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Students sting Amazon for hundreds of thousands after discovering reusable discount code glitch
STUDENTS stung online giant Amazon for hundreds of thousands of pounds after discovering a glitch which meant a one-off discount code could be used again and again.
Amazon’s Prime Student deal gave new users £5 off their first purchase with a code called “Welcome5”.
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But undergraduates quickly realised that it gave them a fiver off everything they bought no matter how many times they used it.
Word spread like wildfire across the UK’s campuses and students began stock-piling everyday items such as toilet rolls and toothpaste – as well as packs of beer.
One student got £2,500 worth of goods for nothing and many bought enough household goods to last their entire degree course.
Student flats in London, Durham, Nottingham, Manchester, Salford and Hertfordshire began to resemble warehouses.
One undergrad estimated the blunder had cost the retailer - run by the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos – hundreds of thousands.
At one stage Amazon’s top seller list showed items such as toothbrushes, loo roll, deodorants, books, batteries, iPhone chargers, sports socks and cheap beer. A student flat in Newcastle was among the first to discover the golden opportunity.
One of the lads there who cashed in - a 19-year-old business student - said: “The Welcome5 code was designed as a one-time introductory offer, but the brother of a flatmate got in touch to say he’d entered it a second time and it worked again.
WORD SPREAD LIKE WILDIFRE
“Obviously we were quick to try it ourselves and couldn’t believe that no matter how many times we put it in it always worked.
“It was only available on a single purchase so you could get a fiver off anything, which didn’t mean much if you wanted expensive stuff - but we’re students, we just want anything we can get.
“We started looking for useful stuff that was a fiver or under and discovered there was loads that we could get that would be really handy - and also some pretty rubbish things we got just for the hell of it.
“We’ll never need to buy toiletries, cheap novels, highlighter pens, folders or batteries again during our whole university career and well beyond.
“It became an addictive game which we called: ‘What can you possibly buy for under a fiver’ and we were pretty inventive.
“We found some packs of six bottles of beer for £6.99, which meant we were getting them for £2 a pack, which was a big moment.
“We were up until 3am ordering and ordering because we figured that at some stage any minute Amazon would twig what was happening and pull the plug - but they didn’t.
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“The following day the porter in our halls of residence looked completely shell-shocked when parcels started to arrive in massive numbers and never stopped arriving all day.
“When we got to lectures on the Wednesday morning we discovered the offer still worked so we carried on ordering stuff off our phones all day.
“It was around that time that we discovered other unis all over the country had figured it out as well. At first people were being a bit coy about it and sending texts just saying ‘Welcome5?’
“And then it started to blow up on social media, people saying they’d bought 15 uni books for nothing and some were even saying a personal thanks to Jeff Bezos for messing up so bad.
“It must have cost Amazon hundreds of thousands of pounds and it was only discovered on Thursday evening, but by that time everyone had gone crazy.
'WE WERE INVENTIVE'
“I started sending stuff home to my mum as we didn’t have room for any more in the flat. Obviously it meant a lot of packaging lying around but to be honest our flat wasn’t all that tidy anyway.
“When the code went down on Thursday night we were gutted. My mate came to my room and said ‘Welcome5 is over!
“I’m pretty sure Jeff Bezos can afford it, he’s worth 110 billion so it won’t affect the bottom line too much and Amazon can be certain they’ll always have a special place in our hearts.”
Another student, Ryan from Nottingham Trent University, said: “I mostly used the code to bulk buy food, stationary, art supplies, charging cables and cleaning supplies.
"I saved £164 on 36 items. Students were purchasing anything they could find. The most common things were crisps, protein bars and chocolates.
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"One of my flatmates used the discount to buy sex toys for his girlfriend. I hope they bring it back next year.”
The glitch is thought to have been operating since October 15 until Amazon realised what was happening on Thursday when it stopped working.
Students took to Twitter to express their disappointment. One said: “RIP to Welcome5, you’ll be forever missed.” Amazon has been contacted for comment.
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Ambulances called to Amazon warehouses once every two days last year as workers collapsed, were injured in falls and suffered broken bones
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