Website selling something for £0.00

ShaShaSha

Can someone tell me, if a website sells an item for £0.00 and allows you to go through checkout (paying for delivery) and produces a receipt - will they have to send it out? Or is there a way for them to get out of it?

Anihilator

What do the terms say? A lot of sites state a contract isnt formed until dispatch. In which case they can just not dispatch it and cancel.

Darksun

I think if they take the money for delivery out of your account then a contract has been formed. Generally speaking though, these mistakes are caught early, and if they cancel the order prior to taking the money out you have no legal right to claim for the goods.

However, why not be honest and point out the mistake? They might be grateful and give you a token gesture like a money off voucher for your next order. And if not, you probably weren't going to get something for nothing anyway so you've not lost out

ShaShaSha

Darksun wrote: »

I think if they take the money for delivery out of your account then a contract has been formed. Generally speaking though, these mistakes are caught early, and if they cancel the order prior to taking the money out you have no legal right to claim for the goods.

However, why not be honest and point out the mistake? They might be grateful and give you a token gesture like a money off voucher for your next order. And if not, you probably weren't going to get something for nothing anyway so you've not lost out

I havnt bought anything, was a hypothetical question I make the shop for my mums website, and we wondered what the rights would be for her had the mistake I made went through on a sale!

Tozer

In theory, there is no contract as there is no consideration (or value) provided by the customer.

ShaShaSha

Anihilator wrote: »

What do the terms say? A lot of sites state a contract isnt formed until dispatch. In which case they can just not dispatch it and cancel.

Our contract doesnt state when a contract is made. But I was sure in general consumer rights, a contract is formed when payment has been made. Luckily this hasnt happened to us, but was a hypothetical question had my mistake with the shop code caused a sale to come through, paying for delivery only & an item for £0.00!

Darksun

ShaShaSha wrote: »

I havnt bought anything, was a hypothetical question I make the shop for my mums website, and we wondered what the rights would be for her had the mistake I made went through on a sale!

Fair enough, that should teach me to make assumptions

Anyway, as a technical fix it should be fairly straight forward to add a validation script that makes sure it doesn't allow prices to be set a 0. Plus, I'm guessing it's a fairly small operation, so you should be able to manually validate all orders before processing them

pitkin2020

Contract isn't made until the order has been accepted for delivery regardless of wheter you have paid for it or not. The payment system online is automated so if you place an order and pay the order has to be approved by the retailer for dispatch.
Simplying paying for something online doesn't mean the contract has been made, therefore the retailer can cancel the order and refund.

Tozer

But if there is no payment (or other value provided) by the customer then there is no contract formed at ANY time.

pitkin2020

Tozer wrote: »

But if there is no payment (or other value provided) by the customer then there is no contract formed at ANY time.

Yes and no, it may be a free gift lol. I understand what your saying but whilst the item cost may be £0.00 the P&P could be £3 which was paid for, either way it doesn't matter as no contract is formed until the order is accepted for dispatch.

Mark_Hewitt

If you sent the item out to the customer and neglected to take payment. You could not then demand the item is returned or attempt to take payment.

You can, however cancel the order at any time before dispatch and invite the customer to reorder.

There is nothing in law to say that if a website or shop advertises something at a particular price then they must sell it at that price.

If they do it deliberately then they are acting illegally and may be liable to prosecution, but there is nothing which says the item must be sold at that price.