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Tesco honours X-Files Web pricing mess-up

Way more than 10 people got lucky. After a fight

Updated Tesco is honouring orders made on its web site following a pricing balls-up.

The X-Files DVD box set was advertised for £16.99 on Tesco.com, but should have been sold for £79.99. The price has been corrected, but Tesco is allowing customers who managed to get their orders in before the price was changed to get the goodies for £16.99.

But how many lucky punters were there. Tesco told El Reg that it was just 10. But of course it wasn't just 10 as our readers and this discussion on DVDforums (you'll have to register for it) show. Some of our readers are crowing about blagging three sets of the DVDs.

And according to one reader: "the pricing error remained on their site for three days or more. Not only that, but when they changed the price on the page there was still a shopping basket error which meant the CC confirmation and email showed the cheaper price for days more. Tescos has one of the worst sites imaginable and this is the latest in a long list of mistakes. In the past they haven't honoured pricing errors, and for several days they tried to get out of this one."

We all know how fast pricing mistakes are circulated around the web, via forums, and email, but only having 10 people managing to get the Tesco offer before it was shut down would have been fast work indeed by the Tesco team.

If at just been 10 it would suggest Tesco's online business is unpopular. But it posted sales of £237 million for the year to 24 February (with losses of £9 million) and says it has one million registered users and generates weekly sales of more than £6 million, through 70,000 orders.

Tesco's obviously not keen to publicise how many bargain DVD packages its had to punt out but seems happy to make itself a hostage to fortune. It has come out and said it will honour all its advertised prices. "That's our policy, even when it's a mistake," said a spokesman. "If we advertise at a price then we sell at a price."

So if it happens again, don't delay your purchase wondering if your order will be honoured - fill your boots. ®

Related Link

DVDforums Tesco/X-Files DVD discussion - you'll need to register

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Tesco's Net sales hit £237m

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