Nearly got a bargain...

[Fat Tone]

Simply had some network cameras priced as £3.69 yesterday, with 25 in stock...I ordered 5

Unfortunately, surprise surprise, this just arrived:

Dear Sir or Madam,

The order you have placed with Simply Computers for the item: 46315 AXIS 210 NETWORK CAMERA,

The price has been put on our website incorrectly. The correct price is: £363.08 INC VAT.

Please let me know if you still require this item.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Regards.

The Sales Admin team.

Interestingly, they must have some software that looks for strange purchasing patterns and flags them for human attention, because the 'acknowledgement of order' email included this:

This email is confirmation that we have received your order. It does not constitute contractual acceptance of the order you have placed. We are currently checking that your order remains available at the price(s) advertised on this website when you placed your order. If the price or availability has changed we will notify you by e-mail or telephone within 1 business working day of receipt of this e-mail.

[Dr Mordrid]

Here they'd have to honor the advertised price for orders placed before the error was discovered. Last year I got a pair of 56x CD burners for $25 at Best Buy that way

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian R.]

There are alot of places that have disclaimers that let them off the hook for incorrect pricing. There are usually misprints or deliberate miss-pricing by disgruntled employees.

[Fat Tone]

I think here it goes that the contract isn't formed until they take the money. And as Brian R says, it's probably in the T's & C's...

[rylan]

Unfortunately stuff like that can also be used to 'bait and switch'... put something on the website for a low price then say oops, and offer something else. Dell has gotten pretty skilled at advertising a product then sending you something else after you order it.

It is nice here when you catch something like that however, becuase stores do have to honor the price.

[Paddy]

In theory most stores will honour any advertised price, however there must be monies exchanged for this to become legal.

[Brian Ellis]

I think, in many countries, that where there is a really gross error, for example a new computer worth a kilobuck, advertised at $1, then the vendor can refuse to sell without a court order. However, if the same computer is advertised at $800, then they have to sell at that price, because the consumer cannot be expected to be able to say that it was not a plausible special offer.

In the EU, loss leaders are prohibited, so that a company selling goods at under cost price, except for old stock clearance, can be prosecuted. Similarly, switch selling is forbidden in many places.

In most places, the sales contract becomes definitive when both parties have agreed to exchange, provided there is a consideration foreseen. It does not have to be written.

In FT's case, as there was obviously a gross error, he would have to take the vendor to court if the latter refused to honour their offer to sell. In all probability, the judge would find for the vendor, because it is illegal to enrich oneself without due respect for conventional circumstances.

My last adventure along these lines concerns wine. A manufacturer was making a plonk at ~£2/bottle and a damn good wine at £5/bottle. A local supermarket printed an advertisement, showing the £5 bottle at £1.50. I went along, went to the shelf and found the £2 bottle at £1.50 but the expensive one was £5. I called the stacker and she said it was a mistake in the advertisement. I asked her to call the wine manager and he said the same ... right up to the managing director of the chain (as it happened, it was the HQ of the company). He said, that the error was their's and they must abide by their error. I put 2 cases of 12 bottles each in my trolley, then went up to the cafeteria for a coffee (offered by the boss!) while they changed the pricing in the computers. When we went downstairs, I was curious to see whether they had changed the price on the label. I could not see a single bottle of that wine, but there was a notice over the corrected price label, "Sorry, we are temporarily out of stock". The crafty buggers got round it by pushing their stock back to the store room! The wine was very good

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
Here they'd have to honor the advertised price for orders placed before the error was discovered. Last year I got a pair of 56x CD burners for $25 at Best Buy that way

Dr. Mordrid

Not so much anymore. They put the "prices are subect to change" thing on the bottom of ads these days in case that happens.

[agallag]

Several years ago when the first Creative Nomad Jukebox came out, it was selling for around $700 canadian. Futureshop put it on their website for $90. I bought one right quick, and "in the interest of public relations" they honoured the price (max one per customer). I don't think there's any law in Canada forcing them to honour the price, but they did anyway.

I heard later in the news that the error cost them nearly $250,000. Considering it was only on the website for about 4 hours, I guess word travels fast.

[Dr Mordrid]

Here in Michigan we have exactly that kind of law, so they're forced to sell it at the advertised price.

We also have a law that if you're overcharged by a checkout scanner you not only get a refund of the overcharges but 10 times the amount of the overcharges as a penalty.

Dr. Mordrid

[Paddy]

A well know supermarket chain will honour any advertised price and if they make an error by billing you too much, then you get a full refund AND the item for free.