Glitch Allows Amazon Shoppers To Purchase Items For A Penny
By Edward Cardenas
SOUTHFIELD (CBS Detroit) - A technical glitch allowed shoppers in the United Kingdom to purchase items on Amazon for one penny, Mashable reported.
An estimated 75 million items from 2,000 sellers were affected by the glitch Friday night, Business Insider reported.
The pricing glitch was caused by third-party service Repricer Express, according to Mashable, which sellers use to keep their prices competitive.
The article stated that during the one hour of penny pricing, some retailers reported hundreds of orders costing businesses thousands of pounds.
Amazon told the BBC that the company will review the orders, and that the "majority" of the orders were cancelled.
While the online mega store stated that the orders were cancelled, some of the small retailers are starting crowd-funding campaigns to ease the brunt of the glitch.
"Amazon have assured us that seller accounts will not be penalised for this issue. Amazon has also issued a statement which states that the vast majority of orders placed were cancelled," RepricerExpress CEO Brendan Doherty wrote in a statement. "Again I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to our customers for this issue. We will continue to investigate the cause and to put measures in place to prevent it from happening again."
