Retail Law - Bit Of Advice

Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2002
Posts
11,253
Location
The Moon
Some of you might have seen the pricing error on a competitors website for a 1TB external Hard Drive coming up at around £15, i placed an order, got the order confirmation from them and a delivery estimate etc. The next day the money was taken from my account and i thought i might have some chance of getting it for cheap. Now today i've checked the order, and they've changed the product to something completely different and cancelled it.

Just wondering where i stand on this, i know in all likely hood i'm not entitled to the product or anything but i'm just wondering if the fact that they have taken payment of the product means that they have accepted my offer for the product.

Thanks
Rossi.
 
If they have actually taken money from your account then you may have a case as legally a contract has been entered. However after such mess's as the Argos and Kodak miss-pricings I think most online retailers have get-out clauses in the small-print now.

Also the fact it was priced stupidly below normal price does not work in your favour as it's VERY obvious it was a mistake.
 
Where would it state this? in the T&C's i had a quick skim over it and couldnt find anything. Best i could find is this.


2.3 When you place your Order, we will issue you with a Web Order Number. We will do this via the XXXXX Store Web Site, unless you have placed your Order by telephone, in which case we will issue your Web Order Number when you telephone us. Please note that such a Web Order Number is supplied for reference purposes only and does not constitute our acceptance of your Order.

2.4 By placing an Order, you make an offer to us to purchase the Products you have selected on these terms and conditions. We may or may not accept your offer at our discretion.

2.5 If we accept your Order, we will notify you of our acceptance by issuing an Order Confirmation. We will send your Order Confirmation to you by e-mail provided you have indicated an e-mail address on your Order Form. Otherwise we will send the Order Confirmation by post. The Order Confirmation will be effective on sending. If we cannot accept your Order we will attempt to contact you by email or telephone or post.

Now they actually took the money and the order page said the dispatch was set and due for 2nd-3rd, with delivery being on 3rd-5th.
 
I'm not sure of the terminology but you know that the price was wrong and that it should not have been £15 but more like £115.

I'm 99.99% sure that they can use that as the reason not to honour the order, there is a term/phrase for it but i can't remember what it is.
 
When an item is offered for sale on a web site at a certain price, there is general consensus that it has the same effect in UK law as an item in a shop window being offered at a certain price. This is known as an "invitation to treat." At this stage, the item is not being "offered" to the customer. Rather, the customer is expected to make an offer at the check-out, which the shop will usually accept. If a price is incorrect, the shop can legally reject the customer's offer (although, if a shop does this too often, it may run into problems with Trading Standards).

In the Argos case, the £2.99 price tag on the televisions was probably an invitation to treat. Although the web site sales process was automated, the site did not "confirm" the customer's order. In the Kodak case, the order was confirmed. This confirmation is likely to be deemed "acceptance" in the legal sense, i.e. the point when the contract was formed, in the absence of anything to the contrary in the terms and conditions of the site.
 
jdickerson said:
A quite good camera for a stupidly low advertised price.... they honoured it. Good on them.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/emergingtech/0,1000000183,2102465,00.htm

That was so long ago and it was listed under "special Offer" plus it wasn't like £15 for £150 unit, it was about half price which is within the scope of possibility.

Besides, that camera was utterly awful, reports on short battery life was atrocious.
 
Back
Top Bottom