Let’s just say that a well known internet “superstore” had a particular piece of electronic equipment for sale. And let’s just say that this equipment has a retail price of around $900.
And now let’s say that someone discovered that the sale price listed on the site today was $59.99. This would appear to be a mistake, right?
Let’s suppose that this someone was in the market for this particular piece of equipment, and decided to buy it for this great, great deal (93% off).
This someone has a printed invoice detailing the transaction, an e-mail confirming the transaction, and record of this transaction on their account history, all indicating the final sales price of $79.77, including shipping.
Suppose the e-tailer realizes, “Hey, we just sold this $900 thing for less than $100 because of a misplaced decimal point!”
It is an established principle of contract law that an error in price that is grossly obvious means that no “meeting of minds” ever took place and that, therefore, no valid offer was extended and no contract was formed.
Of course, the retailer might decide that the negative publicity from the incident would be so unpleasant that it would bite the bullet and deliver the mispriced goods. Given the burn rate of most internet companies, it would probably have a negligible effect on the seas of red ink threatening to drown them if they sold $20 bills for $3.95 (plus S&H) each.
I wouldn’t really make a big stink if they voided the sale before it was processed. And, if it came down to the choice, I’m not sure I would spend $600 on this component.
But, does anyone know, would they have any recourse if the product actually shipped at that price?
Perhaps this would be better suited in General Questions. Moderator?
I think once it has shipped that is it. I do not think they can legally get more money from you or get the merchandise back. The legal fees alone would cost more than the price difference.
Of course keep in mind, I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV.
Putting this together with the “what if it ships?” question, are there any legal cases involving products that shipped? Seems like you could make a strong legal argument that actually shipping something implies a “meeting of minds” took place. I mean, they wouldn’t ship until they’d billed you, so billing you implies they’re OK with it…Akatsukami?
If it ships, it’s yours. However, the odds of that aren’t that great. Most retailers who have mistakes of that sort see the demand for that item spike and see what’s up. Once they do, they cite the small print that essentially says “misprints don’t count so your order was put on hold. You can pay full price if you want.” At which point you cancel your order. I know some people that got some of Amazon’s mispriced DVDs though, so you could always hope…
Truth to tell, I don’t know. The cases that I can think of involve someone claiming that the automobile dealer wouldn’t honor his offer to sell a new Testarossa for $2500, and the like. We’ll have to get one of the people who actually practices law for a living to answer that, or I’ll have to do some <wince, grumble> research.
This happened in the UK. A large high-street retailer offered televisions on its website with the decimal point wrong. Once they realised the mistake they cancelled all of the orders for the item and took the bad PR hit.
Happened to me once with WalMart online. The next day when I asked when the order would be here they said in about 4 weeks! haha…clever people. So I bought from another store for more money [but not a lot].
If they accepted the order and shipped it, it’s yours at that price. Otherwise no sale would ever be complete.
Some items do increase in price [look at gas prices]. A store can not claim the old price was a mistake and back charge everyone who paid by credit card.
There are a few practices, such as bait and switch, where a store has to honor prices, but for the most part a store can change prices as they see fit. They can certainly correct a mismarked price.