Page 1 of W H Smith refusing to honour DVD sale price

I ordered Last Samurai following a heads up posted in this forum. £3.79 in a January sale.

I received confirmation that my order had been accepted and was being processed.

I have now received the e mail below which I intend forwarding to both the Daily Telegraph and to Watchdog.

I don`t like the impersonal message to which I cannot reply.

It seems to me that there was an invitation to treat at law. They accepted my offer to buy at the price and there is evidence of all of this in printed form. It is, of course, a nonsense to suggest there is no contract until the item is paid for.

I hope someone from W H Smiths reads this and has the courtesy to reply and I would like to copy this to the retailer forum as wekll, if possible moderators.

I would offer a heads up to everyone reading as to W H Smiths` behaviour.

The e mail is as follows :-


Dear Customer,
We have received a report that the product you have ordered has been incorrectly priced and withdrawn from sale, our website has now been updated to reflect the correct prices.


Although we make every effort to ensure the prices on the website are correct, mistakes may sometimes be made. If we discover a mistake in the price of the products you have ordered, we will give you the option of either reconfirming your order at the correct price or cancelling your order, as is the case here. If we receive no reply from you within 72 hours, we will have no alternative but to cancel your order.


Important: When selecting the option you wish to follow, please use the buttons at the top of the email (Please Cancel or Order At Correct Price).


Your order is currently in a holding area awaiting the outcome of your reply, please note that automatic cancellation will commence on or after 6pm on Tuesday 11th January and that the mailbox you are replying to is automated.


We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any disappointment or inconvenience caused.


As a valued customer we would like to offer you up to 10% off your next purchase, valid until the 31st January. To activate this discount click on the link below. Exclusions apply as set out below*.


Website Goodwill Link: http://www.whsmith.co.uk/WHS/go.asp?shop=4622


If you have any queries about this or any other matter please do not hesitate to contact us by filling in our online query form using this link provided: http://www.whsmith.co.uk/whs/go.asp?pagedef=/help/contact.htm#support


Regards,


Automated Customer Updates


WHSmith Direct
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edit your details and check or cancel your orders:
<<http://www.whsmith.co.uk/yourdetails>>
<<http://www.whsmith.co.uk/yourorders>>
Online Help and Information:
<<http://www.whsmith.co.uk/help/>>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WHSmith Direct, Greenbridge Road, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN3 3LD, United Kingdom
Vat Registration Number GB238 5548 36
WHSmith Direct is a division of WHSmith Retail Limited. Registered office: WHSmith Retail Limited, Greenbridge Road, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN3 3RX, UK. Company Registration No 2008952
============================================
No contract will subsist between you and WHSmith Direct for the sale of products by us to you until your credit/debit card has been charged. This will be deemed to be our acceptance of your offer and to have been effectively communicated to you. This is to be interpreted and enforced with the laws of England, in its entirety and will be subject to the jurisdiction of the English courts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*The 10% discount excludes the following partner websites: WHSmith Magazines Extra, WHSmith Out of Print Books Service, WHSmith eBooks, WHSmith Personalised Jigsaw Puzzles, WHSmith Greetings Cards, WHSmith Presents Mcards, WHSmith eCards, The Francis Frith Collection, WHSmith Eyecandy Shop, WHSmith Movies Direct, WHSmith Ringtones, WHSmith Personalised Products (Any), WHSmith Personalised Gifts in association with News Recreated, WHSmith Domesday Extracts, WHSmith Personalised Aerial Maps & Gifts and WHSmith Mobile Phones.

I received one of these too, in connection with the Live Aid Box set advertised for sale at £11.99. No great surprise!

As you say - no great surprise. WHS are putting their hands up and saying "we ballsed it up". Live with it.

At least they are being honest and none of this "out of stock" malarky.

Stop being childish. If you really want the film you can buy for just a few quid more. Smiths have done no wrong.

Actually, they have if they try to purport that a contract only exists when my card is billed.

This is what my account details says :-

E-mail : [my e mail address here]

Please note that we can only accept orders for delivery to UK addresses. Click here for more information.
Here is the list of your orders that we have registered on our system. If you have placed an order and it has not shown up on the list below, then the order may not have been recorded correctly. In this case, please re-enter your order.

To get further information about an order, including a list of products within the order, simply click on the appropriate order reference.

To cancel orders, you can click on the click to cancel link that is next to them, where applicable. Note that you cannot cancel orders if they have already been invoiced or dispatched to you!

Our policy is to cancel orders if we have been unable to supply books within 60 days, or any other items within 45 days, with the exception of products that have not yet been released or that are reported as reprinting.

Our system holds one credit card number for each account. All unfulfilled orders will be debited from the most recent card provided. If your card has expired since placing the order you will need to update your credit card details so that your card can be debited on the day of dispatch.

If you have any questions about your orders, please contact our Customer Service team.



Ref Date Title Status
961476122 03/01/05 Last Samurai 2 Disc - (DVD) New Order

Codes used to designate cancellations and recorded orders:
Un-processed We have received your order and it will be processed shortly.

New Order We have confirmed your order and it is now being processed.

Payment Checking We have confirmed you order and are now awaiting payment authorisation.

Purchase Order We are waiting for a purchase order confirmation prior to sending this order to our suppliers.

Contact Support There is a problem with your order. Please contact our Customer Services team for more information. You may have already received an e-mail to this effect.

On Order This title is on order with our suppliers and we are awaiting further information.
Not Yet Available Your order has been placed with our suppliers and will be dispatched as soon as the item is available.

New Edition Your order has been placed with our suppliers and will be dispatched as soon as the new edition is available.

Temp Out of Stock Your order has been placed with our suppliers but they are currently out of stock and will be dispatched as soon as the item is available.

Reprinting Your order has been placed with our suppliers and will be dispatched as soon as the item is available.

No Longer Stocked Unfortunately none of our suppliers can supply us with this item at this time and your order has been cancelled.

At Warehouse Our warehouse has received your item from our supplier and it will be dispatched shortly.

Invoiced Your order has been invoiced and will be dispatched imminently.

Dispatched Your order has now been sent from our warehouse.

For Collection Your order is ready for collection from our distribution centre in Oxford.

Cancelled Your order has now been cancelled.

END OF ORDER DETAILS

No, I am taking this further.

The order has been accepted and confirmed.

WH SMITH SUCK.

Even if an item is a few pennies off they never honour. I have had 3 orders not honoured from them, when I see a bargain mentioning their name I will always avoid it.

I was always under the impression that if something was accepted between two parties, then a contract existed in law between the two parties and, that it couldn`t be changed unless both parties agreed.

If WHSmith cancel the order or, run out of stock, then haven`t they broken the contract?


If it was a one off, then they could get away with it being a pricing error. But this is happening several times a week. I`m sure it comes under something like false advertising or, advertising prices to get customers to visit you. Don`t know the legal terms.

This item was edited on Sunday, 9th January 2005, 09:58

I`m not surprised. The only retailer to honour one of their cock-up`s in my experiance is Amazon. I had an order at another retailer that got their prices mixed up, can`t remember which one but it may have been MVC, but when they realised their mistake they put the prices up. They also put up the price on my pre-order too and they didn`t even tell me. I only found out when someone mentioned it on a forum. I cancelled the order straightaways.

This item was edited on Sunday, 9th January 2005, 12:25

Actually, I don`t think WHS have done anything (legally) wrong. Under the Sale of Goods Act, no retailer has to supply a product if it has been incorrectly priced. Provided no money has been taken, there is no violation of any law. When you apply to purchase an item (such as placing an order, or taking it to the check-out desk in store) you are basically asking to purchase the item at that price. They are perfectly entitled to say that the price is incorrect and refuse your application to purchase said item.

Legally, they`ve not done anything wrong. Morally, there is a question over whether they are deliberately mispricing things to encourage people to place orders (though they may just be incompetent!!)

I`m fairly sure I`m right about this, though I`m happy to be corrected by anyone who knows more about this than I.

I think the important part is :-

We have confirmed your order and it is now being processed.

Yes, there was an invitation to treat - which is me placing the order at the advertised sale price.

WH Smith has acknowledged and confirmed the order.

Irrespective of this, I think it is not right then to send an e mail which attempts to force a no choice response and get the company off the hook of a contract that it does not want to honour.

At what price point will they honour sale prices? What if you make an order for different items? Will the company pick through it to choose the ones it feels it wants to homour?

I agree with the comment about Amazon and have always had faultless service and no quibble replacement of faulty items.

Some things never change. I can recall taking several defective copies of Pink Floyd`s The Wall album back to WH Smiths to be met by an obnoxious manager who refused to believe he was selling faulty product. OK, so, in that case it was an EMI pressing fault allegedly, but some retailers just won`t take the rough with the smooth of retailing.

I certainly shan`t go anywhere near WH Smith online again.