Can they go back on it?

Ebonyuk72

A well known Genealogy site recently had a code offer which gave current UK subscribers a years subscription for the price of £10. Many of us signed up, I had an email confirming that I had a new years subscription (added onto my current year) for the price of £10.
The website are now saying it was a mistake on their part, and the offer was for £10 for only one month and are refunding the £10 that has been paid. I was always led to believe that if something is advertised at a particular price, they have to honour it by law as its THEIR error, but now this website is going back on it.


Can they do this? or do they have to honour it by law?

sarah1972

Yes they can do that.

They made an error and admitted it and refunded you so no harm done.

Ebonyuk72

So basically any website can charge you one price, then two days later say "Oh we made a mistake here's your money back, we're not letting you have that after all" Really?

sarah1972

Ebonyuk72 wrote: »

So basically any website can charge you one price, then two days later say "Oh we made a mistake here's your money back, we're not letting you have that after all" Really?

Basically, yes

Mistakes happen.

timbstoke

I'm not so sure. Certainly if it was a purchase of goods, the retailer couldn't simply send a revised invoice days after delivery because they made a mistake.

Whether or not there's anything you can do about it now is another matter. It's unlikely to be worth taking it further for the sake of £10. However, it's certainly worth a strong call/email to the company pointing out that the contract is concluded, you've purchased the extension and confirmed that it is on your account, and that you expect them to honour the sale as made.

sarah1972

If it was obvious the item was mistakenly priced too low

If a price is unrealistically low, you might realise the trader had made a mistake. For example, if a brand new television was advertised at £2.99 instead of £299. If this is the case, the law allows the trader to argue that they made a mistake and it should have been obvious to the buyer. If the trader argues this and is successful, they do not have to give you the goods at the advertised price.

arcon5

sarah1972 wrote: »

Yes they can do that.

They made an error and admitted it and refunded you so no harm done.

No, no they cannot op, it's not that simple. They can reject an order or retract an offer, but if a contract has been formed it's not as simple as some seem to think.

bris

Its all about "offer and acceptance" in this case it's debatable whether acceptance has taken place or not, I think not but maybe a court would see it differently.


How it works, the first stage is the invitation to treat, this is the price, second stage you make the offer based on this price, last stage is they accept your offer and it becomes legally binding.


However, everybody occasionally makes mistakes and they are allowed for in law. In this case the invitation to treat was a mistake and when you made that offer the mistake was discovered and instead of acceptance (last stage) your offer was rejected, no contract.


You may however think that because you had a confirmation email saying anther year was added that acceptance did indeed take place and who could blame you, but this is all automated by the system. When a real person looks at the order it's then they discover the mistake and reject the offer.


What way would a court see it, that's the big question, although every case would be different it seems to be that mistakes happen and are allowed for.

timbstoke

Based on the OP they "recently had a code offer" - that would suggest to me that it's a code which offers a significant discount off the usual price. Requiring a special code to qualify to apply a discount would, in my opinion, go some way to making an otherwise "too good to be true" offer seem far less obvious.

If it's Ancestry, their T&C's (http://www.ancestry.com/cs/legal/termsandconditions) state that if you pay for a full years subscription, which OP believes they did, you are entitled to cancel the contract at any time within 30 days. On that basis, it seems fair that they can do the same IF it's Ancestry.

halibut2209

On the other hand, once the service has started, the contract is in effect. We see it from the other side all the time here. A service starts, the consumer wants to change their mind but they can't.

sarah1972

timbstoke wrote: »

Based on the OP they "recently had a code offer" - that would suggest to me that it's a code which offers a significant discount off the usual price. Requiring a special code to qualify to apply a discount would, in my opinion, go some way to making an otherwise "too good to be true" offer seem far less obvious.

If it's Ancestry, their T&C's (http://www.ancestry.com/cs/legal/termsandconditions) state that if you pay for a full years subscription, which OP believes they did, you are entitled to cancel the contract at any time within 30 days. On that basis, it seems fair that they can do the same IF it's Ancestry.

I am guessing it was findmypast as another thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5133776