brain picking of a leagal beagle required not citroen relate

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 09 Oct 2008, 13:12

in this months MOTOR MECHANIC mag (free mag to the trade),

SEALEY TOOLS 2008 AUTUM PROMOTION

they are addvrtising a floor mounted susp coil spring compressor,

list price 299.95

promotion price

23.40 some thing inc vat

+ free air hammer gun,

there is no sign of a disclaimer,which the guy at SEALEY says there is,

is it possible to convince them into selling me one for the addvertised price

regards malcolm

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 09 Oct 2008, 14:02

No, because it's just an "offer to treat"
Unless they've agreed to sell it to you for that price (ie online via credit card and the transaction has completed) they're under no obligation to sell you it at all.

I could put Cassy up on Auto trader for £1 but insist on £10,000 (ok I think she's worth that) and no one can make me change my mind.

Course if you've really got the gift of the gab, you could try haggling them down...

Homer · Unread post by **Homer** » 11 Oct 2008, 09:54

There have been loads of cases like this.

There used to be an assumption that if you had a price on something then you had to sell it at that price, this is not true although trading standards would be interested in anyone mispricing things on purpose.

The price is only fixed when there is an agreement to sell. Most websites have small print which will say that is sometime under their control. It doesn't matter if you have sent the funds or the funds have cleared or whatever. All that matters is they have "agreed" to the sale.

On the other hand, you could end up with a bargain, you've nothing to lose. If they don't agree to sell at the advertised price you don't have to buy.

citroen7 · Unread post by **citroen7** » 11 Oct 2008, 10:18

i think you have a very good case a while back macro advertised washing powder at the wrong price and they had to stand buy the offer although they did restrict the number of boxes you could buy,so kick up a stink mention trading standards etc and they will be happy to "buy your silence"

Ross_K · Unread post by **Ross_K** » 11 Oct 2008, 14:28

There's a difference between losing a few quid on boxes of washing powder and losing 275 quid on a tool like that.

An invitation to treat, as Xac says, means that displaying an item at a certain price is not legally binding and allows sellers to withdraw an item from sale if mistakenly priced.

If the invitation to treat has been accepted, ie. money has changed hands, then the transaction is binding.

I remember something similar happened to Argos a few years ago - they advertised a 28" telly for £100 and were inundated with orders. Some orders slipped through the net but most buyers were told to GTF.

Trading Standards are unlikely to help you in any way unless they're having a particularly slow month...

Kowalski · Unread post by **Kowalski** » 11 Oct 2008, 21:29

As people have mentioned above, a misprice isn't legally binding, its only once money changes hands things become binding, i.e. if they'd realised after taking your money that they'd made a mistake its too late for them to stop the sale.

Looking at the Sealey website, it would appear to be a misprice and the decimal point found its way to the wrong place.

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.a ... onID=48511

If you want a spring compressor at a discount you can always negotiate, although I suspect its less appealing at its proper price