A major retail chain offered loyalty card holders a 13-inch iPad Air model for $17, both online orders and in-store pick-up sales were processed and the iPads were handed over to new owners.
The company took 11 days to realize its mistake and is now asking customers who purchased the iPad to either return it or pay almost the full amount. Unfortunately for the retailer, the terms and conditions attached to the order did not exclude pricing errors…
wired The mistake was reportedly made by Italian retail technology giant Mediaworld.
On November 8th, European electronics retailer MediaWorld posted an offer for point card holders on its website. The deal was that you could get an iPad Air for 15 euros (about $17) instead of the usual 879 euros (about $1,012). There are no catches or strings (…)
The process was seamless, even for those who ordered online (…) In-store, the 15 euro payment was successfully completed and MediaWorld delivered the iPad as expected.
But 11 days later, Media World sent a simple email, rather than a formal communication by certified mail, stating that the published price was “clearly incorrect.” The company then asked affected customers to choose between two solutions. You can either keep the iPad and pay the price difference but receive a 150 euro discount, or you can return the iPad and receive a 15 euro refund and a 20 euro discount voucher for the inconvenience.
There is no clause in the contract terms to exclude mispricing, and Media World is relying on more general principles of contract law. Italian law provides that a company can void a contract if the mistake is obvious.
However, consumer lawyers quoted in the article said that because there are so many different promotional deals, some of which are clearly promotional, consumers cannot be expected to know for sure that it is a mistake rather than a promotional deal in a small number of sales. Additionally, the company has not sent out any formal legal notices, only emails offering customers two options.
It’s unclear how this saga will end, but for now the best advice for customers is probably to hold on to their iPads and not respond to emails.
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Photo by Jaime Marrero on Unsplash
