New O2 contract wrongly sold by Tesco Phone Shop

scope254

Last week I contacted Tesco Phone Shop as I wanted to change from Tesco pay as you go. I was offered a Samsung Galaxy S2 for £26.00 per month, which I was told included 1GB of data. The phone arrived on Tuesday and when I checked my account today on the O2 website, I found out I was being charged an extra £10 per month for the data. I rang Teso Phone shop to be told that a mistake had happened, not the fault of the sale person but a mistake on their screens. I was told they could not honour the original price and told me they would arrange for the phone to be picked up for free (!). I am not happy about this as I now have to start from scratch to arrange a new contract and phone.
Surely they should be obliged to stick to the original quote.
Where do I stand with this?
Any help or advice would be appreciated.

grumbler

Don't know how relevant this is because in your case they have already sold you both the phone and the contract...

If goods are mispriced – can I force them to sell it me at that price?

No sorry, that's an urban myth. Quite simply shops don't have to sell anything to you if they don't want to, regardless of price. Yet deliberately misleading you is criminal.
First let's look at a genuine mistake, for instance a £50 jacket racked up in a long line of other coats all at £500, you have to accept the shop's error. Though if it does accept money and later says that was in error, the contract's made and it's yours (this isn't quite the same for internet purchases though).
So if you spot a mis-priced mistake, don't be afraid to try and haggle. Although it doesn't have to, the retailer may sell it to you knock down price as a gesture of goodwill.
However, if it turns out to be intentionally misleading, such as a price promotion promising lots of goods at dirt-cheap prices that fail to emerge, or you complain and it puts the goods back on the shelf at the same price, then it's a potential criminal offence and Trading Standards officers can send in their heavies to investigate.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange

I would think the Tesco have to honour the price of the handset (£0?), but the contract is a different matter...

ETA: I am no expert, and I just dug out an old discussion:

Aristotle67 wrote: »

Originally Posted by grumbler
If Tesco make an error with pricing and sell me 32'' for £10 they can do nothing after the deal is done.

They can, Grumbler. They can ask a court to declare the contract void due to a unilateral mistake; and in those skeleton circumstances, they will be successful.

Aristotle67 is more expert than most of us here.

Guys_Dad

O2 won't reduce their costs, that's pretty safe. Tesco made a mistake.

My advice would be to look for a better deal, allow Tesco to take back their handset, ensure that they pay off the O2 contract so that you owe nothing, ensure that you can get back your number if you PACed it over too.

Sometimes mistakes happen. You just need to ensure that you are in no worse a position than before you took out the contract. I am sure that there are better deals around an you can always go through Topcashback or a cashback site to make it even more attractive.