Purchased a item online...item was delivered but...........

[J4g3d]

Hi guys,

 

Got a odd one here.

 

I purchased 3 laptops online via an amazon market seller.. The money was debited and the items delivered and signed for. Now the seller is calling me asking for £1100 per item extra and the pricing was a mistake. Either i return them or they will debit/invoice me for £1100 each item i bought.

 

One item i have opened and used already.

 

Where do i stand on this...anyone know?

[Conniff]

Can you pm me the name of company ? unless you don't mind putting it on the open forum.

[J4g3d]

Can you pm me the name of company ?

 

Hi...

Out of interest what difference does that make?

 

There was 1 day with a number of sellers selling this item at roughly the same price... So i presume they are a dropshipper whos working off the wholesale automatically adjusted prices...

[Conniff]

Don't pay them, once the contract has been completed, it's their problem if they priced them wrongly.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Conniff

[Conniff]

Hi...

Out of interest what difference does that make?

 

There was 1 day with a number of sellers selling this item at roughly the same price... So i presume they are a dropshipper whos working off the wholesale automatically adjusted prices...

 

I like to check the legality of companies that do selling through Amazon, some of them are not all they are shown to be.

[J4g3d]

Don't pay them, once the contract has been completed, it's there problem if they priced them wrongly.

 

Dont they have any come backs with regards to the distance selling reg? Or able to debit monies via amazon on my debit card?

[renegadeimp]

You purchased an item for a specific price. The item was agreed, sold, delivered. They cant do anything now. If they could, then every company would do the same thing and demand more.

[Conniff]

Dont they have any come backs with regards to the distance selling reg? Or able to debit monies via amazon on my debit card?

 

Distance selling is to assist the consumer more than the seller. It gives you a chance to examine goods for 7 working days starting the day after you receive it. Within those 7 working days you must notify them you don't want it. Under DSR, you don't have to give a reason to return.

 

With your Amazon purchase, you made an offer for goods and they accepted it by taking your money and delivering those goods to you, the contract is now complete.

 

Their own website comforms to all UK regulations on selling on line. Have another look on Amazon and see if the price for the goods you bought have changed.

[citizenB]

£1100 extra on each item - that is a huge error to make isn't it ?

 

Might it be worth taking this up with Amazon ?

 

Would you have purchased the items at the "new" price. ?

[steampowered]

There is a short guide here: http://www.out-law.com/page-429. Basically, if it was obvious that the price was wrong, then you should have known the seller made a mistake and there is no contract.

 

I'm not sure how this would work where the goods have already been delivered. If it was very obvious the seller made a pricing mistake I suspect the seller could ask to have the goods back after giving a refund, but I can't see how he could ask for more money.

[gordies]

Hi guys,

 

Got a odd one here.

 

I purchased 3 laptops online via an amazon market seller.. The money was debited and the items delivered and signed for. Now the seller is calling me asking for £1100 per item extra and the pricing was a mistake. Either i return them or they will debit/invoice me for £1100 each item i bought.

 

One item i have opened and used already.

 

Where do i stand on this...anyone know?

 

The seller is stuffed basically.

 

You made an offer to pay, they accepted that offer and delivered the goods after debiting your card. Contract completed, goods delivered.

 

There is ZERO action the seller can take and should they debit your card then it is a fraudulent transaction as you have not given any permission for it to take place.

 

Gordie

[MaxxPower]

There is a short guide here: http://www.out-law.com/page-429. Basically, if it was obvious that the price was wrong, then you should have known the seller made a mistake and there is no contract.

 

I'm not sure how this would work where the goods have already been delivered. If it was very obvious the seller made a pricing mistake I suspect the seller could ask to have the goods back after giving a refund, but I can't see how he could ask for more money.

I assume you're referring to the section headed "What if the price is "obviously" wrong?", but that section only mentions Singapore, not the UK. It links to another article, but that seems to apply to Norway and the US, not the UK.

 

I agree with the consensus that the seller is basically stuffed and has to take the hit. I would write to the bank and give an instruction that no further money is to be paid to this company when requested and, should they manage to get some, order an immediate chargeback as it is a fraudulent request for payment.

[steampowered]

I assume you're referring to the section headed "What if the price is "obviously" wrong?", but that section only mentions Singapore, not the UK. It links to another article, but that seems to apply to Norway and the US, not the UK.

Hi,

 

This is an article by an English law firm on English law, but well noted it talks about to a Singapore case. I imagine they did this because there are not too many English cases about online retailers and because Singapore contract law is very similar to English contract law.

 

The English case on point is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartog_v_Colin_&_Shields - held that where it is obvious the seller has made a mistake in the price, there is no contract. If the Op knew the laptops were wrongly priced and tried to snap them up it seems to me he would probably lose a county court claim by the seller to get them back ... although seller would have to refund and it was very foolish by the seller to actually despatch them.

[Trurider]

Their mistake their problem. The price quoted was an offer to treat. You offered, they accepted and indeed delivered. They haven't a leg to stand on legally. Any legal action should be contested as it will be dismissed.

 

Don't worry - they can't do a thing.

[MaxxPower]

I don't think they'd have much luck either way, as post #3 states that several different sellers were all selling the same item for roughly the same price. If multiple sellers are doing the same item for roughly the same price (within £50-100 of each other) then the consumer can't be expected to think that every single seller is making the same mistake at the same time.

 

The linked Hartog case also doesn't mention that the products were delivered, it only seems to express that the goods were offered at a mistaken price, so I don't think it's really relevant to this particular case where delivery of the goods has already taken place.

[Swoosh84]

Amazon marketplace sellers are not provided with any card details so will not be able to debit your account for the extra. They can send invoices to their hearts content but don't pay. Amazon strictly forbids Sellers charging extra after the sale is complete.

[citizenB]

There is a short guide here: http://www.out-law.com/page-429. Basically, if it was obvious that the price was wrong, then you should have known the seller made a mistake and there is no contract.

 

I'm not sure how this would work where the goods have already been delivered. If it was very obvious the seller made a pricing mistake I suspect the seller could ask to have the goods back after giving a refund, but I can't see how he could ask for more money.

 

But how would you know for sure the price was wrong ?

 

 

However e-tailers should be cautious about relying on this. Firstly, pricing errors are not always obvious to consumers, as the internet is often seen as the place to find good deals

 

[steampowered]

But how would you know for sure the price was wrong ?

 

As this is the seller's fault I think any doubt would be resolved in favour of buyer ... it would have to be extremely obvious. If the laptop was sold for 120 instead of 1200 then its obvious there has been a mistake, but if sold for 4400 instead of 5500 then not obvious.

 

I find it very difficult to reconcile the fact that other sellers were selling for the same price; and the fact that correct price was 1100 higher for each laptop. Thats an extraordinary price difference for a single laptop. Perhaps Op can clarify how much he paid?

 

The bit that bugs me is the fact Op bought 3 laptops. There may be a good reason for that, but it does look a little bit like the Op knew there was a pricing mistake and tried to take advantage ... this could be risky if the seller feels strongly enough about it to sue.

[citizenB]

Thanks SP, I have a better understanding now

[J4g3d]

A lot of info and replies, thanks guys.

 

Ok i knew the laptops were cheap but i thought the seller/s simply wanted to shift old stock or because of a new product coming out. Before i purchased i quickly checked new ones on ebay and in the completed listings i found 2 sold for £220 from a top rated seller. I then looked on the amazon market place to check other sellers and i did find one for £10 less than what i paid for each laptop but there feedback was not great (4 feedbacks 97%). I opted to pay more from a more trusted seller which ended up being £10 more than the cheapest. But other sellers on amazon had them for another £40 more than i paid..there was the odd1 or 2 sellers still had them for £1000 but i thought they was trying there luck.

 

What i have established (i think) is the seller is a dropshipper and allows a third party ie.. the wholesaler or whoever it may be to automatically adjust their prices without the seller doing anything. So i think the seller may have to take this up with the wholesaler or stop letting them auto adjust the prices if it was a misprice.

[J4g3d]

As this is the seller's fault I think any doubt would be resolved in favour of buyer ... it would have to be extremely obvious. If the laptop was sold for 120 instead of 1200 then its obvious there has been a mistake, but if sold for 4400 instead of 5500 then not obvious.

 

I find it very difficult to reconcile the fact that other sellers were selling for the same price; and the fact that correct price was 1100 higher for each laptop. Thats an extraordinary price difference for a single laptop. Perhaps Op can clarify how much he paid?

 

The bit that bugs me is the fact Op bought 3 laptops. There may be a good reason for that, but it does look a little bit like the Op knew there was a pricing mistake and tried to take advantage ... this could be risky if the seller feels strongly enough about it to sue.

 

Just to answer your question the seller had 17 in stock and i was going to purchase them all purely because i run a small business and im always on the look out for laptops as we sell laptops with some of our products we sell. Some of the products we sell require the laptop to run at high spec. I bought 3 to test really, if i thought it was a good deal i would of bought all 17. But i would certainly of been a returning customer if they still had them at that price.

[runnimede]

This also affects me (OP will know me from other thread as c*****2).

The company haven't stated any legal position yet, but merely asked us to return the items - I guess this could be mutual cancellation should a contract exist.

Given that we thought this could be a firesale, we jumped in and bought. After delivery the company found out about pricing issues when someone rang them - I assume it was from someone who had their order cancelled from other companies offering a similar deal.

 

I guess the company could try to claim a contract never existed as per Singapore issue, though that could be lessened by the fact that they should have price checked before dispatch, and a spike in purchases along with a price drop should have been waving red flags all over their systems.

Could a mistake be turned into just a bad bargain as they had time to check the orders before dispatch and should have appropriate systems in place to catch such errors? I also thought a mistake should leave you gobsmacked..like the £350 Argos TV for 49p, would a £1000 to £220 discount be gobsmacking for a one day firesale or just considered a great bargain? Usually companies catch these things before dispatch, however now we are in limbo until one side blinks.

 

A lot of the Argos/Singapore cases are from when the order acceptance email was considered to be the contract, yet now most companies use dispatch as the point of contract creation. If even the supplier can't spot the alleged misprice and they are the supposed expert, then how is the average layman supposed to?

Edited June 30, 2013 by runnimede

[steampowered]

Indeed. For the contract to be void due to mistake, the price difference would need to be gobsmacking and very obvious - something like £1.10 instead of £1100. If the price was simply very cheap, then this company has no comeback.

[runnimede]

It's also noticeable that the price was around £220 for one saturday, then by monday when the shop reopened the price was up to £1300. It should have been fairly simple for them to check orders and see a £220 Amazon sale invoice for something that is now £1300 on their system.

I'm not sure whether their obvious lack of diligence in processing orders would counterweigh any argument that no contract ever existed due to a mistake - it seems that relying on the mistake part of law is very uncertain compared to actually getting your processes right to spot glitches at the order processing stage.

[gordies]

Okay, there seems to be a huge amount of referral here to previous cases, and law.

 

IMO, the retailer does not have a leg to stand on.

 

I cannot see any valid argument that the contract is not valid due to a pricing error for the very simple reason that the buyer offered to buy at the price stated, the seller accepted and then the seller despatched the goods after receiving and accepting the payment tendered.

 

The contract has been struck, and completed, by the seller accepting the offer and physically despatching the goods. If the goods had not already been despatched then the outcome would have been different.

 

Spotting a mistake after the fact has no meaning at all. Additionally, should they try anything, there was another seller offering the same goods for sale at a lesser price and, this alone, blows any argument out of the water.