Curry’s cancel order

headpin

Just following an alert from numerous bargain sites I ordered a Dell Inspiron laptop from Curry’s on Friday night at the bargain price of £99.98.

I received an email acknowledging receipt of the order and then subsequently another email confirming the order and telling me that the item would be delivered this coming Friday 5th November.

Today I have received another email cancelling the order because they say they have made a mistake and cancelling my order. 

The item was still for sale at the same price yesterday, so it seems rather strange that they made a mistake that they did not correct for over 48 hours.

What do people think my legal rights may be and do I have any redress to insist that they send the item at the price that they accepted the order at? 

[Deleted User]

No. That seems a clear cut, obvious pricing error, regardless of when the contract may have been formed.

user1977

headpin said:

What do people think my legal rights may be 

Absolutely none (other than a refund of anything you've paid).

pinkshoes

headpin said:

Just following an alert from numerous bargain sites I ordered a Dell Inspiron laptop from Curry’s on Friday night at the bargain price of £99.98.

I received an email acknowledging receipt of the order and then subsequently another email confirming the order and telling me that the item would be delivered this coming Friday 5th November.

Today I have received another email cancelling the order because they say they have made a mistake and cancelling my order. 

The item was still for sale at the same price yesterday, so it seems rather strange that they made a mistake that they did not correct for over 48 hours.

What do people think my legal rights may be and do I have any redress to insist that they send the item at the price that they accepted the order at? 

On the basis that's a very obvious pricing error which should no doubt be £999.00 then it is reasonable that it is cancelled. 

No legal rights whatsoever...

If it was 10% off then that would be reasonable to expect them to honour their offer, but as it is no doubt 10% of the original price then clearly that is an error.

pulliptears

pinkshoes said:

headpin said:

Just following an alert from numerous bargain sites I ordered a Dell Inspiron laptop from Curry’s on Friday night at the bargain price of £99.98.

I received an email acknowledging receipt of the order and then subsequently another email confirming the order and telling me that the item would be delivered this coming Friday 5th November.

Today I have received another email cancelling the order because they say they have made a mistake and cancelling my order. 

The item was still for sale at the same price yesterday, so it seems rather strange that they made a mistake that they did not correct for over 48 hours.

What do people think my legal rights may be and do I have any redress to insist that they send the item at the price that they accepted the order at? 

On the basis that's a very obvious pricing error which should no doubt be £999.00 then it is reasonable that it is cancelled. 

No legal rights whatsoever...

If it was 10% off then that would be reasonable to expect them to honour their offer, but as it is no doubt 10% of the original price then clearly that is an error.

To be fair @Pink it's thought it might be an actual deal rather than a misprice by some over on HDUK, given it's a shockingly poor spec laptop.  It's certainly shouldn't have been £999.  Speculation that they did have a few for clearance and massively oversold.  Equally though, could still be a price error.

Either way, this has been rumbling since Saturday night, the usual thing where people order dozens and as everyone else has said you've got no rights at all.  

Ergates

headpin said:

The item was still for sale at the same price yesterday, so it seems rather strange that they made a mistake that they did not correct for over 48 hours.

I expect the people who run the website don't work weekends - other than for emergencies like the whole site going offline.

Sandtree

Currys website almost certainly says that the contract isnt formed until its been dispatched... unless the goods were in the hands of the courier no contract exists yet.

That said, be hopeful, a while back Currys did a promo of £100 off with a minimum spend of £100 so a load of us at work ordered stuff just over £100 and so paid pennies. We all got cancellation emails but for 25% or so the goods turned up anyway... unfortunately despite being the one that spotted it mine did get cancelled

unholyangel

Sandtree said:

Currys website almost certainly says that the contract isnt formed until its been dispatched... unless the goods were in the hands of the courier no contract exists yet.

That said, be hopeful, a while back Currys did a promo of £100 off with a minimum spend of £100 so a load of us at work ordered stuff just over £100 and so paid pennies. We all got cancellation emails but for 25% or so the goods turned up anyway... unfortunately despite being the one that spotted it mine did get cancelled

While it's human nature to want to tell people about fantastic deals, if you suspect it's a mistake, there's more chance of the company honouring it the less people who try to take advantage of it. 

While technically the company could have asked for their goods back (unilateral mistakes render a contract void ab initio, meaning it was never valid at any time) they're unlikely to do so unless substantial sums are involved or perhaps if the item was one which held it's value well even on the second hand market. 

Sandtree

unholyangel said:
While it's human nature to want to tell people about fantastic deals, if you suspect it's a mistake, there's more chance of the company honouring it the less people who try to take advantage of it. 

While technically the company could have asked for their goods back (unilateral mistakes render a contract void ab initio, meaning it was never valid at any time) they're unlikely to do so unless substantial sums are involved or perhaps if the item was one which held it's value well even on the second hand market. 

Well aware, and it was telling a handful of people not all 10,000 employees, and given it was a purchase for purchase sake was a risk willing to run. Given the number of sales they presumably make a day the volumes would be inconsequential and I'm also sure I am not the only person that realised the error (fairly sure there were post on public forums from others about it too).

They never chased any of them for the return of the goods but the promised £1 refunds etc never materialised so would appear an active decision to write it off having failed their own process of cancelling the orders.

pulliptears

unholyangel said:

Sandtree said:

Currys website almost certainly says that the contract isnt formed until its been dispatched... unless the goods were in the hands of the courier no contract exists yet.

That said, be hopeful, a while back Currys did a promo of £100 off with a minimum spend of £100 so a load of us at work ordered stuff just over £100 and so paid pennies. We all got cancellation emails but for 25% or so the goods turned up anyway... unfortunately despite being the one that spotted it mine did get cancelled

While it's human nature to want to tell people about fantastic deals, if you suspect it's a mistake, there's more chance of the company honouring it the less people who try to take advantage of it. 

While technically the company could have asked for their goods back (unilateral mistakes render a contract void ab initio, meaning it was never valid at any time) they're unlikely to do so unless substantial sums are involved or perhaps if the item was one which held it's value well even on the second hand market. 

Indeed.
2 years ago other half mentioned he'd wanted a smoker BBQ.  I knew absolutely nothing about them, but I did know when I found one on Amazon for £25 it seemed cheap.  I bought it for him, thinking it was either a sale bargain (I honestly thought these things were £50/£60), a misprice or maybe a part for a smoker BBQ that had been listed badly.  After I'd paid I googled and the price seemed to be £250 everywhere else.  A zero had been missed.  
I sat back and awaited the cancellation email, but what I didn't do was rush off to Hotdeals and post it to get likes.

Imagine my surprise when 2 days later 3 enormous boxes appeared.  The company had honoured their mistake and sent me the BBQ.  Absolutely stunned.  Because of this the company, VidaXL, is one of the first places I look for things, they bought a lot of goodwill with me over that.
Equally, had they cancelled I would have chalked it up to 'you win some you lose some'.  Either way, I can almost guarantee that when this stuff gets as far as Hot Deals with hundreds upon thousands of orders, they aren't honouring it.

The moral is, spot a misprice, quietly order one (not a dozen for eBay, don't tell all your friends and post it all over facebook) and hope for the best.