Online misprice - how to enforce the contract

daeargwr

I purchased a piece of furniture online for £3200 during their January sale thinking it was a good deal as the item normally retails for between £5000-6000.

Order confirmation received straight away and payment has been taken from my credit card. I’ve now 3 days later had an email from them saying it was a misprice and giving me the chance to either purchase the item at full price £5500 or to cancel the order and receive a full refund.

I know that normally the T&C state something about contract not being formed until the item is shipped etc. However, their T&C state (I can't post a link as a new member to them) that a contract is formed once an order is received and payment taken:

3.1 How we will accept your order. Our acceptance of your order will take place when you complete the checkout process and pay for your order, at which point a contract will come into existence between you and us.

Another T&C states

7.8 When you own goods. You own a product which is goods once we have received payment in full.

They have one T&C covering mispricing which states

15.4 What happens if we got the price wrong. It is always possible that, despite our best efforts, some of the products we sell may be incorrectly priced. We will normally check prices before accepting your order so that, where the product's correct price at your order date is less than our stated price at your order date, we will charge the lower amount. If the product's correct price at your order date is higher than the price stated to you, we will contact you for your instructions before we proceed with your order. If we accept and process your order where a pricing error is obvious and unmistakeable and could reasonably have been recognised by you as a mispricing, we may end the contract, refund you any sums you have paid and require the return of any goods provided to you.

In my view it wasn’t an obvious and unmistakeable pricing error (for example where they get the decimal point wrong and sell something for £500 instead of £5000). During a January sale I think it’s reasonable items could be heavily discounted.

I plan to write to them to state that I consider we have a contract and I want them to uphold their end by supplying the item to me.

But if they refuse, what are my options to enforce the contract? small claims court? And what would I realistically be asking for? Obviously I can cancel and get my money back so I'm no worse off, but it means I won’t have the item, and would have to spend more money to secure it elsewhere.

Any advice would be a great help.

dj1471

It was a mistake and they don't have to honour it even if a contract has been formed. Move on.

A discount of 50% is likely to be seen as an obvious mistake.

[Deleted User]

dj1471 wrote: »

It was a mistake and they don't have to honour it even if a contract has been formed. Move on.

Indeed, the OP should not waste any more time with this.

daeargwr

Thanks for the advice- looks like there's nothing more I can do other than get the refund from them then. It's especially frustrating as my wife called them up before we ordered and they confirmed the price (the discounted one we paid) over the phone!

To improve my knowledge what factors control whether they have to meet the contract or not? I can see some old threads on here from late 2000s about 'loss of bargain' to do with B&Q dishwashers but I know that some of the consumer legislation has changed since then which might have addressed those sorts of issues?

[Deleted User]

daeargwr wrote: »

To improve my knowledge what factors control whether they have to meet the contract or not?

No shops definitely have to abide by obvious pricing errors. Many retailers do, but they are not legally required to.

Probably best for you to assume that any price which seems too good to be true probably is and won't be honoured.


This fact of online shopping will become even more accurate as more and more people purchase via the internet.

chancesare_2

daeargwr wrote: »

It's especially frustrating as my wife called them up before we ordered and they confirmed the price (the discounted one we paid) over the phone!

Which does suggest you thought the price was an error.

arcon5

But having phoned them to check validity of price that would remove any reasonable suspicion that there is actually an error.

So it can certainly be argued the price error term does not apply in ops case and that a valid contract exists.

Point this out to them and see if they will compromise by meeting somewhere in the middle. Otherwise you potentially have a case for loss of bargain but it all depends on whether you wish to pursue a claim through the courts.

Manxman_in_exile

chancesare wrote: »

Which does suggest you thought the price was an error.

But when you 'phone them they "confirm" the price is correct. What else can you do?

unholyangel

Each case is judged on its own merit.

So it will likely come down to what the item is and if they are regularly sold by the retailer at similar prices.

[Deleted User]

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

But when you 'phone them they "confirm" the price is correct. What else can you do?

Call centre operators will very likely be unable to ascertain whether the price is correct since they can only see what the customer sees. However, calling them will likely have alerted the company of the pricing error..

daeargwr

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Call centre operators will very likely be unable to ascertain whether the price is correct since they can only see what the customer sees. However, calling them will likely have alerted the company of the pricing error..

For clarity they were called before the order was placed (to double check the sizing of the item and the specification) and didn't get in touch about the misprice for another 3 days. The company website lists the staff that work there and there are only a few in the sales/customer care department, so this isn't a call centre like you might expect from a major online retailer.