Can An Amazon Seller Cancel The Sale?

[bbs]

I ordered a pen from Amazon last night, which was at a substantial discount from the usual price.

 

This morning I received an email saying the order had been cancelled because the wrong price had been listed.

 

Can the seller do that? I thought if a price was advertised and the sale was agreed, it was binding ...

 

I am in the UK and the seller appears to be In Germany.

 

Any advice welcome!

[Chouffleur]

I'd certainly share some "constructive criticism" with Amazon themselves. You can reach my friend, Mr. Bezos at jeff@amazon.com .

 

He'll be happy to hear from you, your seller less so.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Chouffleur

[Manalto]

This just happened to me this week. The seller offered the excuse that she "couldn't find it" and refunded my money. I suspect that she realized she could get more for the item and plans to relist it. I made a feeble attempt to persuade her to "continue to look for it" but I feel defenseless in this situation.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Manalto

[JimCouch]

A seller can certainly cancel a sale. If the product is out, if the price was misprinted or wrong they certainly have the right to cancel the sale. I do not know where the idea that a seller HAS to honor a 'misprint' price comes from. It is certainly not the case. Many choose to as a customer service, but they are not bound to do so.

 

With Amazon in particular prices and information for products are often 'bulk' loaded and mistakes can and do happen. They are usually fixed before folks see them, but if someone orders something before the price is fixed the seller can certainly cancel the order.

 

Another reason for canceling a sale is being out of stock and unable to obtain more at that same price. A seller may have a certain quantity of items that they got at a good price and are padding the discount along. When they run out they have to pay more for the replacement stock nd the new price will reflect that higher cost of goods. Again it is sometimes mistakes happen and stock levels don't match what the Amazon system has online.

Edited June 14, 2015 by JimCouch

[Manalto]

With Amazon in particular prices and information for products are often 'bulk' loaded and mistakes can and do happen.

 

I'll vouch for this. I bought a case of a dozen roller ball pens and the seller sent me one. When I called them, they told me that they have no control over how Amazon lists their item. (They said weren't aware of the faulty listing, thanked me, refunded my money and told me to keep the pen. Woo-hoo! Free roller ball! ) I called all the other vendors selling that item and each of them told me that the listing was wrong!

[httpmom]

A bricks and mortar store would have to honor the asking price. Why should it be ay different for Amazon? I would put up a pretty big stink over it...but that's the way I roll.

[Cryptos]

Actually that is not totally true.

 

In the UK a retail store can refuse to sell at the price advertised. What they cannot do is claw back the difference if you have already paid and accepted delivery of the item (i.e.into your own hands), as a binding contract has already been made. Apparently, for online sales the sellers set the terms of conditions and there may well be no legal contract right up until the point of delivery, even if the funds have already been transferred. This again is perfectly normal practice even for retail stores who have to deliver, such as if you were buying a washing machine. If you walked out of the shop with the washing machine in your backpack then they could do nothing (except perhaps marvel at your amazing feat of strength!). With Amazon I do not know if individual sellers set their own terms and conditions or if there exists an over-arching set from Amazon themselves.

 

Having said all that, I have found on the rare occasions it has happened to me in a retail store that - within reasonable limits - the store will honour the price.

 

Perhaps the retail law is different in the US?

Edited June 15, 2015 by Cardboard_Tube

[DrDebG]

So sorry to hear about your difficulties. Amazon seems to be having some serious issues lately. I ordered a product from them recently. When it arrived, the box was broken and parts were missing. I immediately contacted Amazon and their responded quickly by sending me a return label. But I had to find an adequate box and package the item to send it back. The seller sent out another item, which came in exactly the same shape. I complained to Amazon and they gave me a flimsy excuse that they couldn't control their sellers. I reminded them that they needed to have better control or they would lose their customers.

 

I will seriously reconsider before I order something from Amazon again.

[Kataphract]

If I walk into a store, and a 99.95 item is priced at 89.95, they legally must sell it to me for 89.95. They can immediately change it so the next person how wanders along has to pay the 99,95. If it is a printers error, they are not obligated to charge the price, but they must note the correction. Third party sellers who have the item listed incorrectly are basically in the misprinted category - Amazon itself will give you the wrong price for its own items, but may swiftly change the price.

 

The purpose of a retailer having to sell for the listed price is to stop them from pulling tricks on the consumer - get you to come into the store and then refuse to sell the item to you except at a higher price.

[Cryptos]

 

If I walk into a store, and a 99.95 item is priced at 89.95, they legally must sell it to me for 89.95.

 

Then that must be either a US law or a local Calif. law, because that is not the case in the UK. I did wonder if there are differences across countries that share the same legal base.

 

Edit: actually, taking the above quote together with:

 

 

If it is a printers error, they are not obligated to charge the price, but they must note the correction.

 

kinda means that the seller will simply claim printing/marking up error in every instance. If so, then one part of the rule negates the other. Strange thing. I am not saying it isn't true or anything, just trying to get my head around a law that provides its own loophole.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Cardboard_Tube

[Chrissy]

In the UK (and I assume this is probably the case in the EU as well) when an item is priced for sale, it's called an 'invitation to treat.'

 

There is no binding contract between seller and buyer until after the item has been purchased and consideration (i.e. payment) has been made and accepted by both parties.

 

So bbs, in your case, the seller can legally say that he won't sell it at a price that may have been entered incorrectly, and he can cancel the transaction.

[bbs]

Thanks for the input. I suppose genuine errors can be made, but if the transaction has been accepted, morally it should be honoured. The law, of course, is not necessarily moral.

 

However, thankfully in this case I am not too worried about this particular pen - another has popped up that I am more interested in ( but ain't that always the case! )

[Chrissy]

Thanks for the input. I suppose genuine errors can be made, but if the transaction has been accepted, morally it should be honoured. The law, of course, is not necessarily moral.

 

However, thankfully in this case I am not too worried about this particular pen - another has popped up that I am more interested in ( but ain't that always the case! )

 

When he cancelled it due to an error and refunded the money, it meant that he hadn't accepted it and that's OK.

[fly_us]

Actually they can. Last week Sony has same problem about wrong listing price on their website AND amazon. All the orders are cancelled due to error and the money are refunded.

[Manalto]

If I walk into a store, and a 99.95 item is priced at 89.95, they legally must sell it to me for 89.95. They can immediately change it so the next person how wanders along has to pay the 99,95.

 

Just an observation, slightly off topic. We've become so brainwashed by generations of marketing, that we use these "high-penny" prices instead of 100.00 and 90.00, even hypothetically. (I'm not criticizing Kataphract, I know it's for realism, and catch myself doing it too.) More than once I've overheard people discussing a purchase saying $999.99 (nine ninety-nine ninety-nine) instead of a thousand. Salespeople do it all the time, of course. Sometimes if I'm feeling playful I reply, in mock astonishment, "Why that's less than X (the rounded off figure) dollars!" (It usually falls flat, but it's for my own entertainment.) I became acutely aware of this habit when I hosted someone who immigrated here from a Communist country where the practice didn't exist. He was befuddled and amused. "Who do they think they're fooling?" he asked me. I told him, "Just about everybody."

[Cryptos]

I noticed that some while ago, but here in New Zealand they round up when you pay, so any perceived saving (and I use the term really loosely) is lost anyway.

[fly_us]

 

Just an observation, slightly off topic. We've become so brainwashed by generations of marketing, that we use these "high-penny" prices instead of 100.00 and 90.00, even hypothetically. (I'm not criticizing Kataphract, I know it's for realism, and catch myself doing it too.) More than once I've overheard people discussing a purchase saying $999.99 (nine ninety-nine ninety-nine) instead of a thousand. Salespeople do it all the time, of course. Sometimes if I'm feeling playful I reply, in mock astonishment, "Why that's less than X (the rounded off figure) dollars!" (It usually falls flat, but it's for my own entertainment.) I became acutely aware of this habit when I hosted someone who immigrated here from a Communist country where the practice didn't exist. He was befuddled and amused. "Who do they think they're fooling?" he asked me. I told him, "Just about everybody."

 

Well, in Vietnam, which is considered as a Communist country, we still using the "power of nine" here.

[Manalto]

 

Well, in Vietnam, which is considered as a Communist country, we still using the "power of nine" here.

 

Interesting. My ex-Communist was from Cuba.

[fly_us]

 

Interesting. My ex-Communist was from Cuba.

 

I suspect the same. Vietnam open its gate to the world for about 20 years, and we learned a lot during that time. AFAIR, we never use something like VND 99,000 until last 5-10 years.

[Manalto]

 

I suspect the same. Vietnam open its gate to the world for about 20 years, and we learned a lot during that time. AFAIR, we never use something like VND 99,000 until last 5-10 years.

 

That would be VND 99,999. And believe me, it's a bargain!