By CNET Asia Staff, 12 November 2003 09:15
NEWS Shoppers had a spot of luck in Japan recently when Marubeni Corporation mistakenly listed a new PC at 10 per cent of its actual price of Y198,000 (£1,090).
The Y19,800 (£109) price was posted on 31 October by Marubeni and went unnoticed by the company for three days - though not by Internet posters on bulletin boards, leading to 1,500 orders.
Marubeni initially told customers it would cancel all orders but after the prospective buyers complained, decided to honour all 1,500 orders. A company spokesman told Kyodo News, a Japanese newswire, that the company prefers to "place emphasis on public trust".
Marubeni is unusual for honouring the incorrect price. While price-listing errors are common in internet shopping, sellers usually cancel the orders or offer a discount instead. Sites such as FatWallet.com track sales offers and online consumers can quickly flood a mistaken price offering.
Amazon earlier this year received thousands of orders for a high-end mobile phone that appeared to be free, and Dell has been hit by price-listing problems. Wrong listings for Dell notebooks in Asia have twice occurred and when customer payments had been processed, the transaction was honoured.
One of the most high-profile incidents this year in the UK, as revealed by silicon.com, involved Thai Airways wrongly pricing flights online.
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