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Amazon Sells IPAQs for $10
TomHoward writes "In a pretty huge blunder, amazon.co.uk have put the HP IPAQ H1910 (RRP about £300) for sale for just over £7.32 (plus postage and packing). It's very hard to get through to their site right now, but if you're quick you can have a look at their blunder here." Don't bother clicking through, Amazon has taken the items down.
Amazon has said before that these things happen, and they won't honor orders for honest price mistakes.
Sometimes I worry that I'll develop Alzheimer's disease, but no one will notice.
Here is a link to that story about that 36-inch TV for $99 on Amazon. People sued to get the TV for the advertised price, and lost.
Sometimes I worry that I'll develop Alzheimer's disease, but no one will notice.
The BBC have quickly picked up on this, you can find their story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2864461.stm It claims that "some workers were rumoured to be placing orders for 50 or 60 of the computers at a time"
Amazons terms and conditions state that until they ship the goods to you NO contract exists. Therefore they do not have to do anything. Plus they won a case about this in the states plus they say clearly on the site that the won't honor this kind of mistake.
SO - why should they honor any mistake like this again?
No contract until they bill you. Amazon don't bill you until it ships. Price cannot reasonably be thought to be correct. Under UK law they have zero requirements to give this to you. Quit whining: Governing Law and Contract Formation No contract will subsist between you and Amazon.co.uk* for the sale by it to you of any product unless and until Amazon.co.uk accepts your order by e-mail confirming that it has dispatched your product. That acceptance will be deemed complete and will be deemed for all purposes to have been effectively communicated to you at the time Amazon.co.uk sends the e-mail to you (whether or not you receive that e-mail). For the avoidance of doubt, any such contract will be deemed to have been concluded in the United States of America. Further, any such contract will be interpreted, construed and enforced in all respects in accordance with the laws of England, and you and Amazon.co.uk irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts. "
In the UK, under the Sale Of Goods Act and other legislation covering purchases (either in the high street, by mail order or online), Amazon has one of two options: either honour the advertised price or not sell the goods at all.
The legislation is designed to protect both the purchaser and the vendor. If you went into a store and saw a widescreen 32in. TV priced at £900 instead of £1,000, then the store would be bound into selling it to you at that price or not at all. They couldn't turn around and say, "sorry, the price is £100 more, pay the full £1,000 if you wan't it", but they could refuse to sell it to you.
In most cases, where the difference is still within their profit margin and practical, stores tend to honour the lower price. However, where there's been an honest mistake, such as that £1,000 TV being mispriced at £100, they almost invariably take the option of refusing to sell the item.
The courts (where civil action has been taken) have taken a "common sense" approach. Getting a £1,000 TV for only £900 is a reasonable expectation (in a sale, promotion, etc) but getting it for £100 is highly unreasonable. Basically, where the pricing might be deceiving they tend to favour the purchaser and where the pricing is obviously a genuine mistake they tend to favour the vendor.
Generally, it's a very good system. However, I do remember reading about an old lady somewhere in the US (Texas perhaps?) who went into her local car dealership with a bunch of oversized bananas and bought a brand new car with them. The dealership had advertised their new models on radio as being available for "only xx big bananas", ("big bananas" being local slang for $1,000), and having to honour the sale after a court decision found in favour of the old woman.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
They've done this before, so this isn't big news. About 9 months ago, they had the new RCA/Xbox TVs, 36", MSRP of about $1200, on sale for $99! (It was funny, it said "YOU SAVE 92%" or whatever the number was)
It circulated pretty fast. I ordered 6 of them.
I did find their policy posted, tho - which stated that the could at any time increase the price of an ordered item and then notify you for your approval.. Or, if the price posted was too high and you ordered, they'd drop the price - and this wouldn't take your approval to push it through.
Needless to say, about 3 days later a bunch of us got emails stating that there was an error, and if we'd like to order them at $999, then we could re-confirm our order.. Hah
Ah but in the UK, a similar thing happened with Kodak digital cameras. If I recall correctly, those customers who got confirmation that their order had been taken were legally able to purchase at that price. IANAL though.
They only deliver electronics to the UK and Ireland.
If a brick-and-mortar store mislabels an item, they don't have to honor the price. A lot of the department stores do, because they sell so many items, and they are all cheap, and the value of good will is more than the value of the item.
Also, if they mislabel the item, and sell it at price to whites, but not to blacks (or Catholics but not protestants, etc), they can get in trouble that way.
And if you *call* the store, and ask "Do you have a Black-n-Decker Stove-top drill with automatic surprise reverse torquing" and they say "yes", and you ask "What is your price", and they say "$25", and you ask "please check--all the other stores say $50", and they say "I know, it's $25, come and get it", then they can be bound by their verbal contract.
But if they mislabel an item (especially a boutique store) and you discover it, they can say "no, I'm sorry, that's $135, not $1.35." And if you don't like it, you can still buy it, or you can leave. Or you can break all their little hummel figures, and go to jail until you pay for them -- it's up to you.
That said, I think it would be *great* if the Amazon site was set up to every so often lower the price of one or two new items, drastically (especially open box items.) That way, you'd go there, just to check.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I don't think so - that looks more like information about what category the item is in (electronics in this case). The referral URL's look more like: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000065UO O/johansbooksparto/ for a particular item (a Sony DVD player in this case), or http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/redirect-home/ johansbooksparto/ for the home page. And I am not sure if there is significant (or any) referral fees paid for "next day" browsing.
I tried and failed as the site was just too busy to complete the transaction ;(
A couple of friends of friends who tipped us off reported that they where able to place orders and even got confirmation emails.
Do you really think I'm go to put something novel here?
According to BBC radio 2, Amazon have decided not to honour any orders placed.
Unfortuantly, no web link yet, and the radio was somewhat lacking on detail, but they implied that no-one was going to get one at that price.
This wouldn't be the first time that a retailer has renaged on an online deal, offereed in error. A couple of years ago (Sept 1999), Argos offered a £300 TV for £3. They refused to honour it, and I'm not aware of any legal rammifications for Argos.
So, looks like this will be just another one of those curiosity stories.
http://www.snopes.com/business/deals/banana.htm
Might be true about buying a stereo, but probably not about buying a new car.
-- Boycott Shell