Walmart Website Glitch Prompts Truly Unbelievable Deals
By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA
Company’s decision to not honor sales frustrates holiday customers
On the morning of November 6th, Christmas came early for Walmart.com customers when a site glitch promoted unrealistically low prices for traditionally expensive items like video games, televisions, and certain toys. For example, a treadmill that normally costs $600 showed up on sale for $33.16. LCD computer screen monitors went for $9.
As customers discovered the sales, they turned to social media outlets like Instagram and Twitter, posting pictures of their receipts and postulating about whether or not the site had been hacked. However, one expert from a company that tracks website crashes determined this was not the work of a hacker. Justin Noll says, “This looks like someone made a mistake. Someone enters the prices and probably entered in the wrong price. It’s likely human error.”
The company has not released any information about how many discounted items were sold that morning before the error was discovered. However, upon discovery, the company emailed those who had purchased the too-good-to-be-true discounted items, canceling the sale and promising refunds. The company said it would not be honoring these bargains, but it would be giving those disappointed customers a $10 gift card as an apology for the problem.
As is to be expected, some customers have been expressing disappointment at Walmart’s decision to not honor the sales. Some believe that it is in the retailer’s best interest to honor the sales, especially with the holiday season around the corner. In particular, marketing professor Dr. Arun Jain from UB School of Management, says, “When they made a mistake they honor it… Walmart is not necessarily known as a very friendly store. Frequently, communities are against them. I think this will be a good gesture for them to do that.” Indeed, honoring the prices promised could build customer loyalty and could help the company receive good press in the process. For instance, online retailer, Zappos, and United Airlines experienced similar problems over the past year and permitted customers the faulty sale price, making for happier customers in the end. However, when customers are knowingly trying to exploit an obvious mistake or glitch, a retailer should not feel obligated to honor these deals that customers know are too good to be true. Customers need to exercise good judgment and understand that a mistake was made.
However, others feel Walmart was justified in cancelling these sales because of the terms of use policy on the Walmart website, which states, “Pricing errors may occur on Walmart sites. Walmart reserves the right to cancel any orders containing pricing errors…and at its discretion can contact customers to cancel orders.” However, regardless of these disclaimers, some customers, disappointed they will not be receiving the holiday gifts they purchased, could decide to pursue the matter further. Whether the company will eventually resolve to go forward with these sales is yet to be determined. For now, the company is in the process of fixing the website and hoping its 7 big deals launched last week, along with the promise of 300 additional holiday deals, will be enough to keep customers happy.
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