14 DAY TRIAL // O2 UK has given away more than 3.000 Samsung X830 handsets, quick and silently. No, they didn't want to do it intentionally and if that thought ever crossed your mind, remember one thing: not one responsible company manager out there will ever make up a plan to deliver things for free! If they tell it is for free, it ISN'T! You will definitely have to sign some sort of deal that will get their money back as fast as you snap your fingers.
That was not the case of O2 because they lost 500.000 ? without ever thinking it is going to happen. And, for some time, they couldn't do anything to repair the mistake that has led to this freebie madness. They totally went open source and if you do that when you're in some sort of retail business, you're doomed!
If you know what open source means, you will probably disagree with me and you'll probably argument your opinion by saying they're not a software business and they sell phones. I know that, but they did give 3000 cellphones with no charges! If that is not open source commerce, I don't know what is!
What was the mistake that made them deliver free phones? Well, in the first place, they were offering Samsung X830 devices on their website for 149 ? and the customers that signed a deal were also supposed to get a free year-long movie pass.
The blunder that gave O2 an open source flavor happened in India, the place from were their website is run, and the mistake the Indian web programmers did was to change the deal and publish a deal saying that everyone can get a free X830 and a free film pass.
A huge mistake with quick and very obvious results! In one single hour, the O2 UK website got 11.000 hits as the people rushed in to sign up for the costless deal. As an O2 insider has said that "at one stage we had more than 100 technicians working on the site as it went into meltdown. More than 3,000 phones worth ?500,000 have been given away."
Eventually, O2 figured things out and the phones that weren't already delivered were stopped so, some of the people that signed the deal, were left with no phone and with nothing else in their hands even if they actually signed the contract.
As one of the people that never got a phone said "as soon as word got out there was a massive mistake on the O2 site, everyone I know started ordering. Some of my friends got their phones but I missed out and was told the deal would not be honored, even though they had confirmed via email that the transaction had gone through."
O2 confirmed they had a problem with their website due to a "rogue link" but declined to say how many handsets they gave for free during the website malfunction: "Some may have been dispatched before the problem was identified and fixed. The cost has not been huge."
If they did deliver 3.000 X830s for nothing or if they didn't ship as much as the rumor says, we will probably never find out. Either way, one thing is sure: a new type of commerce has been invented!
Retailers be afraid! Be very afraid!