MSI to offer 55% launch-day discount on P55 motherboards

Ickleali · 9 Sep 2009 at 07:58

Hi, as I was at school at the time they went on sale, I had to get my mum to purchase one of these Motherboards. I told her they went on sale at 2pm as that's all I knew

However, I ordered a GD80 at about 2.08pm it says and I got a confirmation email and it says i'm in the warehouse queue. Anybody know my relative chances of getting one of these great boards?

djellison · 9 Sep 2009 at 08:11

Why are people who ordered before 2pm getting cheap mobos? The offer was due to start at 2pm. I got onto OcUK at about 10 to, added other items I wanted to my basket and refreshed the motherboard page until they appeared. My order completed at 2.01pm.

If someone's getting a cheap mobo from earlier in the morning in lieu of me, getting one at the time the offer SHOULD have started, I will be more than a little miffed.

The lack of real information is somewhat disappointing.

Tuvoc · 9 Sep 2009 at 08:26

I was extremely annoyed as well - there was speculation it would be midnight, but no, then I checked again I guess around 7-8am and still no. So I thought 2pm must be it. I came back then, and way too late. Still, we don't know yet if these boards are any good or not. Normally I'd wait for other people to buy and report back on their experiences and then make the decision to buy or not. Chances are now I'd simply buy ASUS or Gigabyte at the full price rather than the MSI at full price, haven't had an MSI board for years and no reason to change that apart from the 55% discount. It was a gamble on a board we've had very little real world experience of.

Ozymandias · 9 Sep 2009 at 08:27

djellison said:
If someone's getting a cheap mobo from earlier in the morning in lieu of me, getting one at the time the offer SHOULD have started, I will be more than a little miffed.

The lack of real information is somewhat disappointing.

I didn't see an official offer start time stated anywhere just lots of rumours so I'm not sure a "should have started" time applies.

dms · 9 Sep 2009 at 08:36

djellison said:
Why are people who ordered before 2pm getting cheap mobos? The offer was due to start at 2pm. I got onto OcUK at about 10 to, added other items I wanted to my basket and refreshed the motherboard page until they appeared. My order completed at 2.01pm.

If someone's getting a cheap mobo from earlier in the morning in lieu of me, getting one at the time the offer SHOULD have started, I will be more than a little miffed.

The lack of real information is somewhat disappointing.

I know it's a long thread but if you read through you'll see there were two batches of cheapo motherboards offered. The second batch went on at 14:00 and the people who ordered before 14:00 who may get boards are those who thought they had them beforehand but actually didn't (because of the OC website not handling the traffic or something).

I ordered at 14:00ish too and will be miffed if I don't get a cheapo board, but in all fairness it should go to the overallocated people who ordered earlier first... they're in the same boat as most of us 14:00 people but they were there first.

Yewen · 9 Sep 2009 at 08:44

Deluxe1 said:
Thats what im wondering myself.

Jamous said:
I wonder if we over-ordered at the 2pm slot we may get offered an alternative, possibly a different brand?

manic111 said:
Doubt it. Not even OcUK would send out 30+ motherboards at a loss, unless they can make a deal with other manufacturers! The best that can happen is for Yewen to get MSI to give them a load more discount stock though

No more discount stock available, MSI are making a terrible loss on each board. It is just a promotion to get them noticed and get boards into peoples hands.

Give me a couple of minutes and I will post up the details of what I have arranged, we will then email all the people who will recieve a GD80 at the offer price letting them know they have been successful.

After this has been done we will CALL each customer in turn on the contact number to offer them the alternatives I have arranged, if we cannot call we will email details over but I do suggest people pick the phone up. We will be calling in order number order on the same basis of first come first served as some of my alternatives will not cover all the back orders.

Give me a few minutes to get drink down me and get a post together.

WJA96 · 9 Sep 2009 at 08:50

In hindsight, we should have been expecting this I suppose.

MSI drum up massive interest in two specific motherboards at a time when there is already a feverish atmosphere.

Internet rumours start.

The rumours are picked up the national press.

The rumours become official MSI policy - the offer starts at 2pm!

So what actually happens? At least one of the stores don't seem to have the launch promo on at all, but they post that they're all sold, one runs the promo in a way that involved them tipping off loyal customers by e-mail and one does run the offer at 2pm and sells out in 20 minutes and the other does the offer in two lots - one at just before 11am and then another one at 2pm.

MSI's fabulous strategy is now starting to look a bit ragged as literally HUNDREDS of disappointed buyers are told that they never had the opportunity to get one because they were at work or at school.

Instead of being heroes of the low-paid, MSI now look like people who are subsidising slackers and the unemployed.

And please, don't get me wrong - I got two boards on two sites - a GD80 and a GD65 (already promised to someone who was at school at exactly what I paid for it) - but if MSI don't play fair and fulfill all the orders placed and accepted then I think that they'll just raise a another generation of people who have reason to moan and say '******* MSI - promised me a cheap motherboard and then let some jobless scroat have it instead'.

One thing that did strike me earlier in this thread was the guy who said he'd been promised two on the telephone. One for him and one for his mate. Every description of the offer I saw was one per customer.

And then there is the stock situation. At no point did the internet rumours say anything about how the promotional offers would be fulfilled and it now looks like MSI didn't ship much hard stock to the four (r)etailers concerned and there will not be next day delivery, which everyone now just expects amost as of right.

From Yewen's posts it looks like he's putting the armlock on MSI and maybe even playing a couple of other manufacturers into offering good deals on boards to help get the situation resolved, which is more than you'll see on other websites forums.

Tuvoc · 9 Sep 2009 at 08:51

Yewen said:
No more discount stock available, MSI are making a terrible loss on each board. It is just a promotion to get them noticed and get boards into peoples hands.

Well it certainly worked, I'd guess most people who got these boards would never otherwise have bought MSI. If they are any good, then positive feedback will follow.
I wouldn't have, but I missed the offer due to the confusion as to when it would be available :mad:

Tuvoc · 9 Sep 2009 at 08:54

WJA96 said:
MSI's fabulous strategy is now starting to look a bit ragged as literally HUNDREDS of disappointed buyers are told that they never had the opportunity to get one because they were at work or at school.

Good post, the above sums it up for me. I'm furious at how this was handled by MSI and the retailers, I won't be looking at MSI again.

dms · 9 Sep 2009 at 08:55

WJA96 said:
In hindsight, we should have been expecting this I suppose.

MSI drum up massive interest in two specific motherboards at a time when there is already a feverish atmosphere.

etc etc

Man this offer is a free lunch, which someone is getting including you by the sound of it, so I can't see how your sour grapes style rant is justified at all!

I would never have considered MSI before and now I've been reading up on them and liking the sound of the 80, and they'll be plenty of people who didn't try and buy one who will consider it now... it's how advertising works!

djellison · 9 Sep 2009 at 08:59

Ozymandias said:
I didn't see an official offer start time stated anywhere

From Bit Tech

"MSI has a ludicrous launch offer for tomorrow (Tuesday the 8th September), with 55 per cent off the price of its premium Intel P55 motherboards. It's first come, first serve on a single batch though, so get in quick if you're after one.

Get your fingers on F5 from 2pm (14:00 BST) and is limited to one board per customer from...."

Then the list of retailers.

I managed to get "Order Date: 8 Sep, 09, 2:01 pm"

Either MSI issued them with a press release stating 2pm - or Bit Tech just made it up, for a laugh (which I find hard to beleive)

So that means either OcUK starting selling them earlier, or MSI told the media one thing, and retailers something else.

Neither is indicative of particularly competant handling of what is, in effect, quite a simple process.

jaybee · 9 Sep 2009 at 09:01

WJA96 said:
In hindsight, we should have been expecting this I suppose.

MSI drum up massive interest in two specific motherboards at a time when there is already a feverish atmosphere.

Internet rumours start.

The rumours are picked up the national press.

The rumours become official MSI policy - the offer starts at 2pm!

So what actually happens? At least one of the stores don't seem to have the launch promo on at all, but they post that they're all sold, one runs the promo in a way that involved them tipping off loyal customers by e-mail and one does run the offer at 2pm and sells out in 20 minutes and the other does the offer in two lots - one at just before 11am and then another one at 2pm.

MSI's fabulous strategy is now starting to look a bit ragged as literally HUNDREDS of disappointed buyers are told that they never had the opportunity to get one because they were at work or at school.

Instead of being heroes of the low-paid, MSI now look like people who are subsidising slackers and the unemployed.

And please, don't get me wrong - I got two boards on two sites - a GD80 and a GD65 (already promised to someone who was at school at exactly what I paid for it) - but if MSI don't play fair and fulfill all the orders placed and accepted then I think that they'll just raise a another generation of people who have reason to moan and say '******* MSI - promised me a cheap motherboard and then let some jobless scroat have it instead'.

One thing that did strike me earlier in this thread was the guy who said he'd been promised two on the telephone. One for him and one for his mate. Every description of the offer I saw was one per customer.

And then there is the stock situation. At no point did the internet rumours say anything about how the promotional offers would be fulfilled and it now looks like MSI didn't ship much hard stock to the four (r)etailers concerned and there will not be next day delivery, which everyone now just expects amost as of right.

From Yewen's posts it looks like he's putting the armlock on MSI and maybe even playing a couple of other manufacturers into offering good deals on boards to help get the situation resolved, which is more than you'll see on other websites forums.

I see this a lot these days. A company makes a ridiculously good offer/deal and then can't cope with the demand they generate. Reminds me recently of the whole Windows 7 pre-order situation.

WJA96 · 9 Sep 2009 at 09:03

dms said:
Man this offer is a free lunch, which someone is getting including you by the sound of it, so I can't see how your sour grapes style rant is justified at all!

It's not sour grapes, it can't be if you think about it, that's why it starts 'In hindsight' and specifically states that I got two boards at the discounted price, one of which I have offered to another user (a schoolboy, no off-colour comments please!) who I knew wouldn't have a chance to get one and I have offered it to him at exactly what I paid for it.

What it was meant to be was a superficial analysis and a call to MSI to do the decent thing and take the hit on a few hundred motherboards to make sure everyone that actually placed an order gets one.

And just to prove that I know exact;ly how advertising works it now looks like what will happen is anyone who placed an order and didn't get one will be switch-sold (industry term there

) something else. Hmmm.

I know for a fact that Bradford Trading Standards have already received a complaint about this offer because of something that was going on up there, maybe Stoke need to be looking at this one too.

Tuvoc · 9 Sep 2009 at 09:06

WJA96 said:
and a call to MSI to do the decent thing and take the hit on a few hundred motherboards to make sure everyone that actually placed an order gets one.

What about those who waited until after 2pm in good faith and were then unable to place an order ?? :mad:

No way will I buy one of these at full price no matter how good they are. No way. I'll buy ASUS or Gigabyte, I'll vent my fury at MSI that way.

Yewen · 9 Sep 2009 at 09:10

*** Please Read ***

Ok guys here goes. It is not quite as good an offer as the GD80 deal outright but this is what I have been able to pull together to offer OcUK customers.

When you are contacted if you do not have GD80 you will be given four options to choose from:

Your Options said:
1) Cancel your order for a full refund.

2) We have 10 MSI GD65 motherboards that I can offer to the first 10 customers who want one, we will be CALLING customers in order of them placing their order on our system. Once the 10 GD65 boards have been taken this will no longer be offered to the remaining customers. This will be offered at the promotional price.

3) You can opt to change your MSI GD80 motherboard for a P55-CD3 at no extra charge.

4) You can opt to change your MSI GD80 motherboard for a Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 + 3D Mark Vantage Advanced Edition at a £10 discount price.

With the exception of the 10 GD65 boards the other two board options are available to all customers.

I can confirm that everyone who has placed an order for the MSI GD65 motherboard will get their board.

We will be shortly sending out an email to all the customers that have gotten a GD80, we then are calling in turn each customer in to offer them the alternatives. If you do not pick the phone up you will receive an email offering you options 3 & 4.

Unfortunately due to the economics of the number of over sales and the pure cost involved of trying to get a resolution for every customer I am unable to offer any alternatives to the options presented above.

Please do not call us regarding this offer, we will be in contact with you as we are offering this on a strictly first come first served basis.

OcUK will be in contact shortly and I would like to thank everyone for sticking with me on this one as I had hoped to have arranged all of this by the close of business yesterday.

Yewen · 9 Sep 2009 at 09:15

WJA96 said:
It's not sour grapes, it can't be if you think about it, that's why it starts 'In hindsight' and specifically states that I got two boards at the discounted price, one of which I have offered to another user (a schoolboy, no off-colour comments please!) who I knew wouldn't have a chance to get one and I have offered it to him at exactly what I paid for it.

What it was meant to be was a superficial analysis and a call to MSI to do the decent thing and take the hit on a few hundred motherboards to make sure everyone that actually placed an order gets one.

And just to prove that I know exact;ly how advertising works it now looks like what will happen is anyone who placed an order and didn't get one will be switch-sold (industry term there) something else. Hmmm.

I know for a fact that Bradford Trading Standards have already received a complaint about this offer because of something that was going on up there, maybe Stoke need to be looking at this one too.

We had a rather long debate over the MSI promo and were not going to run with it last week due to us having a feeling this would happen.

The fact we sold out of our entire allocation and then some in 3 minutes says how mad it was.

Shads · 9 Sep 2009 at 09:16

nice work Yewen seems fair under the circumstances

FatalSaviour · 9 Sep 2009 at 09:18

Yewen said:
OcUK will be in contact shortly and I would like to thank everyone for sticking with me on this one as I had hoped to have arranged all of this by the close of business yesterday.

Thanks for the update Yewen.

dms · 9 Sep 2009 at 09:18

Yewen said:
We had a rather long debate over the MSI promo and were not going to run with it last week due to us having a feeling this would happen.

The fact we sold out of our entire allocation and then some in 3 minutes says how mad it was.

Any idea what order number is the cut off for the GD80 boards? That will solve us some waiting... although by your 3 minute comment I guess I know the score... The other offers don't look very tempting compared to what we were hoping for, but of course it's fair deal to OC for offering anything at all.

Bah! Oh well, well done to those who got it... but I'll permit myself one grumble as I hit order confirm at 14:02 and then it took 5 minutes to get my card authorised! Seems a bit rotten given the £k I've spent over the last few months with no issues ;-)

WJA96 · 9 Sep 2009 at 09:22

Originally Posted by Your Options said:
1) Cancel your order for a full refund.

2) We have 10 MSI GD65 motherboards that I can offer to the first 10 customers who want one, we will be CALLING customers in order of them placing their order on our system. Once the 10 GD65 boards have been taken this will no longer be offered to the remaining customers.

3) You can opt to change your MSI GD80 motherboard for a P55-CD3 at no extra charge.

4) You can opt to change your MSI GD80 motherboard for a Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 + 3D Mark Vantage Advanced Edition at a £10 discount price.

You might want to think about that because two of those options look dangerously close to switch-selling which is very much illegal.