webOS Q&A Metrix App Mill Forums About Contact Tip Us
Buzz, Featured, News, TouchPad

Don’t Blink! You Might Miss Something Big

By: , 9/9/2011 5:31 pm | 26 comments

Most people like getting nice little surprises from time to time, especially the kind that involve news about where to get your hands on the much coveted but hard to find TouchPad. This morning our good friend and webOS Developer Manny Gomez (@Mannyman) of Gomez Industries received one such surprise. TigerDirect sent Manny a notification email to let him know of a great TouchPad bundle they were offering. Here is the opening information:

From: TigerDirect.com <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Subject: HP TouchPads In-Stock…But not for long…
To: Manny Gomez

=================================
TigerDirect.com
HP TouchPad Alert
=================================

Dear Manny,

Thank you for subscribing to get special alerts on the highly allocated HP TouchPads.
I’m here to tell you that we’ve just received a small batch of HP TouchPad Bundles.

Both bundles include an HP TouchPad, the advanced HP Touchstone Charging Dock, and the HP TouchPad Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard.  Both are now over 50% off, but only while
supplies last.

Of course you would be excited as long as you were able to get the email and act before you received this email:

From: TigerDirect.com <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 11:23 AM
Subject: HP TouchPad Bundles SOLD OUT in minutes…

=================================
TigerDirect.com
HP TouchPad BUNDLE SOLD OUT
=================================

Dear Manny,

Thank you for subscribing to get special alerts on the highly allocated HP TouchPads.

Within the last hour, we sent an email alerting to a batch of inventory we received of HP TouchPad Bundles.  They SOLD OUT in mere minutes.

That is both incredible and sad, but we aren’t posting this to make you feel like you missed something special. Quite the contrary. We want as many of you as possible to be able to find a TouchPad at a great price. So we figured we would share this little nugget from the second email with you.

We are working on getting more.  As promised, every time we get more, we will alert you first.  As you can see, these are available on a first come, first served basis, so you have to act fast when we send out these inventory alerts.

To repeat, we have SOLD OUT of both the 16gb and 32gb versions of the HP TouchPad bundles.  As soon as we get more, we will send you an email alert.

So head on over to TigerDirect and get signed up for a notification email.

Thanks for the tip Manny!

flattr this!


About Rich Dunbar

Rich is Sr. Editor at webOSroundup and mobileRoundup as well as a husband, father of 4, webOS Ambassador and webOS Developer who loves all things webOS and Harley Davidson. You can find him on Twitter as @RichDunbar
View all posts by Rich Dunbar →
  • http://twitter.com/PlasticWig Joshua K

    Must have been a really good captcha if it was blacked out.

  • Danar

    They should do it like on the radio, “Be the 12th caller and get a TouchPad”. What a circus. lol!

  • Calliesink

    Luckily I was able to get a 32gig from a friend who works for HP 

    so happy am I 

        CallieSink

    • MarkP

      I have a sister-in-law who works in HP’s channel (for a distributor). She was able to score three (3) 32GB TouchPads at $135 a piece. So my wife got one, and my other sister-in-law and her husband got one. This last weekend we had 4 TouchPads in the same house at the same time.  I was an earlier adopter, but thankfully HP refunded me the difference.

      Oddly, this is how it worked out for me:
      $599
      - $50 rebate
      - $50 app credit
      - $450 refund
      —-
      = $49 net cost of the tablet.

      I would have bought at least $50 in apps, so this was a sweet deal for me.

      • Haze

        Great to have webos fans… They seem to have a 150$ limit, no wonder the tp didn’t sell. Great you had yours almost for free.

        • BenjaminT

          Actually I annd many others have been getting one for about $230 (16 GB) on eBay. I wish I could boast $99 score, but obviously lotsof people agre e with me. I would pay $400 if HP was planning to support it still. But not $499.

        • BenjaminT

          Actually I annd many others have been getting one for about $230 (16 GB) on eBay. I wish I could boast $99 score, but obviously lotsof people agre e with me. I would pay $400 if HP was planning to support it still. But not $499.

      • ghwin

        Hey MarkP,

        I too am an early adopter and got mine for too much. Questions: Have you already received your rebate? And did you contact HP directly for your $450 refund? URL of phone number?

        Thanks. – Greg

  • http://www.facebook.com/leviwallach Levi Wallach

    My question is: what does the “50%” refer to?  Are they not selling newer batches of touchpads at $100 (which would really be either 75% or 80% off depending on you use their initial or subsequent prices)?  If just 50% off, it would be either $200 or $250.  Still good prices, but not quite as ridiculous.  If that’s the case and they STILL sold out in mere minutes, I wonder if that means these things would sell briskly even at a $300 price point?  That might not have been true initially, but with the pumped up demand due to the firesale, I wouldn’t doubt that happening.  Of course just is all the more frustrating because this almost assuredly won’t end in HP reconsidering their decision.  Only potential upside will be more attractiveness for a buyer.  But even so, I think it’s just too difficult a proposition for almost any suiter that could really do something significant with the platform…  Well, I’m just hoping that HP honors their firesale prices for those of us who tried to order that weekend and were actually told our order went through…

    • Robert

      The charger and the keyboard were 50% off.

      • Rich

        The bundle for the 16 GB was $199 and the 32 GB was $249. It was a great deal.

  • Bill Wotring

    Wow. Every day that passes, Leo looks more clueless to what HP should be doing…

    • JoeZiehmer

      Leo is not clueless as a matter of fact he got setup by Rubenstein to take the fall. After programmers and designers left after the sale it was smoke and mirrors. I will still be buying HP products when all is said and done.

  • blessedkdg

    I just bought one from QVC (32GB with Touchstone and charge through case for $199+ship+tax=$224.62) at 5:30p.m. today. They seem to have sold through their stock. Wow. Still won’t believe it until it says it shipped. Still stinging from the add’l 6-8 week wait from HP SMB store.

    In Stock: E167734 HP TouchPad 32GB Wi-Fi Touchstone Dock & CaseIn Process: 9/9/2011  Label Printed: 9/9/2011 $199.95 Qty 1 ship $13.97 tax $10.70 total $224.62

    • Danar

      I ordered a 32g on Amazon (On Sale). It said in stock. I got a conformation email that said expected delivery date 24th to 25th. I placed the order on the 22nd, a Sunday. The evening of the 25th I got a email saying my order had been canceled. Needless to say I was bummed. I am telling you this because if it happens to you please let me know because I contacted alot of people including the Better Bussiness Bureau and could maybe save you some steps. (Just FYI ) Wish you luck.

      • MicahR

        I do feel bad that you didn’t get a touchpad on sale but I think you have gone a bit too far with the complaining.  It wasn’t Amazon’s fault considering the high demand of the product. With all inventory control software the inventory is adjusted once invoiced. The timing of your invoice was just poor luck on your part. They didn’t take your money and not give it back.  I don’t think Amazon intended to screw you and although it sucks to miss out on a good deal that’s all it really is, a missed deal and the bbb wasn’t called for in my opinion. I hope you got on in HP’s alert list before it shut down.   

        • LeosJokeEmporium

          Hope you didnt, for your sake. 

      • LeosJokeEmporium

        Be glad you got away without having to fiddle with Leo’s Edsel.

  • Kickstand447

    A real goat rope! Tiger doesn’t make it easy to get on the mailing list. Still lookking for it. Sigh.

    • Rich

      LOL… I posted the link in the last sentence of the article. Just click where it says TigerDirect.

  • Michael

    Tiger directives great to work with when I got my 32 gig touch pad. On the Monday after the great price drop their web server crashed and I called to request one. The sales person scoured their data base and set one aside. It did help that I was already in their data base and had purchased a lot from them over the years. After the excellent customer service and them going the extra mile for me, I will use tiger direct for all of our computer needs. It did take 10 days to get, but I git one. It works great with My pre plus

  • Papo8545

    The WebOS fiasco certainly has changed how I feel about HP.  I was looking forward to my Pre3 and the TouchPad.  Now I can’t get either.  My next computer won’t be an HP.

    • justsayin

      kneejerk

      • tt92618

        That’s not a knee-jerk reaction at all.  HP handled this horribly, and in the process the essentially ^%^% a whole lot of developers, partners, and consumers, many of whom got stuck with these things paying full price while the vast majority shelled out 1/5 that.  If I were in any one of those groups, I would be very angry about how it was handled.

        I don’t think a company that would treat its customers, developers, or partners that way really deserves our business.

        • LeosJokeEmporium

          No it doesnt. Buy one if you want it for future collectibility, not for current functionality. Its an outrage that the poor performance has gotten hidden under the firesale hype.

  • Paula

    cancel/[email protected];[email protected];[email protected]