[mflaster]

Given that the price is still apparently available, and other people have come up with links to other stores with really cheap (though not as cheap) LT150 prices, doesn't it seem like Dell did *not* make a mistake? It seems instead that NEC had tons of inventory, they're about to release a new projector, so they slashed the price to move the product.


A sobering thought for those who bought many, planning to sell the extra for profits. Not as long as Dell continues to sell it for $1700!!


What do people think? Does this signal a dramatic shift downward in projector prices? Or is this just a temporary anomaly? How long before NEC clears its inventory? How long before you can sell your LT150 for something about $2k?


Mike



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[Jonmx]

If I thought I would get much use out of a second projector though, I would place an order. I am just curious how it would look next to my Sanyo.

 

[Alan Gouger]

Were still waiting for someone to take possession of one.

Plenty of people ordered over night delivery before they ran out of stock last week and still not one delivered.


Hell if it turns out to be a legit deal I will buy a couple but not until I see people take delivery.


------------------

Alan Gouger

Thanks for supporting AV Science.
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[kbconv]

I don't think anyone's really taking a "hit". $1700 may be around cost or profit for mfg. Their new model may make this model undesirable/unsaleable to business sector.


In manufacturing I see auto parts that cost $50 to make retail for $375 and electronics that cost $100 retail for $1000. You don't get by on grocery store margins if you are going to make money in large company manufacturing operations.

 

[David James]

I think we need to send links of this and the other LT150 from Dell threads to Runco, Selco, InFocus, Sony, etc. Let them know that pent up demand for "reasonably" priced projectors.

 

[Alan Gouger]

The $1700 is well belowe dealer cost.

Even if you buy a large qty.


We were told the 1700 price was for the LT80 or 85 and that they made a mistake.



Who knows, well just have to wait to see how this unfolds.


Again not one person has recieved a unit and that makes me think theres still a chance it wont happen.


When this first hit they had them in stock so anyone saying they are not in stock is not an excuse. They were at one point and still no one received one even when there was taken. This was mid last week.



------------------

Alan Gouger

Thanks for supporting AV Science.
www.avscience.com


[This message has been edited by Alan Gouger (edited 07-22-2001).]

 

[lmo]

If it does happen, Alan, I've got the $1,300 difference burning a hole in my pocket, and you can guess where I'm going to spend it.


At this point, Dell has an absolute obligation to deliver at the promised price. Now that they've charged against credit cards and issued order numbers, I view this as a binding contract under their terms of service. It's not like people have tried to "pull one over" on this multi-billion dollar corporation. There have been probably dozens of people calling to confirm the price to make sure it's not a mistake, all of whom have been assured this price is guaranteed to be correct. If they don't deliver at the quoted price, I'll pursue it and would hope everyone else here would as well.

 

[Alan Gouger]

Ive been told Dell has a policy where they have to make good even if they made a mistake so there could be some lucky people out there.


------------------

Alan Gouger

Thanks for supporting AV Science.
www.avscience.com

 

[ckolchak]

Quote:

Originally posted by lmo: If it does happen, Alan, I've got the $1,300 difference burning a hole in my pocket, and you can guess where I'm going to spend it. At this point, Dell has an absolute obligation to deliver at the promised price. Now that they've charged against credit cards and issued order numbers, I view this as a binding contract under their terms of service. It's not like people have tried to "pull one over" on this multi-billion dollar corporation. There have been probably dozens of people calling to confirm the price to make sure it's not a mistake, all of whom have been assured this price is guaranteed to be correct. If they don't deliver at the quoted price, I'll pursue it and would hope everyone else here would as well.

Class-action? i'd be seriously dissapointed now if this doesn't go thru, as i'm starting to ratchet up in anticipation of finally getting into FP, but unless i went out and actually started to spend money remodeling or buy screens, etc, i wonder what the legal fallout would/could be if Dell doesn't follow thru.


i was assured saturday morning, that the deal was for real and they still had the inventory. Heard everything that everyone else has commented on, from the salesman remarking " yeah thats a great deal isn't it" to "yeah they're STILL at that price" to " yep, we still have 'em left".

so there's hope i guess, but that cliche is hovering around close to my head-

"if it seems to good to be true..."


of course it could turn out that they only bad deal here is that i'll just be seriously dissapointed in the actual projector...

 

[Don Black]

A retailer always has the ability to decline a sale, provided it doesn't violate someone's civil rights. Dell has complete authority to cancel orders and, if charged, refund credit cards at any time.


I think it's a little silly for people to start threatening law suits over potential pricing errors. Mistakes happen. PR hits follow.


Would it be great if this deal was real and/or Dell honors and ships the units at this price? Sure. If they don't though, I completely understand.


[This message has been edited by Don Black (edited 07-22-2001).]

 

[mblank]



Don -


I completely agree with you (and see my other thread). If it's legit, great. If it's a typo, then I agree that Dell has no legal or ethical obligation to honor the price. The idea of suing them to uphold an incorrect price strikes me as utterly absurd, though fairly typical of the times.


- Marc

 

[arrow]

Frankly, I've never understood the class-action lawsuit angle.


If Dell made a mistake, what are we going to sue over? Emotional distress? Puhlease.


Best to not get your hopes up over this one. If it happens, great. If not, well, it was fun speculating about it.


--Les

 

[ckolchak]

Don, that was the gist of what i was trying to say.

would i be dissapointed if it didn't come thru? Hell Yeah! especially now after several days of people calling in to verify the price w/ superiors.

A mistake like this goes on a day...well, you should cut them some slack-it's just an error, nothing to get worked up about

to let it go on for two days...well now, this is kind of sloppy, i'll let you guys get away with calling it a mistake this time, but i'll be wary of your 'deals' in the future.

to let it slide for 3 days, while it's constantly being brought to salespeoples attention and supposedly verified...well then it's seriously poor customer service.

i think we are on the fourth day of people being reassured that the units are available and for the quoted price.

to renig on this deal now would be just asking for some kind of PR fallout.

But, trying to sue because you didn't get something at the great price you thought would, however,i agree, is really silly and shows a lack of character (imho).

hell, i've had letters from out-of-state attorneys trying to get me involved in a class-action suit against Blockbuster because of their "unfairly" high late fees. that suit was actually settled, but if i was that upset w/ them, i just wouldn't patronize their buisness.


of course, only time will tell how this pans out.





[This message has been edited by ckolchak (edited 07-22-2001).]

 

[lmo]

It is certainly premature to start talking class-action lawsuit. But I do want to clarify a few things.


Don, a company does NOT have the right to change pricing errors at any time, unless they reserve it as an express term of the offering price (this would typically be contained in the Terms of Service). What Dell has done is what is legally termed a "firm offer", meaning that upon acceptance it becomes an enforceable contract. The measure of damages for a breach of such contract can be calculated at the difference between the price of cover (e.g. the cost of the similar projector elsewhere) and the price offered by Dell. Under contract law, you are entitled to claim "the benefit of the bargain" once an agreement is reached. Even if that agreement is favorable to you.


If Dell does fail to follow through, and anyone is interested in pursuing it, send me PM.


However, at this point, this talk is all extremely premature, as has been pointed out. I just wanted to correct what I thought was somewhat misleading info.

 

[ckolchak]

Imo,

hat is meant by 'upon acceptence'? does that mean authorizing a hold on funds, or actually charging , or both?

like i said in the other thread, if a mistake goes on a couple days and isn't caught, i can live with it.

but to have something like this go on this long (and maybe longer) and the pull the carpet out...would at the least engender some serious ill-will.

but to be positive, just think how much bang for the buck they could get, PR-wise, by coming out a few days from now and saying "we made a huge mistake, but we are prepared to honour all orders already placed for this particular item.

whatever loss incurred could be alleviated by pulling a few of those annoying "Mr & Mrs troutface, your son has asked me to tell you.." ads.

 

[lmo]

That's really the rub - what does "upon acceptance" mean? Very poorly drafted terms of service, in my opinion. I think it would be difficult for them to argue that the order is not accepted once they place a charge against your credit card, issue an order number, and give you a ship date. The problem is with the ambiguity of this term. Against a backdrop of verbally assuring the price to numerous customers and continuing to take orders after the price is questioned, a defense of "unilateral mistake" would be very dicey. The fact of the matter is, Dell has sold these products at this price, and they're now obligated to deliver, in my opinion.


If this is a mistake (which is still a HUGE if, since many other dealers have dropped their prices dramatically) their attorneys need to get in and clean up their TOS real quickly.

 

[theprophe]

A class auction law suit? you have got to be kidding? Relax, If you don't get it because they goofed and let it go on for a few days, what did you lose?Are you out any money,mental anguish? This seems to be a typical American type of response (or at least what other poeple in other countries think of Americans) If it doesn't happen, get a beer, sit back and read this great forum, and you got a story to tell at work the next day, thats all

 

[lmo]

That's certainly your option to determine whether or not you want to pursue your rights. However, what I would be out (as would anyone ele in this situation) is the difference between what I would otherwise have to pay for the projector and what I contracted to buy it at. That's how commercial transactions work, and this is a standard measure of contractual damages established under the Uniform Commercial Code.


I agree that it is VERY VERY premature to even broach the topic, because I fully expect Dell to follow through. I just wanted to clarify some of the legalities of the situation for anyone who was interested.

 

[catullus]

Damn, I told myself I would quit posting.


But, with all due respect, Dell DOES have an ethical obligation to fill these orders. It's too late for them to honorably say, "We took dozens of orders for these projectors after dozens of people told us that our price was too low, so we've thought about it for four days, and sorry, no sale." The CEO of Dell has a beeper, for goodness sake.


The attitude of "Nice if we get them, understandable if we don't" does NOT cut it any more. OK, I'm repeating myself, but I told TWO Dell salespeople on Thursday morning that their price was wrong, that they were losing money, and I held while the second salesperson conferred with management. I told them these things BEFORE they took my order. I did not sneak up on them, hoping they wouldn't catch me. My exact words to the second salesman, "I GUARANTEE that you are losing money on this projector." Why did I risk bursting the balloon for all of us? Because my AVS 150 was due to arrive the next day, and I wasn't going to cancel unless the Dell price was for real. And I knew many forum members would be disappointed if their hopes were falsely raised.


Can Dell get away with raising false hopes by cancelling the orders? Maybe. Can they do it honorably? Absolutely NOT. They should have apologized and cancelled the orders as soon as they learned of the error (if it was one).


Mike

 

[arrow]

Quote:

Originally posted by theprophe: A class auction law suit? you have got to be kidding?

What? You haven't heard? That's what we do here in the states. We sue.


I wonder if it would be possible to bring suit against those that tie up our courts with frivolous lawsuits. Of course, the definition of frivolous might be difficult to define since in the states you can dump coffee in your own lap and still win judgement.


--Les