Thanks xStainDx for this. Online retailer Amazon.com this week canceled thousands of orders for a high-end cell phone that because of a technical glitch had appeared to be free, an Amazon representative said Friday.
The glitch mistakenly allowed people to order the PCS Phone Handspring Treo 300 at no charge. The phone normally costs $200 after rebate on Amazon. It features a built-in Palm organizer, a color display and a miniature keyboard.
Amazon sent e-mail to affected customers Friday, notifying them of the mistake and that it had canceled the orders.
The problem, which Amazon fixed Thursday, affected only orders placed through Web sites participating in the Amazon Associates program, not orders made directly through Amazon.com, said company spokeswoman Patty Smith. The Associates program gives some 900,000 Web sites the ability to link to products sold on Amazon and lets people buy products from Amazon via an associate"s site.
Smith said she didn"t know which associates sites nor how many associates were involved in the bad orders. She also didn"t know whether the problem affected cell phone models other than the PCS Phone Handspring Treo 300.