Torchwood 2 order cancelled

[julesjones]

Okay, it took them a few days to notice and decide what to do about it -- but Play are now saying that the Torchwood box set at 15 quid was an error and they're cancelling the orders. This has been going out to people this morning:


We are writing to advise that your recent order for Torchwood Series 2 was listed at the incorrect price.

Unfortunately we are unable to fulfil your order at the incorrectly advertised price and it has now been cancelled. Please be assured that no
payment has been taken for this order.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused in this matter and would like to thank you for your valued custom.

Kind Regards

Play.com

Comments

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

IIRC, there have been a number of cases on this theme, and AIUI they can only cancel orders for things listed too cheaply if it's blatantly obvious (decently-specced laptop for 50 instead of 500 for instance). 15 for a box set is cheap, but not unreasonable (we got Buffy season 5 for 17 the other day).

[julesjones]

I think they could reasonably argue that 15 quid for a set on pre-order *was* an obvious error, especially given that the forum where I picked it up from was in fact discussing whether it was real given how cheap it was. Whereas if they tried that when the set had been out for six months, they'd have a hard time convincing anyone that it was obviously an error.

[mpettitt.livejournal.com]

I think the fact that it was listed at that price for a reasonable length of time (over a week, at least), could also imply that the price was correct. Given a bit of media persuasion, they might cave for people that ordered it, if only to avoid bad press. Might not, but worth a try...

[julesjones]

Yes, the fact that it stayed up for so long is why people decided that it was probably real. If it had been up for one day and then pulled, I think people wouldn't be so pissed off about it. A week starts to look more like a deliberate bait-and-switch. I'm not sure that it was actually more than three or four days as they pulled the listing altogether for a couple of days, but even so, it was up for more than one day.

[brett-dunbar.livejournal.com]

Actually they can only prosecute for fraud and recover the goods post-sale if the price is obviously wrong. If you could reasonably have believed the price was correct and the sale has gone through it stands as you were acting in good faith. If the sale has not gone through either party is entitled to cancel without penalty as there is no contract. If you can cancel without penalty so can they.

[carl-allery.livejournal.com]

It may be Urban Myth, but it seems to me that it used to be the case in the UK that a shop advertising a product for a certain price - even if it was a mistake - was required to sell the product at that price. I wonder how Internet stores are affected by that.

(Last year I bought the Carnival season 1 box set in Tesco, which had been 'wrongly' priced *inside* the security box. At the till there was discussion about this because it came up at 3 times the price and I said if that was the price then I didn't want it. I kept insisting that it wasn't my fault that they'd put the price on it, but if they stuck to it they could deduct it from my bill. In the end, they sold it to me for the 7 quid it was priced at, not the 20 quid they thought it should be. And I hadn't even suggested that they had to.)

[julesjones]

I think in bricks-n-mortar shops they're typically not legally required to sell it as such, because it's an invitation to the purchaser to make an offer rather than a contract. (Though a shop that persistently pulled a bait-and-switch might find themselves subject to the ongoing attention of Trading Standards.) What they're not allowed to do is let you make the purchase and then put up the price before delivery. So ringing it up at the full price at the till and refusing to let you say you didn't want it any more would be illegal. Online shops are in a trickier position, but since Play hasn't taken any money yet and explicitly says in the terms on the site that they can cancel erroneous orders, they're reasonably well covered.

[(Anonymous)]

I got that too. I'm gutted! Whats in gone up to?

Its tiggerbrasilf btw (:

[julesjones]

38 quid. :-(

[tiggerbrasilf.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I'm so gutted. I don't think I can justify spending that much money on myself. If they'd told me within about 24 hours I wouldn't have been too bothered but as its taken so long I'd sort of got used to the fact that I'd ordered it and even got happy about it.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Nor surprising, but worth an email to say since it was advertised on their site for several days at that price they should honour orders.

When I ran a shop I was told by trading standards that if I advertised or labelled something at the wrong price I was legally obliged to sell it for that. Only last week I went into the local store and bought a box of cereal that came up at 50p more on the till than on the shelf and they sold it to me for the shelf price (which was incorrect).

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

"I regret that you will not be standing by your advertised price, shown on your website for well over a week.

I further regret that such bait and switch tactics require me to carefully consider all my future purchases from you company, and will further force me to let all my friends and aquaintances know of your actions and suggest they also consider carefully before doing business with you.

cc'd to Trade and Practices Watchdog Agency (whatever it's called in U.K.) and Better Business Bureau (U.K.)."

[mpettitt.livejournal.com]

Sounds fairly reasonable to me. I wrote a response for Tessa to send to them stating, basically, "not happy, price remained for at least a week before you cancelled orders, would cancel other parts of order but you've already shipped them, not orderin from you again unless you sort to our satisfaction"

If no response by Friday, I'll resend and request response within 7 days.

My take is that they cocked up, and should probably accept a level of losses, offer a single copy of the set to people who ordered before it was changed (on the basis that anyone ordering more is likely to be planning to resell) with apologies for the error. That way, they get positive feedback, good publicity, and customers who are pleased, as well as a good encouragement to whoever puts the prices into the system not to do it again.

By cancelling all orders, they get bad publicity, unhappy customers, and a wave of people saying "Play are crap, avoid like the plague", which, given other recent reports, they could probably do to avoid! Yes, it's not a legal requirement, but it shows a positive attitude towards customers.