Company's Right to Cancel

Gangster
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10 Mar 2009
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Hi.

Some of you may or may not know there was a glitch on this certain rainforest site selling the xbox 360 elite + lego game + pure + wireless controller for £120 instead of £260.

I received an email stating my order has been despatched therefore my payment has been accepted and goods paid for.

Could this company decide to track down my parcel and get it returned or will they have to honour this? On my tracking number it says it has left facility and is in transit.

Thanks guys
 
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Associate
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Leicester
They have to honour it, I'm pretty certain that a company has to sell at the price they advertised at. My Uncle once got a camera at £150 less than it should have been because the price was marked wrong, and his girlfriend was a lawyer - score.

Now a question from me. Why the **** didn't you tell me about said mistake ;)
 
Man of Honour
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They have to honour it, I'm pretty certain that a company has to sell at the price they advertised at. My Uncle once got a camera at £150 less than it should have been because the price was marked wrong, and his girlfriend was a lawyer - score.

They don't have to honour it, this is a common misconception. The price advertised on the website is the equivalent to an "invitation to treat" i.e. they are inviting you to deal with them, at this point no contract has been formed, you make the offer by setting up the order (or taking the product to the counter as appropriate) - at this point the shop is free to accept your business or not as they choose, they can decline your offer for any reason they like including simply that they think you smell, you've got a dodgy taste in kipper ties, they don't like the look of the computer you are ordering on or it was priced wrongly - it doesn't matter. If they do accept (and note that an auto-response saying "your order has been accepted for processing" doesn't constitute acceptance of offer) then they would be obliged to honour the price as you'd have the essential elements of a contract - namely agreement on all material aspects and consensus in idem (meeting of the minds).

Many companies will choose to honour the price they've advertised at because it is good publicity and will cost them less overall than the bad publicity that will be generated from their (entitled) refusal to continue with the deal. But what really irritates is when I hear companies perpetuating this myth, the Renault Kangoo van advert on the radio is the most recent of this type - idiots.
 
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Associate
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they can refuse to sell it. most people think even though a shop has put a price on something they have the right of refusal.

the thing you can do is say you're taking it further and they'll have to remove the item from sale
 
Gangster
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OP
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They don't have to honour it, this is a common misconception. The price advertised on the website is the equivalent to an "invitation to treat" i.e. they are inviting you to deal with them, at this point no contract has been formed, you make the offer by setting up the order (or taking the product to the counter as appropriate) - at this point the shop is free to accept your business or not as they choose, they can decline your offer for any reason they like including simply that they think you smell, you've got a dodgy taste in kipper ties, they don't like the look of the computer you are ordering on or it was priced wrongly - it doesn't matter. If they do accept (and note that an auto-response saying "your order has been accepted for processing" doesn't constitute acceptance of offer) then they would be obliged to honour the price as you'd have the essential elements of a contract - namely agreement on all material aspects and consensus in idem (meeting of the minds).

Many companies will choose to honour the price they've advertised at because it is good publicity and will cost them less overall than the bad publicity that will be generated from their (entitled) refusal to continue with the deal. But what really irritates is when I hear companies perpetuating this myth, the Renault Kangoo van advert on the radio is the most recent of this type - idiots.

Do they have to accept it if payment has been taken? Payment on my account has been taken and is not on hold.

I also have a tracking number of the package. What is the worse they can do now?
Can they request me to send it back to them? Do I have to?
or
Can they charge me the full price? Is that illegal?
 
Soldato
Joined
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3,792
If payment has been taken then as far as I know that's the point at which the contract is agreed and they cannot go back on it. Up to that point they have every right to cancel.
 
Man of Honour
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Do they have to accept it if payment has been taken? Payment on my account has been taken and is not on hold.

I also have a tracking number of the package. What is the worse they can do now?
Can they request me to send it back to them? Do I have to?
or
Can they charge me the full price? Is that illegal?

If they've taken payment then it is reasonable to assume they have accepted your offer.

They can request it back I suppose but you wouldn't be under any obligation to sent it back from what I recall (it is a few years since I last looked at this in any detail though).

They cannot charge you more because that would be changing the terms of the agreement. I suppose the best they could do would be to argue that there wasn't agreement on all material elements of the contract (price being a pretty big one) but if they've taken payment it becomes a point where they've sort of shot themselves in the foot with that line of defence.

I'd suggest you remove the link though as it links to a competitor albeit indirectly.
 
Associate
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If payment has been taken then as far as I know that's the point at which the contract is agreed and they cannot go back on it. Up to that point they have every right to cancel.
+1, if they were not going to honour it, they would not have shipped it, so guess you've got your self a good deal
 
Associate
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If payment has been taken then as far as I know that's the point at which the contract is agreed and they cannot go back on it. Up to that point they have every right to cancel.

This. They might come chasing you a few weeks from now asking for some more money, but just ignore them. They can't do squat.
 
Man of Honour
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35,487
If the price has been so reduced that no reasonable person could believe that it was anything else other than a pricing error, then there obviously wasn't a meeting of the minds, so no, they wouldn't necessarily be obliged to give you it at that price if the whole process was automated.

E-commerce law is a mess :p
 
Soldato
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leeds
they don't have to honour anything.

except if they already sold it to you - they cannot go back on the deal, say its a mistake and ask you to pay more. once the sale is made then thats it, deal done.
 
Soldato
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I would have said that as they've already taken payment and shipped the items, the offer's been accepted. Doubt there's anything can be done now.
AHHHH Business law!!!!! *puts gun in mouth and pulls trigger*

(I'm doing my CA exams for Business law atm. Hate it.)
You wait till TPS... What you're doing now is a walk in the park! That said, most of us passed despite the end of it being the most hideous month of my life.
 
Associate
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If I remember the point of acceptance of the contract is when the money is taken.

I've always found No competitors! to be pretty good with misprices - Usually the first hundred or so orders are honoured and have got quite a few bargains over the years because of it - I've also had quite a few 'misprice e-mails' which I've just thought luck of the draw.

Never had something confirmed as sent or money taken and then had non delivery/refund with No competitors! (though I have had taht with at least one other e-tailer)
 
Man of Honour
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Strictly once they've sent it out theres nothing much they can do... they might try and get you to return it as the "morally" right thing to do but they can't take more money or demand you return it.

Depending on how switched onto the mis-price they are and their relationship with the carrier they might try and get it returned and pretend it was never actually sent out... but with the carrier handling 10,000s of parcels they aren't going to be too favorable about hunting one out... so your pretty safe on that bet.
 
Man of Honour
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If I remember the point of acceptance of the contract is when the money is taken.

Contract is made when they take the money... but theres nothing to stop them cancelling for a full refund up until the point they send the goods out.
 
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