Price glitches are the most entertaining payback you can get from a supermarket, shop or website, the savings can be immense but not all are successful.
You will feel the following:
- Fear, from the worry of being caught and/or refused.
- A thrill, from scanning so many items on the self service tills that you are shaking.
- Joy from knowing that you’ve just paid less than 5% of the RRP.
- a sense of achievement, you just found a price glitch and it worked!
- The worry that some idiot will contact the company and ask about the price
- The worry that some idiot will order 20-100 of them which WILL ruin it for everyone
Massive 2014 Beer Glitch
Supermarket/Shop glitches
The best technique to find price glitches is do your research, find out when supermarkets are changing promotions (i.e. check online), test obvious products that may have multiple promotions placed on them by taking them to self service tills.
Most glitches happen when a new promotion is added but the original promotion hasn’t been switched off yet. i.e. 2 for 1 new deal & 3 for £2 old deal working together.
Online retailer glitches
It can be tedious and boring to actively try and hunt down these type of glitches, but if you find one they can be amazing & you will become a legend.
What are the main types of online glitches:
- Voucher code stacking – Using multiple voucher codes to give you certain discounts, i.e. free shipping + 20% off + another 20% off.
- Vouchers that work with no minimum spend, i.e. £5 voucher with a £5 spend = £0 paid.
- Free shipping – Request the items be delivered to store & the free shipping price is taken off full price!
- Discount code glitches – i.e. a code gives £5 off each item instead of each order.
- Items priced for free – generally you just have to pay for delivery
- Free items on wrong items – you often see ‘buy X and get Y for free’ but sometimes X can be another much cheaper item
- Discount taken from pre-sale price – Site offers 30% off sale products, but it uses the original product price to calculate the 30%
Where can I find the latest price glitches?
All the price glitches we find are displayed on our Facebook page & Twitter account.
What price glitches have happened before?
There has been so many to list all of them however here are a few
The massive chocolate orange glitch of 2012
- Terry’s Chocolate Oranges for 29p each (Normally £2.75)
- £150′s worth of Asda George clothing for £18
- Modern Warfare 3 for £18 on release date (Saving £20)
- Crates of beer for £3
- Ristorante Pizzas for 35p
- Full sized loafs of bread for free
- Bottles & Bottles of drinks for free
- Philadelphia cheese for free
- Bags of chocolate for 1p (worth £2.50)
I don’t understand, why would companies do this?
Companies generally don’t do these on purpose, except sometimes Tesc0*.
They’re caused by human error, a computer glitch, a marketing ploy gone wrong or simply end of line clearance.
Free or £150 TV glitch 2014
Do companies lose money because of these?
It really depends on the glitch, some can cause huge profit loss but others can actually save a company money.
Example of how it can ruin sales for a company: A computer glitch forces two promotions to work together at the same time, this causes a reduction of over 80% from the original price. The problem is not picked up by staff & it’s only a week later the mangers notice the issue, that could be £1000′s of lost revenue. The amount of loss depends on how wide spread the problem is & how many people know about it.
Example of how it can save a company money: If an item is close to its use-by date or is getting too obvious within store, i.e. old Christmas stock, then a company must face the possibility of paying a waste disposal company to take it all away. So instead they ‘secretly’ reduce the price of certain items without changing the labels, so when you go to the till you get a ‘bargain’ & tell your friends about it. i.e. a price glitch, these types of glitches are generally fabricated by larger supermarkets.
What happens to stock that pasts it best before date?
Read our full article on end of line, out of date stock.
Secret of how Tesc0* reduce stock for clearance:
Our sources tell us this is how Tesc0* and lots of other retailers reduce items that are past an event date, i.e. Christmas, Easter, Valentines etc:
They knock 75% off, then 50%, then 25%. then 10% & finally reduce it to 1p, this whole process takes roughly 12 weeks.
Generally these items will not have a clearance label placed on them.
The 2014 Domino’s 75% off glitch
Can online companies deny my order after it’s placed?
The short answer is yes, most companies within their terms and conditions state that an order is only final once it has left the warehouse, so if your item has not left yet it can be cancelled.
But be sure to double check, as some companies state that an order is final once you get an email confirmation.
I’ve ordered an online glitch – what do I do now?
JUST WAIT. For the love of <insert something holy/that you live for> NEVER CONTACT A COMPANY involved in a price glitch!
Even if something has gone wrong with your payment JUST WAIT. A company will ALWAYS refund you (eventually) for any mistakes etc as they LEGALLY HAVE TO! If you contact them to complain they’ve taken payment but you’ve not had an email confirmation etc then YOU WILL RUIN IT FOR EVERYONE + most likely it’s just a fault with their emails sending out and actually your order was placed!
The products have arrived but it isn’t what I ordered, what do I do?
Now this is where it becomes interesting, technically once the order has left the warehouse (on way to you) the contract is in place and they technically owe you the full order. If the wrong item (or only 1 instead of 5 arrives for example) then you may have a leg to stand on.
Wait for other people’s orders to arrive and then contact them explaining the situation and you’re requesting your correct order be delivered, never mention the low price etc just explain you got the wrong order. If you get nowhere then state that you believe it’s a breach of contract.
Be careful: They may ask you to send back the original item, don’t until the correct items have been sent to you.
Lots of companies will simply say we will refund you and you keep the product, which is fair. However if it’s a really large company then you could push them further for the correct order to be sent out. If that doesn’t work order at full price and demand a refund on the correct set (risky but works with a certain retailer that shall remain anonymous).
Is it illegal to use price glitches?
No, but there are exceptions!
The problem you have is when you’re fraudulently using discount vouchers for personal gain, i.e. using them multiple times or not within the terms and conditions of use.
Example of where it can go very wrong: A couple had a £17.50 voucher from Tesco clubcard rewards.
They used the self-service tills and used the voucher, but instead of placing the voucher in the ‘voucher slot’ they went back and used it again and again and again. After visiting 7 stores and using the voucher 62 times they were finally arrested, they walked away with a 12 month community order & had to pay £500 compensation to Tesco.
All of glitches will be posted on our Facebook page
You may also like:
- Learn the rules of glitch hunting [in store]
- Why you SHOULD NEVER report a glitch to a company & should always wait for refunds patiently (even if you were charged the wrong price).
- How to get the best flight prices to any location
