pricing mistake.

fudge

fudge

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john
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i went into a rather large and wharehouse based camera shop yesterday to see them displaying a sign beside a oly pen saying last few to clear. it went on to offer the camera and 2 lens kit for £30 less than the body only price. when i asked one of the young lads in the shop he said that must be a mistake. can they be held to that price?
 
i m wondering if the boy was wrong and it was a special he didnt know about, he didnt know much to be honest. i ll have to go back at some point and see if its still there.
 
Prices stated are only an "invitation" to buy not a legal obligation to sell at that price.
 
Last edited:
Rough Edges said:
I thought this was a sale of goods act issue. if a price is advertised then it must be honoured?
I know it was amended to cover errors and ommissions in mags etc...
Click to expand...

Common misconception. Anyone that has been sold at the tagged price has only got it as a gesture of good will. They are not obliged to sell it to you at that price.

I think that they have to remove said item(s) for 24hrs and then relabel. Its also got to be labelled as the object, you cant expect to get a digital camera for £20 when the sign put next to it is for a memory card for i.e. Amazing how many people suddenly cant read labelling but they can read a price if they think its going to get them something cheaper.

When I worked at a store, it was very often that people were adamant that they were entitled to buy it for the wrong price, all because maybe another customer had put it back in the wrong place.
 
Rough Edges said:
I thought this was a sale of goods act issue. if a price is advertised then it must be honoured?
I know it was amended to cover errors and ommissions in mags etc...
Click to expand...

An advertised price is only, as Mal says, an "invitation to treat", in other words you make an offer of that price and the shop (normally) then accepts your offer, they are under no legal obligation to do so though.
 
Long time since I studied any of this but if I remember rightly the price displayed is an invitation to treat, only if you make them an offer, they accept and you pass them money does it become a binding contract to supply you the goods at that price.

They have no legal obligation to sell to you at the advertised price, it is more an indication of the level of offer they are likely to accept.
 
And AFAIK it only becomes a trading standards issue if it is a deliberate attempt to deceive or happens alot.

jeo
 
Not necessarily, no.

There is a 'palpable error' clause in UK law which says that a business does not have to honour prices falsely advertised as a result of gross error or sabotage. For instance if something was meant to cost £199, but due to a printing error was advertised as costing £1.99 - in such a situation a business can claim a palpable error.

If there is no evidence that a communication error was made, they have to honour that price or refuse the sale completely (Invitation to Treat), a failure to do one of the two wil put them in violation of the trade descriptions act - unless fineprint specifies otherwise (which it often does, ie it'll often say something like 'prices are a guide, we reserve the right to determine price at time of purchase').
 
Yep - 'Invatation to Treat'

I remember this from Contract Law.

They can refuse to sell to you even at the right price if they so wish.
 
normally if it is in the system at that price they will sell you it at that price. best to take it up to the counter and see if it actually is that price.

happens in supermarkets all the time TBH
 
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