Amazon Glitch Caused Hundreds of Items to Sell for a Penny
Ryan Simmons / 10 years ago
We all thought prices were low on Black Friday, but it seems that last Friday (12th) brought even lower prices to customers on Amazon. The Independent reports on the news that a glitch with the popular online retailer meant that hundreds of items sold for just a penny.
The tool ‘RepricerExpress’, which allows retailers to easily keep prices up-to-date, has taken the blame for the mishap. The report says that “small, independent companies” could have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds from the error, which affected sellers between 7pm and 8pm.
A number of customers claimed to have bought “thousands of pounds” worth of items for little cost. One retailer expressed concern that the glitch could put her out of business:
“I have lost about £20,000 overnight,” she said, adding: “Surely someone has to be accountable for this. I will be bankrupt at this rate by the end of January.” – Judith Blackford of Kiddymania.
The CEO of RepricerExpress said:
“I am truly sorry for the distress this has caused our customers. We have received communication that Amazon will not penalise sellers for this error. We are continuing to work to identify how this problem occurred and to put measures in place to ensure that it does not happen again.”
Source: The Independent
