Android fans were not happy on Cyber Monday when one of the best deals around for an Android smartphone was practically impossible to take advantage of. Motorola announced last week that it would offer its customizable hero phone, the Moto X, for just $349 off contract. The deal would bring the great handset’s price down to the same level as Google’s Nexus 5, making it a fantastic option for smartphone buyers who don’t want to be tethered to a carrier with a service contract but also don’t want to buy into one of carriers’ scammy new accelerated upgrade plans. The only problem, of course, was that Motorola’s Moto Maker website, where buyers need to go to design and purchase their Moto X handsets, was down almost all day on Monday.
Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside on Monday night issued a public apology for the botched sale.
“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,” Woodside wrote on Motorola’s blog.
“First, we misjudged the overwhelming consumer demand for Moto X, which was far greater than we expected,” the executive continued. “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.”
Motorola will relaunch the $349 sale at midnight Eastern time on Wednesday, December 4th, and it will run for the entire day at Motomaker.com. The sale will then return for a second day on Monday, December 9th.
Motorola says that it has found a solution for the aforementioned problems and customers should have no trouble accessing the Moto Maker on Wednesday or Monday. The company is also extending its related 30%-off sale on accessories through Tuesday and Wednesday.
