Screwfix is this morning counting the cost of last week's website glitch that had customers clicking like crazy to buy online products, all of which were inadvertently reduced to £34.99.
The error, which saw one customer bagging over £1,000-worth of drills for £139.96 and another snapping up a ride-on mower worth over £1,500 for the new knock-down price, will have cost the retailer many thousands of pounds.

Screwfix shut the site down on Friday morning once it was aware of the malfunction, which occurred on Thursday night. However, while some shoppers will be left disappointed that they will not receive their bargain buys, faster-acting customers have been more fortunate.

In a statement released on Friday, the company said: "Our website screwfix.com receives 1.3m visits each week. Last night a number of customers visiting the site experienced a technical issue which resulted in some products being displayed at obviously low prices. The issue has now been resolved and everything is back up and running as normal.

"We have reviewed all transactions and those customers affected are being contacted today and issued a refund. This does not affect any customers that have already received a delivery or collected their goods. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused."

This means that customers who placed orders overnight, chose the click-and-collect option and picked them up in-store first thing on Friday morning, before Screwfix clamped down, will be allowed to keep the goods. This is because once goods have been received by the customer they have a good case, legally, for keeping them - and at the price at which they bought them.

However, Screwfix is not legally obliged to honour orders which have not yet been delivered, so customers who weren't quick enough off the mark will now simply get their money back.