Incident: Asda Price Guarantee System Glitch Allows Exploitation by Shoppers

Published Date: 2012-09-24

Postmortem Analysis
Timeline 1. The software failure incident happened in September 2012. [14518]
System 1. Asda Price Guarantee system 2. Price comparison system operated by MySupermarket on behalf of Asda [14518]
Responsible Organization 1. Asda's computer system: The glitch in Asda's computer system caused the software failure incident by incorrectly calculating price comparisons, allowing customers to exploit the system [14518]. 2. MySupermarket: The software used for the Asda Price Guarantee scheme, operated by the price comparison website MySupermarket on behalf of Asda, was also involved in the software failure incident [14518].
Impacted Organization 1. Asda - The supermarket chain Asda was impacted by the software failure incident, as it resulted in customers exploiting a loophole in their price guarantee scheme, leading to significant financial losses and the need to cap vouchers [14518].
Software Causes 1. The software glitch in the system led to incorrect calculations in price comparisons, allowing customers to exploit the Asda Price Guarantee scheme [14518]. 2. The system mistakenly calculated Asda's rivals to be much cheaper on certain products, resulting in higher value money-off vouchers being issued [14518]. 3. The software used for the Asda Price Guarantee scheme, operated by the price comparison website MySupermarket, was unable to accurately reflect the intended purpose of comparing prices and issuing appropriate vouchers [14518].
Non-software Causes 1. Exploitation of the system by customers through loopholes and tricks [14518] 2. Failure of the system to correctly calculate price comparisons leading to incorrect vouchers being issued [14518] 3. Inadequate limitations and controls in place to prevent customers from abusing the system [14518] 4. Lack of proper monitoring and auditing of prices displayed on the website [14518]
Impacts 1. Customers were able to exploit a glitch in Asda's Price Guarantee system, leading to potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds in vouchers being claimed [14518]. 2. The software failure incident allowed savvy shoppers to generate more coupons by using different email addresses and entering made-up addresses with random postcodes, circumventing the voucher limits set by Asda [14518]. 3. As a result of the glitch, a shopper claimed over £8,600 worth of groceries in just four weeks, leading to significant financial losses for Asda [14518]. 4. Asda had to cap the vouchers at £15 per shop and a total of £100 a month to mitigate the impact of the software failure incident [14518]. 5. The incident also led to negative publicity for Asda, with reports of customers exploiting the system and stockpiling goods obtained through the glitch [14518].
Preventions 1. Implementing stricter validation checks in the software to ensure accurate price calculations and comparisons [14518]. 2. Conducting thorough testing and quality assurance of the software before deployment to identify and rectify any potential glitches or errors [14518]. 3. Enforcing stricter limits on the number and value of vouchers that can be generated per customer to prevent exploitation of the system [14518]. 4. Regularly monitoring and auditing the software to detect any anomalies or discrepancies in the calculations [14518]. 5. Collaborating closely with the software provider (in this case, MySupermarket) to address and fix any issues promptly [14518].
Fixes 1. Implement stricter validation checks in the software to ensure accurate price calculations and comparisons [14518]. 2. Introduce measures to prevent customers from exploiting the system, such as limiting the number of vouchers per customer or implementing unique identifiers for each transaction [14518]. 3. Conduct regular audits and monitoring of the software to identify and rectify any pricing errors promptly [14518].
References 1. Asda spokesperson [14518] 2. Shoppers on consumer site moneysavingexpert.com [14518] 3. Retail magazine The Grocer [14518] 4. James Foord, VP Business Development for mysupermarket [14518]

Software Taxonomy of Faults

Category Option Rationale
Recurring one_organization, multiple_organization (a) The software failure incident related to the Asda Price Guarantee scheme has happened before at Tesco. Tesco had a similar experience with money-off vouchers where shoppers exploited a promotion, leading to changes in their voucher offer, including implementing unique barcodes and capping the value of vouchers [14518]. (b) The software failure incident related to the Asda Price Guarantee scheme has also happened at other organizations. The article mentions that Tesco had a similar experience with money-off vouchers being exploited by shoppers, leading to changes in their voucher offer [14518].
Phase (Design/Operation) design, operation (a) The software failure incident related to the design phase is evident in the Asda Price Guarantee scheme. The glitch in the system led to incorrect calculations in price comparisons, allowing customers to exploit the loophole and claim money-off vouchers worth more than they should have received. The system mistakenly calculated Asda's rivals to be much cheaper on certain products, resulting in larger-than-normal vouchers being issued [14518]. (b) The software failure incident related to the operation phase is seen in how customers were able to exploit the system by using new email addresses and entering made-up addresses with random postcodes to avoid the cap on vouchers. This operation-related loophole allowed savvy shoppers to bypass the intended limits on the number and value of vouchers they could receive, leading to significant financial losses for Asda [14518].
Boundary (Internal/External) within_system, outside_system (a) within_system: The software failure incident related to the Asda Price Guarantee scheme was primarily due to factors originating from within the system. The glitch in the system caused incorrect calculations in price comparisons, leading to customers exploiting the loophole to claim money-off vouchers worth more than they should have received [14518]. (b) outside_system: On the other hand, the incident also involved factors originating from outside the system. Customers were able to circumvent the voucher limits set by Asda by using new email addresses and entering made-up addresses with random postcodes, which was an external factor contributing to the exploitation of the system [14518].
Nature (Human/Non-human) non-human_actions, human_actions (a) The software failure incident occurring due to non-human actions: The software failure incident at Asda was primarily due to a glitch in the system that incorrectly calculated price comparisons, allowing customers to exploit the loophole in the Asda Price Guarantee scheme [14518]. The system used for the scheme is operated by the price comparison website MySupermarket on behalf of Asda. The glitch led to the system mistakenly calculating Asda's rivals to be much cheaper on certain products, resulting in customers receiving higher value money-off vouchers than intended [14518]. (b) The software failure incident occurring due to human actions: The failure also involved human actions as customers exploited the glitch by using different email addresses and entering made-up addresses with random postcodes to generate more coupons and bypass the voucher limits set by Asda [14518]. Additionally, shoppers shared information on products triggering higher value vouchers and how to exploit the system on consumer sites like moneysavingexpert.com [14518].
Dimension (Hardware/Software) software (a) The software failure incident occurring due to hardware: - The articles do not mention any hardware-related issues contributing to the software failure incident. It primarily focuses on a glitch in the software system used for the Asda Price Guarantee scheme, leading to customers exploiting the system to receive excessive money-off vouchers [14518]. (b) The software failure incident occurring due to software: - The software failure incident in this case is primarily attributed to a glitch in the system used for the Asda Price Guarantee scheme. The software system, operated by the price comparison website MySupermarket on behalf of Asda, mistakenly calculated prices from competitors, allowing customers to exploit the system and claim larger-than-normal vouchers [14518].
Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) non-malicious (a) The software failure incident described in the articles is non-malicious. The incident at Asda involved a glitch in the system used for the Asda Price Guarantee scheme, which led to incorrect calculations in price comparisons, allowing customers to exploit the system and claim money-off vouchers worth more than they should have received [14518]. The glitch in the system was not intentional and was exploited by customers who found a way to generate more coupons by using different email addresses and entering made-up addresses with random postcodes to avoid the cap on vouchers [14518]. Additionally, the incident at Tesco mentioned in the articles was also non-malicious, where shoppers exploited a promotion by using loopholes in the voucher offer. Tesco had to make changes to their voucher offer to prevent further exploitation by customers [14518].
Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) poor_decisions (a) The intent of the software failure incident related to poor_decisions: - The software failure incident related to poor decisions as Asda's software was not correctly calculating the price comparisons for the Asda Price Guarantee scheme, leading to customers exploiting a loophole and claiming excessive money-off vouchers [14518]. - Asda's software was giving customers higher value vouchers than intended, allowing savvy shoppers to take advantage of the glitch and stockpile goods for near-free prices [14518]. - The software glitch led to Asda potentially losing hundreds of thousands of pounds due to the incorrect calculations in the price guarantee system [14518]. (b) The intent of the software failure incident related to accidental_decisions: - The software failure incident was not primarily due to accidental decisions but rather poor decisions in the design and implementation of the Asda Price Guarantee software, leading to unintended consequences and exploitation by customers [14518].
Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) development_incompetence, accidental (a) The software failure incident in the Asda Price Guarantee scheme was primarily due to development incompetence. The glitch in the system allowed savvy shoppers to exploit a loophole and claim money-off vouchers worth more than they should have received. The system mistakenly calculated prices at rival supermarkets, leading to customers receiving vouchers of higher values than intended. Asda had to cap the vouchers at £15 per shop to mitigate the impact of the loophole ([14518]). (b) Additionally, the incident also involved accidental factors. The software error that understated the prices of certain products at competitors' stores, leading to higher-than-intended money-off vouchers, was an unintended consequence of the system's calculations. This unintentional flaw in the software allowed customers to exploit the system and claim excessive discounts ([14518]).
Duration temporary (a) The software failure incident in the Asda Price Guarantee scheme was temporary. The glitch in the system allowed customers to exploit a loophole and claim money-off vouchers worth more than they should have received. As a result, savvy shoppers were able to generate larger-than-normal vouchers by manipulating the system with new email addresses and random postcodes [14518]. The incident was not a permanent failure but rather a temporary issue caused by specific circumstances, such as the incorrect calculation of prices and the ability of customers to bypass voucher limits through certain tricks.
Behaviour value, other (a) crash: The software failure incident in the articles does not involve a crash where the system loses state and stops performing its intended functions. The incident is more related to incorrect calculations and unintended behavior rather than a complete system failure [14518]. (b) omission: The software failure incident does not involve the system omitting to perform its intended functions at an instance(s). Instead, the issue revolves around the system incorrectly calculating prices and issuing vouchers based on those incorrect calculations [14518]. (c) timing: The software failure incident is not related to the system performing its intended functions correctly but at the wrong time. The issue is more about the system providing incorrect results rather than timing-related errors [14518]. (d) value: The software failure incident is primarily about the system performing its intended functions incorrectly. The system erroneously undervalued products at other supermarkets, leading to customers exploiting the glitch to claim money-off vouchers worth more than they should have received [14518]. (e) byzantine: The software failure incident does not exhibit behavior characteristic of a byzantine failure, where the system behaves erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions. The issue in this case is more about a specific miscalculation in the system rather than inconsistent behavior [14518]. (f) other: The behavior of the software failure incident can be categorized as a value-related failure where the system is providing incorrect results by undervaluing products at other supermarkets, leading to customers exploiting the glitch to receive more significant discounts than intended [14518].

IoT System Layer

Layer Option Rationale
Perception None None
Communication None None
Application None None

Other Details

Category Option Rationale
Consequence property, non-human, theoretical_consequence (a) death: There were no reports of people losing their lives due to the software failure incident described in the articles [14518]. (b) harm: There were no reports of people being physically harmed due to the software failure incident described in the articles [14518]. (c) basic: People's access to food or shelter was not directly impacted by the software failure incident. However, the incident allowed shoppers to exploit a loophole in a supermarket's money-back scheme, resulting in significant financial losses for the supermarket [14518]. (d) property: People's material goods, money, or data were impacted due to the software failure incident. Shoppers exploited a glitch in the system to claim money-off vouchers worth up to £40 after every trip to the store, resulting in potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds in losses for the supermarket [14518]. (e) delay: There were no reports of people having to postpone an activity due to the software failure incident described in the articles [14518]. (f) non-human: Non-human entities were impacted due to the software failure incident. The software failure led to incorrect calculations in the supermarket's price comparison system, allowing customers to exploit the glitch and claim excessive money-off vouchers, affecting the financial operations of the supermarket [14518]. (g) no_consequence: There were observed consequences of the software failure incident, particularly in terms of financial losses for the supermarket and gains for customers exploiting the glitch [14518]. (h) theoretical_consequence: The articles discussed potential consequences of the software failure, such as the supermarket incurring significant financial losses due to customers exploiting the glitch in the system. The supermarket had to cap the vouchers at £15 per shop to mitigate the losses [14518]. (i) other: There were no other consequences of the software failure incident described in the articles beyond the financial impact on the supermarket and customers exploiting the loophole in the money-back scheme [14518].
Domain sales (a) The failed system in the incident was related to the sales industry. The software failure incident involved Asda's Price Guarantee scheme, where customers could claim vouchers if they found cheaper prices at rival supermarkets. The glitch in the system allowed customers to exploit the price comparisons and generate money-off vouchers worth more than intended, leading to significant financial losses for Asda [Article 14518].

Sources

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