Businesses have been urged to honour as many online deals as they can following a pricing glitch, after Coles Online suffered a consumer backlash for cancelling orders that mistakenly priced cases of beer at just $15 each.
Customers have responded to Coles on Twitter and Facebook, with hundreds even joining a dedicated page and using the hashtag “#occupycoles”.
Customers have attacked the company over social media, with 700 even “liking” a dedicated page to the error. Appliances Online chief executive John Winning has written an entire blog post on the incident, saying it was a missed opportunity.
“I’d suspect that 90% of the avid beer consumers would have told their mates about how they snagged $16 cases of James Squire from Coles Online. Instead they’re now creating Facebook pages and Twitter tags to attack the company.”
It’s only the latest pricing error to plague an online store, with electronics retailers Dick Smith and Kogan suffering similar glitches that saw customers up in arms over the fact they couldn’t buy products at the advertised discounted price – although the companies approached the situation in different ways.
Experts warn businesses that social media allows any type of price glitch to spread like wildfire. But it also begs the question of whether businesses should feel obligated to honour the discount, or provide some sort of compensation instead.
According to Brian Walker, chief executive of consultancy Retail Doctor Group, SMEs need to be careful in the way they go about responding to such errors.
“It can be potentially damaging to the brand when this occurs,” he warns.
Coles Online confirmed last night on its Twitter feed that there was a price error for James Squire and Coopers on the website.
“This was a genuine error and affected customers will be contacted and offered a $15 credit for any inconvenience caused. They will not be charged for any item they don’t receive.”
In a statement on the website, the company actually confirmed that a number of customers did actually get away with receiving the beer at the cheaper price. It confirmed that it had stopped supply as soon as it became aware of the error, but some customers still may have ordered the discounted beer and have had their orders cancelled.
The incident comes during the same year both Dick Smith and Kogan have experienced similar errors. But while Kogan agreed to honour its discounted products, both Dick Smith and Coles have resisted.
Walker says although it really depends on the circumstances, on balance a company should lean towards honouring the discount where possible.
“I think this attitude of, ‘we made a mistake, tough luck’, isn’t necessarily the greatest way to resolve all of this,” he says.
“You do have to take each case on its own merits, but if it’s such a small error, they should try not to marginalise people.”
Of course, Walker says businesses should try as hard as they can to make sure the errors never occur in the first place, given the nature of social media and how fast the deals can spread – Coles’ own error was posted on OzBargain quickly after it occurred.
“Having someone double and triple check all these things helps. You need to have the proper internal checks in an online store.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
