Rights on internet buying, company trying to back down.

[HalloweenDuck]

I purchased an item last night that was at an amazing deal. It did not say on offer anywhere so there was the chance it was a mistake. I understand that.
But we purchased and paid for the item in full. (Not paypal, by CC)
On reading the terms and conditions it stated that the price/ item can not be changed by the company once paid for. It did not have any mention of what would happen if they have made a mistake. These are the t and c's I agreed to.
This morning I have got an email saying that the price was an error and that they will offer a full refund.
That is great, but I do not see why they can not honour their mistake?
I purchased and paid for the item at the advertised price.

The company has now changed its T and C's and has added a note saying that if a price was wrongly added then the company has so long to cancel order and refund. (This was not in the t and c I signed) It has also removed the sentence saying once paid the company can not change order.

Is it worth me fighting this? It is a lot of money (around 500) so not something I am happy about.

I would rather not say name of item or company but happy to PM if someone needs them to advise me.

Do you have a copy of the original terms and conditions?

How much cheaper was the item than the RRP?

This does make a big difference legally.

You don't need to name the item or the price or company, but if you could give an idea, that'd be helpful.

Didn't this happen with telco? Iirc, they didn't have to honor the deal as it was such a crazy deal it was clearly a mistake?

Thanks, the item was about one third cheaper.
I think we have a copy on the other laptop ( we having problems firing it up at present) However I know legally I can ask them to send me the t and c's that I agreed to.

Tesco.

The law has a clause that allows for obvious errors. One third cheaper may well be an obvious error...it would depend on whether any other shop is selling the item that cheap. So it's worth looking around competitors and taking screenshots of any similar prices, to show that it wasn't an obvious error.

If it was, that's the end of that, really.

You can ask for a copy of the T&Cs you agreed too but I wouldn't be overly surprised if they sent you a version which included the standard mistake clause. It'd save them money. I presume it's a relatively small company if they didn't have this clause in any form?

What matters is whether or not this was a clear mistake. If it was not a clear mistake the company must honour the contract. However, if it was a clear mistake by the retailer you cannot benefit from that mistake by forcing them to honour a price that may have been a typing error.

It really depends on the company's full previous terms and conditions - it's possible that advertising the product at a particular price was legally no more than an "invitation to treat", rather than an offer to sell. A lot of retailers specify that a contract is only formed once they've emailed to confirm that they have taken payment and the order has been accepted. You say you paid by credit card - was the payment actually processed by the retailer?

As you refer to them offering a full refund and a subsequent change in their t's and c's, this does sound a bit suspicious. As others have said though, they can probably justify their position if the price was so low as to be an obvious mistake. Worth contacting them and trying to get them to honour the price as a matter of goodwill though.