Corsair cancels $240 48GB DDR5 memory kit orders due to pricing error — company’s blunder ignites shopper uproar over botched RAM deal

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A PR nightmare that could've easily been avoided.

Corsair Dominator Titanium First Edition DDR5-7200 C36
Corsair Dominator Titanium First Edition DDR5-7200 C36 (Image credit: 3DTested)

A couple of days ago, Corsair's webstore listed a 48GB kit of Dominator Titanium DDR5 RAM for just $239.99 — a price too reasonable to be true given the worldwide shortage. Naturally, many people swept up this deal, but instead of receiving a confirmation, they got a different message after checkout. Corsair cancelled all the orders, citing a listing error while apologizing for the inconvenience via email.

The post below is Corsair's official statement on the matter, posted on Reddit and X. The company says the SKU was priced incorrectly, and that it was never in stock to begin with, despite showing a pre-order button to buyers. Moreover, Corsair clarifies that it doesn't sell memory based on pre-orders at the moment, so this was entirely an oversight.

Complaints started popping up on Corsair's official subreddit, where the mods made matters worse by turning off comments and deleting certain posts. Over on the r/pcmasterrace subreddit, one customer reeling from the cancellation has already amassed over 16,000 upvotes, where the OP claims the same RAM kit is now price-hiked to $500+, though we couldn't confirm that since it's actually marked out-of-stock now.

While the community backlash has been scathing, there have been some divisive comments, wondering how this is unfair, so it's important to highlight what actually went wrong. Let's be real: that $240 ask for such a premium DDR5 RAM kit was already a bit of a stretch even without the DRAM shortage; with that in place, it was definitely impossible.

However, the onus is on Corsair, since it still listed the kit at that price, mistake or not, which means the company had to honor the sale once the product was in the customer's cart and had passed checkout. You'll find anecdotes in the comment threads saying that stores like Micro Center will simply let you keep the incorrectly-priced item, since it was never your mistake.

Another Corsair Order Cancel + Price Hike from r/pcmasterrace

Instead, by cancelling those orders, Corsair created a PR nightmare for itself. The funny bit is that just a few hours before this fiasco unfolded, the company had cancelled an order for a prebuilt PC worth $3,500, only to raise its price by $800 afterward. The community, therefore, was already on high alert, so for Corsair to pull off something like this was quite brave, for lack of a better term.

Some of you might still point to rising DRAM prices, and while that's a fair assumption, the issue isn't jacking up prices after these orders; it's that the brand outright cancelled them all. Corsair doesn't sell memory to AI data centers; its entire business is consumer-facing, so it lives and dies on reputation, which has now been tainted.

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Hassam Nasir
Hassam Nasir
Contributing Writer
17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • moon2
    However, the onus is on Corsair, since it still listed the kit at that price, mistake or not, which means the company had to honor the sale once the product was in the customer's cart and had passed checkout

    No they don't. You need to understand the difference between forming a contract and an invitation to treat.

    It's bad enough when people *assume* this is true, but it's worse when a normally trusted source repeats this as if it were true.

    There's no onus on any company to follow through with a sale for mispriced items. They may choose to do so, or they may choose to refund the transaction instead, or they may offer alternative options in lieu of those which the consumer may prefer (for example a refund and a discount code for money off in future).

    Don't make nonsense claims they "had to honour the sale, mistake or not". No-one does. Not in the US*, not in the UK, not in Europe and presumably not anywhere else of note.

    * At least federally. The onus is on someone else to confirm all relevant state law:p
    Reply
  • Ogotai
    moon2 said:
    No they don't. You need to understand the difference between forming a contract and an invitation to treat.

    It's bad enough when people *assume* this is true, but it's worse when a normally trusted source repeats this as if it were true.

    There's no onus on any company to follow through with a sale for mispriced items. They may choose to do so, or they may choose to refund the transaction instead, or they may offer alternative options in lieu of those which the consumer may prefer (for example a refund and a discount code for money off in future).

    Don't make nonsense claims they "had to honour the sale, mistake or not". No-one does. Not in the US*, not in the UK, not in Europe and presumably not anywhere else of note.

    * At least federally. The onus is on someone else to confirm all relevant state law:p
    you, might want to reconsider this... Cause according to this you could be wrong....

    Corsair has to honor the price, if some one has paid for it, and are just waiting for it to be shipped. Its no different then if you went to a store, saw a price for an item, went to the check out, and the price at check out, was higher then the price that is listed on the shelf, you would still be paying the lower price....
    Reply
  • moon2
    Ogotai said:
    you, might want to reconsider this... Cause according to this you could be wrong....

    Corsair has to honor the price, if some one has paid for it, and are just waiting for it to be shipped. Its no different then if you went to a store, saw a price for an item, went to the check out, and the price at check out, was higher then the price that is listed on the shelf, you would still be paying the lower price....
    Could you link to a specific site?

    Your example is also incorrect. This is the scenario typically used to describe why the shop does not have to honor the (incorrect) price you saw if it actually rings up to a higher value at the till.

    Here's your example scenario, but handled correctly:

    https://legalclarity.org/does-a-store-have-to-honor-the-wrong-price/
    Reply
  • Ogotai
    moon2 said:
    Could you link to a specific site?

    Your example is also incorrect. This is the scenario typically used to describe why the shop does not have to honor the (incorrect) price you saw if it actually rings up to a higher value at the till.

    Here's your example scenario, but handled correctly:

    https://legalclarity.org/does-a-store-have-to-honor-the-wrong-price/
    most stores here, honor the price as it is on the display, not at the time of check out... Ive even had it happen to me a few times... Went back to where i got it from, took a pic, showed the cashier, and they called a manager to over ride the price... Do no, my example is correct
    Reply
  • moon2
    There's a difference between optionally choosing to sell at the mis-marked price and being legally required to do so. They shop did not have to do what they did. It's nice they sold at the mismarked price
    Reply
  • Gururu
    They all have policies on the matter. Corsair section 3. This is part of the contract.
    Reply
  • wujj123456
    Legally speaking, I don't think they have to, but the law is the minimal requirement of doing business. I think it's reasonable for consumers to expect that they can rely on the price they see when putting down an order. Taking back an advertised price will surely have some chilling effect. I personally would shop less or leave entirely if I can't reliably calculate my cost on the spot, or have my orders cancelled later and thus delaying my purchase.

    Now consider that $240 is enough for a 96GB kit back in September. It's not like the company is giving it out for almost free and going to break over this. The predictable PR risk is totally not worth it, but they decided to take their chances because of greed.
    Reply
  • TheyStoppedit
    Ogotai said:
    you, might want to reconsider this... Cause according to this you could be wrong....

    Corsair has to honor the price, if some one has paid for it, and are just waiting for it to be shipped. Its no different then if you went to a store, saw a price for an item, went to the check out, and the price at check out, was higher then the price that is listed on the shelf, you would still be paying the lower price....

    This is a misanalogy. It's more like.... You went to a store, saw a price for an item, went to check out, you checked out, your card approved, receipt prints, and the store owner decides: You know what.... I've changed my mind, I think it's worth more than that. The store has two options at that point: a) Give you the merchandise, b) Refund you the money. The store must do one of those two things, but they can choose which one. The store refunds the money, then puts the product back on the shelf at a higher price. They are allowed to do that. You have been made whole. You aren't out anything. Your total loss is $0.00. They haven't stolen from you or ripped you off. They refunded you every penny you paid. They can do that.
    Reply
  • jwnm
    moon2 said:
    * At least federally. The onus is on someone else to confirm all relevant state law:p
    The states I have lived in and have owned retail stores require that a merchant honor the marked price. At least back during the 80s and 90s. State laws change like toilet paper rolls though so what it is now is up for debate.
    Reply
  • This whole mess isn’t about whether $240 for a 48GB Dominator kit was “realistic” — everyone knew it wasn’t. The problem is that Corsair listed it, allowed checkout, and only then pulled the plug. That’s where trust gets damaged.

    Also, let’s be clear: Corsair isn’t some mom-and-pop shop living or dying on a handful of enthusiast sales. It’s a large company with enterprise and OEM partnerships. Which makes this even worse, not better — because they absolutely had the resources to handle a pricing error without nuking every order and locking down discussion afterward.

    As for retailers honoring mispriced items: it does happen. Not always, not everywhere, but there are plenty of documented cases across the industry where stores choose to eat the mistake rather than torch customer goodwill. Corsair chose the opposite path.

    The real PR failure wasn’t cancelling the orders — mistakes happen. It was the combination of cancellation, silence, post deletions, and price whiplash shortly after. When you sell premium products, you’re also selling trust. And that’s the one thing no coupon can fully refund.
    Reply