Pricing mistake is a common mistake faced by most e-commerce websites. Since they are working on an algorithm and storage of huge data including products and customers, it causes glitches and errors which may result in pricing mistakes. Price of certain products or a wide range of products could be displayed wrongly due to this. Even though customers benefit from this mistake, since most pricing mistake lower the price, it could cause a huge loss to the seller and the company.Amazon also frequently faces this price mistake Police mostly during high traffic times.
Even though federal law allows them to rectify the mistake and deduct the original price from the customers, Amazon deals with such issues on a case-by-case basis.
What does the law suggest?
According to federal law, the company is not in any position to honor the mistaken price and they don’t have to carry on with the price lesser than the original and thus endure the loss. Even if the price of a product once displayed incorrectly, the company can deduct the original price from customers after correcting this mistake. That means the law is not encouraging customers to go ahead with disputes regarding the display of wrong prices on an e-commerce website.
How does Amazon react?
In most cases, Amazon also sticks with what the law suggests and corrects the mistaken price. But Amazon responds to a price mistake on a case-by-case basis and that depends on the stage of the purchase.
- If a product with the wrong price displayed had already been delivered or shipped to the customer, Amazon won’t demand payment of the original price. Instead, further purchases of the same product would be charged the real price.
- If a product is in the cart or the process of payment, and Amazon corrects the mistake before shipment, customers have to pay the full amount.
- If the product is in the process of payment and the difference in the price is minimal, then also Amazon won’t demand payment of the full amount from the customers.
- In certain cases, an ordered product, before shipment, would get canceled and refunded due to a pricing mistake.
- If the pricing mistake of a particular product is affecting customer satisfaction, the company would remove the buy option or remove the product from their site.
Third-party pricing mistake
Rather than pricing mistakes from Amazon’s side, sometimes such mistakes are caused by third-party sellers of Amazon. This is also because of glitches or typographical mistakes. They also don’t have to honor the wrong price and thus endure the loss. But in most cases, Amazon advises them to stick with the mistaken price, if it’s not a huge loss, because of the importance to customer satisfaction and most sellers would carry forward the mistaken price. However final decision regarding this is taken by the seller itself.
Double pricing mistake
Similar to lowering the price of certain products, another common pricing mistake is charging double prices. This would be most noticed after the payment of the product and this is also due to system glitches or hackers. Customers can contact Amazon customer service, not through chat since employees there don’t have the authority to decide on price disputes, but through their toll-free number. Employees handling the toll-free customer care section have the authority to decide on a price mistake issue.
How are price mistakes identified?
Usually, a mistake in the price, especially a huge difference, would attract a large number of customers, and thus there will be unusual sales on the site. This sudden traffic would be noticed and thus rectify the mistake. Even customers also can report any such pricing issue noticed by them. There would be a “Report incorrect product information” option on every product page. In this section, there would be an “other product details” option which would lead to the “price issues” section. Their customers can report any unusual pricing issues.
Why do price mistakes happen?
There are multiple reasons behind e-commerce sites facing a price mistake. Usually, this would be due to certain glitches in the site, technical snag, input errors, etc. The presence of certain hackers is also a reason for such mistakes. Mostly price mistakes happen during festive seasons or during discount sale time when there will be heavy traffic on the site. This may be due to the large data software stores or because of typographical errors from employees. Error in the algorithm, especially during high traffic times also causes price mistakes.
Conclusion
Price mistakes which are beneficial for the customer but a loss for the seller is a common problem faced by Amazon. The soon it noticed and rectified, less the casualties. Even though Amazon doesn’t have the responsibility to carry forward the price displayed wrongly in certain products. Federal law allows them to correct the mistake and deduct real price. But in most of the cases company may allow the customer to purchase for the lowest price depending on its stage of purchase.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a price rule in Amazon?
A: The price rule is for the sellers of Amazon. Sellers are advised to adopt one where there would be a maximum or minimum price limit and a change in the price of that product beyond that bar would be noted and scrutinized.
Q: Which is Amazon’s most popular pricing mistake?
A: Most popular price mistake of Amazon police is their 1 penny glitch during 2014. A large range of products in Amazon UK was sold for just 1 penny. A mass purchase and sale happened during that glitch Eve though it was corrected soon.
