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Angry shoppers lash out at Click Frenzy sale fail

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Thousands of angry shoppers have slammed the hyped Click Frenzy shopping event after coming away empty-handed.

Promotions leading up to the sale promised steeply-discounted electronics, including Fitbits for $1 and PlayStation 4 consoles for $4, at staggered times throughout a 24-hour period.

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But when shoppers went online at 7pm on Tuesday night, the complaints began almost immediately.

Many consumers failed to receive emailed instructions on how to access the sales, despite registering in advance.

Others managed to add a product to their online shopping cart, only to be told the item had sold out.

One frustrated shopper started a Facebook group, "Let's Take Action on Click Frenzy", on Wednesday morning, promising that "together we can take action".

In a post on the Click Frenzy Facebook page this morning, event organisers acknowledged complaints and promised to look into reported errors on the site.

"Though many customers have scored the bargain of a lifetime, others have missed out so far but there is a full day of bargains ahead for subscribers. We have read a number of complaints regarding items being added to cart and not being able to check out - we have run tests and all seems to be working smoothly but our IT team is investigating."

Click Frenzy organisers received a barrage of customer complaints when the sale was first held in 2012, but organisers had vowed technical glitches would be ironed out ahead of this year's event.

The sale ends this evening.

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Sharyn McCowen is Money's digital editor. She has a Bachelor's degree in journalism from Charles Sturt University, and more than 17 years of experience in media.
Comments
Linda
November 16, 2016 11.25am

Click frenzy needs to be investigated for false advertising - i have put an ipad into my cart and clicked on pay with paypal and got the message "sold out" HOWEVER i then went to the banner and clicked to get an ipad for $2 and it let me put an ipad in my cart, again i clicked pay with paypal and again it said "sold out" - i did this 6 times!

THEN i tried to get a drone and as soon as the banner popped up i clicked on it and it said sold out - STRAIGHT AWAY

JOKE!!

george
November 16, 2016 9.14pm

I agree Linda. False expectations and waste of time.
Click Frenzy needs to be honest about how many bargains of each item were actually available.
If there was only 1 or 2 items then a lottery draw would have been more suitable.
The electronic shopping basket and banner click in gave a wrong impression.
I clicked on the banner the moment the page had refreshed and within 1 second was in the item page and then clicked checkout immediately only to be told item was out of stock.

Blake
November 16, 2016 11.30pm

"organisers had vowed technical glitches would be ironed out ahead of this year's event."

For this promotion they used an off the shelf cart Shopify. Plans start at $29 month... but they could have used the 14 day free trial... who knows.

Cheap way to run a massive big name brand competition.

All I know is I lucked out on the PS4 twice (morning and evening), Apple TV and Beats. All of which I got in my cart and had errors when trying to pay.

It's like walking up to the checkout with the item in hand and the checkout chick taking it and just saying "Register says No".

You shouldn't have been able to put the item in your cart.

Shannon
November 23, 2016 11.32am

Apparently Click Frenzy also put up fake items that people could actually pay for (an illegal practice) in the hopes of catching cheaters. I really hope they are investigated for this and that the Australian media refuses to promote them ever again.