I got the explanation e-mail a minute ago.

<snip>

Greetings from Amazon.com.

We are writing regarding your recent order for a cell phone which was
placed through a link on an Amazon.com Associate web site.  If you
have already written to us regarding this order, please note that you
will not receive a separate response.

Due to a technical error, the phone(s) you ordered had been mistakenly
displayed with a price of $0.00:

"PCS Phone Handspring Treo 300 (Sprint)"

In accordance with our posted policies on pricing, we are unable to
offer this item(s) for the incorrectly displayed price.  Therefore, we
have cancelled your order for the phone(s).  We sincerely apologize
for any inconvenience.

Because of the additional information required to process orders for
cell phones and service, at this time we are unable to offer the
option to order this phone through an Associates site.  However, you
are welcome to place a new order for this phone by visiting our web
site:

http://www.amazon.com/cellphones

Please note that service plans vary in price by both carrier and
geographic location, and phones vary in price based upon the service
plan with which they are combined.  Without a service plan, the cell
phone's price will be more expensive than a phone with a service plan.

Please note: this e-mail was sent from a notification-only address
that cannot accept incoming e-mail.  Please do not reply to this
message.

Again, we regret any inconvenience this may have caused.  We value
your business and hope to see you again soon at Amazon.com.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-kclug@marauder.illiana.net
[mailto:owner-kclug@marauder.illiana.net]On Behalf Of B. Liggett
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 10:28 AM
To: kclug@kclug.org
Subject: Re: Free Sprint PCS phone (Not Spam)

A co-worker and I each ordered one the other day.  Mysteriously last night
we noticed on the site that our orders had been cancelled.  We did not
receive e-mails from Amazon stating that our orders would be cancelled.
Guess it was too good to be true...

Brad

> Has anyone that ordered one of these been contacted yet that it was a
> mistake and that you will be charged the $499.00 (before REBATES) price?
>  Guess paranoia is getting the best of me!!
> I did a bit of digging into the shipping charges issue and found that it
> was for orders of $25 or more.  since this item SHOULD have been over
> $25 it was listed with the free shipping notice but when the TOTAL  came
> up as $0.00 i guess that didn't exceed the $25.00 threshold!! Oh well
> $10.00 shipping on $1000.00 worth of phones isnt really that bad of a
deal!!
>
> just wondering if any one has heard otherwise yet?