Compaq offers printers after online gaffe

Compaq is offering people who ordered a PC for just £1 a free printer if they make a purchase at the regular price, to compensate for its website blunder.

More than 100 customers took advantage of an embarrassing error that offered a Compaq iPaq Legacy Lite PC for £1, instead of £530, from the compaq.co.uk site.

A spokesperson for Compaq said: "The problem arose because data on a testing site was transferred to our online site due to human error. There is no problem with our systems or software."

She added that the error, limited to the pricing of iPaqs, occurred during the course of a systems upgrade over the bank holiday weekend. The knockdown price was displayed for 48 hours. Compaq insisted it was unrealistic to expect it to honour the deal.

A recent case against the retailer Argos was dropped before it got to court, after the store refused to sell televisions advertised on its website at £2.99 instead of £299.99.

Ajay Patel, lawyer at the UK Consumers' Association, said money does not need to change hands for a deal to be legally binding.

"Advertising on a website for sale at a certain price is not legally binding. The customer decides to buy at the price indicated and then clicks to submit - that's their offer. The offer then needs to be accepted for it to be legally binding," said Patel.