charged for my mis-priced book but now going back on it

trishy22

Hi,
I bought a book online in the Borders sale that was £1750 (yes I know thats crazy) on sale for £1 on 18th Dec.
Borders charged my card and on my order profile it says the book was dispatched and I also received a email saying the same thing. Yesterday the 2nd I called them to ask where it was as still not arrived and they said it had def left the warehouse and was on its way - and my card was def charged.
About an hour later - I got an email saying "Unfortunately we are unable to obtain the following item that you recently ordered from us. there was an error with the price of this title and our supplier is unable to fulfill these order at the price offered at the time your order was placed. As these items are not held in stock and have to be ordered from the publisher, our supplier has cancelled all orders placed with them, resulting in the cancellation of your order. We have not taken payment from you"

PLease can any advise on my position bearing in my that on my online order profile it still states that the item was dispatched on the 23rd and my card was charged.

thanks in advance

Trish

dmg24

Check the terms and conditions - there is likely to be an 'Errors and Omissions Excepted' clause. The mistake was an obvious one. You have no rights to the book (but you do have the right to your £1 refund!).

ispartacus75

28. A Sale Contract between You and Borders is only concluded once Borders has confirmed to You in a second email that the item(s) chosen by You is/are in stock and is/are in the course of despatch to You. The confirmation will be made by email to the same email address as provided for above.
31. Borders will make every effort to ensure that the prices shown against items on the Website are accurate and up-to-date. Borders, however, purchases books and other items from third parties and, it is possible, therefore, that the prices advised to Borders by a third party may be inaccurate. If, therefore, the correct price of a product is higher than the price advertised on the Borders Website, Borders may (provided that prompt notice is given to You of the incorrect pricing) notify You of the incorrect price and may, (subject to Your right to withdraw Your order) charge You the higher price.
32. If You are notified of a higher price in accordance with this provision, You must respond within 14 days as to whether or not You will withdraw the order. If within 14 days, You fail to elect to withdraw, You will be deemed to have accepted the to continue with the order at the higher price and You will be charged accordingly. Borders shall have the right to refuse the order itself and to decline to make delivery of the item(s) ordered. In such event, You will be notified by email of the refusal by Borders.

I would suggest that if the OP recieved the second email then by their own T&C a contract existed and Borders are therefore in breach of that contract.

bcl999

ispartacus75 may well be right. However, my understanding of tort and contract law is that you are only entitled to be put back into the position you were in before the contract existed i.e. money refunded in this case. A different secenario would be if OP already had a copy of this book and had disposed of it on the strength of the 2nd e-mail from Borders. Would he/she be able to claim cost of replacement? Anyone know?

dmg24

You have missed the fact that a mistake has taken place, which the OP was aware of, and the other party then became aware of. This can be used to void the contract, and therefore all that the OP is entitled to is a refund of the payment taken.

moneytracker

I'm not legally trained but I believe bcl999 is referring to the equitable remedy of 'rescission'. It means that a judge would simply return each part to the contract to their previous position. In this case you would get your £1.00 back.