Hi Everyone,

We’re really really sorry to have to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that WhiskySanta got into the sherry with a little too much gusto yesterday evening and has been a touch over-generous when hitting the “free order” button at the Master of Malt checkout.

We’re afraid therefore that if you got an order for free within the last 24 hours, you may get an email shortly explaining that it was in error.

We know how disappointing this is, and we are *incredibly* sorry.  Anyone who wants to cancel their order will, of course, be able to do so.

We’re going to be offering £10 gift vouchers to anyone caught up in this by way of apology for the mistake, and these will be given whether or not people choose to cancel their orders.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Sorry again,

– Master of Malt

 

Update #1
Right, #WhiskySanta has returned to duty (after proving he can walk in a straight line and recite the alphabet backwards) so free orders, drams and all manner of other delights are once again being handed out at the checkout.

 

Update #2
Okay, all the emails have now gone out, so if you didn’t get one then the chances are your order really was free!  If you’d like to check (just to make absolutely certain) then please drop us an email, give us a call or fire up live chat and we’ll be able to confirm.

Thank you all very much indeed for your understanding – the response to our cockup has been incredibly kind.  You people really are a lovely lot…

 

Update #3 – technical details
The reason this happened is that on Friday afternoon one of our developers forgot to comment out a line of code meant for testing the #WhiskySanta notification, accidentally committing it and setting it live on our production server.

That meant that for about 19 hours, although the algorithm was still working and selecting winners, the system ignored what the algorithm had decided and displayed the message saying that their order was free.

We still had the full list of all the actual winners the algorithm picked, and every single one of those has received their present or free order as they would have done in any case.

No one has lost out on a prize or free order they would otherwise have gotten as a result of this mistake, and we’ve given everyone caught up in it a £10 voucher to apologise for getting their hopes up.

We remain profoundly sorry for screwing up in the first place and incredibly humbled at the level of understanding so many of you have shown.