An Orpington shop is reeling after an Amazon glitch sold £8,000 worth of goods for just pennies.

Alistair Ridley, co-founder of Get Paid in Orpington High Street, was 'knocked for six' when he realised the expensive error.

With £15,000 worth of orders placed on Friday when the online giant malfunctioned, he says he is still fighting to get the rest of the orders cancelled.

Specialising in high-tech equipment, such as cameras, smart watches and lenses, some of their priciest gear was sold for just 1p.

Mr Ridley, 27, said: "We got notifications for 1p; we thought hang on this can't be right. We went to Amazon to see our inventory to check our most valuable items but they had all gone.

"It was then we realised. Everyone had snapped them up within 20 minutes. We were trying to figure out what was happening.

"At first, we didn't know if it was us or Amazon, at that stage we didn't know anyone else was affected.

"Within 20 minutes we were phoning Amazon."

He said one customer managed to get more than £5,000 worth of goodies for just 5p, and around £3,000 worth of DVDs were sold for pennies.

The rest of the £15,000 orders are 'pending', but they are focussing on their valuable items.

What the shop lost to just one customer:

  • Nikon D5200 costs £499, sold for 1p
  • Lens for D5200 costs £660, sold for 1p
  • Galaxy smart watch costs £180, sold for 1p
  • Nikon D750 costs £3,228, sold for 1p
  • Lens for D750 costs £888.89, sold for 1p

Mr Ridley, from north-west London, added: "We think they saw one item for 1p, then went to our account and started buying everything else.

”Because the payment was completed it got shipped out. We're still trying to make sure we get refunded."

Also co-owner of Entertainment City retail stores, he said if all the orders had been approved their business would have gone under.

He said: "It's going to affect our cash flow; it's the profit for this month. We rely on the sales to get more stock.

"My co-partner was in total disbelief, if the whole £15,000 had been shipped it would have sent our business under. We wouldn't have been able to pay our employees this month. He said he felt like killing himself!

"We would have had to take out a loan to continue."

He confirmed Amazon had not sent anything to them personally, adding: "People at Amazon customer support had no idea what was going on, they didn't know how to handle it.

"If they had been quicker it might not have happened, they said they could only contact some of the warehouses by email.

"We've been speaking to people round the clock at Amazon to get some definitive answers. We didn't want them to go out with the Christmas orders."

He made a plea to whoever had mistakenly bought the items, saying: "We want Amazon to refund all the money.

"The message we have for the people who placed the orders is it's Christmas at the end of the day and it's all very well getting presents for next to nothing but not at the expense of someone else’s misery."

A spokesperson for Amazon said: "We are aware that a number of Marketplace sellers listed incorrect prices for a short period of time as a result of the third party software they use to price their items on Amazon.co.uk.

"We responded quickly and were able to cancel the vast majority of orders placed on these affected items immediately and no costs or fees will be incurred by sellers for these cancelled orders.

"We are now reviewing the small number of orders that were processed and will be reaching out to any affected sellers directly."