I wonder if you called B&H if they would price match.

Also people shouldn't be spreading news of this deal on sites that have nothing to do with video. It's just going to cause a bunch of resellers to pick up loads of them only to resell them to make a quick buck off ebay. Leave this information in the video circles so everyone who is actually going to use one can get a good cam at a good deal.
But that's probably only my personal opinion, I just hate dealers and people who are only out to make money. Especailly if they get in the way of people who could actually use something like this and then don't get the chance to because they sold out to other dealers.

my theory:

Apple used to carry this model in its retail stores to showcase their HD capabilities. A friend at the apple store nearby told me they dropped their in store stock to this price several weeks ago before sending them back to corporate. I am guessing apple is just trying to clear out stock on these since at original price of 3600 each, thats alot of idle inventory.

Both my bro and I each bought one last night. Mines is expected to arrive April 10th. My bro bought one to flip on ebay. I can't decide to do the same or sell my HC1 and keep the FX1. Two is really more than I need so if anyone is interested in buying either the used HC1 or the new FX1 let me know. mindlee at gmail dot com.

thanks,
min

Anybody tried doing a search for the FX1 on apple store lately?

Yes, they come up with no results now.

Well then, it's a good thing I got my order in.
I have to wait super long before the "estimated" arrival though.
Thanks Robert for that heads up here on DVi.
As for the rest of you, all of your orders are depriving me of my one little camera getting here sooner, you all should feel very ashamed of yourselves. ;)

Well, unfortunately, Apple just cancelled my order.

Excuse me, while I go cry in a corner.

any explanation? when did you order?

I ordered at 3:25pm EST--which was 12:25 pm pacific.

No explanations, but I can guess why.

A May 12/May 15 ship date is waaaay in the future.

It means...sorry...you snooze, you lose.

My ship date was April 3. I called apple twice today to confirm the order and the price. They told me the order was confirmed, the price was correct, and the cams would ship monday.

Now my order says cancelled.

:-(

I can only quote the emotional newscaster when the Hindenburg burst into flames...

"Oh the humanity! Oh the humanity!!"

Me too. I was told mine would ship today, then in a later call that it would ship overnight on Monday. Now it's cancelled. The official reason is "out of stock". No more stock coming in.

I guess I lucked out---my confirmation said Monday shippment and I haven't received notification of cancellation -----------YET.

Crud.... Well, I thought it was too good to be true. Mine was also cancelled.

don't get your hopes up... i've talked to three different reps and they all transfer me to the same supervisor, who now answers the phone with a personalized message for me. Extremely courteous customer support. He actually told me our conversation was very unproductive. It states on the apple website that they are committed to customer satisfaction. They offered me $50 off my next apple store order, and I told him I wasn't satisfied with that, after I called and asked a rep earlier today to confirm that these camcorders were in stock, the price was correct, and that it would ship monday.

He told me that the $50.00 off my next apple store order was as far as they were willing to go. I told him that this wasn't really being committed to my satisfaction and that they are willing to do a halfass job but didn't really care about my satisfaction.

I told him I find it hard to believe that a huge company like apple, wouldn't have a computer system in place that automatically keeps track of available stock, and that would tell me my order will ship in less than 24 hours if they really were out of stock. He told me the system is automated, but not realtime.... :-/

He said they would "probably" not be getting anymore in.... i asked probably? will you fulfill my order if you end up getting more stock in? he said no, the order is cancelled indefinitley... and that they can only sell the camcorders at the price sony will allow them to sell them at......

a frustrated apple user!

sign in to your apple account and i'll guess it will say cancelled.

Even if it was a typo, Apple should honor the lower price. They make a ton of money anyway...

There are some inconsistencies between what they tell the customers.
I was informed that they ran out of stock.
Not a typographical error as others have reported.
So, which is it?
Maybe it's ruled on a case by case basis?

I think there was definitely something going on... either a typo, or apple just wanted to dump stock. Still, 30% off normal price is extreme. No doubt some were aware as there are some sub 2500$ fx-1's on ebay.

Fx-1
 

Well, I just checked out Apple's website. They're not offering any Sony products as far as I could tell on the site.

It looks like they are only offering Canon branded cameras and camcorders.

Did they have a fallout with Sony?

If Apple reps said they would honer the mis-quoted price...shouldn't they live up to their obligations?

And what's up with the price differences between consumer and government? The prices look the same to me.

on the australian applestore they still sell it.
http://store.apple.com/133-622/WebOb...nMore=TB991X/A
but strangely the price in insanely... high (6000 AUS$=more than 4000US $)
I think they try to get the money back from the sales they made in US at loss.
the swiss apple store indicate same unreasonable price (about 4200$)
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObje...C62&nplm=TB991
Same from the spanish side (even pricier 4400$)
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObje...345&nplm=TB991
Best score is UK shop - most crazy price ?(4700$)

seems the us offer was really a mistake (or for the 30 years anniversary of Apple ?).
But in that case why on a Sony product and why only in USA?

it was a mistake. If you get one you will be very lucky. I wish I would have lived close to a Apple store yesterday. If they had one in stock, walk in a walk out.

They might not have caught the mistake as fast but if it was true about the Ebay people trying to buy 50 at a time probably tip them off.

P.S. to you Ebay sellers. I never buy crap off of Ebay.

It's sad that Apple apparently reneged on most the orders, but it was such a fantastic price, from a respected company, that I wrote the post yesterday. I figured it was worth a shot at least.

My guess is that they simply wanted to clear out some aging inventory, and didn't think about it very carefully beforehand, not considering what would happen when the word got out to a community such as this one.

Apple failed. About two years ago the same thing happened at Dell---they were offerring the Canon L series 70-200mm IS Lens for about 800 bucks under street price---definately a typo. Well the orders poured in and Dell showed some class by honoring ALL of them. Some people had to wait 6-8 months for their lens but they got it.

Sorry but I don't think a company has to honor a typo to have class. It was a mistake. Everyone ordering the FX1 at $2000 knew it was to cheap and probably a mistake. It wasn't a bait and switch. For the people who got one man they got a good deal.

What am I missing here?

It was obviously a mistake. Apple's site clearly says they are not responsible for the mistake.

And people are complaining.

I'm just posting my view of it. Don't shoot the messenger.

That's why the link comes up to a page asking what are you looking for...

I do not know what about USA, but in europe, when you put a price on something you have to assume mistake, except if it was too obvious.
(20$ for the FX1) . But at 2000$ it still could be a promo (after all some NY shop advise it for 2500$) , especially this day was the 30th anniversary of Apple.
After all on the other Appleshop (UK, Spain, etc...) they also got i price that is not aligned with the market (up to 1700$ more expensive than B&H) so what can we believe ?
My advise would be to sue them until they assume all orders (probably deleted know and they will probably says : we do not sell sony camera)

Poor communication (not even a link on their website to explain or say sorry or left the page with the FX1 with the correct price, it simply vanished) just make me think that it looks like the Mac attitude: we are the best, we are right. The intel processor was crap... until we put it into our machine , blablabla...

It was indeed an honest mistake I'm sure. But they absolutely are responsible for the mistake itself. They listed it incorrectly. Even when many of us called to confirm the price, and even told them that it was unusually low, they stated that it was correct. That doesn't mean they have to honor typos, but to say the mistake was not their fault is incorrect.

But what do you do when you make an honest mistake?
a. You admit you made a mistake.
b. You apologize for making the mistake.
c. If possible, you do everything possible to fix the mistake and make amends.

I never got a call or email to let me know my order had been cancelled. If I hadn't gone to check it myself, I would have never known. Even when I called them, nobody there could tell me why my order had been cancelled or explain why I hadn't been notified.

Apple did none of the above, which of course they have the right to do. But I also don't have to support them with any business either, which is my right. I wouldn't feel this way if they had just offered an explanation and apology.

Greg:

I guess we disagree. Anybody who thought Apple was selling the Sony at well below cost had to be put on notice. And people jumped at an obvious mistake.

The fact that Apple wasn't aware of the problem for a half day seems pretty reasonable to me. But if someone didn't know this was a clear mistake when someone purchased it, that someone had to have blinders on.

Exactly how is Apple supposed to "make amends" for something everybody knew was obvious?

You got me. But to throw the baby out with the bathwater. C'mon.

There ain't no free lunches out there. I for one didn't even want to enter the fray because everything from the get go clearly portends what exactly happened.

Anyway, that's my three cents.

Take care and best wishes.

on the UK site, Apple is selling the sony 1700$ above the price of B&H, i am supposed to believe it is a mistake or they are just crooks ?
And you supposed that everybody knows the average price of the FX1 ? take a quick look on the web, what is it ? 1800$ as USAPhotoNation ?3000 as B&H ?3500? 4000 ? 4700 as the uk apple store display ? so why not 2000 ?
I am often purchasing stuff in the first store who has it, and i am confident in the price displayed (until i discover that the shop next door is 25% cheaper).

If I call Apple because they display a nice price (and not so silly) and get approval from the guy on the phone, Am I supposed to feel guilty because i take over a good deal ?.
for sure if i would have a proof of purchase at AppleStore, i would sue them (and there is no doubt i would succeed) , just because they are so... haughty ?

Once in Walmart... they had a computer listed for $400 bucks... the price should have been $500 bucks... but they honored the price because of their pricing mistake...

So if Apple posted it on the website for $2,000 anyone who ordered it at that price Apple should honor... but once the mistake was caught... they don't have to honor the price...

The funnier thing is... at the Apple Store on the web has the Canon XL H1 for $8,999... its not the price... its that FCP is not supporting 24f yet... even in the newest upgrade... now that's what I call a mistake... selling something that your editing software doesn't fully support yet...

Absolutely , they should honor the price to everyone that made a confirmation that it was real. The bucks' got to stop somewhere. No fairplay just saying that typos aren't covered , that's my opinion , since it's much more than a typo when it's on their site . But to then not honor a verbal agreement is something entirely different. I never in 6 years , since I bought my g3 , have looked at another computer , but Apples' got an arrogant attitude lately and I'm beginning to " think different " . I didn't buy one but I did give second thought. I also called a buddy who had mentioned buying another for a pair. If I had made a verbal agreement with a salesperson , I believe I'd by willing to pursue it further. I believe that might be a line that's drawn by law also, although , even though I slept in a Holiday Express last night , I'm not an attorney.
Goes to show you , good things are few and far between. Kurth

actually is was for about 2 days on the site for that price..

I printed the page confirming my order... which includes the time that the order was placed (6:39 am PST), the total price for 2x Sony HDR-FX1 HD Camcorders + Sales Tax, Estimated Ship date of April 3, and Delivery April 5.

When calling apple I was told that they no longer sell that camcorder. They did yesterday when I placed an order, and I have the printed confirmation to prove it. However, I'm told I was never charged for the purchase. I don't think there are any legal grounds, but if so it would be interesting to know. I believe that apple should honor the mistake, any reasonable business would, but it all depends which side of the fence you are on.

Yes, it's apples mistake, but it's your problem. Happy? Certainly not. Since apple is a corporation that thinks in numbers, so must you folks. Instead of being the lone wolf left howling in the cold, why not band together and make this apples problem? Get a lawyer, a list of signatures, and make a loud bang. Sure they can tout the "fine-print", but are they willing to afford a negative backlash? Is the cost of their defense greater than the losses of their error?

You don't have a prayer. It was a typo. You want to sue them.

Of course not silly. It was just a typo. I'll wait for NAB.

I think everyone has had a chance to present their views on this by now. This thread is now closed . Chris has repeatedly said that he doesn't want DVinfo to be used as a stump to launch crusades... no matter how worthy.