Orderd a Dell laptop. They want to cancel my order cause they want me to pay more

Woody_FX

Ordered a laptop and it looked like a bargin. The price was very good so went through with the purchase.

Now i got a call from Dell saying that they made a mistake and should have charged me €300 extra so they are going to cancel it. Is this illegal?

I bought the laptop cause it was adverstised at that price and i though the deal was good? Can they just decide to cancel the sale after i placed the order because they didnt want to see all that price? Paid by CC and they havent charged me cc yet.

TerrorFirmer

Not illegal, provided it was a genuine mistake, which it obviously was....

muffler

Im not so sure. If a product is advertised at a set price then I think the vendor must agree to sell for that price but thats only my opinion.

I think some of the experts on consumer issues who post here will give better advice

Kimbot

NO they can withdraw their offer to sell at that price at any time!!

Random

Until your credit card is charged or the goods dispatched then there's no contract, as far as I remember.

seamus

ciaranfo wrote:

Until your credit card is charged or the goods dispatched then there's no contract, as far as I remember.

Correct.

Either party has the right to withdraw before money changes hand. That the item was priced incorrectly technically is a fault on their part, but generally it's ignored provided that it was a genuine mistake and it is corrected swiftly

jimmycrackcorm

You could get something extra out of them for the inconvenience.

antoinolachtnai

Yup, in the jargon, it's probably an offer to treat, not an offer to sell. It is worth checking with the credit card company to see if they took a deposit on your card at any stage, that could change the legal complexion of the thing.

Calhoun

From what i hear it was a mess up with the website. The price calculater wasnt charging for upgrades on a certain spec of laptop.

I doubt a deposit would have been taken on your card as most orders were so undervalue they couldnt be processed.

savemejebus

did you get an invoice? if you got an invoice (not the automated acknowledgement) then they have to honour it as it means they've accepted your offer and entered into a contract.

jimi_t

Happens ALL the time on the DELL website and you see a thread every few months about people who wanted their e200 (instead of e2,000) LCD projectors when they saw a pricing mistake on the site and were wondering about the possibility of suing

Linoge

seamus wrote:

Correct.

Either party has the right to withdraw before money changes hand.

Are you sure about that?

A contract is formed with offer and acceptance and consideration.

The contract can be completed by the exchange of goods, cash etc. That does not mean that until the contract is completed that the contract is not valid/ that there is no contract.

Dells invitation to treat would only have been valid up to the point where they accept the buyers offer (which they have done). They can't invite, accept and then reject.

Dell invited + buyer offered + Dell accepted = contract

OP, Dell have broken their contract with you.

Kimbot

Sorry but I had the same problem a few years ago!!

Laptop was €450 on a site, paid for it by Credit Card, money was taken out of the account and I got a phone call the next day saying sorry but its not for that price etc.

I rang consumer affairs and they said the company were in the right to not allow the sale go through even though I had invoices and the Credit Card was debited!!

Revalco

jonny24ie wrote:

Sorry but I had the same problem a few years ago!!

Laptop was €450 on a site, paid for it by Credit Card, money was taken out of the account and I got a phone call the next day saying sorry but its not for that price etc.

I rang consumer affairs and they said the company were in the right to not allow the sale go through even though I had invoices and the Credit Card was debited!!

What happened in the end? Did you pay more?

seamus

Linoge wrote:

Are you sure about that?

A contract is formed with offer and acceptance and consideration.

The contract can be completed by the exchange of goods, cash etc. That does not mean that until the contract is completed that the contract is not valid/ that there is no contract.

Dells invitation to treat would only have been valid up to the point where they accept the buyers offer (which they have done). They can't invite, accept and then reject.

Dell invited + buyer offered + Dell accepted = contract

OP, Dell have broken their contract with you.

Well I don't know the finer points of this area of law, but you are correct - if the offer is accepted then there's a contract.

However, you'll usually find that the emails will state that "This is not an acceptance of your order", and "Your order has not been accepted until you receive another mail from us".

There are times when retailers may withdraw from a contract of sale - such as when they are out of stock, or the item is otherwise unavailable for sale.

savemejebus

jonny24ie wrote:

I rang consumer affairs and they said the company were in the right to not allow the sale go through even though I had invoices and the Credit Card was debited!!

think you got bad advice there buddy then, once you have an invoice (not the automated reply) then you have a contract. Mate of mine got an xps 600 last year from Dell for €600 based on that rule:)

Kimbot

Revalco wrote:

What happened in the end? Did you pay more?

I just didn't bother with the place after that!!

Calhoun

savemejebus wrote:

think you got bad advice there buddy then, once you have an invoice (not the automated reply) then you have a contract. Mate of mine got an xps 600 last year from Dell for €600 based on that rule:)

He most likely got the automated reply. If a mistake that let your friend get a XPS for 600 euro happened once. It would not happen again :P

chump

I got a pc from dell for less than €1000 and it went up to 1500€ the next morning. It went thru and all has been good... :eek: