Misco apologises for £5.99 tablet boo-boo

Reseller says it will issue refunds for wrongly priced GoTab tablet 'as soon as possible' following customer stampede

Misco has issued an apology to customers after it was unable to fulfil orders for a tablet it incorrectly priced on its website at £5.99.

Thousands of consumers flocked to Misco.co.uk earlier this week after the reseller began advertising a GoTab 10in tablet for £8.38, including postage and packaging.

But Misco said it is now cancelling the orders it has received and will process a refund of the purchase price "as soon as possible".

"We regret to inform you that there was an error in advertising on our website of the price and availability of product no OB188766, GOTAB 10in LED Tablet and this caused a large number of orders which we are unable to fulfil," Misco said in a customer service announcement.

One commenter on a discussion board on HotUKdeals said Misco let slip in a call yesterday that the error sparked a stampede of 26,000 orders. The discussion board in question has already racked up more than 1,400 comments.

Many punters had earmarked the Android device, which has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of memory, as a stocking filler for their kids and other family members. It was advertised as open box but in pristine condition. According to one commenter, the offer first appeared on Misco.co.uk on Monday.

One customer CRN caught up with said he was more disappointed with Misco's customer service than the pricing boob itself, which he suspected was merely down to getting a decimal point in the wrong place.

"My issue was with the follow-up customer service," he said. "And the fact that they said refunds will take 30 days, yet they took immediate payment despite their Ts&Cs saying payment will only be taken when the order is confirmed. Cake and eat it comes to mind."

Point 2.3 of Misco's terms and conditions states: "We will accept your offer and create a Contract with you by sending to you an Order Confirmation once we have confirmed availability of the Goods or Services, verified your credit card or payment details as necessary and prepared the Goods for dispatch."

Several customers who ordered the tablet told us they are still awaiting refunds.

This includes Twitter user @Linuxnewbie, who said: "Misco UK are undoubtedly earning considerable interest from errors like this. Delaying refunds is not on. Diabolical service."

Misco added in its customer service missive: "We apologise for any confusion and frustration this error caused to you and we do our best to make sure it will not happen again."