Technical error?

williamreid7

Hi there,
Looking for a little feedback I recently ordered an item from a leading company. It was listed as £1099. However in their deal of the day said company listed two discounts on the site one said £500 off and one saying £400 off and that any discount would be applied at the checkout. Now I decided to take it through to the check out as my understanding was it would cost £199, this is the time of sales and I thought they must just be clearing an old line. I went through the check out and have had my email of confirmation stating the following

"Please note, acceptance of your order takes place when we are preparing to send it. We will then take payment from your card Visa and we will email you to let you know your order is on its way.

Payment for clothing, homeware, flowers and wine will be taken when your order is being prepared for despatch."

A few days passed and the money left my account and in this I assumed that my offer to treat had been accepted, then a few later I got a call stating it was a genuine mistake and that they would not be sending the item. I brought up that I felt a contract had been formed the lady said that no matter what no one would get the item at this price. I stated but terms of the company state acceptance and what happens next she said money will be refunded i stated not happy offered £20 voucher stated still not happy she say nothing i can do eventually with my head bursting I said I take it there is nothing i can do she said no and i left it at that.

Check online and order is not cancelled yet on one page its saying dispatched 8th jan and another dispatching soon. So I call back up put through to manager who tells me everything again say im not happy as contract clearly has been formed in my opinion he says he understands where i am coming from however could not budge company will not be letting item go at this price. Offers £25 credit I reject as I want to get legal advise.

I am thinking as they have placed the acceptance when charged in the email it is the main term and condition, However they also state this on the website.

"Please note that completion of the online checkout process does not constitute our acceptance of your order. Our acceptance of your order will take place only when we dispatch the product(s) or commencement of the services that you ordered from us.

If you supplied us with your email address when entering your payment details (or if you have a registered account with us), we will notify you by email as soon as possible to confirm that we have received your order.

All products that you order through the Website will remain the property of Marks & Spencer until we have received payment in full from you for those products.

During the checkout process, you will be asked to complete your payment details. All fields indicated as compulsory must be completed. Please note that we will collect and store your information, using an encrypted secure payment mechanism and will only use your information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

All card payments are subject to authorisation by your card issuer and we take payment when we accept your order shortly before dispatch. If your payment is not received and you have already received the products you ordered from us, you must pay for the products or return those products to us in accordance with reasonable return instructions that we provide to you and in the same condition that you received them at your own expense. If you do not do this within 30 days of the date on which we cancel your order, we may collect or arrange for collection of the products at your expense. We reserve the right to charge you for any and all damage to (or other adverse interference with) any products that are the subject of an unpaid order.

If we cannot supply you with the product or service you ordered, we will not process your order, inform you of this in writing (including e-mail) and, if you have already paid for the product or service, refund you in full as soon as reasonably possible."

To me this is very unclear and although one term says when dispatched another which they place in their email states when preparing to dispatch should mean that it is the main term not only that on one part of my order it says dispatched 8th Jan.

Sorry about the long winded post but does anyone know if a contract has been formed like I think it has. If so can the company just tell me no I will not be getting the product.

CoolHotCold

They are right, If their T&C state a contract is not accepted until dispatch then that is fine, they went and did more than expected when they offered you £25 credit.

Take the credit and don't get hung up on mistakes like that.

williamreid7

Thanks in advance for any feedback

williamreid7

Thanks for the feed back but are you sure when their is a clear term there that says Please note, acceptance of your order takes place when we are preparing to send it. We will then take payment from your card Visa and we will email you to let you know your order is on its way.

I would certainly full agree if their only term was acceptance on dispatch but the other which they choose to put in their email confirmation of offer to treat surely puts that in doubt.

Also in my account one of the order pages says dispatched.

Thank you very much for the feedback its appreciated.

CoolHotCold

Nope, their T&C are what bounds them plus, unless the email states quite clearly that it is a acceptance email (and the differences between a offer and acceptance email are hard to pin hence the T&C) you go by what the T&C state.


It doesn't matter if the account says dispatched, their T&C state that when the item physically is dispatched, not electronically (their system probably changed the order automatically to dispatched)



To sum up, at no point did they form a legal binding contract, as dictated by their T&C, no order was physically dispatched, no email was sent stating acceptance of the Order (You might of got a email stating a acknowledgment of the order).


Unfortunately you have two routes to go down, take the £25 credit or chase through the small claims before loosing.

I'm not a lawyer, but their T&C are clear and contract is formed under the T&C.

unholyangel

williamreid7 wrote: »

Thanks for the feed back but are you sure when their is a clear term there that says Please note, acceptance of your order takes place when we are preparing to send it. We will then take payment from your card Visa and we will email you to let you know your order is on its way.

I would certainly full agree if their only term was acceptance on dispatch but the other which they choose to put in their email confirmation of offer to treat surely puts that in doubt.

Also in my account one of the order pages says dispatched.

Thank you very much for the feedback its appreciated.

It does state that acceptance takes place while they are preparing to send it.....ie during the process it takes place but it does not actually define exactly when acceptance is.

Have they in fact sent the goods out or not? If not, I don't think you'll have any grounds to dispute it as clearly while processing your order, they have declined your offer.

The only time you're really going to be able to argue a situation like this is if it says specifically "upon payment" or if it says "upon dispatch" and they then send the goods.

wealdroam

From the Sale of Goods Act...

28 Payment and delivery are concurrent conditions.

Unless otherwise agreed, delivery of the goods and payment of the price are concurrent conditions, that is to say, the seller must be ready and willing to give possession of the goods to the buyer in exchange for the price and the buyer must be ready and willing to pay the price in exchange for possession of the goods.

The important words in there are Unless otherwise agreed.

You may feel that a contract has been formed, but you have agreed, by accepting their T&Cs, that a contract is formed at delivery.

Have a read of the thread entitled READ ME FIRST PLEASE . . . Useful links, Resources and FAQs.
In particular, this post...
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/42874252#Comment_42874252

Other posts on that thread mention mispriced goods and may be of interest.

williamreid7

Thanks again, and thanks for being patient with me too. I just can't understand when a company states two different thing in their terms and condition it can be clear this has been lifted directly from their website. I also think I have made a mistake as when I copied their terms I just copied and pasted it would seem that they have changed since the ones I read when ordering previously the emailed paragraph was also part of their website terms and conditions. Dam I hope I can find the original terms and conditions, tho even in these it states

"All card payments are subject to authorisation by your card issuer and we take payment when we accept your order shortly before dispatch. If your payment is not received and you have already received the products you ordered from us, you must pay for the products or return those products to us in accordance with reasonable return instructions that we provide to you and in the same condition that you received them at your own expense. If you do not do this within 30 days of the date on which we cancel your order, we may collect or arrange for collection of the products at your expense. We reserve the right to charge you for any and all damage to (or other adverse interference with) any products that are the subject of an unpaid order.
"

unholyangel

williamreid7 wrote: »

Thanks again, and thanks for being patient with me too. I just can't understand when a company states two different thing in their terms and condition it can be clear this has been lifted directly from their website. I also think I have made a mistake as when I copied their terms I just copied and pasted it would seem that they have changed since the ones I read when ordering previously the emailed paragraph was also part of their website terms and conditions. Dam I hope I can find the original terms and conditions, tho even in these it states

"All card payments are subject to authorisation by your card issuer and we take payment when we accept your order shortly before dispatch. If your payment is not received and you have already received the products you ordered from us, you must pay for the products or return those products to us in accordance with reasonable return instructions that we provide to you and in the same condition that you received them at your own expense. If you do not do this within 30 days of the date on which we cancel your order, we may collect or arrange for collection of the products at your expense. We reserve the right to charge you for any and all damage to (or other adverse interference with) any products that are the subject of an unpaid order.
"

There may be a cached copy of the site if you google :P

williamreid7

unholyangel wrote: »

There may be a cached copy of the site if you google :P

Do you know how to search for cache items ? I haven't a clue sorry.

williamreid7

Hi Wealdroam, thanks, I didn't realise their actual website terms had changed since I ordered I'm trying to get a copy of the original ones which included both the acceptance at dispatch as well as a few lines under it stating order was formed when getting ready to dispatch at which point they would then take payment.

I think they realise their terms were inconclusive and have now changed them.