I purchased an item from [edited] for £3200 during their January sale thinking it was a good deal as the item normally retails for between £5000-6000.

Order confirmation received straight away and payment has been taken from my credit card.

I’ve now 3 days later had an email from them saying it was a misprice and giving me the chance to either purchase the item at full price £5500 or to cancel the order and receive a full refund.

Their T&Cs (I can't post a link as a new member to them) states that a contract is formed once an order is received and payment taken:

3.1 How we will accept your order. Our acceptance of your order will take place when you complete the checkout process and pay for your order, at which point a contract will come into existence between you and us.

Another T&C states

7.8 When you own goods. You own a product which is goods once we have received payment in full.

They have one T&C covering mispricing which states

15.4 What happens if we got the price wrong.

It is always possible that, despite our best efforts, some of the products we sell may be incorrectly priced.

We will normally check prices before accepting your order so that, where the product's correct price at your order date is less than our stated price at your order date, we will charge the lower amount.

If the product's correct price at your order date is higher than the price stated to you, we will contact you for your instructions before we proceed with your order.

If we accept and process your order where a pricing error is obvious and unmistakeable and could reasonably have been recognised by you as a mispricing, we may end the contract, refund you any sums you have paid and require the return of any goods provided to you.

In my view it wasn’t an obvious and unmistakeable pricing error (for example where they get the decimal point wrong and sell something for £500 instead of £5000). During a January sale I think it’s reasonable items could be heavily discounted.

I plan to write to them to state that I consider we have a contract and I want them to uphold their end by supplying the item to me.

But if they refuse, what are my options to enforce the contract?

small claims court?

And what would I realistically be asking for?

Obviously I can cancel and get my money back so I'm no worse off, but it means I won’t have the item, and would have to spend more money to secure it elsewhere.

Any advice would be a great help.

I think we've seen this before and theres nowt you can do about it sadly.?

I think we've seen this before and theres nowt you can do about it sadly?.

Thanks for the reply.

I understand that's usually the case where the T&Cs say something along the lines of

'contract isn't formed until the items are shipped'.

But in my case their T&C are pretty clear on that a contract has been formed as soon as the money has been taken and order confirmed.

Having done a bit of reading looks like a small claims court for 'loss of bargain' is the only approach if my initial approach by email fails.

But any info is from before the latest consumer regulations came into force so not sure if that changed anything

I doubt you will be successful with a county court claim.

Their t&c do not override the law and as goods have not been delivered yet, they can still pull out of the deal.

I doubt you will be successful with a county court claim.

Their t&c do not override the law and as goods have not been delivered yet, they can still pull out of the deal.

You'd be correct if the agreed terms said "contract finalized on delivery", but they don't.

You seem to be saying that "the law" says 'contract no finalised until delivery' ; that certainly isn't the default, and would be unusual (why would accept a 'contract' that one party can get out of whenever they chose, just by not delivering the goods?).

The default is "contract crystalised when payment taken", and that is even the position stated in the T's and c's (3.1)

The issue is their term (15.4).

The OP can get the item for the best price they can, and then issue a letter before claim against the firm for the difference between that best price and £3200, as damages for non-compliance with the contract, and to put the OP back in the position they would have been had the contract been fulfilled.

If it goes to the county court (likely small claims track), the OP then asks the court to confirm that the contract should have been upheld, and the firm will defend it saying that the "pricing error (was) obvious and unmistakeable and could reasonably have been recognised by (the OP) as a mispricing"

The court will then decide.

Thanks for the advice.

if I wanted to pursue I'd need to purchase the item elsewhere?

And then claim the difference?

How would I get my original payment back from the retailer?

If the retailer has said they aren’t going to supply the goods, they should be refunding you.

If the retailer is the cheapest supplier you can find (you are required to “mitigate your loss” - you can only sue them for the difference for the cheapest supplier) and they haven’t refunded you : an option is to pay them the difference and sue them for the difference.

Loss of bargain or loss of opportunity.

However, all contracts are not based upon just the offer and acceptance of the money but on any party's ability to keep to their side of the bargain.

All the company had to say was " sorry, out of stock", refund and they were in the clear.

They have muddies the water by asking if you would care to pay them another £2k and they will then be happy to supply the item but that is not what their T&C's state so yes, you do have a reason to claim

BUT only if you continue with the purchase at the higher price.

Do you want to risk a fight after the event or can you sho around and get the item elsewhere for less than their belatedly quoted £5k?

Update:

I wrote to the company pointing out that I understood a contract had come into existence as per their terms and set out the reasons why I didn't believe the misprice to have been an obvious error. They've agreed and will be sending me the item I ordered.

Good result. What have you bought?

Good result. What have you bought?

It was some furniture. Very pleased with the result as avoided the need to pursue it in court