Real Bargains

We all are always on the lookout for a bargain, something on the cheap.  And we can find these elusive white whale bargains from time-to-time.  But what if we find a bargain too good to be true??  Maybe the item in question has been mis-priced, has the wrong price tag on it, and it is really cheap. 

What then?? 

Does the retailed have to honour that price?? 

What are your rights?

And lately we have seen a few of these mis-prints or mis-priced items, and more and more it is via a company’s web site, when we are doing online shopping. If you use contract law as a basis for any rights you may have, then retailers and shops do not have to honour the incorrect pricing. If the pricing mistake happens in a shop, then the retailer can refuse you the sale, and take the product off the shelves until it corrects the error. This is because the retailer is not actually offering to sell the product or goods at the indicated price.   It is just an offer to buy, so they can refuse the customer’s money and reject the sale.

Online sales are a bit more complicated.  Some web sites state in their terms that the order is only accepted when the goods have been shipped.  This opposed to when the order has been accepted.  This allows the shop or retailer a last line of defense to catch the error.

I remember years ago buying a CD set online from one of my favorite bands, The Who.  They were selling live recordings of their shows, and I wanted a copy of the recording of the show I had attended.  Nice souvenir to remember the event by.

The shows/CD’s were sold online for £14.99 and all profits went to Teenage Cancer Trust which Roger and Pete both support, and have for many years.When I went to buy/pay for the discs the price came up as £4.99, which I thought odd, but figured they would catch the error and bill my credit card the actually £14.99.  A day later I received an email stating they had found the error and indeed sold me the CD’s for £4.99 and since it was their error, they would stand by that price and sell me the concert for the £4.99.  They then reminded me all profits go to the charity, teenage Cancer Trust, and if I wish I could pay the full amount, but they would stand by the lower price as it was their mistake.

I found/thought this to be not just a nice gesture, but a class way to handle the situation.  I informed the retailer to go ahead and bill me the full £14.99 as I felt it was the right thing to do and thanked them for their honest and straightforward way of handling the situation.

So that is my story of mis-pricing.  What is yours?