ECP Price Error

HD1882

Hi,


I bought some items form eurocarparts, the sale went through, I received an order number and they took my money from my account.


A couple of days later I received an email saying their was a pricing error on their system and they will not be fulfilling my order.


Today I received an email saying "thanks for your request to return the goods and receive a refund" (I didn't ever request this.) A minute later another email saying "your refund has been authorised".


Can they do this? I want the product I ordered for the price I bought it at. They had already taken my money so isn't that were the contract for the sale of goods starts?


Also can they request a refund on my behalf?!


Appreciate any help on this.


Thanks

cono1717

Check their terms and conditions you will likely find they won't be bound to any contract until the goods are dispatched. Which means that yes, they are within their rights to do this. You could ask them and see if they will give any discounts as a GOGW.

Edit:

3.2 If you are purchasing Goods and/or Services via our website, subject to clause 5, no contract for the supply of Goods and/or Services ("Contract") will come into existence until we despatch the Goods, send you an email confirming that your Goods have been despatched or start performing the Services (whichever is the earlier).

HD1882

okay, thanks for the info.


How does that work if it was a store pickup?

HD1882

"or start performing the Services (whichever is the earlier)."


what does this mean? The order was confirmed on screen including an order reference and a summary of the order

tykesi

Read the T&Cs

marliepanda

HD1882 wrote: »

Hi,


I bought some items form eurocarparts, the sale went through, I received an order number and they took my money from my account.


A couple of days later I received an email saying their was a pricing error on their system and they will not be fulfilling my order.


Today I received an email saying "thanks for your request to return the goods and receive a refund" (I didn't ever request this.) A minute later another email saying "your refund has been authorised".


Can they do this? I want the product I ordered for the price I bought it at. They had already taken my money so isn't that were the contract for the sale of goods starts?


Also can they request a refund on my behalf?!

Whats the pricing error? Its its a hugely obvious error, they can absolutely cancel.

If its just a 'good deal' which could quite feasibly be possible, you may have a chance if their terms say contract is formed at payment. However if they say contract formed at dispatch, then it hasnt formed yet.

Payment =/= contract.

DoaM

And regarding the refund request email ... that'll just be their automated response to a refund being initiated - the system won't be able to differentiate between customer request and Customer Services request.

HD1882

I think there's a conspiracy here where all of you are secretly employed by these large companies :rotfl:

tykesi

Ah, the old "I'm not being told what I want to hear (even if it's the right answer) so I'll accuse everyone of working for the company I've got a beef with" line.

We've heard that a thousand times, doesn't mean the answers are wrong though!

HD1882

it was a joke...:T


I have read their terms and conditions and I'm not convinced by them...


3.2 No contract for the supply of Goods and/or Services ("Contract") will come into existence until we despatch the Goods, send you an email confirming that your Goods have been despatched or start performing the Services (whichever is the earlier).




while








6.2.2 While we try and ensure that all our prices quoted at the time of the Order are accurate, some prices may be incorrectly listed on our internal management systems and /or on our website. If we discover an error in the price of the Goods you have ordered we will inform you as soon as possible and offer you the Goods at the correct price. We are under no obligation to provide Goods or Services to you at an incorrect, lower price, even after we have acknowledged your order or despatched the Goods or started performance of the Services. If we cannot contact you, we will treat the order as cancelled. If payment has been made and you wish to cancel your order, you will receive a full refund of the price paid.


that doesn't seem right? one clause to cover another!


you just know that if the price error was the other way round they wouldn't be emailing me or giving me a refund.




as with 3.2 they “started performing the services” when they reviewed your order and decided that it was a pricing error. After all the very first step in fulfilling the order is the stock check.

unholyangel

HD1882 wrote: »

it was a joke...:T


I have read their terms and conditions and I'm not convinced by them...


3.2 No contract for the supply of Goods and/or Services ("Contract") will come into existence until we despatch the Goods, send you an email confirming that your Goods have been despatched or start performing the Services (whichever is the earlier).




while








6.2.2 While we try and ensure that all our prices quoted at the time of the Order are accurate, some prices may be incorrectly listed on our internal management systems and /or on our website. If we discover an error in the price of the Goods you have ordered we will inform you as soon as possible and offer you the Goods at the correct price. We are under no obligation to provide Goods or Services to you at an incorrect, lower price, even after we have acknowledged your order or despatched the Goods or started performance of the Services. If we cannot contact you, we will treat the order as cancelled. If payment has been made and you wish to cancel your order, you will receive a full refund of the price paid.


that doesn't seem right? one clause to cover another!


you just know that if the price error was the other way round they wouldn't be emailing me or giving me a refund.




as with 3.2 they “started performing the services” when they reviewed your order and decided that it was a pricing error. After all the very first step in fulfilling the order is the stock check.

In order to be fair, a contract needs to be equally binding on both parties - once it is binding, it can only be varied by agreement or void in certain circumstances - such as unilateral mistake (where one party has made a mistake and the other party are aware of that mistake or should have been aware of the mistake) which renders a contract void ab initio (void from the start/it was never valid).

So they may be able to void contracts where it was priced at £35 instead of £350 by mistake even if they have dispatched the goods. But if the pricing mistake wasn't obvious (£30 instead of £35 perhaps), then they're unlikely to be able to void that once they dispatch the goods.

Started performing services would relate to contracts for services rather than contracts for goods. So if you think that by them reviewing your offer for goods that they have started performing services and you have a contract, you're incorrect.