More pricing errors hit online retailers
On the Internet, a pricing error can mean a great bargain or a great deal of frustration, as shoppers at Buy.com and Buysoftware.com discover.
Separate pricing errors, one at Buy.com and one at ShopNow.com's BuySoftware site, followed a week after a similar problem at Onsale came to light. Buy.com had been the target of consumer backlash earlier this year after advertising the wrong price for a monitor.
When Buy.com redesigned its Web site on April 26, it mistakenly listed between 4,000 and 7,000 discontinued laser discs for $1.11 apiece. The laser disc advertisements stayed on the company's site for 10 days, until the Buy.com removed them yesterday, said company spokeswoman Jennifer Blanchfield.
In a different incident, ShopNow.com said it lost an estimated $50,000 when it accidentally sold a number of Palm V organizers for $79, $300 below the regular asking price.
The mishaps may not be systemic, observers said, but raise quality-control questions.
Allen Barbieri, Buy.com's president and chief financial officer, attributed his company's problem to a computer error related to its redesign.
Buy.com had alerted the several hundred customers who placed orders for the discs that they were no longer available, he said. According to Blanchfield, the company plans to offer each customer affected a free CD, DVD, or video worth up to $15.
"The most important thing for us is that we correct the error," Barbieri said.
One Buy.com customer, who asked to remain anonymous, said he ordered about 40 discs from Buy.com after reading about the offer on a newsgroup. But upon discovering the mistake, he said he would "absolutely not" shop with Buy.com in the future.
"They don't have their act together," the customer said.
ShopNow.com could have held to a posted company reserving its right not to honor erroneous prices, but chose to take a considerable loss.
ShopNow spokeswoman Hannah Coan said a typographical mistake was entered last Friday night on the company's BuySoftware site. ShopNow changed the price back to $379 from $79 after being alerted to the error.
The company received some 250 orders for the Palm V at $79, she said. "In the interest of customer relations," ShopNow will sell one Palm V at the discounted price to each of the customers who placed orders.
At least one ShopNow customer took advantage of ShopNow's mistake. Tom Simpson, a senior site builder at Agency.com, said he found out about the discounted price on a mailing list and ordered a Palm V right away.
"I had been thinking about getting a Palm V, but as soon as I saw one for $79, it was time for action," Simpson said.
Barry Parr, an e-commerce analyst at International Data Corporation, said the pricing errors on retail Web sites don't represent a trend in online commerce. To Parr, they are an indication that e-commerce companies are under more scrutiny than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, where such mistakes could go unnoticed except by a handful of customers.
"Clearly, if someone screws up in this environment, everyone finds out about it immediately," Parr said.
But the mistakes at Buy.com could be an indication of greater problems there, he said..
"I'm surprised that their quality control is not better than it is," Parr said. "They're making a lot of mistakes."