Dell & the Multi-Million dollar Typo
by Steve on 02/07/09 at 10:02 am
Dell Taiwan accidentally priced a 19 inch monitor, normally costing around $150, at only $15, and received roughly around 140,000 orders within the 8 hours the typo was up. Now, the Taiwanese government is forcing them to honor the sales.
I would imagine this kind of thing isn’t too uncommon for such an honest typo mistake, and normally a company like Dell would either honor the price (if relatively few orders were placed) or offer some kind of discount. But the Taiwanese government is saying Dell must honor all 140,000 orders or face prosecution for violation of fair trade laws (and no, we have no idea what fair trade has to do with this situation). If roughly 140,000 orders were placed at the mistaken price and if Dell does somehow have to honor that price due to fair trade laws, dell stands to lose around $2,100,000.
Dell has apologized and says it will compensate buyers for the mistake, but they probably mean some sort of discount instead of a loss of millions of dollars. I am sure whomever is responsible for the typo is waiting in the unemployment line right about now.
-Steve
[gizmodo]
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