I'll start with the usual "I know this should be in the legal group but..."
A company took an order through their web site and sent a confirmation e-mail with prices for each line item and the total to be debited from my credit card. Does that constitute a contract?
When the goods arrived they have charged a higher price for some items and charged more to my card.
What offence has ben committed? Something under the sale of goods act? I believe in retail premises it is an offence to charge a higher than marked price once an item has been rung into the till, unless the higher price is first pointed out to the customer.
simple price discrepency, shouldn't happen but does.
under the DRS you can send the items back at any time, for any reason, in the next 7 days but I think a quick phonecall / email to the company will be your first and best approach.
That was an offer. A contract was created when you acceepted their offer, unless they'd withdrawn or amended it between offer & acceptance. See their terms and conditions for something like "...valid for 30 days...". . They may have quoted their current list prices and the prices had increased before you had placed the order.
I think you misunderstand what I said, the order *confirmation* came
*after* the order was placed and accepted, so it's definitely more than an offer. They then proceeded to debit my card with a higher amount than stated on the confirmation.
I realise mistakes happen but I contacted them immediately by phone and was told someone from customer services would call back as it was then outside normal office hours. That hadn't happened, hence I was gathering my facts before getting heavy with them.
The good news is they finally rang whilst I was writing this with profuse apologies and a refund is on its way.
I would disagree. legalities aside, there "conformation" is probabally no more than an automated confirmation of the offer you have accepted.
Web-sites (shopping baskets) can be very restricteive in what they allow and can not cover all eventualities.... however, were there any descrepancies between what you were willing to pay (offer as understood by you)and factual offer i.e. mitigating circumstances as detailed in companies terms & conditions which should be evident on the site,but possibly overlooked by yourself, they should have contacted you prior to processing order to confirm acceptance of additional charges.
Phone them. It's prolly just a keying error or pricing issue that hasn't been updated on the invoicing/billing system.
Either way they should refund your card for the full amount should you choose not to keep the goods (though they are legally allowed up to 30 days to refund cost) or they will refund difference.
Bugger! That will teach me to read the ENTIRE post before wasting time waffling on!
Glad you got it sorted. 99.999% of legitamate retailers will go out of their way to correct any errors.... unless the customer is rude, arrogant, and starts spouting "legal" (usually incorrect) refrences about consumer rights. After which, you can kiss co-operation good-by!
We will always win against the obnoxious customer!
Good news that its sorted. Was probably a simple mistake.
I guess this depends in the retailer, but I 'think' the contract is formed when the retailer despatches the goods. Example from T&C from a very well known online retailer (I've trimmed this):
' Contract creation and electronic contracting
The technical steps required to create the contract between you and us are as follows:
You place the order for your products on the web-site by pressing the confirm order button at the end of the check-out process. You will be guided through the process of placing an order by a series of simple instructions on the web-site. We will send to you an order acknowledgement email detailing the products you have ordered. This is not an order confirmation or order acceptance from x. As your product is shipped from our warehouse we will send you a despatch confirmation email. Order acceptance and the completion of the contract between you and us will take place on the despatch to you of the Products ordered unless we have notified you that we do not accept your order or you have cancelled it in accordance with the instructions in How to cancel your order. '
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