Accidentally priced item as "free" online?

ShaShaBear

Without giving too much information, a friend who works in online sales for a company has accidentally listed an item as free. The error was spotted very quickly, but 4 items were availed of at the free price. Is the seller obliged now to provide the items to the buyer? Specifially in the case of tickets for entry to an event, if they have the ability to print them, can these tickets be cancelled?

dudara

Probably yes, assuming that they have appropriate clauses in their terms and conditions to cover instances of pricing errors.

irishmoss

ShaShaBear wrote: »

Without giving too much information, a friend who works in online sales for a company has accidentally listed an item as free. The error was spotted very quickly, but 4 items were availed of at the free price. Is the seller obliged now to provide the items to the buyer? Specifially in the case of tickets for entry to an event, if they have the ability to print them, can these tickets be cancelled?

Who has the ability to print the tickets? The seller?

If so no I don't think they are obliged to do so, it was a genuine error.

ShaShaBear

irishmoss wrote: »

Who has the ability to print the tickets? The seller?

If so no I don't think they are obliged to do so, it was a genuine error.

Sorry, the buyer had the ability to print them. I figured it's most likely a lost cause since they technically have the item for sale now, just curious to know if legally the seller could cancel the tickets regardless since it was an obvious pricing error.

Sleeper12

Suppliers are all to make mistakes and can cancel an order. If you goods are shipped then you can't try charge.
If tickets have been shipped or printed then the contact is complete. put it down as a go will gesture if this is the case. Luckily it is only 4 tickets

Tenigate

Arguably, without consideration no contract exists.
There may be an E&OE clause on the tickets or the site from which the tickets were purchased.
Best bet though is to tell them the tickets were issued in error and have been cancelled. Possibly offer a discounted rate or upgrade if they wish to purchase tickets. Or alternatively, take the hit. It's only 4 tickets after all.

ShaShaBear

Tenigate wrote: »

Arguably, without consideration no contract exists.
There may be an E&OE clause on the tickets or the site from which the tickets were purchased.
Best bet though is to tell them the tickets were issued in error and have been cancelled. Possibly offer a discounted rate or upgrade if they wish to purchase tickets. Or alternatively, take the hit. It's only 4 tickets after all.

The company AFAIK rang the person who bought them and they were very assertive about their right to the tickets at the advertised price which the company accepted and allowed them to keep them as "written off". I didn't think that it was as clear cut as that so I felt I'd make sure for my friend's sake, since they made the error that resulted in the mishap

Senna

Sale is not completed, I'm guessing the tickets are for a future event, the company could cancel them if they have anything in the T&C's which allows them to (with I'm sure all ticket sellers would, as events get cancelled and rescheduled all the time), but it is 4 tickets and unless they are to a 100 day world cruise, the company should just absorb the loss as the negative publicity over these types of mistakes can be much worse than the actual initial loss.
If the event had taken place, there couldn't be comeback from the sellers.

listermint

Ive never seen the likes of Argos or Amazon having to fulfill on a mistake like this. They usually just cancel the orders and apologise.

Senna

listermint wrote: »

Ive never seen the likes of Argos or Amazon having to fulfill on a mistake like this. They usually just cancel the orders and apologise.

They usually have not sent the item to the person, so no part of the contract is completed. In this case the buyer has received the tickets, as the tickets can be printed out as soon as they are bought. Just makes it slightly different.

Also, many companies will honor miss priced items, but its purely good faith and the loss is miniscule compared to keeping customers happy and bolstering the imange that transactions with this company are safe.

Vic_08

Senna wrote: »

They usually have not sent the item to the person, so no part of the contract is completed. In this case the buyer has received the tickets, as the tickets can be printed out as soon as they are bought. Just makes it slightly different.

In those cases the items are sold at a low price so a contract has been completed, in this it was free so arguably no enforceable contract exists.

Senna

Vic_08 wrote: »

In those cases the items are sold at a low price so a contract has been completed, in this it was free so arguably no enforceable contract exists.

Contract is not complete if the buyer has not received the item.

Lux23

I actually don't think they are obligated to honor the order, they can cancel it but from a PR or customer service point of view, I think I would take the hit.

rubadub

listermint wrote: »

Ive never seen the likes of Argos or Amazon having to fulfill on a mistake like this. They usually just cancel the orders and apologise.

there have been a few cases, I got a blu ray player from pixmania advertised for about a euro, in bargain alerts you see a lot of misprices and the very odd time they do honour them. M&S sold many mispriced TVs in the UK after I think an online petition or public complaint.

I would not be worried about PR etc, its not like anyone is going to be saying "those bastards, imagine not honouring the free tickets people ordered in good faith". -unless of course the company in question is ticketmaster

Sleeper12

rubadub wrote: »

there have been a few cases, I got a blu ray player from pixmania advertised for about a euro, in bargain alerts you see a lot of misprices and the very odd time they do honour them. M&S sold many mispriced TVs in the UK after I think an online petition or public complaint.

I would not be worried about PR etc, its not like anyone is going to be saying "those bastards, imagine not honouring the free tickets people ordered in good faith". -unless of course the company in question is ticketmaster

I disagree with this. I've seen plenty of threads on boards where an OP is looking for advise on how to force a supplier to give out goods free or at a price that the OP of the thread knows is a mistake. I see this approach as little more than attempted theft. There are plenty of people like this. Not getting their own way they get dozens of their friends to leave one star reviews on the suppliers Facebook page or Google reviews. I've even seen them not mention that they wanted something for nothing but would say how rude customer service is or "They never shipped the goods after they took my money".
The world is full of sad people

Melendez

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rubadub

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I disagree with this. I've seen plenty of threads on boards where an OP is looking for advise on how to force a supplier to give out goods free or at a price that the OP of the thread knows is a mistake.e

Oh I have seen plenty of those threads too. And the vast majority of other posters in the thread are certainly not saying "those bastards, imagine not honouring the item the OP ordered in good faith" -which is what I am talking about.

I don't recall seeing any of them getting their friends to leave false reviews etc.

Fred Swanson

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