TAS Australian Consumer Law - Incorrect Pricing of Purchased Product?

[alacy]

Hi there,

Last Saturday, I purchased some furniture on an Australian online website that has a store here in Tasmania but all items are shipped from Sydney. The purchase went through last Saturday, received a confirmation email, shortly after and the funds were taken from my card immediately.

The confirmation email stated the below:

If you purchased furniture
A member from your local ** store will contact you within 2 business days to confirm the delivery date for your items.


Now 6 days later, I have received a call that they cannot honour the sale, the pricing was human error and they can either refund the sale or give 20% off the RRP. Once I asked the pricing at RRP it was substantially higher. He advised he could do this under the terms and conditions online.

I asked where in these terms and conditions and he could not answer me. I have looked at these and can see these conditions.

3. Orders
** reserves the right at our absolute discretion to decline or accept Orders made through the ** Online Order System. Any automatic confirmations for such Orders are contingent on our view of any risks, potential delays, or other issues that may arise that are beyond the control of ** Online Order System.

You authorise our agents to charge all fees incurred to the credit card designated by you. If payment is not received from the card issuer or its agents for any reason, you agree to pay us all amounts due on demand.

4. Pricing
Full payment for products must be made at the time of purchase.


Do you think that they have grounds to cancel the sale under Australian Consumer Law?

 

[Rod]

Maybe. What did you pay and what should it have been?

 

[alacy]

The furniture was $1300 total for furniture and $59 delivery. The gentleman I spoke with today advised that with the items combined it is over $20000 without the 20% discount he is offering. I certainly cannot afford this massive price difference.

I have gone back onto the website and can see now that the pricing tallies to what he is saying.

 

[Rod]

$1,300 is significantly less than $20,000. Unless the goods were advertised as damaged, the sale price of $1,300 would appear would appear to be a genuine mistake. Plus they have the term you mentioned about them having absolute discretion whether to accept or reject orders.

This clause about absolute discretion may imply no contract exists as they have not yet accepted your order (offer).

What is not clear is where these terms are displayed and whether you had to 'accept' them before completing your online order.

They have two possible defenses (1. No contract, 2. Genuine mistake) and either one sees you getting your money back.

You may successfully argue a completed contract IF the clause about absolute discretion didn't have to be acknowledged during the order process, AND you can convince a court you were unaware of the mistake or ought to have been unaware. 'Ought to have been unaware' is where you may have difficulty because of the large difference between the order price and their regular price.

Hope this helps. BTW this is only an educated opinion, I'm not a lawyer