Product cancelled.

Talbotmumny

We recently purchased a bus pass at a vastly reduced price. The company have confirmed our order and taken our money, and provided us with the product which is in a digital form. A week later the company have now emailed to say the they made an error and will no longer honour the price. The are offering a refund. However we think they should be honouring the product purchased. Any advice? 

Aylesbury_Duck

How obvious was the mistake?  How much did you pay versus the correct price?

They can correct a clear error.  Normally, you'd be in a good position by being in possession of the goods, but presumably they can easily invalidate a digital pass and refund your money.

If the price difference is as vast as you imply, I suspect they're acting perfectly lawfully in wanting to reverse the transaction, so it might be best to try a charming negotiation!

cx6

there was clearly a contract in force which they should honour.

quantify your losses and then claim from them

powerful_Rogue

cx6 said:

there was clearly a contract in force which they should honour.

quantify your losses and then claim from them

Depends if there has been a unilateral mistake.

Talbotmumny

Thank you for your thoughts. 
So we paid £13.20 for something that should have been £1320! 
What does a unilateral mistake mean? 

powerful_Rogue

Talbotmumny said:

Thank you for your thoughts. 
So we paid £13.20 for something that should have been £1320! 
What does a unilateral mistake mean? 

That is very much a unilateral mistake. A unilateral mistake is where one party is mistaken (bus company) and the other knows or ought to have known of the mistake (you).  As such it's treated as if the contract never existed.

Aylesbury_Duck

Talbotmumny said:

Thank you for your thoughts. 
So we paid £13.20 for something that should have been £1320! 
What does a unilateral mistake mean? 

A mistake by one of the parties.  In this case, it was also obvious to you that it was a mistake which you tried to exploit, so they're entitled to void the contract and refund you. 

user1977

Or to put it another way, if you had accidentally paid £1320 for something which should have been £13.20, what do you think ought to happen?

mattyprice4004

Nice try, but there’s no way you’ll be keeping that! 

nyermen

That is a significant difference and so an obvious mistake.  They can correct it, and any court would almost certainly back them up (unless i'm missing something).

If it had been eg. half price, that could potentially be a special deal.

cx6

Whilst it is true that a contract can be voided if a 'mistake' is made, the legal definition of a mistake is not 'ooops I sold it at the wrong price', no matter how low that price. The 'mistake' bar is set much higher than that.

You have a valid contract.

However, as I said before your remedy is not that they can be forced to execute the contract - courts are reluctant to order 'specific performance'

What you ARE entitled to is payment of your losses. For example, if by buying this ticket you missed out on say a 10% reduction in a sale that is now no longer on, then 10% would be a quantifiable loss.