Businesses furious as Amazon software glitch sells their stock for a penny(转载)# ebiz - 电子商务
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There’s more to being a successful retailer than keeping your buyers happy.
U.K. businesses that sell via Amazon.com’s AMZN local site are up in arms
over a software glitch late Friday that led to their items being sold for as
little as a penny. Some ended up out of pocket to the tune of up to $30,000.
The incident was down to a problem with a software tool developed by Derry-
based RepricerExpress, which allows businesses to offer their goods on
Amazon.co.uk.
The software automatically changes prices for the items on sale to guarantee
that they stay competitive, but in this instance, it generated a self-
reinforcing loop in which goods were automatically re-priced down to a penny.
One user complained on an Amazon bulletin board that stock worth $15,000 had
been sold in this fashion within 40 minutes.
“Being they are not based in the US (sic) It takes away lots of options for
us to recoup our loses,” the user wrote. “Last night I had to explain to
my wife and 3, 4 and 5 year old that we could not take our trip to Disney in
February.”
City AM cited one fancy dress company owner as saying her company had lost
over $30,000 overnight.
Amazon said it was unable to cancel orders that had been dispatched and
charged to customers, but another user on the bulletin board noted that it
had been able to cancel those that weren’t slated for urgent shipping.
Repricer Express chief executive Brendan Doherty said on the company’s
website he was “truly sorry for the distress this has caused our customers,
” and said Amazon had reassured him that sellers’ accounts wouldn’t be
penalized as a result.
It wasn’t clear what degree of compensation would be available to the
businesses that had suffered. RepricerExpress didn’t respond immediately to
a request for comment from Fortune.
U.K. businesses that sell via Amazon.com’s AMZN local site are up in arms
over a software glitch late Friday that led to their items being sold for as
little as a penny. Some ended up out of pocket to the tune of up to $30,000.
The incident was down to a problem with a software tool developed by Derry-
based RepricerExpress, which allows businesses to offer their goods on
Amazon.co.uk.
The software automatically changes prices for the items on sale to guarantee
that they stay competitive, but in this instance, it generated a self-
reinforcing loop in which goods were automatically re-priced down to a penny.
One user complained on an Amazon bulletin board that stock worth $15,000 had
been sold in this fashion within 40 minutes.
“Being they are not based in the US (sic) It takes away lots of options for
us to recoup our loses,” the user wrote. “Last night I had to explain to
my wife and 3, 4 and 5 year old that we could not take our trip to Disney in
February.”
City AM cited one fancy dress company owner as saying her company had lost
over $30,000 overnight.
Amazon said it was unable to cancel orders that had been dispatched and
charged to customers, but another user on the bulletin board noted that it
had been able to cancel those that weren’t slated for urgent shipping.
Repricer Express chief executive Brendan Doherty said on the company’s
website he was “truly sorry for the distress this has caused our customers,
” and said Amazon had reassured him that sellers’ accounts wouldn’t be
penalized as a result.
It wasn’t clear what degree of compensation would be available to the
businesses that had suffered. RepricerExpress didn’t respond immediately to
a request for comment from Fortune.