Ziggie I imagine because that's normally only a couple of quid so it's a goodwill gesture they can well afford.
When it's a question of £500+ then obviously it would be financial suicide to honour all the orders - which have clearly been processed through an automatic system, there's not someone sitting there reading them all going 'we'll pretend this is going through, STEAL their 50p, and then cancel on them'. Honestly there isn't.
It's just an error. And as such doesn't deserve huge vilification.
I think their email (the one that's been pasted 8 times on this thread) is actually fine.
The facts are that they are within their rights, and that everyone who ordered knew it was an error and sought to take advantage of that, and that really there is no comeback on this.
It is a bit silly to get overinvested in something that's highly unlikely to come off.
But I am sorry for folk who did. I just think that it's all a bit of a storm in a teacup and a big waste of energy to get so ennervated about it.