Sony accidentally set the price of its A7r camera to $200, 90% off retail

For a short time this morning, Sony’s A7r camera was accidentally set to a ridiculously low price of $199.99 across several retailers, roughly 90% off the retail price of $1,898.

Discovered and shared by Reddit user kapziel, the error remained for some time, present both on Sony’s online store and its Amazon store. It wasn’t long before the A7r was no longer showing up on Sony’s stores at all, but not before a handful of photographers attempted to take advantage of the accidental offer.

Some Reddit commenters said they had successfully placed an order, however, most were wary as to whether or not Sony would eat the loss for the mistake or cancel the orders. Others attempted to take advantage of Best Buy’s price matching, but to no avail.

It wasn’t more than a few hours after the camera was taken off Sony’s site and original prices restored that purchasers started receiving emails from Sony saying their orders had been cancelled. Reddit user Justin5566 posted the transcript of his email, which read:

Your order with Sony Store has been canceled.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you have any questions or if you believe this cancellation was in error, please visit Sony Support or contact Sony Customer Care at 877–865–7669.

Thank you for shopping at Sony Store.

Sincerely,

Sony Customer Care

If you’re wondering about the legality behind Sony reneging on sales, Reddit user billclark points out in Sony’s own terms and conditions the following stipulation:

For orders from the Website, we confirm the price of a Product as part of our order processing procedures. In the unlikely event that a price stated on a Sony Web site or direct sales materials are incorrect, then the following applies: If a Product’s correct price is lower than our stated price, we charge the lower price and ship you the Product. If a Product’s correct price is higher than our stated price, we will, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions before shipping or cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation.

It was fun while it lasted. But it appears it won’t be quite as fun as many photographers were hoping.