This morning, I received a “price drop alert” from c|net Shopper (yes, Alerts, Inc. did the implementation, thankyouverymuch):

CNET Shopper Price Drop Alerts

Product Name: Toshiba Portg 2000
Manufacturer: Toshiba America Inc.
Lowest Price: 0.00
Price has changed from 1799.00

Woah. A free laptop! I knew it was too good to be true, but I visited CNET, and there it was. Ahead Technologies in Long Island was essentially advertising a free laptop. And a Portege 2000 — a nice ultralight/thin notebook! It had to be a mistake. But, I tried ordering one anyways. Imagine my surprise when I got through the entire ordering process and received a confirmation e-mail stating I would be charged $16.95 (shipping/handling charges only).

Woohoo! Two other people here ordered a couple of laptops, as well.

The fun ended when one of them got a confirmation e-mail that their order would cost $2,261. Ouch. He called back and indicated that the price was $0 when he ordered it.

“Did you think you’d get a freebie?” the man said on the other end? So, he was wise to us all, but he had a good sense of humor about it. My friend cancelled his order.

Soon, another one of us got a phone call indicating that he was not charged properly. He cancelled as well.

I gave in. I went to my account page on their website, and checked my “order history”. Yep. The price was over two thousand dollars. I called up to cancel as well.

Ah, e-commerce.