Debenhams cancelled my order and tripled the price!

jaybay

Hi, yesterday I ordered a Regatta 3 layer waterproof coat for £16.99 and delivery totally £19.99. The order went through and alls good. Later that day my friend tried to buy one but they had gone up to £59.95. 
Today I get an email saying they have cancelled my order as they are out of stock.. But actually they are in stock but now at £59.95.
I have contacted them stating they are still in stock and they simply can't cancell my order because the price was too cheap.
Am I right in thinking they must honour the sale, it was their price. No discount codes or anything else used.
Thanks for any help. 

Bradden

It sounds like there was an error with piccing on thier website and they have now cancelled the order.. annoying but not in breach of consumer rights I believe.

cymruchris

jaybay said:

I have contacted them stating they are still in stock and they simply can't cancell my order because the price was too cheap.
Am I right in thinking they must honour the sale,

They can cancel the order yes - and you're not right that they must honour the sale. Some retailers do when they make a mistake - but most don't. If it means that they are selling the item at less than it costs them, you're unlikely to find that they'll sell it at that price as a goodwill gesture. (Although there have been some notable exceptions over the years) - and you likely mean 'Debenhams cancelled my order, and corrected the price back to where it was supposed to be'

sarah1972

Pmd the team to move to a board on Tuesday when they are back as it’s currently not on one x 

km1500

in the terms and conditions of sale most stores say the contract is not formed until the item is shipped so in this case you did not have a sales contract so debenhams are within their rights to cancel the order

Manxman_in_exile

@jaybay -  you need to check the T&Cs of the sale.

If the jacket was being offered at a discount or on sale, it's possible that the advertised items were limited to current stock or, for example, to the 2021 version of it rather than the 2022 version.  If it said anywhere something like that the discounted price only applied "While current stocks last" and they have run out of that particular stock, then it would be quite legitimate for them to apply a higher price to "new" stock.

Also, many online T&Cs stipulate that a contract is only formed at the moment when they dispatch the goods to you and not, for example, when they accept your order.  If this is the case with this retailer then they are perfectly entitled to refuse to sell to you at the lower price at any time before they send the jacket to you.

And as others have suggested, even if a contrcat did exist it still might be possible for the retailer to "cancel" your order if there had been a genuine pricing error on their part.  (But that all gets a bit more uncertain.  It is more likely that there was no contrcat between you and the seller before the jacket was sent to you.)

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Debenhams say they send an email once an order is placed.

They then send a second email once payment is complete and they begin processing the order.

Acceptance occurs when the second email is sent.

Although the percentage may be a large amount the actual numbers are small so I don’t think they could argue they can void the contract due to a mistake in this instance.

Equally the numbers are small so there would be little recourse to force performance or seek loses.

I don’t think limited QTY of promos would apply if a contract was formed given their method of acceptance would allow them to decline before accepting. 

OP did you get the second email from them? If you did you can try to point out you have a contact and they should supply, Boohoo own them, don’t know how customer friendly they are. 

Hinges on what emails were sent and, if applicable, what can be squeezed out of them really.