Amazon.com made the news. We should thank Buy.com for honoring the sale.
** Amazon.com's Accidental Bargains
Shoppers visiting Amazon.com Inc.'s electronics store Monday
night found major bargains on computer memory when an apparent
glitch caused a handful of products to be sold for a fraction of
their retail prices. A Viking 256-Mbyte memory board retailing
for $9.99 reached No. 1 in Amazon's sales rankings before the
price was corrected Tuesday morning to $329.99, and a 1-Gbyte
board sold for $10.77 before being corrected to $999.99.
The cause of the mistake, how many orders were taken, and how the
company will respond aren't known at this point. Amazon declined
to discuss the situation, saying it was under investigation. Its
pricing policy states that if an item is incorrectly priced, the
company can cancel the sale, but as of 3 p.m. EST Tuesday, the
orders had not been canceled, and customers who bought the
components still showed the discounted price in their accounts'
order status.
Jason Williams, a network administration student who describes
himself as an "avid Internet deal hunter," became aware of the
low prices through a forum on another Web site. He figured it was
a mistake, but placed two orders anyway, buying $3,000 worth of
RAM for about $80. He doesn't expect the sale to be honored, but
says it was worth a try.
Amazon isn't the first E-business to face this problem. In March,
a glitch on Travelocity.com L.P.'s site let customers book free
rooms at a Hilton hotel in Mexico City. Hilton decided not to
honor the rate, but offered each affected customer one free night
at the hotel as an "act of goodwill." And for about an hour Jan.
31, a computer error let 143 people buy fantastically discounted
tickets for international travel through United Airlines Inc.'s
Web site. United canceled the tickets, but after customer outcry,
it agreed to honor the sales. "Although we had a very solid legal
footing, we decided not to make that a point of contention," says
a spokesman for United. "We just listened to our customers."
No matter what Amazon decides to do, Williams figures he's
already won. "When an online company makes a mistake, if you
complain enough you usually get a free gift certificate or
something to satisfy you," he says. "You can't really lose."
- David M. Ewalt