The Little Flash Drive That Couldn’t
I was cruising dealcatcher.com on new years day and found this great deal on a Verbatim Store’n'Go 4GB USB Drive for just $17.98 from OfficeMax.com. I didn’t really need the thing, but knowing what the normal price is for even a 2GB drive, I jumped at the deal and ordered one right up. I figured this must be some kind of super after Christmas clearance price or something along those lines. I promptly paid the total $28.07 with the tax and shipping and set about waiting for my new toy to arrive.
I wasn’t sure what I would do with it, but I’m kind of a pack rat and definitely afraid of losing my data, so I have backups of backups laying around. The ultra-portable drive space would be ideal. I remembered how I got my first Windows box back in 1995 and thought I was doing pretty well with a 1.2GB hard drive in there… funny how your needs seem to change. Need it or not, I was pretty proud of my new acquisition and the super deal I’d scored on it.
Well, my glee was short-lived as I received an email from OfficeMax today letting me know that my order had been canceled. I glanced at the subject line on the email and immediately thought.. “Did my credit card go through? Did I enter my personal information correctly?” Upon further inspection I found out otherwise. The email was short and not so sweet.
Dear OfficeMax Customer,
This is to advise you that item 21168308 – Verbatim 4GB USB Drive has been canceled from your order due to an inadvertent typographical pricing error on our website. According to the Terms of Use on OfficeMax.com, OfficeMax does not have to honor a price that is a typographical error. We apologize for the inconvenience.
If you have additional questions, please contact a customer service representative at 1-877-OFFICEMAX.
Wow, their apology really made ME feel better. How about some kind of consolation for my trouble. Offer me a discount on something else in the store. Send me a coffee mug or something. Apparently, I’m not the only one who this happened to. A friend sent me a link to a Digg article where several other people report the same thing… an awesome deal that wasn’t. Kudos to the few people who actually DID receive their drive.
