A nationwide “system error” meant Countdown’s online shoppers paid full prices instead of advertised sale prices for a short time on Friday morning.

Christchurch shopper Candace told Chris Lynch more than half of her shopping items were on sale, and she was shocked to find she had paid full price instead.

“Items on sale for $5.00 were being charged at $9.00.

I phoned the 0800 customer number and the lady on the phone was lovely and told me there was a nationwide issue.

Candace said the company took the complaint seriously as all the errors were fixed after a few hours.

“But how many thousands of people shopped online during that time?”

The supermarket refunded Candace the amount she lost out on.

A Countdown spokesperson confirmed that on Friday morning, a system error meant that online promotions were unavailable for a short time.

“Unfortunately, customers who were in the checkout process online, or having their online order fulfilled at that time, may have been charged the full price of those products rather than the promotional price.”

The spokesperson said “we know how important value is to our customers and sincerely apologise for this error.

Our team is working to identify and then notify any of our impacted online customers and make it right.”