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posted Sep-26-2011
I ordered an Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T-68U118 netbook and Xbox 360 on Wednesday, August 31, 2011. The price on the Acer was marked down to $499 from $699, and the Xbox console was included for free with PC purchase as part of a promo for students.
The order remained at "In Process" for several days, and they kept the $528.xx (after tax) hold on my credit card. I was thinking they may have shipped the package and didn't update the status, so I didn't pay much attention.
On the next Wednesday, September 7, I received an email telling me that my order was canceled. This was because of a supposed price mistake on the laptop.
Why did it take them an entire week to decide to cancel an order? This is downright unacceptable. If it was an actual price mistake, they should have canceled it within a day or two. During that time, I had no reason to believe that the order wouldn't go through. Had I known the order would be canceled (and had they freed the $528 auth hold on my card), I could have gone somewhere else to buy a laptop.
Microsoft Store is MS's attempt to replicate Apple's success in tech retailing. You would think that they would at least try to offer decent customer service when they're dealing with such a formidable competitor.