HP TouchPad

martin451

CoolHotCold - that's exactly the kind of deferential and defeatist attitude that allows retailers to walk all over consumers. It's time that balance was redressed.

This fiasco has shown how the stock systems, online checkouts, product release strategies and customer service operations of many of the major UK retailers are simply not fit for purpose. They need to learn from this and get their acts together - or people will just shop elsewhere.

Incidentally, I thought the purpose of MoneySavingExpert was to help people save money on things (regardless of whether or not an item is deemed to be an "excessive luxury").

I actually needed a TouchPad/tablet for work purposes, i.e. my web design work. I wouldn't call that a luxury.

Please remember there are people out there who were not lucky enough to be able to purchase a TouchPad at the massively reduced price - this forum was set up to help them get hold of one. With over 170,000 views of this forum so far I think it could be said that interest and demand is quite high.

Back on topic - if anyone has any useful tips on how to get hold of a cut price TouchPad, please let us know here.

Thanks

CoolHotCold

Thats just it, its not defeatist no law against companies holding your money for a item they don't have in stock and refunding it in a few days. Point of MSE is to inform consumers about their legal rights (on the sub-section I partake in) be it what they want to hear or not, and for the general overview on saving consumers time and money, right now hunting for a Touchpad is going against that in lost time and revenue.

As far as the "Retailer Fiasco", All the retailers need to learn is how to implement a decent firesale where simply removing the item for sale online and putting it in stores only will 100% fix the problem. The demand is so great, consumers will go to a brick and mortar store and actually line up for it.

Back on point, you said you needed it for web design work, in which case either buy a different tablet or you decided a tablet is only worth £90 in business terms.

Failing that, Best places to buy are as follows.

Ebay. Half Price.

Fly To USA.

Helix

martin451 wrote: »

CoolHotCold - that's exactly the kind of deferential and defeatist attitude that allows retailers to walk all over consumers. It's time that balance was redressed.

This fiasco has shown how the stock systems, online checkouts, product release strategies and customer service operations of many of the major UK retailers are simply not fit for purpose. They need to learn from this and get their acts together - or people will just shop elsewhere.

Incidentally, I thought the purpose of MoneySavingExpert was to help people save money on things (regardless of whether or not an item is deemed to be an "excessive luxury").

I actually needed a TouchPad/tablet for work purposes, i.e. my web design work. I wouldn't call that a luxury.

Please remember there are people out there who were not lucky enough to be able to purchase a TouchPad at the massively reduced price - this forum was set up to help them get hold of one. With over 170,000 views of this forum so far I think it could be said that interest and demand is quite high.

Back on topic - if anyone has any useful tips on how to get hold of a cut price TouchPad, please let us know here.

Thanks

If everyone had problems then where is this mystical elsewhere you keep talking about. It wasn't just UK retailers that had problems - in the US barnes and noble had to cancel lots of orders as did some other retailers.

If you really need one for your web design work, i'm not sure how testing your site on a tablet a small number of people will use is going to help. Surely you should be making sure it works on the market leader, and therefore buying an iPad.

nostromo20

Coolhotcold - There is a high degree of frustration over the handling of this with UK retailers and I will not fund parasites on ebay (although I am considering bankrolling mass purchases given my new clarity on DSR, but not sure if this covers ebay)

CoolHotCold

See previous point of diminishing returns.

nostromo20

Got it! Think we are past the point of rational ROI discussion if you hadnt noticed. Folks are Malcolm Tucker level angry.

On suggestion of travelling to US. Is this viable - I may try to arrange business trip to align with stock availability if there was any hope of actually orchestrating this. Or was that throw away quip.

martin451

There's still conflicting reports concerning the possibility of a final shipment of Touchpads to Argos.

If I hear anything I'll post it here asap.

And remember to sign up for the petition to get HP to supply more Touchpad stock to the UK rather than just the USA - http://t.co/EqQKdpP

Hopefully that will give people the chance to buy a good quality (but discontinued) tablet at less than half the price you can get it on ebay.

reformedEffortmaker

I think martin451 has got a point on this. It's is 2011, and whilst I understand there is a finite amount of these items for sale, and the retailers cant pluck them from thin air, I still dont understand how on earth is it possible that the 'stock control' systems of UK retailers arent properly linked to their 'payment' systems which in turn isnt properly linked to the 'customer front end website'.

My persistence finally paid off with CPW and I got one, but that was only after being told twice that there was no trace of my order.

For me, the issues are:-

1. How were so many people were allowed to keep ordering on retail sites once stock had run out?. How can you run batch processing programs for stock control but take money in real time?
2. Why was the one TP per order policy not implemented from the outset?
3. Why were so many staff [ahem] PCWORLD allowed to hoard stock, surely it should have been one each for them too??
4. How embarrasing is it that some people on this website knew about the firesale before the Head Buyers in the popular high street stores? Perhaps if they paid a little more attention they would have been able to negotiate with HP to avoid the two day stand-off regarding refunds (Tesco/Play/Argos)

There is clearly demand for these little gadgets (at the right price!!), I expected someone to seize the opportunity and offer up a similar tablet for a sale price over the Bank Holiday and there was nothing.....it's almost as if UK retailers think we are mugs!.....(some retailers were charging £89/115 for the TP but still wanted to charge £70 for the charger)......i'm just grateful that the internet has helped highlight these issues

spart73

reformedEffortmaker wrote: »

I think martin451 has got a point on this. It's is 2011, and whilst I understand there is a finite amount of these items for sale, and the retailers cant pluck them from thin air, I still dont understand how on earth is it possible that the 'stock control' systems of UK retailers arent properly linked to their 'payment' systems which in turn isnt properly linked to the 'customer front end website'.

My persistence finally paid off with CPW and I got one, but that was only after being told twice that there was no trace of my order.

For me, the issues are:-

1. How were so many people were allowed to keep ordering on retail sites once stock had run out?. How can you run batch processing programs for stock control but take money in real time?
2. Why was the one TP per order policy not implemented from the outset?
3. Why were so many staff [ahem] PCWORLD allowed to hoard stock, surely it should have been one each for them too??
4. How embarrasing is it that some people on this website knew about the firesale before the Head Buyers in the popular high street stores? Perhaps if they paid a little more attention they would have been able to negotiate with HP to avoid the two day stand-off regarding refunds (Tesco/Play/Argos)

There is clearly demand for these little gadgets (at the right price!!), I expected someone to seize the opportunity and offer up a similar tablet for a sale price over the Bank Holiday and there was nothing.....it's almost as if UK retailers think we are mugs!.....(some retailers were charging £89/115 for the TP but still wanted to charge £70 for the charger)......i'm just grateful that the internet has helped highlight these issues

1. Simple case of overloading severs. The only way to avoid this is by spending 6x more on new severs.... this will never happen as it only happens on rare occasions and would be a complete waste of money.
2. The simplest answer is no one realised how much demand there would be.
3. I have seen no actual evidence of PCWorld staff "hording" touchpads, as working for such a retailer its only common sense they would get first pick, the same goes for any industry insider.
4. I don't think there is anything "embarrassing" about high street retailers not knowing about the fire sale. There is many different people who have to confirm and reconfirm what exactly the deal is and how the retailer is going to be compensate. would you be willing to let £100k worth of electronics sell for £20k without having confirmation in writing directly from HP?! God knows I wouldn't.

As for people being confused about mixed messages of more TouchPads making it to the UK I don't see what exactly is confusing? HP have consistently said there WILL be more coming, they just haven't given an exact time or number.

alanrowell

spart73 wrote: »

As for people being confused about mixed messages of more TouchPads making it to the UK I don't see what exactly is confusing? HP have consistently said there WILL be more coming, they just haven't given an exact time or number.

Are you sure about that - the last I heard was that HP were making up more Touchpads in order to placate their suppliers in China BUT that they would only be sold in the US. I also note that some companies that used to sell it have now announced that they won't be stocking it anymore