Man pays only $308 for 65" QLED TV with soundbar: Prism+ cancels order, citing 'system error'
Monthly promotions such as 3.3 and 4.4 sales are now a regular fixture of online shopping.
But the deals may not always be what they're hyped up to be.
Stomper Rick ordered a 65-inch TV with soundbar for only $308 from the Prism+ website during a 3.3 sale, but his order was subsequently cancelled by Prism+.
The regular price of the TV was $1,599, according to the order summary.
The Stomper admitted that when he and his friends came across this "very good deal" from Prism+, they suspected it was a "system glitch'.
"Most in the group chat acknowledged that this could be a system glitch, considering how cheap it is – $308 each for all three sizes of TVs: 55-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch," recounted the Stomper.
"Many of us placed the order, paid and got the order confirmation. We were discussing whether if Prism+ would actually honour the glitch half-jokingly. Who could resist such an irresistible deal anyway?"
"There was no further information or email till March 3 when a few of us started receiving an email from Prism+ informing us the orders we placed were cancelled, which was not surprising, considering."
But what upset the Stomper was the way the cancellation was done.
He shared a screenshot of an email from Prism+ that said: "Order S989237 was cancelled at your request and payment has been refunded."
The problem was the Stomper had not requested for the cancellation and his payment had not been refunded at the time.
"Instead of coming clean, admitting the glitch and apologising, which is perfectly normal and what any big company should do, but no, they didn't," said the Stomper.
"This really brings shame to Singapore, considering that it's our local brand and the PR method of handling this fiasco is just totally unacceptable and unprofessional."
In response to a Stomp query, a Prism+ spokesman said: "We can confirm that on March 2, a system error occurred on our web store that allowed customers to stack two vouchers together.
"This contradicts our voucher policy, which is clearly stated across our website at all times.
"Understandably, some users may have unknowingly exploited the error when making their purchases, and we have since reached out to all affected parties.
"The bug was noticed and fixed on the same day, while all affected orders were cancelled and reversed on March 3, prompting an automated order cancel message telling customers that their orders had been cancelled.
"As of March 5, our customer service team has reached out to all affected customers in order to provide further context on the cancellation, apologise, as well as offer a one-time discount on future purchase for the inconvenience. To date, all refunds have been processed, and some customers have accepted our token of apology.
"While we understand that such errors do occur, we would like to apologise again to all affected customers for the inconvenience, and assure all our customers that we will continue to strive in doing our best to assist anyone affected."
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