Amazon (seller) cancelling transaction

castillo666

Hi all, I hope this is the right place to come with this!
Right, so, I saw an item quite cheap in Amazon and I bought it. Not an hour later, the seller cancelled the transaction, and raised the price of the item considerably.

Yes, it was quite cheap to start with and they probably made a mistake, but for what I understood, whenever these things happened in Amazon (item in stock, purchased, etc), they have to honour the transaction.

thoughts?

Thanks a lot

NCC-1701

They do not need to honour it. In most instances contract is not formed until despatch.

martinsurrey

NCC-1701 wrote: »

They do not need to honour it. In most instances contract is not formed until despatch.

This is the case OP

Amazons T&C's say that the contract is formed for each item upon dispatch.

[Deleted User]

castillo666 wrote: »

Yes, it was quite cheap to start with and they probably made a mistake, but for what I understood, whenever these things happened in Amazon (item in stock, purchased, etc), they have to honour the transaction.

Sometimes Amazon themselves will honour an error in pricing as a goodwill gesture. However, neither they nor any third party seller are legally obliged to honour the price because no contract is actually formed until they actually take payment.

The sale was cancelled by the seller prior to purchase and despatch. . You didn't pay anything. You have no recourse.

fleshandbone

OP, put yourself in the sellers shoes for a minute and see if you can answer your own question.
You are selling an item worth £150 , by mistake you put it on Amazon for £15, someone buys at this price which brings the mistake to your attention, do you sell at this price making a loss of £135 or do you cancel the transaction and re list at the correct price?

unholyangel

Even if a valid contract had been formed, they can be void for certain mistakes. One of those is where a unilateral mistake has been made.

Now you dont mention specific details about price difference but you do say the item was "quite cheap" and "they probably made a mistake" which indicates it was a considerable price difference.

A unilateral mistake is one where one party makes a mistake and the other party is aware of that mistake (or should reasonably be aware). In those cases the contract is void ab initio - void from the beginning/the contract never held any validity.

castillo666

Thanks everyone for the advice! This is now solved

wealdroam

castillo666 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the advice! This is now solved

That's good to hear Castillo.
Care to tell us how it was resolved?
That information might be useful for the next person with this problem.