Price glitches are not very uncommon with online stores. It has often been seen that these retailers are compelled to allow more discounts than they intended to, owing to some reason or the other. For instance, there might be several voucher codes working at the same time, or else a computer glitch itself might slash prices on every item offered by a company. Listed below are some of the major glitches to have hit the headlines in recent times.
The Reebok pricing blunder is the one that tops the list. A pricing gaffe from the brand’s part saw several of its purchase trainers (priced at £110) being offered for free!!!! It was assumed that these trainers were listed without a price tag attached, owing to the fact that around 10,000 punters had got in to the deal. The customers were only asked to pay a meager £8.50 as delivery charges. Now, the impact of this news was far-reaching as customers eager to get their hands on the free trainers made a virtual beeline for the same, resulting in the crashing of the website. The news had actually gone viral on various Social Media platforms including Facebook. Reebok, however, later confirmed that it would not honor the orders, however it was ready to provide 20 percent discount on the sites. Many of the customers who took full advantage of the situation by ordering multiple trainers at one go, were left red-faced when Reebok refused to offer the product for free.
The famous Marks & Spencer 3D TV pricing glitch deserves special mention as well. Televisions worth £ 1,099 were mistakenly put on sale at £ 199. The company, initially, wanted to do away with the mistake by offering a refund and an additional £25 as a goodwill gesture. However, following an online petition called “Marks & Spencer supply our tv’s that we paid for” by customers, the company was forced to reverse its decision in to honoring the offer and actually offering the tvs at the quoted price. The plasma televisions originally priced at £ 1,099 were to be finally sold at a discounted price of £599. However, a technical error reduced the price to £199.
Tesco also was hit by a similar pricing mistake owing to some technical error. The glitch enabled customers to secure three free packs 500g of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter (ICBNB). Later, after several customers cashed in on the mistake, the error was rectified and the brand’s spokesperson confirmed that it was meant to be a “buy one get one free offer.”
In October, this year, Asda shoppers were seen taking the advantage of an online pricing glitch by the supermarket. There were two different vouchers available for customers. One of them allowed £ 25 off on any product priced more than £ 25 and the other one offered a discount worth £ 50 off on items that cost more than £ 50. This was a major vouchering glitch that allowed many a shoppers (especially those who shopped early in the morning) to secure groceries at incredibly low prices. Those using hotukdeals.com even found that the code available on groceries could be used up to 4 times. Later the glitch was rectified and the erroneous vouchers were removed by Asda.
La Redoute, a leading store selling men, women and kids’ clothes recently made news for similar glitch as well. Here, the shoppers were able to buy £100 of purchases for just £7.
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