John Lewis Refusing a price match after purchased

Sunkissed1

Hi everyone I purchased a camera recently through john Lewis which was price matched and agree by john Lewis  it was advertised on Jessops @ £279.

John Lewis price matched this  offer in an email saying  

"Thank you for your recent price match enquiry.

We’ve checked with Jessops and have found that the Sony Cybershot RX10 Mk3 Digital Bridge Camera 82920102 is priced at £279, so we're happy to match this price.

You can place your order using one of the following options:

Online anytime at johnlewis.com 

Call our Customer Services Team on 03456 049 049, 7am - midnight, 7 days a week

The price match is valid for one order placed with john lewis.com within 28 days, for a maximum of 10 items.

So I purchased the item and emailed them for a refund which had no reply I then called them a few days later saying I need a price match refund as agreed. which they didnt know what to do and basically  started trying to price match it from  the day I called up which it was back at £1,000  and they kept telling me the price was £1,000 not 279 which i said the price was £279 a few days ago not now. 

the lady basically said she cant refund this amount and i would need to wait for an email from someone from john Lewis who wrote back few days later in a email basically saying

it was a price error on Jessops and we price matched it by accident, by this time I had already purchased the camera had a dispatch and received the camera and now they refuse the price match offered. so because their teams didn't do a proper check against Jessops website ( which they said was an error days later).

I just want to know where I stand with this one as it clearly says once the item is dispatched  a contract agreement is formed. but according to them they wont refund the price match agreement which clearly says they "checked and are happy matching"  and now my only option they offered is to send them the camera back or pay the full price of the item

I should also mention there is evidence they have refunded a handful of people already.

do I have a case with this one? 

any help from the forum would be highly appreciated.

jon81uk

Why didn't you just pay the lower price at Jessops in the first place?
If it was £1000 down to £279 that does sound like an error, so the Jessops order may have been cancelled anyway.
Can you just return the camera?

cymruchris

Jessops made an error - I imagine you thought that they would likely cancel the order as it was glaringly obvious they'd made an error - so you thought you'd be clever and see if John Lewis would price match it - they probably have an automated system that looks at various trusted high street suppliers such as Jessops - and on this occasion - the software probably said 'yes they are selling it for this price - and so we will match it' - then you ordered it at full price expecting to get a huge refund later. When the deal was looked at - it's realised that Jessops had an error - so the price match wasn't valid - as Jessops weren't actually selling it for that price - so your price match was disallowed. Either pay the 'real price' for the camera - or return it. John Lewis are not going to give you over £700 back out of the £1000 you paid - as they'd be losing money to do so. 

Sunkissed1

jon81uk said:

Why didn't you just pay the lower price at Jessops in the first place?
If it was £1000 down to £279 that does sound like an error, so the Jessops order may have been cancelled anyway.
Can you just return the camera?

I gave the camera away as a gift ,which was a stupid idea but with the price match arleady agreed on email I thought it would be fine. yes the camera was cheap but its also 4 years old. I have a few cameras that I paid a lot for and are basically worthless now.
yes they said Jessops was a pricing error at the time but as John Lewis do checks  with the company before actually sending  a price match everything seemed fine at the time. 

davidmcn

They're allowed to correct an error, and the difference between £279 and £1000 sounds like the sort of thing which ought to have been obviously wrong.

stragglebod

Well, the person you gifted the camera to is going be £700 more generous next time it's their turn to buy you a gift, so everything will even itself out in the end.

It's a good job you didn't just sell it on ebay, then you'd be really stuck. But of course you didn't do that. You said so in your last post. You were very clear about that.

Sunkissed1

stragglebod said:

Well, the person you gifted the camera to is going be £700 more generous next time it's their turn to buy you a gift, so everything will even itself out in the end.

It's a good job you didn't just sell it on ebay, then you'd be really stuck. But of course you didn't do that. You said so in your last post. You were very clear about that.

yes , I have 28 days to return or keep so I will just either pay the £1000 or most likely ask for the gift back and buy something better in that price range.

thanks for the feedback

Sandtree

A lesson for the future, if you are going for a price match then buy in store so you only pay the reduced price in the first place rather than paying full price initially and then asking for a refund afterwards.

visidigi

Why do I think the OP has a point here.
The email says they WILL price match. They have stated they price matched in error, but that does not change the agreement. The error by JL is nothing to do with the error in the price on Jessops - the offer to price match forms a separate agreement (likewise if Jessops dropped the price further JL would only agree to price match at the point at which its assessed.

If JL had refused the price match the OP wouldn't even be here now and out the cost of the camera.
I personally think JL are on the hook here and would push the subject with JL.

32Battalion

Sunkissed1 said:

yes , I have 28 days to return 

I assume that only applies if the camera remains unused.

Sunkissed1

Sandtree said:

A lesson for the future, if you are going for a price match then buy in store so you only pay the reduced price in the first place rather than paying full price initially and then asking for a refund afterwards.

very true I always priced matched with john Lewis because of extra warranty. but recently prices seem to be much higher than other competitors so I find AO and Amazon a better option as of late.
thanks.