Yes, you read that headline correctly.
Last month, we offered the 30GB verson of the brown Zune MP3 player for $99. Lots of customers ordered them. So many, in fact that we can not fulfill all the orders that came in. Once we realized it, we made some changes in terms of the shipping lead times on orders that came in. Those lead times adjustments are driving discussions at Dell Community Forum threads like this one and this one.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused any of you. Here’s the deal: we don’t have enough brown Zunes to fulfill orders. For those orders, we will substitute a different color Zune. In terms of functionality, it will be identical to what you ordered—the only difference will be the color.
Any affected customer who wishes to return the 30GB Zune can do so any time within 30 days from receiving the product by calling Customer Care at 1-800-624-9896. We will set up the return and will refund the full purchase price (plus tax) to your original form of payment.
Update, 12/7—Unfortunately, due to an error, a Sunday circular on December 9, 2007 will include an ad for a brown 30GB Zune for $99.99. We do not have any more of these products to ship. Our apologies in advance for the inconvenience.
As an alternative, we will offer a 4GB SanDisk Sansa Connect for $89. There are some diffences between it and the 30GB Zune: the Sansa Connect is a flash-based player vs. the hard drive-based Zune. That means it’s smaller capacity, and it does not have FM radio functionality that the Zune does. The Sansa does have Wi-Fi capability and includes a built-in speaker. See SanDisk’s Sansa Connect page for more details.