Amazon Glitch - things selling for 1p/£0.01

[Jarrad]

Did anybody hear about that Amazon glitch that happened a few days ago which led to the bankruptcy of hundreds of small businesses in the UK? Apparently there's a system where it tries to find the lowest price of any item supplied by a third-party business. A glitch occurred and items usually costing anywhere from ?1.00 to ?400.00 were reduced to a mere 1 pence, which led to thousands of people buying items for 1p. You'd think that even if they had bought these items, they wouldn't be shipped, right? Wrong. When small businesses sign a partnership w/ amazon they're subsequently handing over most of their stock, as amazon stores and ships all products for these businesses. You know what that means, don't you?

here's an article if you're interested
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/dec/14/amazon-glitch-prices-penny-repricerexpress

my parents have a small business, and they're pestered by amazon at least twice a week as they would like us/my parents' products to be taken onto the amazon catalogue. It's just lucky that my parents have declined this other, otherwise they could have been one of the people to be left with thousands of pounds of debt.

Apparently Amazon aren't reimbursing any money to some of these businesses..

 

[lazuli]

what to HECK thats horrible

 

[Tao]

At first, I thought "eh, accidents happen".




Then I read this:

Apparently Amazon aren't reimbursing any money to some of these businesses..

Whoever makes these decisions at Amazon should be shot.

 

[Lio Fotia]

That's horrible, and I'm pretty sure Amazon will be taken to court in a class action suit if they don't pay. They were the ones who messed up and they need to pay the difference. They have ruined families and need to own up to their errors. I hope these business owners will band together and sue Amazon for this because it's not okay.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

That's horrible, and I'm pretty sure Amazon will be taken to court in a class action suit if they don't pay. They were the ones who messed up and they need to pay the difference. They have ruined families and need to own up to their errors. I hope these business owners will band together and sue Amazon for this because it's not okay.

this, just this
I hope everyone effected bands together and sue em. They've ruined peoples lives, they need to give the money back. People need the money to survive in this world.
Amazon... I just... Screw you Amazon, Screw you.

 

[Colour Bandit]

But Amazon isn't responsible for the glitch? It is a third party software called Repricer Express which auto prices a company's products daily to be more competitive and Amazon doesn't force these small businesses to use it so not everyone does, hence why not every business operating through Amazon has suffered this glitch. So if anything the firm that own the Repricer Express software, not Amazon by the way, should be reimbursing the small company's losses since it was their fault that the businesses lost money.

At first I thought this was quite funny and was a bit annoyed that I missed out on cutting down my Christmas shopping costs but when news outlets started to interview the business owners affected I felt really bad since I didn't realise how much it had affected them :/ Hopefully either Amazon or Repricer Express will do something to help these businesses since that is people's livelihoods down the drain.

Edit: The software website:
http://www.repricerexpress.com/

 

[KarlaKGB]

o wat a surprise, ppl jump on amazon without a full understanding of the details.

 

[Alienfish]

Whoever makes these decisions at Amazon should be shot.

yes considering how they handling shipping and releasing of games

 

[Coach]

I wish I was online when this was going down, lol

 

[alwatkins]

But Amazon isn't responsible for the glitch? It is a third party software called Repricer Express which auto prices a company's products daily to be more competitive and Amazon doesn't force these small businesses to use it so not everyone does, hence why not every business operating through Amazon has suffered this glitch. So if anything the firm that own the Repricer Express software, not Amazon by the way, should be reimbursing the small company's losses since it was their fault that the businesses lost money.

At first I thought this was quite funny and was a bit annoyed that I missed out on cutting down my Christmas shopping costs but when news outlets started to interview the business owners affected I felt really bad since I didn't realise how much it had affected them :/ Hopefully either Amazon or Repricer Express will do something to help these businesses since that is people's livelihoods down the drain.

Edit: The software website:
http://www.repricerexpress.com/

Then the makers of that software should be taken to court.

 

[Colour Bandit]

Then the makers of that software should be taken to court.

I know, but people are too busy pushing blame on Amazon that Repricer Express is practically getting away scott-free. We should be angry at Repricer not Amazon- who did at least attempt to stop most of the sales from leaving their warehouses- since Repricer is doing practically nothing to help those affected. I mean, I'm no fan of Amazon but we shouldn't be blaming them for something that wasn't their fault. Hopefully Repricer will do the right thing and reimburse the businesses affected.