'Pricing error' on Amazon - are they obliged to sell me the product at that price?

Digdug_2

I know this is an old chestnut but I'm still not sure of the answer...

Last night I ordered a copy of a new Nintendo DS game 'Henry Hatsworth' from gZoop on Amazon marketplace. I'd been considering ordering it, then when I refreshed the webpage later on I found they'd made it cheaper! Intruiged, I decided to refresh the page every so often to see if it got cheaper still... and it did, by exactly 11p roughly every half hour or so! So I waited til the price had gone down a bit more and ordered it. But today I've received an email saying there was a 'pricing error' on this item and they are unable to complete the order, and will process a refund.

If this was a genuine 'pricing error' I wouldn't be so bothered, but it seems to me they were deliberately lowering the price by set incriments to gether info on how demand would change with the price, and are now refusing to fulfill the orders. They still have copies for sale on Amazon but at a higher price. Apart from that I'm just interested to know in general if sellers are obliged by law to sell you an item at the price shown in a shop/on the website?

vicshippers

No - they're not.

In the same way that a pub landlord can choose not to serve you if they don't like the look of you.

Imagine you are the shop owner - a new member of staff prices a £2000 pot as £20. Someone tries to buy the pot for £20 - do you think it would be fair that you would HAVE to sell it even though your loss is equivalent to a staff member's wages? Of course not - you might apologise, but you wouldn't sell it.

Maybe it was a fault with the RSS feed they had set up with Amazon - it might not have been intentional on their part. No company ever really benefits from having to cancel customer orders, it creates bad feeling and a lot of admin work!

Digdug_2

Thanks for info.

Weirdly they've now sent me an email saying they've dispatched the game! Without even referring to the email that said they'd cancelled the order. And I hadn't even written to them or anything. Maybe other people complained to Amazon so they decided to fulfill them all.

I don't know what an RSS feed is but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, especially now they seem to be fulfilling the orders.

vicshippers

If it's Amazon Marketplace then it's nothing to do with Amazon (maybe why they've appeared on Watchdog a couple of times) as it's the same as buying through eBay but hopefully the game turns up soon!

bingo_bango

Retailers can set up 'buying pattern' sales prices. This is done with software which automatically changes the price at set intervals dependant on the number of sales within a particular time period, high volumes etc. Sounds like the software was not doing it's job. Could just as easily have increased it by 11p per 1/2 hour!

Just to confirm earlier answers, advertising an item is classed as invitation to treat. It does not mean you can definitely buy at that price.