ebuyer refund without my consent

powpow

A few days back, I was browsing ebuyer.com and saw this item:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/199412

The price at the time was £63. I baught two of them as they were a bargain at that.

The transaction was completed via paypal, they received payment, the order was confirmed and the order status was "awaiting dispatch".


I received this email this morning:

ebuyer.com wrote:

Dear xxxxxx,

I can see that you have placed an order for an item with quick find code 199412 from our website; however there was a price error unfortunately, so your order has been cancelled regrettably. I can advise that the item price is £109.99 inc vat, but I can off the item at £101.99 inc vat with a free next working day shipping token if you would be happy to accept for any inconvenience caused?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Again I apologise for any inconvenience or annoyance caused.

Kind Regards
Stefan

Ebuyerexpress
shollowell@ebuyer.com
0871 521 3300
www.ebuyer.com

They refunded my money, even though the transaction was completed and sale was agreed....

I havent replied to them yet, but do they have to honour the price I paid or should I consider myself lucky that they are willing to offer me any form of compensation at all?

Does anyone know of any consumer law that states they have to honour the price after the sale is agreed?


Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

powpow

Ian Beale

No they don't have to honour that price and it's pretty rare a retailer would offer you a discount, usually they just send out a sorry your order was cancelled due to a pricing error.

jor el

Once the money is accepted, the contract is formed and binding, and that should be that. However, there's really not a lot you can do about a shop that refunds your money and cancels the contract, and there is an exception made for pricing mistakes too, though I don't think that applies after they accept the money.

The long and short of it is; let it go, as there is no one that will force them to sell at the price they advertised and accepted.

AlwaysAmber

jor el wrote: »

Once the money is accepted, the contract is formed and binding, and that should be that.

Not true, once the order is accepted and verified by the merchant maybe. There are a thousand legal reasons why merchants can refuse orders and just because paying by PayPal is an instant process it doesn't mean there is a contract in place.

But back to the original question, no they don't have to honour the pricing error.

whiterebel

AlwaysAmber wrote: »

Not true, once the order is accepted and verified by the merchant maybe. There are a thousand legal reasons why merchants can refuse orders and just because paying by PayPal is an instant process it doesn't mean there is a contract in place.

But back to the original question, no they don't have to honour the pricing error.

At what stage then would the contract be fulfilled?

Max Power1

whiterebel wrote: »

At what stage then would the contract be fulfilled?

For online instant payment, the contract is not fulfilled when payment is made (as the seller will not have a chance to be notified and thus agree to the prospective deal). Its fulfilled when the deal is accepted.

jor el

AlwaysAmber wrote: »

Not true, once the order is accepted and verified by the merchant maybe. There are a thousand legal reasons why merchants can refuse orders and just because paying by PayPal is an instant process it doesn't mean there is a contract in place.

There is no exception made in law for the various payment processing agents, like Paypal. Offer, Acceptance & Consideration (payment) is what is stated in law. After a seller accepts a payment, the contract is formed and binding. If a seller is going to accept payments from an instant payment system, like Paypal, then they must accept the pitfalls of it too.

Merchants can refuse orders for any reason, or no reason at all, but only pre-payment. Once they accept the payment, they should not be able to refuse it. If, as in this case, they do refuse and refund the payment, there's not a lot you can do about it.

The issue of pricing errors has come up many times, and often ends up in the national media. The NCA has previously stated that such companies must honour the sale if the payment has been accepted, and only orders that are pending can be cancelled. They haven't however forced the companies to comply, nor have they issued fines or penalties against companies that chose not to honour the sale.

whiterebel

Max Power1 wrote: »

For online instant payment, the contract is not fulfilled when payment is made (as the seller will not have a chance to be notified and thus agree to the prospective deal). Its fulfilled when the deal is accepted.

Sounds murky enough. most eBay buyers, for example, notify you back straight away when payment is gone through.

MOH

I think there's a Paypal option (on the merchant side) to pre-authorise the funds, rather than actually take the money immediately. So just because you've completed the Paypal transaction it may not mean the money has actually been taken.

AlwaysAmber

jor el wrote: »

There is no exception made in law for the various payment processing agents, like Paypal. Offer, Acceptance & Consideration (payment) is what is stated in law. After a seller accepts a payment, the contract is formed and binding. If a seller is going to accept payments from an instant payment system, like Paypal, then they must accept the pitfalls of it too.

Merchants can refuse orders for any reason, or no reason at all, but only pre-payment. Once they accept the payment, they should not be able to refuse it. If, as in this case, they do refuse and refund the payment, there's not a lot you can do about it.

The issue of pricing errors has come up many times, and often ends up in the national media. The NCA has previously stated that such companies must honour the sale if the payment has been accepted, and only orders that are pending can be cancelled. They haven't however forced the companies to comply, nor have they issued fines or penalties against companies that chose not to honour the sale.

I know the law doesn't make exceptions for services like PayPal, but it does make allowances for a retailers own terms and conditions. So if a retailer says that one of the conditions of ordering is that the order is only accepted when validated or verified, there's not much you can do about it. Just because they've received a notification from PayPal doesn't automatically mean the retailer has accepted your payment and doesn't imply a contract has been formed.

I'll give you an example an old world example. You send me an order form and cash through registered post. I accept and sign for the letter, open it and hold the cash and order form in my hand. Has a contract been formed at that stage? No, even though I've accepted your money and order form. I'm still entitled to satisfy myself that the order is genuine, that I have the stock and that no errors have been made.

cgarvey

jor el wrote: »

After a seller accepts a payment

Just to muddy the waters some more, there's surely a difference between X send Y some money using a 3rd party, and Y actually accepting the money as consideration for the contract.

In this case, using Paypal is like shoving cash in to a teller's fist and saying there you go now (whilst the 2 of you are arguing over a mis-priced item on display), rather than the teller actually accepting the cash.

Muddy waters, indeed!