Amazon and the 1p glitch

An advert for one such watch, which has 4GB of memory, was offered on the website for �44.95 on Thursday night.

An advert for one such watch, which has 4GB of memory, was offered on the website for �44.95 on Thursday night.

Published Dec 18, 2014

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London - Furious owners of small businesses face ruin after a glitch allowed online shoppers to buy their products on Amazon for 1p (about 18 cents).

Some firms lost tens of thousands of pounds in a single hour during Friday night’s disastrous software malfunction.

Customers cashed in by placing 1p orders in bulk, in a “supermarket sweep” on products ranging from clothes and toys to home furnishings and health products.

Some took to Twitter to boast of ordering goods worth thousands of pounds for a few pence.

But retailers said they risked going bankrupt, with some losing all of their Christmas stock.

The problem affected firms on Amazon’s Marketplace – which allows independent sellers to offer their goods alongside Amazon’s own – using third-party business software called RepricerExpress.

It is designed to keep them competitive by automatically repricing items on Amazon so they are cheaper than others in the digital market.

But for an hour on Friday, between 7pm and 8pm, a problem with RepricerExpress led to hundreds of items being sold on Amazon at a fraction of their normal price.

It is unclear whether the processed orders will be delivered to customers or cancelled, and whether retailers will be reimbursed for their losses.

One of the sellers, Judith Blackford of children’s clothing firm Kiddymania, said she lost £20 000.

“I started using RepricerExpress, as did a lot of other businesses, a few months ago,” she said.

“Through an error in their programme, I sold 675 products on Friday night that would normally be priced £5 to £100, and they went for a penny each.

“Christmas is the only time of year we make any money, and this was supposed to be our busiest weekend – instead, we’ve run out of stock … I started my business ten years ago in a spare room, and I’ve worked so hard to build it up.

“I’ve got two daughters to feed and we’re in the middle of moving house. It’s a total mess.”

Mehboob Rasool, of retailer Cloudseller, said 400 of its mattresses were among items snapped up for 1p – and that Amazon had charged its usual administration fee for each purchase. He added: “I took 12 000 orders in three hours on Friday night, where normally it is two or three hundred. Amazon has immediately deducted £5 000 from my credit card in fees.”

He said a fellow seller, called Mr Patel, had suffered £100 000 losses from shoppers buying toothbrushes and razors in orders of 1 000 a time.

But shoppers were delighted. One wrote on Twitter: “Amazon are having a glitch on their site and loads of stuff is selling for 1p. I just bought an incense holder – don’t even need it.”

Another said: “I’ve just spent 80p on Amazon … for a few thousand pounds value … Loads of things are 1p.”

Brendan Doherty, chief executive of RepricerExpress, said in an email to retailers who had complained: “I am truly sorry for the distress this has caused … 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 … ensure that it does not happen again. Everyone here is devastated and disappointed that you have experienced this problem. We understand that you are angry and upset and we will endeavour to work to make good on this issue.”

Amazon said: “We are aware that a number of Marketplace sellers listed incorrect prices … as a result of the third-party software they use to price their items on Amazon.co.uk.

“We 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.

“We are now reviewing the small number of orders that were processed and will be reaching out to any affected sellers directly.” - Daily Mail

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