There are bargains, and then there are catastrophic pricing errors.
Scores of Amazon sellers have been struck by the latter, after a software glitch reduced the price of thousands of items to just 1p.
Hordes of discount-hungry shoppers snapped up unbelievable bargains, as sellers were horrified to find their stock being decimated as it was purchased for next to nothing.
The glitch means that many sellers are facing bankruptcy in the lead-up to Christmas. ย
โI have lost about ยฃ20,000 overnight,โ Judith Blackford, of fancy dress clothing company Kiddymania said. โHaving asked Amazon to cancel the orders they are still sending them out and charging me horrendous fees. Surely someone has to be accountable for this. I will be bankrupt at this rate by the end of January,โ she said.
The pricing error was caused by a software mistake at third party pricing firm Repricer Express, which is based in Derry.
Meanwhile, shoppers couldnโt believe their luck.
One online shopper, Quirky Jezza wrote on Twitter:
Iโve just spend 80p on Amazonโฆ for a few thousand pounds valueโฆ Loads of things are 1pโฆ Hacked? xD
โ Quirky Jezza (@QuirkyJez) December 12, 2014
All of that in the last hour. Iโve ordered about 500 things in total tonight. I would laugh if any of them arrive ๐ฎ pic.twitter.com/HuGdjKUiK2
โ Quirky Jezza (@QuirkyJez) December 13, 2014
ย
Sellers are understandably furious with Repricer Express. Stuart Cameron, an Amazon seller said on Repricer Expressโ web forum that his entire stock had been bought-up with each item going for just 1p. He wrote: โHeads are going to roll. Solicitor first thing Monday morning. This has just cost me thousands and now we have to stock-check my entire warehouse.โ
Other worried sellers took to the forum for advice.
โI have just had over 3,500 orders in less than 3 hours for 1 pence,โ wrote Mehboob Rasool.
โIf I cancel all these orders my account will be suspended. If I dispatch all
these orders Iโll go bankrupt. I canโt sell mattresses for 1 pence.
โHow do we get amazon to act in our favour? Any IDEAS please? How do we request them to cancel orders on our behalf?โ
Repricer Express, a service which markets itself as โthe ridiculously easy way to increase your Amazon holiday salesโ, has apologised for the error.
The companyโs chief executive Brendan Doherty said: โI am truly sorry for the distress this has caused our customers. We understand that you are angry and upset and we will endeavour to work to make good on this issue and to work to restore your confidence in our product and service.โ
An Amazon spokesman said: โWe responded quickly and were able to cancel the vast majority of orders placed on these affected items immediately and no costs or fees will be incurred by sellers for these cancelled orders.
โWe are now reviewing the small number of orders that were processed and will be reaching out to any affected sellers directly.โ
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