I just got an email from HP which said that I’m not going to be getting my TouchPads any time soon. It’s a little surprising how much they oversold the tablet and now I finally understand why they went through with the extra production run. Let me explain.
I’m sure you recall that 3 weeks back, HP killed off the TouchPad and put it on clearance pretty much over night. The weekend of the 19th and 20th saw the TouchPad go on and off sale within hours with some sites crashing under the strain.
Here’s the interesting part, and it will tell you just how oversold HP is. My order, the one that HP just pushed back 6 to 8 weeks, was placed about 6 pm Saturday night. It and all orders after it are going to be filled from this last production run.
They so ridiculously oversold the canceled TouchPad that they can’t even fill the orders from Saturday. The post cancellation production run is being used to fill orders placed on the first day that the TouchPad went on clearance. Um, HP, that would have been a good time to shut down the site (rather than continue to take orders on through Sunday).
For once I’m not angry about the delay. I’m not even angry about having already been charged for the order (okay, I am a little annoyed). But I am dismayed at the fact that HP couldn’t shut the sale down in time. When you add this to the first and second free app offers that HP screwed up, as well as the camera app that HP forgot to ship with the TouchPad, I have to say that it doesn’t inspire confidence in HP and their ability to run a business.
–
Follow me on Twitter: @thDigitalReader
RSS
Email
Facebook
Twitter
It looks like I will never get a $149 32GB HPTP. I think they’ve already been ordered. Ah, well. iPad with iOS 5? Gaaaaaah.
I also ordered around 6pm Saturday, actually I tried off/on since like 3pm but the site crashed so often I didn’t success until like 6. My order actually says that I ordered 3pm on Sunday so it took the servers that long to process it I guess.
I’m not really upset about the 6-8week wait, I’m upset that all the information I’ve had until I got emailed today came from scrounging around the internet and spending many (4+hours multiple times) on the phone with sales support and not getting a straight answer. In fact these emails were supposed to go out like last Thursday. How hard is it to mass email every active SMB touchpad order that it took almost a week? Ordered on the 20th, got a auto generated confirmation on the 22nd, then radio silence for over 2 weeks all the while your website said it was supposed to have shipped the week of the 22nd? Not very good business practices there.
I fixed your post (I hope you don’t mind).
Heads Up: HP TouchPads MAYBE on QVC or TigerDirect This Afternoon - The Digital Reader // Sep 14, 2011 at 12:59 pm
[...] if this doesn’t pan out, then you’ll have to wait another 5 weeks or so for the final shipment of TouchPads to get to the warehouse. I doubt you’ll get one, though, [...]