Example: I buy a bike from a retailer online & I pay instantly i receive an invoice that states the full spec of the bike and the price I paid. I then get told that they have under-charged me and that the pricing was wrong.

What will happen

a) do they have to release the goods as the transaction has been completed
b) will they automatically charge me the difference
c) refuse to ship the bike and cancel the transaction

Usually C, although some will oblige and send it. Not many mind but Dixons did with me when I bought my TV for £200 less than it was supposed to be.

they don't have to and are unlikely to do a), they're not allowed to do b) without your approval. c) is the only real option.

online purchase listings, like prices in a supermarket, are an "invitation to treat", ie. for you to make an offer. when you purchase an item online you're effectively offering to buy it at a price, which they are then within their rights to refuse to accept, leading to scenario c).

Thanks for the advice. Ill see what happens.

the flatboy,

hasn't the shop agreed to that price by accepting the payment and collecting it from his bank.

no, the online payment processing system can't be deemed to have accepted the offer on their behalf – the point where they notice is the point of acceptance/refusal and they then refund the money.

it's basically an arbitrary "interpretation" of contract law to cope with situations like this that can arise in modern trade, like the internet etc.

Does this not depend on the payment type used. Most online retailers only preauth the transaction. This is a check/reservation on the funds, notactually taking them. If the retailer used this type of transaction then you've not actually bought anything until they complete the transaction. If the retailer takes the money straight away I believe the rules are different. We always advise the clients to preauth not take immediate payment due to this.

that makes sense – way to put distance between the payment and the acceptance, probably for the reason ian suggests.

that makes sense – way to put distance between the payment and the acceptance, probably for the reason ian suggests.

Maybe but that's not how it works.

not sure what you mean?

They're allowed to make errors. As the payment process us automatic then they don't have send them item if they spot the error. I've been lucky a handful if times but usually the order is cancelled once the error us spotted.

This happend to me on evans website a couple of years ago, they put a mistake on their website where a specialized enduro was reduced to £99.99 when it should have been £999.99, i like anyone would jumped at the opportunity to buy it. This was around 7:30pm.

The next morning a got an email saying that they where sorry but due to a technical error they will not be sending the bike. I knew it was a mistake and thought fair enough, I also got a call from their customer services to explain in more detail which i though was quite good of them as they could have been awkward. She explained that because it was a genuine obvious error in the pricing that they could not follow the transaction through. I got £50 of gift vouchers because of it.

Drac – Member

They're allowed to make errors. As the payment process us automatic then they don't have send them item if they spot the error. I've been lucky a handful if times but usually the order is cancelled once the error us spotted.

yeah, that's exactly what i and nixie said 😕

that makes sense – way to put distance between the payment and the acceptance, probably for the reason ian suggests.

That confused me as you said Ian and he reckoned they had to oblige, unless Nixie is also Ian.

ah right, i meant what i said was the position as otherwise the situation ian suggested might occur. i see the confusion now. 🙂