Save £500 on an iPad? Every little helps!

Tesco Direct’s website was brought to its knees when the very latest Apple iPad was accidently priced at £50 – 10 times less than it should be sold at.

The Wi-fi 4G 64GB iPad 3 is not due for release until March 17^th, but a listing error saw the £559 gadget listed for only £49.99 on the website. The news spread like wildfire via social networking sites such and Facebook and Twitter, and within minutes the website had crashed as people clambered to snap up the bargain.

Tesco, who’s slogan is ‘every little helps’, could not provide the exact number of people who had purchased the ultra hi-tech tablet, but there were people were snapping up multiple units in order to sell them on and make up to a 100% profit.

A spokesperson for Tesco said “We like to offer our customers unbeatable value, but unfortunately this is an IT error that is currently being corrected.” He also added that no money would be withdrawn from the bank accounts of people who had purchased the iPads and if money was taken they would be eligible to a full refund.

This isn’t the first time Tesco has made a blunder on their website. In February 2011 the website was advertising the Nintendo 3DS for £157.60 – £40 less than anywhere else on the internet AND over a month before it was going to be released. The listing was promptly removed when they realised their mistake and people were refunded.

The terms and conditions on Tesco Direct’s website says: “If, by mistake, we have under priced an item, we will not be liable to supply that item to you at the stated price, provided that we notify you before we despatch the item to you. In those circumstances, we will notify the correct price to you so you can decide whether or not you wish to order the item at that price.”