Do internet companies have to honour their online price?

[JDMFanYo]

I just bought a rather snazzy TV for £300, RRP is £1200.

All legit, reputable well known business.

The TV has since been removed from the site, though I have received confirmation and a receipt for £300.

Do they have to honour this, as they would in a store?

[bonsai]

IF that was a true, recent RRP (and not one just designed for making the purchaser think they got a better deal than they actually did) then I expect you will soon be getting a notice apologising for their pricing mistake.

They don't have to honour it.

[JDMFanYo]

Could just be a huge farce for marketing, but the true RRP (having looked elsewhere) is £1200/£1300, so I assume they missed the '1'.

Fingers crossed they honour it though, or come up with some alternative

Their terms:

We reserve the right to modify our prices at any moment but will apply the current rates as indicated to you on the site at the time the order was placed.

Win?

Edited by JDMFanYo on Tuesday 20th April 09:18

[Stevenj214]

Yup, got my order in last night too. We live in hope!

[Deva Link]

It's been held that if the price is clearly wrong then they don't have to honour it.

If push comes to shove there's not much you can do. You could sue for your loss, but you would have to actually buy the TV elsewhere and sue for the difference - you can't sue for a potential loss. If they defended the case then you'd probably lose.

[10JH]

Deva Link said:

It's been held that if the price is clearly wrong then they don't have to honour it.

If push comes to shove there's not much you can do. You could sue for your loss, but you would have to actually buy the TV elsewhere and sue for the difference - you can't sue for a potential loss. If they defended the case then you'd probably lose.

I'd say there would be a high chance they wouldn't even notice. If it's a big shop then it's likely to all be automated, no one might pick up on it.

I read recently about a website that constantly crawls big online shops and reports large price drops to its users. So it would highlight things like this, so you could, if you wanted to, pounce and pick up a great deal.

[10JH]

M4FFU said:

M4FFU said:

Did this last night; well known site, £1400 TV for £199. Waiting to see if I get a 'our bad' email today.

Dear M4FFU,

We regret to inform you that we have had to cancel your order number xxxxxxxxxx.

For credit card payments no funds will be captured. If you paid by Paypal, a full refund is currently being processed.

As you will have noticed the price of the product sold was a typing
error: the price was below the real value of the item and in no way reflective of the real value.

Legally, the order is not valid as the price is deemed vile.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please note the error has been corrected and you can now place a new order for the same item. This will be dealt with immediately.

Best Regards,

Oh well, was worth a try! Was that with a big company or not?

[JDMFanYo]

Balls, no 47" LED TV

[NWMark]

M4FFU said:

M4FFU said:

Did this last night; well known site, £1400 TV for £199. Waiting to see if I get a 'our bad' email today.

Dear M4FFU,

We regret to inform you that we have had to cancel your order number xxxxxxxxxx.

For credit card payments no funds will be captured. If you paid by Paypal, a full refund is currently being processed.

As you will have noticed the price of the product sold was a typing
error: the price was below the real value of the item and in no way reflective of the real value.

Legally, the order is not valid as the price is deemed vile.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please note the error has been corrected and you can now place a new order for the same item. This will be dealt with immediately.

Best Regards,

Erm thats technically open to interpretation, once they have taken your payment they have accepted your offer to buy. I would argue that £200 for a TV is not a 'vile' price for a TV, as you see TV's reduced by huge amounts all the time. Low price yes but completely out of the ordinary id say not.

[Deva Link]

NWMark said:

Erm thats technically open to interpretation, once they have taken your payment they have accepted your offer to buy. I would argue that £200 for a TV is not a 'vile' price for a TV, as you see TV's reduced by huge amounts all the time. Low price yes but completely out of the ordinary id say not.

Yes - but there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. You cannot force them to honour the price.

[wiggy001]

Always thought that if these companies' systems are fully automated and, as such, they might not notice their error before despatch, the worst thing you could do is announce it on an internet forum so that they have something to notice. You know. Like 10,000 people all suddenly wanting the same model of TV.

[mrmr96]

JDMFanYo said:

Their terms:

We reserve the right to modify our prices at any moment but will apply the current rates as indicated to you on the site at the time the order was placed.

Win?

JDMFanYo said:

Balls, no 47" LED TV

So how did they get out of that, when their own terms state the above. I thought that would be a 'win' for sure?

[JDMFanYo]

mrmr96 said:

JDMFanYo said:

Their terms:

We reserve the right to modify our prices at any moment but will apply the current rates as indicated to you on the site at the time the order was placed.

Win?

JDMFanYo said:

Balls, no 47" LED TV

So how did they get out of that, when their own terms state the above. I thought that would be a 'win' for sure?

I'm currently awaiting their response on this

[mrmr96]

JDMFanYo said:

mrmr96 said:

JDMFanYo said:

Their terms:

We reserve the right to modify our prices at any moment but will apply the current rates as indicated to you on the site at the time the order was placed.

Win?

JDMFanYo said:

Balls, no 47" LED TV

So how did they get out of that, when their own terms state the above. I thought that would be a 'win' for sure?

I'm currently awaiting their response on this

Ok. Be sure to update us when you get an answer. (I suspect they may change their T+C's after this, as it does seem to be an odd clause which appears to excplicitly hold them to honour pricing errors!)

[Stevenj214]

mrmr96 said:

JDMFanYo said:

mrmr96 said:

JDMFanYo said:

Their terms:

We reserve the right to modify our prices at any moment but will apply the current rates as indicated to you on the site at the time the order was placed.

Win?

JDMFanYo said:

Balls, no 47" LED TV

So how did they get out of that, when their own terms state the above. I thought that would be a 'win' for sure?

I'm currently awaiting their response on this

Ok. Be sure to update us when you get an answer. (I suspect they may change their T+C's after this, as it does seem to be an odd clause which appears to excplicitly hold them to honour pricing errors!)

The clause covers exchange rate fluctuations.

They will apply the prices shown on the website [assuming they confirm the contract by despatching the goods]

[OldSkoolRS]

I was lucky a year or so back I bought a BluRay player that was priced at £129 instead of the more common £192 (at the time) from Laskys online. They honoured the price (and Amazon price matched it for a day or two as well which was funny and they didn't honour it I believe). I found out about it on AVForums as I'd been considering getting this particular model anyway, but the price sealed it. I fully expected it to get cancelled, but it turned up so it was worth a go and not a fortune to have tied up if they had held onto the credit for a week or two as sometimes happens in these cases.

I think it's just the luck of the draw and if you don't get it then you can't really complain, but if they do honour it then treat it as a bonus. Sounds like the OP got a voucher for his trouble, so not all in vain.

[thatone1967]

10JH said:

I read recently about a website that constantly crawls big online shops and reports large price drops to its users. .

care to share the url?

[eztiger]

I was always under the (possibly completely made up) impression that if it got to the point where they took payment for the goods...the sale had to be honoured.

Which throws up an interesting question around paypal payments..

[Paul Drawmer]

eztiger said:

I was always under the (possibly completely made up) impression that if it got to the point where they took payment for the goods...the sale had to be honoured.

Which throws up an interesting question around paypal payments..

I'd be interested to hear from a legal beagle on this one too.

I thought a contract was valid if it had Offer, Acceptance and Consideration.
Their Offer to sell was on the website, the buyer Accepted the Offer and paid (Consideration)