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Motorola struggling to deliver on $350 Moto X offer as website problems persist

Motorola struggling to deliver on $350 Moto X offer as website problems persist

By Chris Welch, a reviewer specializing in personal audio and home theater. Since 2011, he has published nearly 6,000 articles, from breaking news and reviews to useful how-tos.

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Moto X cropped (1024px)
Moto X cropped (1024px)

Cyber Monday was supposed to be a big day for Motorola. The company promised to offer consumers its flagship Moto X handset at just $349 off-contract for a limited time starting at 8AM CST (9AM EST) this morning. But thus far, Motorola has been unable to make good on its attractive offer. Motorola's website began experiencing downtime and other significant reliability problems as the on-sale time approached, forcing the company to stop accepting orders via its Moto Maker web tool. Unfortunately, five hours later, Motorola has done relatively little to keep customers informed of when things will be back up and running. At around 10AM EST, the company first admitted it was experiencing problems.

About an hour later, Motorola provided another update saying that "online services" are currently being restored. "Cyber Monday sales won't begin until all systems are a go," the company has promised. But its potential customers are none too pleased about the delays. Seemingly adding to the frustration is that Motorola has been tweeting to promote upcoming events with Wired, even as Cyber Monday shoppers remain in the dark on a fantastic (and likely extremely limited) deal.

We've reached out to Motorola for more details on when today's Moto X sale will go live. While customized Moto X hardware remains unavailable, the company has released a batch of Developer Edition models at a discounted rate of $399. The Developer Edition Moto X can be purchased for either GSM networks or Verizon Wireless.

Update: Motorola now says that if the deal isn't available by 9.30PM ET tonight, it'll be offered at noon on Wednesday and one more time next Monday with a promise of double the devices.

Update 2: Motorola missed its self-imposed deadline and has confirmed that the deal will instead go live on Wednesday and Monday.

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