14 DAY TRIAL // Tesco, the British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer, has upset a number of Apple fans who were eager to buy a third-generation iPad from the company for the attractive price of just £49.99 (60 EUR, or just over $78 US).
As the story goes, hundreds, if not thousands of customers hit “buy” on Tesco’s attractive offer only to find out that it was an IT error. The real price of the new iPad is in the hundreds of pounds.
The retailer said no money had been deducted from the customers’ credit cards.
"We always look to offer our customers unbeatable value but unfortunately this was due to an IT error, which has now been corrected. Most of our customers realised that this was an obvious mistake but we apologise for any inconvenience caused," the retailer said in a statement.
The Inquirer appropriately points out that, despite the backlash, the company’s terms and conditions for purchases specifically state that they can’t be held accountable for such a blunder if the goods haven’t shipped yet.
"Your order is an offer to buy from us. Nothing that we do or say will amount to any acceptance of that offer until we actually despatch an item to you, at which point a contract will be made between us. At any point up until then we may decline to supply an item to you," reads a note on Tesco Direct's website.
"If we decline to supply an item to you and you have already paid for it, we will give you a full refund of any amount already paid for that item in accordance with our refund policy," Tesco says.
Retailers just like Tesco around the world are gearing up to start selling Apple’s third-generation iPad tomorrow, March 16, at the same time Apple’s own retail stores plan on selling the new tablet device.