Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
8.3.3 Analysis: E-retailer Posts Wrong Price, Refuses to Deliver
Amazon.com shut down its British Web site on March 13, 2003, after a software error
led it to offer iPAQ handheld computers for 7 pounds instead of the correct price of
about 275 pounds. Before Amazon.com shut down the site, electronic bargain hunters
had flocked to Amazon.com's Web site, some of them ordering as many as 10 iPAQs
[21]. Amazon said that customers who ordered at the mistaken price should not expect
delivery unless they paid the difference between the advertised price and the actual price.
An Amazon.com spokesperson said, “In our Pricing and Availability Policy, we state that
where an item's correct price is higher than our stated price, we contact the customer
before dispatching. Customers will be offered the opportunity either to cancel their
order or to place new orders for the item at the correct price” [22].
Was Amazon.com wrong to refuse to fill the orders of the people who bought iPAQs
for 7 pounds?
Let's analyze the problem from a rule utilitarian point of view. We can imagine
a moral rule of the form, “A person or organization wishing to sell a product must
always honor the advertised price.” What would happen if this rule were universally
followed? More time and effort would be spent proofreading advertisements, whether
printed or electronic. Organizations responsible for publishing the advertisements in
newspapers, magazines, and Web sites would also take more care to ensure no errors
were introduced. There is a good chance companies would take out insurance poli-
cies to guard against the catastrophic losses that could result from a typo. To pay for
these additional costs, the prices of the products sold by these companies would be
higher. The proposed rule would harm every consumer who ended up paying more
for products. The rule would benefit the few consumers who took advantage of mis-
prints to get good deals on certain goods. We conclude the proposed moral rule has
more harms than benefits, and Amazon.com did the right thing by refusing to ship the
iPAQs.
We could argue, from a Kantian point of view, that the knowledgeable consumers
who ordered the iPAQs did something wrong. The correct price was 275 pounds; the
advertised price was 7 pounds. While electronic products may go on sale, retailers simply
do not drop the price of their goods by 97.5 percent, even when they are being put on
clearance. If consumers understood the advertised price was an error, then they were
taking advantage of Amazon.com's stockholders by ordering the iPAQ before the error
was corrected. They were not acting “in good faith.”
8.4 Notable Software System Failures
In this section we shift our focus to complicated devices or systems controlled at least
in part by computers. An embedded system is a computer used as a component of
a larger system. You can find microprocessor-based embedded systems in microwave
ovens, thermostats, automobiles, traffic lights, and a myriad of other modern devices.
Because computers need software to execute, every embedded system has a software
component.
 
 
 
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