Argos/Homebase 49p telly discussion thread

Woby_Tide

posty wrote:

On the 3.am radio news they said argos has said sorry to the people who ordered the 49p TV and that is was just a mistake.all 38.000.

i did not order one myself but the people saying do you expect to get a TV for that price remember Woolworths honoured their mistakes on the PS2 and the sagem mobile and hi-fi internet errors

were Woolies selling them for 49p though(or 0.01% of the actual selling price). Can't remember the prices offered for the goods but it's a fine line between differntiating between a misprice and a 'bargain price'. I.e. arguing that a mispriced PS2 for £40 instead of £90 can be classed as a bargain is easier than arguing that a £349.99 TV priced at £0.49 is a bargain rather than a blatant misprice.

Eagle_1

Still no email received..............id also appreciate no sarky replies like yesterday.

Im purely letting you know that Homebase are giving the impression that everyone has been informed they wont be receiving the TV, now I for one have only received confirmation of my order when I ordered it on Sat evening, its now Friday afternoon and they have my money sitting in their bank so I want either my money put back in my account or the order I requested delivered.........simple really.

Smudge32

This has just been mentioned on Radio 2 - Steve Wright!!

He reckons that they have to send them!

c_smith

From what I remember about contract law, to have a valid contract you need an offer, an acceptance and what is known in legal terms as "consensus ad idem" (a meeting of the minds). Even if you successfully argued that their taking of your money was an acceptance of your offer to buy, I don't think you would be able to successfully argue that there was a meeting of the minds given the obvious price mistake.

That said though, if someone could find a solicitor to take this on and it actually went as far as going to court, I think Argos/Homebase would probably settle out of court to avoid taking the chance that they would lose, because doing so would set a legal precedent and they would be liable for 10,000 49p televisions which would probably bankrupt them.

takuhii

divadee wrote:

i havent received an email yet, wonder why not???


I am beginning to think they did this on purpose get some free publicity, as they say theres no such thing as bad publicity!!!

shouldn't that quote be "All publicity is good publicity" ?? Do a company as big as Argos need free publicity though?

bugbod

For a contract to be legally enforceable, not only do all the parties to the contract have to get something in return, but they must also suffer a detriment. In other words, one cannot contract to give someone else $500 unless the other person gives up something in return.

Contract law covers the legal implications of a contract. For instance, contract law determines what is and is not consideration, whether a contract was actually intended, if the parties making the contract were legally competent, whether there was fraud or duress involved, or how a contract is terminated

MikeFishcake

Probably going to get flamed to high heaven for this, but if you genuinely expected Argos to quite happily supply a 28" TV for 49 pence, then quite frankly you should give up that 49p (+P&P) in stupidity tax :wall:

Twopints

Smudge32 wrote:

This has just been mentioned on Radio 2 - Steve Wright!!

He reckons that they have to send them!

Ok. It must be true then. Better get rid of Consumers Association and the Lawyers who say there is no contract and just do what Steve Wright says.

MikeFishcake wrote:

Probably going to get flamed to high heaven for this, but if you genuinely expected Argos to quite happily supply a 28" TV for 49 pence, then quite frankly you should give up that 49p (+P&P) in stupidity tax

:T

Dave=m55

c_smith wrote:

That said though, if someone could find a solicitor to take this on and it actually went as far as going to court, I think Argos/Homebase would probably settle out of court to avoid taking the chance that they would lose, because doing so would set a legal precedent and they would be liable for 10,000 49p televisions which would probably bankrupt them.

There are times when it is possible to bluff taking a company to court, IMO this isn't one of them. (I've had to do it for an insurance claim before, and the company settled a) it was cheaper for them to do so b) policy wording was, IMO, in my favour).
Taking Kodak to court would have worked and set a precidence, taking Argos/homebase would, IMO, set a precidence in favour of the retailer. Reasons why are as I've already stated. You're also on sticky ground as a contract was never formed, no matter what you may beleive. (let the flood gates opens to claims of takiing money etc).
If you look at any book on Contract Law, the case that can be used as a defence for these types of errors is already stated. (and has been mentioned before by me).
On the minus side to these sorts of errors, how many people remember the https://www.gear-zone.co.uk one, £400 tents were coming out as £0. Any victory in the courts to say internet prices MUST be honoured, even though they are incorrect through keying errors, or checkout errors on the system, would have bankrupt this small business and set ecommerce back about 10 years.

With a turnover of £7.79billion pounds last year (Gus group), and over £30 million in advertising (homebase) I doubt about £2 million pounds (depending what the trade price is on these) would bankrupt them.

newfunk

Had 2 emails now from them!! Couldnt be bothered to argue that I had an order confirmation from the website, so left it....I honestly didnt think i'd get one, so not to bothered...anyway I was given a TV on Tuesday so it doesnt matter now!!