She had a dream: y2k ecommerce story

Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

She had a dream: y2k ecommerce story

Author:	Phil Suh
Posted:	1/6/2000; 10:34:25 AM
Topic:	She had a dream: y2k ecommerce story
Msg #:	14129
Prev/Next:	14128 / 14130

This was forwarded from a guy at work. Funny!

From: Jared Rhine Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 20:16:11 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Re: Those "free" Vans shoes]

My fiance, Josie, woke up yesterday morning from a dream where she realized she should check out the vans.com site (she's like that). There she found a product in their catalog with a purchase price of $0.00. She promptly placed an order for a pair and told a number of friends, who also placed orders. The Vans company caught the mistake (probably during fulfillment), claiming Y2K issues were involved. In a very humorous customer-service email enclosed below, they chose to award her a free pair of shoes, although they denied all the friend's orders. The email trail is below.

Feel free to use this anecdote if you need a Y2K/E-commerce story for a client :)

-- begin order confirmation --

Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 09:45:29 -0800 From: custserv@VANSSHOES.COM To: otter@*

Dear Ms. kirkland,

Thank you for shopping at Vans.com.

Your order has been accepted and and your payment information has been verified. You can check on your order status at http://shop.vans.com. You will receive a confirmation email when your order has been shipped.

Your order reference number is 9091.

Item: Qty: Unit Price:

OLD SKOOL'S (Red/red cyber print , Size 8.5) 1 $.00

Item Total: $.00 Sales Tax: $.00 Shipping: $6.95

Total: $6.95

-- end --

-- begin "busted" email --

Dear Josie: Congratulations on your alertness in discovering our Y2K glitch, and thanks for your alacrity and marketing acumen in notifying your friends Heather, Gina, Joe, Philip, Elizabeth, and Allison in a generous attempt to spread your good fortune. For your efforts we have decided to send you the Red/red cyber print Old Skools that you ordered, for just the shipping fee of $6.95 that was charged to your card. However, please convey our condolences to your six Bay-area friends, as they will have to go back online and re-order (and pay the current, corrected price) for their shoes in order for their orders to be processed. Happy Millennium!

Richard Mooney, shop.vans guy.

------- end ----