Change and Co - conquer the cost-of-giving crisis.

The cost of e-commerce?

Howard Lake

Howard Lake | 21 September 1999 | News

Charities just beginning to sell products online should learn from the problems faced by consumer goods retailer Argos. Eagle-eyed shoppers on their online shop noted that they appeared to be selling Sony TVs for £3. Word spread quickly and soon Argos received a number of enquiries and attempted orders.

Clearly a typo, what is the legal position for an online retailer in this position? Are they required to honour the price offered? It is a position that charity traders should address before their site goes live.

View a screenshot of the infamous £3 TV offer at Need to Know.

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Gift acceptance and due diligence course by Kerry Rock. Background image (filtered yellow) of one hand on the left with thumb down, and on the right a hand with a thumb up.

A similar mistake was made by IBM in January 2000 when it featured its ThinkPad notebook PCs on its Web site for $1 each instead of the usual $1,499 and $1,899.

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Howard Lake

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded and the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.

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