Madplanet

Yamaha's Tenori-on launch woes, continued

Before Yamaha was even able to ship its first batch of Tenori-ons in Japan, it had to send out an apology for an incident whereby its overloaded online store leaked 120 customers’ information. Apparently this only affected people who’d registered in advance as online members; those may be fairly numerous, however, as registering would have conferred a speed advantage in the rush to get through the ordering process.

The thing I can’t believe is Yamaha’s bluster about unexpected server loads and levels of interest in the product, which is simply bullshit. For one thing, the fact that Japan was the last stage of the global launch meant that Yamaha had a chance to gauge interest well in advance. For another, media reports indicate that “several thousand users” accessed the site, so we’re not talking enormous numbers; several thousand people trying to buy at once should have been well within the bounds of expectation, and something that Yamaha could have socked in a few extra boxes to prepare for.

Ironically, my Tenori-on showed up on Sunday, without even a shipment notice; seems they were too busy cleaning up the mess to conduct business as usual.

A final thought: why do we accept this kind of incompetence from a major company when it would bury a smaller firm? Is it because we assume the larger company has the resources to make good on its error where the smaller one might simply evaporate?