Sydney - It was supposed to be Australia's first national, online shopping mega-sale but “Click Frenzy” sparked angry reactions on Wednesday after its website crashed, with shoppers dubbing it “Click Fail”.
The widely promoted Click Frenzy, seen as Australia's answer to Cyber Monday online sales in the United States, had promised huge discounts on everything from white goods to baby clothes from major retail stores.
But angry users complained of spending hours after the sale began at 7pm Tuesday fruitlessly trying to access the site, while the websites of some individual stores were also frozen by the traffic created by the promotion.
Organiser Grant Arnott apologised to shoppers on the Click Frenzy Facebook site for “anyone who has been inconvenienced and frustrated by the technical issues relating to the inaugural Click Frenzy 24 hour online sale”.
“The technical directors, developers and infrastructure specialists involved in this inaugural event are working to get to the root of what occurred with the wave of traffic at 7pm,” he added.
His comments sparked more anger from shoppers with comments such as “Click Frenzy Major Fail” and “Absolutely pathetic. A whole heap of advertising for nothing. Online shopping that doesn't exist. Ridiculous”.
Australian National Retail Association chief executive Margy Osmond said some shoppers might be disappointed but the problem of websites crashing was not unique to Click Frenzy and regularly happened with big sales overseas.
“It's unfortunate that the organisers of Click Frenzy have had these problems,” she told reporters, adding that while some retailers might be disappointed, others would have done well. - Sapa-AFP