 -70 comments)"
seriously, enough with the terrible attempt at trapping me into revealing myself as a Harvey Normal sleeper agent.
Let us know if you do want a job…we can probably skip the interview process based on this thread alone…
Wow. That doesn't sound at all unprofessional.
/facepalm…
I would prefer Napalm, sorry lame attempt …must hold back from ridicule but you do make it very hard, Modokun!
Same for me if I'm having a business, he has showed his professional ways of arguing here! Cool !!
Let us know if you do want a job…we can probably skip the interview process based on this thread alone…
These are the sort of people you want to recruit as customer service reps?
LOL
Just for this comment, I'll be sending an email requesting Gerry explain why he is allowing Harvey Norman employees to thank their competitors for good deals?? I am quite sure your company will have a social media policy that would forbid this type of behaviour. We shall see…
It is common for social media reps to engage in banter and/or jokes that a reasonable person would not take offense to.
Also, how on earth is this thanking a competitor for a good deal? I am not posting a deal, and I am not a competitor of Harvey Norman.
Also, how on earth is this thanking a competitor for a good deal? I am not posting a deal, and I am not a competitor of Harvey Norman.
I wasn't even replying to you, so why are you getting so defensive!? Don't bother answering that, we all know the answer.
We also need someone with a good eye for detail in our price checking department…no sense of humor required
i have sent email to you guys when you cancelling my order (no reply till now). you don't even said apologize for making pricing error, instead your email accusing me that I am the one that cancelling the order. it is not professional !!!!
I am demanding formal apologize from your company and admitted that you have made error on your side, not my side that cancelling the order that doesn't suit my need.Machines can do these things. Humans get tired and miss things. Fix your e-commerce system.
Hi Joanna Tan,
We are very sorry for the pricing error. We have now processed all refunds.
The message you are referring to is an automated one triggered by our refund process. Sorry for any offence this has caused and for any inconvenience in the long run.
Yours sincerely
Harvey Norman social team
It is good that you apologised here but it would be better if you could send another email to apologised to all those buyers affected, I am sure in situation like this, human can take control. Not all buyers are ozbargain members or will view this forum. I am sure it is not that hard to do that as Gerry has said there are only 300 buyers, maybe you can skip to send the email to those "professionals" identified by Gerry.
I think it will take less than an hour to send the email, copy and paste email address for 300 buyers should not be that difficult.
I got my full refund today~ :) paypal cleared the refund,
hope everyone is having the same 'luck!' if you want to call it that
Still haven't got my refund :/
Paid via CC..
Questions still remains which none of you have managed to answer.
If you didn't know what it was, or what it was worth, why did you buy it?
Why were so many other people able to immediately identify it was a pricing error, and you weren't?