Oops! Macy’s marks down $1,500 necklace to $47

The Sideshow

Attention, unemployed copy editors: Macy's may soon have a job opening.

The department store giant mailed a catalog to customers earlier this month that mistakenly offered a $1,500 sterling silver and 14-karat gold necklace for just $47. The heading: "SUPER BUY."

The actual sale price was supposed to be $479, but Macy's printed the 44-page circular without the last digit.

According to WFAA-TV in Dallas, customers flocked to the Collin Creek Mall in Plano, Texas, to buy them before Macy's was able to catch the error.

Robert Bernard, a latecomer who went to buy the necklace as an anniversary gift for his wife, arrived too late for the accidental sale—a customer in line in front of him had bought the store's remaining necklaces, Bernard said. But a clerk offered to have two of them shipped to his house. According to WFAA-TV, his receipt read "Total Savings was $1,400."

But a couple of days later, a Macy's call center employee left him a voice mail:

This item has the wrong price for $47. The correct price is $479 dollars and because of that pricing error, your order has been canceled and I apologize.

"When the mistake was caught, signage did go up in the fine jewelry department and on store doors alerting customers that a mistake had been made," a Macy's spokeswoman said in a statement to the network. "For those customers who bought the necklace at the $47 price, they were fortunate. For the gentleman you spoke with, he was not so fortunate. We are sincerely sorry he was disappointed and unable to buy the necklace at the $47 price for his wife."