Harrods sells £1,000 designer handbags for less than £10 after staff appeared to put decimal point in wrong place

Customers shopping online at Harrods were overjoyed when they saw usually expensive designer handbags selling at a tiny fraction of the original price.

The shop quickly sold out online of its Aspinal of London bags as beady-eyed shoppers snapped up the deal.

Fine Italian leather handbags were listed at under £5 when they usually sell for hundreds. Some of the items appeared to have the decimal point in the wrong place, causing the bags to appear on sale for much less than the intended price.

The brand’s Marylebone tote bag which usually costs £950 was on sale for just £8.08, while a tote bag which is usually £250 was selling for £2.03.

However, the retailer is not honouring the sales it made, informing customers that their bags will not be shipped to them.

Solicitor Andrew Leakey told the Telegraph that if customers received email confirmation, this could arguably count as a contract that the department store has to honour.

However, he also pointed out that if the price glitch was really obvious,  then the retailer may be able to wriggle out of it and say it was a mistake.

The advertised price isn't an offer - it's an invitation.

One customer, who bought an Aspinal bag online for under £4 and another for £2.50 complained that the money had gone out of her account and Harrods told her she would not receive the bag.

She told The Telegraph that she was "fuming", and said: "Ordered two Aspinal handbags this morning .the order went though money was taken from my bank account.

"Then half hour later received two emails saying order was cancelled due to the items being out of stock. So went back on to Harrods website, items still in stock, tried to order again got to checkout price had risen to over 800 pounds."

She said Harrods told her she would be refunded within 3 to 5 working days, and cancelled the order.

A Harrods spokesperson said in a statement:  “Due to a supplier computer pricing error, a number of Aspinal products were displayed for a short period of time on our website at the incorrect price.

"We took immediate action to rectify this pricing error and the issue was resolved quickly.

"Harrods has personally contacted any affected customers to inform them of the error and that orders would not be dispatched. We apologise for any inconvenience caused”.