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Touchpad Scam!

Macdude2010

Macdude2010

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 17, 2010
1,358
574
The Apple Store
Like many others, I purchased in good faith only to find three days later that OnSale cancelled my order. Why did it take three days to determine that OnSale did not have the product? Why did Amazon tell me that my credit card was not charged when as of this AM the charge is still "pending" and the amount is not available to me to spend?

I would suspect that OnSale never had the product in stock at the advertised price in sufficient quantity to fill the orders they knew they would get. Why? If you look at Mall's (NASDAQ) Q2 results relative to their stock price, the market did not like what they heard, esp the operating loss from OnSale. By last weekend Mall's stock price reached a 52 week low that started when their Q2 results were released. On the weekend, OnSale books sales in a product they could not deliver and Mall's stock price starts to rise off it's low. I wonder if they can really book these transactions as sales if they could not fill the orders?

In addition, though I was told by Amazon that "Your credit card was not charged for this order.", my online statement shows the charge as pending and the funds are not available to me for spending. Who is making money off the "float" (the time between the purchase and the conclusion of the sale)?
 
Macdude2010 said:
Like many others, I purchased in good faith only to find three days later that OnSale cancelled my order. Why did it take three days to determine that OnSale did not have the product? Why did Amazon tell me that my credit card was not charged when as of this AM the charge is still "pending" and the amount is not available to me to spend?

I would suspect that OnSale never had the product in stock at the advertised price in sufficient quantity to fill the orders they knew they would get. Why? If you look at Mall's (NASDAQ) Q2 results relative to their stock price, the market did not like what they heard, esp the operating loss from OnSale. By last weekend Mall's stock price reached a 52 week low that started when their Q2 results were released. On the weekend, OnSale books sales in a product they could not deliver and Mall's stock price starts to rise off it's low. I wonder if they can really book these transactions as sales if they could not fill the orders?

In addition, though I was told by Amazon that "Your credit card was not charged for this order.", my online statement shows the charge as pending and the funds are not available to me for spending. Who is making money off the "float" (the time between the purchase and the conclusion of the sale)?
Click to expand...

what does this have to do with iPads?
 
I think the lesson learned in this whole onsale mess is that we need more touchpad threads in the iPad forum.
 
Last edited:
Quite often it's your bank who is holding the funds for initiated and then canceled credit card transaction, it should clear in 2 biz days - if not, call you bank and tell them to cancel the transaction.
 
When you get your money back depends on who you bank with. I am with Bank of America and and holds will drop off the morning after 3 business days. I have heard of other banks/credit unions are faster.
 
relax, dude.

calling them scammers is a bit of an exaggeration. onsale, along with HP, and probably other retailers got so innundated with orders that they sold more tablets then they had.

it's not the end of the world and if a $100 decrease on your available credit line is a big problem, then you should be talking to your CC company to get that extended.

you'll get your money back in a few more days.


Macdude2010 said:
Like many others, I purchased in good faith only to find three days later that OnSale cancelled my order. Why did it take three days to determine that OnSale did not have the product? Why did Amazon tell me that my credit card was not charged when as of this AM the charge is still "pending" and the amount is not available to me to spend?

I would suspect that OnSale never had the product in stock at the advertised price in sufficient quantity to fill the orders they knew they would get. Why? If you look at Mall's (NASDAQ) Q2 results relative to their stock price, the market did not like what they heard, esp the operating loss from OnSale. By last weekend Mall's stock price reached a 52 week low that started when their Q2 results were released. On the weekend, OnSale books sales in a product they could not deliver and Mall's stock price starts to rise off it's low. I wonder if they can really book these transactions as sales if they could not fill the orders?

In addition, though I was told by Amazon that "Your credit card was not charged for this order.", my online statement shows the charge as pending and the funds are not available to me for spending. Who is making money off the "float" (the time between the purchase and the conclusion of the sale)?
Click to expand...
 
old-wiz said:
I still don't know why we have all these HP product threads under iPad.
Click to expand...
I don't mind a few threads because 1) lots of TouchPad buyers are open minded iPad owners, 2) Touchpad has a lot of unique features that iPad owners shouldn't dismiss and 3) there's NOTHING to talk about on the iPad right now.

But as for this thread, I find it funny how angry people are getting over failing to acquire a product that is discontinued and known to be in short supply. Most of us don't buy from on sale anyway so to act as if a personal boycott would affect them is silly.
 
haha. you are right. you snooze u loose, get over it. Every site that had them got hammered. So nothing to complain about. If you don't want your bank holding funds, then don't buy it. Its the way credit card transactions work.
 
The thing that makes me a little angry about onsale is the fact that it took so long to let me know that my order was cancelled. That and the timing of my orders cancellation. I was at Best Buy yesterday to pick up a new monitor and found out that they were getting a shipment of Touchpads in mere minutes and I thought to myself, I've got one coming don't worry about it. An hour after I get home Bam! Order Cancelled!

Luckly my order through HP went through and I should have a 32Gb coming soon.
 
I just got an email confirmation that my 32gb Touchpad order from HP is on the way. Not to rub salt in the wound, but you might try HP's Home and Home Office site if you still want one. Mine was ordered from their web site the day after the news came out. The first night I never could get through as their web site was hit so hard.
 
If you followed the touchpad threads all over the net you'd know on sale was cancelled. You could have also called. I did the next day and the rep told me mine was cancelled even though it took a few more days for that to show up on amazon.

Let's face it, $99 touchpad is a steal but let's put it in perspective: it's still a dead tablet. Maybe we won't see a great deal like this again but something tells me that by holidays all the tablet knock offs are going to want to clear put inventory to make room for the next generation of craplets, so maybe around the holidays we will see some $199 quality tablets that will continue to get support and more apps.

The people who are truly being scammed are the ones paying $250+ for it on eBay and Craigslist when they could add $50 and get a used or refurbished iPad that is a superior product, will have iOS 5, and has a much better ecosystem for apps now and in the future.
 
I felt misled reading the title of this thread.

It was poor inventory and customer service management. OnSale had every intention of getting rid of their TouchPad inventory, but in doing so so quickly, they weren't careful enough in doing some actual counting.

In any case, a lot of retailers are very limited human capital and when an item goes on sale for nearly 80% off, your site going offline and 1 gazillion people trying to buy your product in the same 60 seconds.....a lot needs to be managed and that's where mistakes surface. OnSale (and other retailers of a similar size) probably don't plan their POS systems for situations like this.

It's sad that so many people got their orders cancelled and whatnot and I'm sure if they had the goodwill of B&N, they would give their cancelled customers a little compensation.

Sorry to hear about your situation, I hope you have better luck when HP puts the rest of the Touchpads on sale.
 
Yeah, it's all up to the bank. I placed an Onsale order and got cancelled wednesday around 4. The hold is still on my card. Called the bank, they said pretty much "Just wait." I asked if they could expedite the release and the guy apparently just wanted me gone. "No, that's not possible." That was bull crap, but whatever. I know it's very possible.

On another note, right after I got that cancellation, I stopped by best buy for some headphones. It was wednesday around 5pm, no rush or lines or anything. But there were 5 kids standing around with their arms full of touchpads. Went to the back and picked up the last 32gb. No rushing, holds, waiting in line, or anything. And I'm smack in the middle of Dallas. So, if you want one once you get your funds back, just be calm and patient, and try your local best buy. I didn't even think I'd be getting one and walked out with a 32gb.

*PS, you won't be disappointed with it either. I sold my iPad about 10 months ago, and this is definitely a great replacement at $99. My iPad was a little more "smooth", but not $399 more smooth. WebOS is pretty good, android on it is pretty great, and I want to try Ubuntu.
 
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