Amazon’s Echo Spot is apparently free right now (Update: aaand it’s gone)

Update 1: Nothing gold can stay, Ponyboy. It was fun while it lasted, but both Spots are back to their original $129 asking price — and the white version still appears to be totally sold out. It looks as if the whole thing was a pricing mistake, rather than extra generosity on the part of Jeff B. So, nice work if you nabbed one in time. Keep those fingers crossed that it actually gets delivered.

Update 2: Amazon  has admitted the error here. No free Spots, sorry. The company provided TechCrunch the following note, which is going out to everyone who purchased a device during that window. Thanks for playing.

We noticed an error in an order you recently placed and wanted to make you aware of the issue. Due to a technical error, the price of the Echo Spot that you purchased on July 29, 2018 was incorrectly listed.

Because of this error, we are unable to fulfill your Echo Spot order. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.

I like the Spot. It’s my favorite Echo. And due to what may well just be an error on Amazon’s part, the screen-sporting smart speaker is currently showing up for $0.00 — for those who can access it, at least. Some users are already registering it as Out of Stock.

The black version of the device is still listed as $99 — a much less killer deal, but still $29 down from the original asking price. It could be a pricing error, or maybe Amazon is trying to get rid of that old stock for some reason. Heck, maybe the company just really wants to get the Alexa delivery system in as many homes as humanly possible. This is certainly one way to do it. 

Chances seem decent it may never even ship — those who did order one (or three or four) are seeing a still pending delivery date. In either case, we’ve reached out to Amazon and will update when we hear back.