Consumers hoping to get their hands on a discounted HP TouchPad overwhelmed eBay last night after the company put a limited number of the tablets up for sale, irking more than a few shoppers.
HP added refurbished TouchPad tablets to its eBay store around 7pm Eastern Sunday night at rock-bottom prices: $99 for the 16GB and $149 for the 32GB, down from $499 and $599, respectively.
According to a leaked document published by TechCrunch last week, the sale was supposed to first go live for HP employees and open up to the public on Monday. But after news of the sale was publicized online, eager fans started refreshing HP's eBay store as soon as the clock hit 7pm.
According to the comments on PCMag's Sunday story, a few people managed to snag the device. "Thanks HP for making this such a holiday pleasure!!!! You guys rock!" wrote one user.
"So it took me an hour of refreshing but I finally got one, though it was a 32 not a 16gb, which really is even better lol," wrote another.
Many commenters, however, reported sluggish response time on eBay, with some people successfully adding TouchPads to their shopping carts, only to have their orders cancelled at checkout.
"This was a big scam, try to find anyone who got one, I won the auction and went to paypal to pay for the touchpad and a message came up 'invalid item'—I called ebay and the customer service hung up on me twice," one reader wrote. "I emailed HP, they said 'sorry we are out of stock'—good luck trying to prove anything. I believe it was a big scam just to get media attention."
"If you look at the page now it says 2,316 units sold. the last one sold at 7:24 est," another reader noted. "Must have channeled tebow/jesus powers cause i was ready to confirm payment at 715 with no luck."
Some readers who took to the comments said they were HP employees who were annoyed that the sale was publicized to the general public.
"I am also a HP Employee and was furious when i found out it got out to the public," one person wrote. "The public was not supposed to get the word until tomorrow. I highly doubt any employees got their hands on one. I was on the site way before 6pm and could not get to through the checkout. After trying for an hour and half and seeing the numbers of orders go up. I quit. What a waste of time and energy. I still can't believe they were selling them at the same price as the previous sale even though they were refurbished and then to top it off charged 19 dollars per touchpad for shiping. Thats 40 bucks!!"
The HP TouchPad was a well-received, webOS-based tablet, but it couldn't compete with the iPad. If you had $600 to spend on a tablet, Apple's offering was the clear winner. As a result, HP said in August that it would end support for webOS-based devices, including the TouchPad, and the fire sales began. At the lower prices, the TouchPad was a steal, and suddenly, HP had the demand it was looking for, but for all the wrong reasons.
Overall, HP has had a rather disruptive few months. In August, the company also announced that it would ditch its PC business, but when Meg Whitman stepped in as CEO shortly thereafter, she announced that HP would retain the PC business after all. Last week, meanwhile, HP also decided to open-source webOS rather than sell to the highest bidder. While Whitman initially said the TouchPad was dead, and that HP would focus on Windows 8-based tablets, she told TechCrunch that a webOS-based tablet could make an appearance in 2013, so stay tuned. For more, see HP Makes WebOS Immortal.
For more, check out PCMag's full review of the TouchPad, as well as our 20 Best Apps For The HP TouchPad slideshow above and 10 Great Web Apps for the HP TouchPad.