Motorola CEO apologizes for Moto X Cyber Monday fiasco
Motorola had one of the best phone deals for Cyber Monday - a discounted Moto X customized with Moto Maker and selling for just $349.99 off contract. A huge $130 off its original price, the Moto X was supposed to match the Nexus 5 in its extreme affordability. Yet it did not happen as planned.
Shortly after the Moto X deal went live, Motorola servers went down overwhelmed by unexpected demand. Orders did not go through and many people - despite trying to order multiple times - could not.
All of this sounds like a complete fiasco of the Moto X Cyber Monday promo, and now Motorola chief executive felt he needs to explain what happened and extend an apology to all the customers. Good news is that Motorola has now found a solution that fixes the crashing website, and it’s relaunching the $349 promo. The Moto X will go on sale once again on Wednesday and to make up there will be one more promotional day next Monday, December 9th. There will be more devices available at low prices, so it seems like Cyber Monday has officially been extended.
source: Motorola
Shortly after the Moto X deal went live, Motorola servers went down overwhelmed by unexpected demand. Orders did not go through and many people - despite trying to order multiple times - could not.
We owe you an apology.
I want to apologize to our customers and fans for the issues we experienced on our website with our Cyber Monday promotion. I want you to understand what happened, and what we are doing to rectify the situation.
First, we misjudged the overwhelming consumer demand for Moto X, which was far greater than we expected.
Second, our pre-sale site testing was not sufficiently extensive. Testing failed to reveal weaknesses caused by large volumes of concurrent orders flowing through the MotoMaker customization engine.
Thus, when we opened the promotion this morning, an extraordinary spike in concurrent orders caused our website to go down. We couldn’t fulfill orders. The site became unstable. While some orders were filled, many customers tried all day to place their orders, unsuccessfully. Customers were left frustrated.
We have since found a solution that we believe addresses the concurrent order issue. Motorolans are hard at work right now, implementing that solution.
Here is what we are going to do: Starting at 12 pm EST/9 am PST this Wednesday, we will relaunch the $349 promotion. To help make up for this major inconvenience to shoppers, we will also add an additional promotional day on Monday, December 9. We will double the quantity of phones available, while supplies last, to allow as many people as possible to take advantage of the promotion. We’re also extending the 30% off offer on accessories to these two days.
Please note that MotoMaker.com will open up for regular business tomorrow (Tuesday, December 3). We will stay the course on our regular sales as we restore our promotional prices for Wednesday and Monday.
Stay tuned to our Twitter, G+ and Facebook pages for more updates. We understand people want frequent communications from us so we will do a better job at keeping you informed.
On behalf of all Motorolans, I apologize for what occurred today. I appreciate your understanding as we get this fixed in time for Wednesday and Monday.
Posted by Dennis Woodside, CEO
I want to apologize to our customers and fans for the issues we experienced on our website with our Cyber Monday promotion. I want you to understand what happened, and what we are doing to rectify the situation.
First, we misjudged the overwhelming consumer demand for Moto X, which was far greater than we expected.
Second, our pre-sale site testing was not sufficiently extensive. Testing failed to reveal weaknesses caused by large volumes of concurrent orders flowing through the MotoMaker customization engine.
Thus, when we opened the promotion this morning, an extraordinary spike in concurrent orders caused our website to go down. We couldn’t fulfill orders. The site became unstable. While some orders were filled, many customers tried all day to place their orders, unsuccessfully. Customers were left frustrated.
We have since found a solution that we believe addresses the concurrent order issue. Motorolans are hard at work right now, implementing that solution.
Here is what we are going to do: Starting at 12 pm EST/9 am PST this Wednesday, we will relaunch the $349 promotion. To help make up for this major inconvenience to shoppers, we will also add an additional promotional day on Monday, December 9. We will double the quantity of phones available, while supplies last, to allow as many people as possible to take advantage of the promotion. We’re also extending the 30% off offer on accessories to these two days.
Please note that MotoMaker.com will open up for regular business tomorrow (Tuesday, December 3). We will stay the course on our regular sales as we restore our promotional prices for Wednesday and Monday.
Stay tuned to our Twitter, G+ and Facebook pages for more updates. We understand people want frequent communications from us so we will do a better job at keeping you informed.
On behalf of all Motorolans, I apologize for what occurred today. I appreciate your understanding as we get this fixed in time for Wednesday and Monday.
Posted by Dennis Woodside, CEO
source: Motorola
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