HP TouchPad

martin451

Looks like Argos has joined the long list of incompetent retailers. It's amazing how many of them have managed to screw up their online ordering process:

Thanks for shopping at argos.co.uk on Sunday 28th August 2011. We've sent you this email as an acknowledgement of your order, which we'll now check.

Please print or save a copy of this email for future reference.

Unfortunately the following item(s) are now out of stock. This amount has not been charged to your card. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Please try again in a few days, as we should receive more stock shortly.

Cat No Product Name Qty Price
508/6050 HP TouchPad WiFi - 32GB. 1 £115..00

...

Total
Standard delivery cost: £5..95
Saturday delivery cost: £0..00

Total (including delivery): £0..00

This amount has been charged to your card

I'm afraid I don't have much confidence in trying again in a few days. Shopping with Argos just became as unreliable as Amazon, Comet, Barnes & Noble, Staples etc etc

Oh well, it was worth a try.

rose28454

I signed up to be e-mailed when back in stock at argos. However I did not receive an e-mail about the new stock last night. Wonder why?

martin451

Mixed messages coming from Argos.

This email that one unlucky purchaser received this morning sounds a bit ominous:

Subject: Catalogue number 508/6050

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the order you attempted to place with Argos.

I am very sorry you have been unable to purchase the HP TouchPad WiFi - 32GB and that your order did not process. I have looked into this for you and I am sorry to advise that the HP TouchPad WiFi - 32GB has been discontinued and we will no longer be receiving further stock. I hope that you can find a suitable alternative from our wide product range.

I apologise for any inconvenience caused.

...

Regards,

Carol Edwards
Argos Direct E-Commerce Customer Service Team.

I think it can safely be said that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing at Argos. Although that could be said about most of the major retailers at the moment.

And they're all being a bit recalcitrant when it comes to passing on accurate information to the consumer - keep the customer in the dark seems to be the strategy of choice here.

It's a shame, because up until now their customer service in relation to the TouchPad issue has been exemplary - especially the help given through Twitter by @argoshelpers.

Ben_W_3

Just lifted this from HDUK....

IceRaptor wrote:

just so you know i spoke to a manager at argos who has said that the 11th september shipment has been cancelled.

Doesnt look great for the future...

seequis

How frustrating!

I missed the first sale because I fell asleep and last night I checked Argos around midnight - 12.30, fell asleep then the sale goes up. Agh, how ruddy frustrating.

I am keeping check on other sites as I think more stock will come online but to be honest, notifying a customer is risky because they can then communicate this via various channels, the web goes mad and the retailer has their website fall over... losing not only a few sales (and limited margin) on the touchpad but numerous other more valuable sales for other items.

I too did not get the notification email (registered with 4 different email addresses) but am not surprised.

It makes more sense to just put them up online when the retailer is ready rather than announce it. Unfair or not, this makes the most sense.

I am however confident that I will snag one of these... and not too worried about losing out on a sale...

I'll be keeping track today...

Yolina

martin451 wrote: »

Looks like Argos has joined the long list of incompetent retailers. It's amazing how many of them have managed to screw up their online ordering process:

I don't think any retailer has an ordering/stock taking system that can cope with the number of people who are placing (or trying to place) orders simultaneously! I guess it's a bit of an exceptional situation.

iabw12

These people http://www.trusthardware.co.uk/find.asp seem to have stock but it's at the price of £372/£321 for 32/16GB. I have no idea if I should order one and see if it will come down in price. As it's a holiday weekend, there's noone to answer the phone. What do you think?

martin451

iabw12 wrote: »

These people http://www.trusthardware.co.uk/find.asp seem to have stock but it's at the price of £372/£321 for 32/16GB. I have no idea if I should order one and see if it will come down in price. As it's a holiday weekend, there's noone to answer the phone. What do you think?

It might be better to hold off for a while - that seems very expensive - there's no guarantee Trusthardware will reduce their prices in the future and it's doubtful that you would get refunded for the difference even if they were to reduce them, which is highly unlikely now (i.e. to the prices most other retailers reduced them to: £89/£115). What they are selling them at now is probably their fixed price. But at those prices you'd probably be better saving up for an iPad2 (£399 for the 16GB).

Prices on eBay for TouchPads seem to be around £190 for the 16GB and £220+for the 32GB (plus postage). Even that's a bit pricey - considering the extent of the recent price crash.

General consensus is that resale prices will fall over time (e.g. from eBay sellers) - and more stock might possibly appear over the next few days at major retailers (e.g. John Lewis offloaded a batch just over 24 hours ago, which I missed) - although it's very difficult to purchase any when they go on sale at the reduced price because of the massive demand.

seequis

The best thing is to hold out and if you get one, great. If you don't then you just have to hang fire for a few weeks because these will come down in price, it is a given.

Currently, they are around the £190 mark as mentioned. People know the true purchase value is £89... Even though it was worth more, the price paid it the actual value.

I would pay £120 for the £89 model and not more. It's not that important to me and if I wanted to buy right now (and had the spare cash) it would be a HTC or Motorola... not the HP. Because it is cheap I can bypass all that and get it (if I can for £89).

Keep an eye out on sites... there a bound to be models coming up for sale at random... there are 64gig models still to be sold... and possibly the 3g models too.

onetomany

do u think its worth me getting up at midnight tonight anyone?