Reuters: Oddly Enough: Wal-Mart website glitch gave shoppers super bargains, temporarily

Reuters: Oddly Enough Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Wal-Mart website glitch gave shoppers super bargains, temporarily Nov 7th 2013, 00:43 Tweet Share this Email Print Reprints A new Wal-Mart store shows off the company's new logo in Loveland, Colorado July 21, 2009. Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking Wed Nov 6, 2013 7:43pm EST (Reuters) - Shoppers looking for a bargain got some big ones, if only temporarily, at Walmart.com Wednesday morning. A technical glitch on the Wal-Mart Stores Inc U.S. website offered some items at a fraction of their actual retail price. Treadmills, which normally cost hundreds of dollars, were priced at $33.16. LCD computer monitors were offered for $9. Ravi Jariwala, a spokesman for Walmart.com, said in the late afternoon that the problem had been fixed and that the mistakenly priced orders would not be honored. "Given the wide discrepancy in pricing, we are notifying customers who ordered these items that their orders have been canceled and that they'll be refunded in full," Jariwala said in an e-mail. Walmart.com will also offer those shoppers a $10 gift card. The company did not say how many orders were placed at the low prices. Most of the affected products were electronics, said Jariwala, adding that the website was not available at times on Wednesday while repairs were made. The glitch comes at the start of what analysts say will be a particularly competitive holiday season. Wal-Mart Stores Inc kicked off its online holiday-season deals on November 1, a month earlier than usual. The earlier deals and bigger incentives come after data firm ShopperTrak forecast the slowest holiday sales growth since 2009. "This is particularly disappointing since Wal-Mart has been investing aggressively in e-commerce in the last two years," said Brian Sozzi, CEO & Chief Equities Strategist at Belus Capital Advisors. (Reporting by Jilian Mincer. Additional reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by John Wallace and Ken Wills) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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