Companies in Taiwan to pay for online pricing errors

A Shun Yi Travel, a 20-year-old Taipei-based agency, yesterday agreed to honor the NT$2,900 fee it mistakenly posted online for a 5-day Bali trip package originally priced at NT$25,900 after intervention by Taipei City Government's (LRC).

LRC Chairperson Yeh Ching-Yuan yesterday praised Shun Yi for showing respect to its business reputation.

The travel agency Wednesday said it would only compensate the ten customers who booked the mispriced package with a NT$2,000 coupon each. It changed its mind after Yeh negotiated with Shun Yi's senior manager Chang Wei-kao.

The error happened due to a glitch in the agency's recently upgraded service system, Chang said. The company will provide an explanation, cellphone text message apologies and an NT$2,000 coupon to each of the nearly 800 persons on the waiting list of the NT$2,900 offer, Chang promised, adding that the company will erase all personal information collected due to the pricing error.

The agency, however, will not offer a refund to the seven persons who booked the trip with the NT$25,900 price tag, Chang added. Any vacancies left by the ten lucky persons who booked at the NT$2,900 price will be filled by the frontrunners in the waiting list. Chang estimated that the company will lose NT$200,000 for the error.

In a related story, the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Petitions and Appeals Committee yesterday overruled the appeal by Dell and judged that the computer giant should pay the NT$1 million fine for two online pricing errors last year.

Dell was fined by the Taipei City Government for mispricing its products on its online store twice on June 25 and July 5, last year, involving nearly 200,000 orders. The Appeals Committee found the punishment was justified on the grounds that the errors were Dell's “own fault” and they constituted serious violations of relevant regulations.

LRC's Yeh praised the Appeals Committee's ruling as a milestone in the establishment of Internet trade order. He urged companies that sell merchandise online to realize their responsibility to provide consumers with correct information.

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