Dynamism Addresses Viliv S5 Order Problems
The Viliv S5 Premium UMPC is apparently a popular item as Dynamism discovered yesterday when their orders went live. We heard from a few folks who tried to order one that the Dynamism system was slow and difficult to get through the process. The folks at Dynamism were apparently slammed and have just sent the following announcement:
Thank you to everyone who ordered, or attempted to order, during our Viliv S5 promotional event. We anticipated high demand, but our server was simply unable to handle the huge number of simultaneous requests for the same single SKU. The result was an unacceptably slow, unreliable, and frustrating shopping experience for all. We would like to extend our apologies to all users of the site on April 27, especially those who tried to access or order between 1-3pm Eastern, when our server was hit hardest. Please feel free to contact us with any feedback or concerns about the event; we answer all e-mails to sales within one business day.
We have provisioned an additional 400 Viliv S5 to be bundled with the same accessory pack (car kit, spare battery, leather pouch $135 value) for the same cost of $599. These will be offered from our second shipment, due on May 24. This special will launch at 1pm Eastern time, on Thursday, May 14. During the intervening time, we will significantly increase our server’s capacity to handle overloading of orders for the same SKU. Although server performance will be much better, we expect it may still be slow. However, we hope that the larger quantity will allow more people to take advantage of the special, and help to ease any frustration. After this special concludes, the Viliv S5 will be available for general sale for $599, without the free accessory bundle. Thank you again for shopping at Dynamism.
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Don’t see why they cannot accept just pre-orders instead of making everybody go crazy – all the hype for a device that will be obsolete in how many months?
This was the most ridiculous thing I have every encountered on the web. They wasted over an hour of my time and I was never able to order. At this point, I would NEVER do business with such a Mickey Mouse outfit. They are obviously clueless about both sales and about running a website. Why would anyone want to deal with a company like that?
When the Nintendo Wii was launched, I spent 2 hours trying to buy one from Costco online which was continuously crashing throughout the day. Who would have thought a big company like Costco would have issues with the website.
Obviously these kinds of events are to generate buzz but that’s why you are getting all those free accessories. If you don’t care about the freebies, just wait until the normal orders start getting taken. I’m sure there will be no line then…your call.
Yes their process sucked but it’s not really surprising. I’ve seen much bigger companies have website fail on big events.
We bought several computers from them over the years and the customer service is top notch, today seems like an example.
What I don’t understand is how this could possibly be beneficial to their image. I am guessing that they now have 200 mildly irritated customers and over 2000 majorly PO’d potential (but now unlikely) customers. I for one will not be participating in their next cyber-stampede and will wait for another merchant to carry these devices before buying.
Exceptional customer service, let down by a non-scalable website, but more the victim of their marketing team’s success and a great pre-order deal.
After 3 hours of trying to place an order, and making it to the order final review 3 times only to loose my session, I too was ready to pull my (or their) hair out.. my hopes were dashed when a twitter message announced the ‘sold out’ status.
The exceptional service came at about 5.30 when I got a phone call from them offering to help place my order in person given all the trouble I’d gone through. The personal touch will, as I’m sure they’re hoping, ensure my future loyalty as a customer.
I think this announcement confirms they’re willing to go to great lengths ensure customer satisfaction.
And thanks Jk without your running review I wouldn’t have found out about this promising little device untill it was too late.
How much is 3 hours of your time worth?
Mine is worth more than $135.
I think they made a sucker of you (and many others).
Oh no! This afternoon I realized that I had successfully forgotten about the pre-sale (and thus saved $600 … or three hours).
Now I have to work hard to forget the next date. Please stop talking about it, okay?
3 hours trying to buy the device because of a crappy website followed by many hours updating so because they couldn’t be bothered shipping updated discs and somehow this will be presented as Microsofts fault ;)
thought of ranting but ultimately am glad ordering didn’t go through. waiting is the game with tech.
I’m sure the process of trying to buy a Viliv was extremely frustrating. (I opted out, hoping that Viliv will release the SSD version they talk about on their web site.) However, they’ve apologized and they’re going to beef up their servers. I’m inclined to think they’ve learned their lesson.
I hope it wasn’t a solid three hours. Even if it were though, it’s not just to get $135 worth of extra accessories. It’s also to have the device in your hands at the beginning of May as opposed to whatever general availability is. (If the second shipment is May 24th, I doubt general availability is before June.)
Is that worth spending two or three hours of your time? (They ran out after two hours. People who followed them on Twitter found that out right away.) Well, it depends on your specific circumstances. There’s a time honored tradition of spending a lot of time to be the first to buy something. Clearly, those who wait in line (real or virtual) are those who place value in getting something first. We all make our own calculations of value. I wouldn’t presume.
It’s amazing how quickly people get so annoyed, in this case because they can’t have something ‘right now’.
In Dynamism’s defense, they’re not a huge Company but obviously with contacts managed to secure early shipments of this device and gave the chance for a lucky few to secure these. We all know the limitations of servers and the issues huge demand can cause, heck look at Microsoft and Windows 7, so to go off on one at Dynamism was pretty unfair, no matter how disappointed folks were.
There’ll be stocks of these soon enough and everyone that wants one will eventually get one. Me? I’m scouring ebay as we speak, lol.
I’m sure most people already did ebay, you be looking to drop 800 and without additional battery, pouch. Sure go for it.
Not quite true – if you’re prepared to order from hong Kong, around $580 including car kit and case. So, sure, I might ‘go for it’. ;-)
Sorry DC, I’m thinking £ not $! Being a Brit we’re used to a lot of our tech being $1 = £1 so $800 didn’t seem too bad considering I expect it to be around £500 when/if we see it this side of the Atlantic.
Going rate for the haptic model is USD 729.00 from Korea.