BT Broadband - written offer not honoured

marttest

BT sent me a personally addressed letter containing what appeared to be an excellent offer to upgrade my broadband package to Halo 3+ but when I called to discuss it, asked me to email them a copy as the offer "hadn't reached their sales system yet".  It was indicated that they would honour the offer and that a manager would call me back within 3 to 5 working days to discuss the details.

Of course, nothing further was heard and on calling back, I was told that the offer had been sent in error - but they would credit me with a small payment "for the inconvenience".

Should I press the case - is there a legal basis to insist on them to honour the original offer?

Aylesbury_Duck

marttest said:

BT sent me a personally addressed letter containing what appeared to be an excellent offer to upgrade my broadband package to Halo 3+ but when I called to discuss it, asked me to email them a copy as the offer "hadn't reached their sales system yet".  It was indicated that they would honour the offer and that a manager would call me back within 3 to 5 working days to discuss the details.

Of course, nothing further was heard and on calling back, I was told that the offer had been sent in error - but they would credit me with a small payment "for the inconvenience".

Should I press the case - is there a legal basis to insist on them to honour the original offer?

There was another thread about this earlier.  Yes, they can withdraw the offer if it was a genuine mistake. It becomes murkier if they've used it as a baiting method, but not really sure how you prove that and if you're an existing customer, it's not as if they're using it to grab market share.  You can of course complain and see where it leads but I doubt you can force them to provide the service offered in error.  Check the terms and conditions of your service and the offer - there's probably something in there to cover situations like this.

Sandtree

Intentionally misleading information, rather than mistake, is the sort of thing that TS or ASA deal with and fines go into government coffers. 

Your "loss" is simply your time in making a phone call which in theory you could attempt to recover through the courts but clearly is not going to be cost effective and could be considered vexatious by the court.

Ergates

marttest said:

Should I press the case - is there a legal basis to insist on them to honour the original offer?

Short version:  No.

You cannot force a company to honour a mistake - otherwise a typo on an advert could bankrupt a company.