Insanity: MSI jacks ‘Wind’ MSRPs up to $499, $549 and forces retailers to cancel pending orders
- July 30th, 2008
- 11 Comments
Oh wow. Wow. This is a really odd decision. MSI has raised the prices of its Wind notebook (see our review here) from $479 to $499 for a version with Windows XP and a three-cell battery and from $499 to $549 for the version with XP and a six-cell battery. An MSI rep told Laptop the following:
“Since the cost of the battery and materials raise (sp), we had no choice but adjust the MSRP to $499.99 with 3-cell battery and $549.99 with 6-cell.”
To make matters worse, some retailers are hiking the price of the six-cell version up as high as $599. And – AND! – if that’s not enough, apparently some pending retail orders are being canceled because MSI now wants to sell them at the higher price.
Buy.com had to cancel orders and told Laptop:
“While selling the MSI WIND series notebooks for $499.99, Buy.com received notice from the manufacturer that this product is being mapped at $549.99. To avoid being de-authorized by this manufacturer, we did cancel all orders on this day for the 6-cell WIND series notebook.”
This is Buy.com, too! Not some fly-by-night e-retailer. This is a really poor decision by MSI, especially since the aggressive price of the Wind was one of its main selling points. The company would be wise to eat the losses until its costs of production and materials dropped (computers just get cheaper and cheaper, remember?) and then make up for it over the long run. This is just going to turn would-be customers off something awful. On the plus side, there will probably be more in stock.
Those of you that have ordered and are still waiting for your six-cell Wind, has your order been canceled? Would you re-order it at the new price? Maybe an Eee now?
steve (Who am I?)
3 months ago
And suddenly I don’t really want a Wind anymore. Nice job MSI. Now the only question is how much the new Dells will ACTUALLY cost.
TheHoldSteady (Who am I?)
3 months ago
I’m going to guess that the Dells will be delayed at least month or two and be $200 more than the current estimated prices as this seems to be the FRAKING RULE for all netbooks. I just can’t figure out if this is all driven by collusion or garden variety stupidity.
Life2Short (Who am I?)
3 months ago
MSI missed the boat. If they could have met their original ship date in late May, they could have had the pool all to themselves. Now it’s August, and units still aren’t available. We get a new promise of September, but anyone who has waited this long will find it very easy to wait and see what Dell and Apple, for example, might have to offer. Or one could buy an ASUS, now that they’re shipping. The least MSI could have done was to lock-in preorders but now they’ve even managed to anger those people. This level of incompetence really stands out.
dc (Who am I?)
3 months ago
Yup, I don’t want the Wind anymore either if the price has gone up.
Better to get a 12″ full notebook for about $400 more.
Doug Aamoth (Who am I?)
3 months ago
It’d be one thing for Dell to hint at or even give a base price range for its notebooks and then come in at a higher price. It’d be another issue altogether to actually start selling them at one price and then raise the price a month later and cancel pending pre-orders, which is what MSI has done.
I’m sure even Asus has thought at times, “Hey, we probably could have priced the initial Eee $50 higher” but to come out and actually up the prices like this — saying that it turns out the materials used to make the machines is too high — would have been insane. I just don’t understand what MSI’s thinking here. It’s like “Whoops, we screwed up. Let’s pass that along to our customers and let them take the hit.”
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Dave (Who am I?)
3 months ago
I too am turned off by this move. I had pre-ordered a 6-cell MSI through buy.com and the order got canceled. I am looking at a different computer now. MSI lost my business with this move.
Christophor Rick (Who am I?)
3 months ago
Thank you MSI for narrowing down my choices for me so definitively. It really starts making things easier when manufacturers willingly shoot themselves in the foot and then we don’t have to!
Johnny (Who am I?)
3 months ago
well, it’s $630 now at mwave.com
dc (Who am I?)
3 months ago
Definitely not worth $630. What happened to the netbooks? Maybe they really are to expensive to manufacture now.
Adriana Gutierrez (Who am I?)
3 months ago
Buy.com’s poor handling of these cancellations certainly left me with a sour taste in my mouth! They at least could have honored our spot in the queue for the higher priced ones for sale (pre-order) on their web site, but no, they did not even mention that they were available.
Way to go MSI, way to go Buy.com! Poor business practices on both of your parts has me waiting to see if better options come available in September. And chances are I will not do business with either of you in the future.
dc (Who am I?)
3 months ago
There is always the Dell that was announced but not shown yet.
And check this one from Lenovo out:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2327025,00.asp
Right now in the US the EEEPC 1000H is the same price as the MSI Wind.
I think MSI really messed up on this one.