Does an online contract upgrade mean anything?

[fat80b]

I clicked through an upgrade to my Broadband plan on Wednesday, and the prices were great - 200MB for £12 per month, but if I upgrade to 900MB, it was £2 per month.

I clicked to accept the 900MB upgrade and received a confirmation email saying that I had upgraded my plan and that it was going to be billed at £2 per month just as the website said.

In this email was a pdf with the title "pre contract" confirming the plan details, in it was this section describing two discounts as:

Discounts
£29.00 Save £29. Monthly price including discount: £31.00
£29.00 Your in contract discount (£29 per month) expires after 24 months.. Monthly price including discount: £2.00

And then in the big red box

Total Monthly price (excluding any insurance products) £2.00

Great - just as I agreed.

My upgrade went ahead as planned this morning and I now have 900MB to my desk. But now they have sent me another email saying that the plan cost is actually £31 per month with another pdf attached saying £31 pm.

I guess my question is, how can I make them stick to the price that I clicked on and accepted, and was described in the pre-contract they sent me...


It sounds like something might have gone wrong at their end but that's not my problem (is it), I agreed a contract for 900MB BB for 24 Months at £2 per month and I would quite like to have it......

[alscar]

Wasn't a company starting with a V was it ?
I had a vaguely similar experience earlier this week over a phone contract with them.
I thought I had agreed to £15 off ( half price ) for 2 years but upon receiving the pre contract turns out it was £ 15 for 6 months then reverts to £30.
As the deal over 24 months is still saving me money from the previous deal ( circa 20% ) whilst cross at myself I decided to just leave it as could find no way of contacting them easily and certainly not via email.
I put it down to sneaky marketing.
In your case agree its a much bigger differential but the only thing I would add is that you must have thought that upgrade for £2 was too good to be true ?!
Good luck if you decide to fight it -would be keen to learn if you are successful.

[Sebring440]

So clearly, the £2 was "£2 extra". That must have been explained at some point?

[TimmyMallett]

I don't think you have any right to enforce a seller to sell you something at a certain price, they can just refund you and withdraw it.

[fat80b]

Sebring440 said:

So clearly, the £2 was "£2 extra". That must have been explained at some point?

nope - I thought that must be it at first but that's not it - I think what happened is that their system on Wednesday was configured so as to count the £29 discount twice when it should have only counted it once. How was I to know that this was an error at their end, for all I know, they are trying to incentivise people to get onto the 900MB package for other reasons?

But that's not really my problem, and the documentation I received on Weds clearly shows the "total price to pay" was £2 as it did when I clicked accept to the T's and C's online and the pre contract pdf they immediately sent me confirms this.

[fat80b]

TimmyMallett said:

I don't think you have any right to enforce a seller to sell you something at a certain price, they can just refund you and withdraw it.

That is what I thought I recalled as well - I want to say there was some Tesco pricing glitch a number of years ago and they just told everone it was a mistake and cancelled the orders.....


But still I'd quite like to have the service I upgraded to at the price that they promised me I could have it at..

[E-bmw]

Don't forget that ultimately there is always the option to invoke the "cooling off period" and pull out.

If you haven't sorted it out 100% by then you need to pull out before then or you have no way out.

[fat80b]

E-bmw said:

Don't forget that ultimately there is always the option to invoke the "cooling off period" and pull out.

If you haven't sorted it out 100% by then you need to pull out before then or you have no way out.

I phoned them this morning and spoke to a call center person and tried to explain that they should honour the contract they formed with me......They didn't really have any clue and suggested I go to a store to show them the email I received with the contract in it promising me that the person in store will 100% be able to fix it for me


However - completely separately, I've just received a phonecall from the UK customer relations team who it turns out are phoning everyone who clicked upgrade on Wednesday to tell them that there had been an error at their end (No S Shirlock), and that as a gesture of goodwill, they would extend the cooling off period to 30 days instead of the normal 14.........

I told them that wasn't what I wanted - I wanted them to honour the contract that I clicked / accepted / formed with them and I'd quite like my super fast BB for £2 per month........They have escalated it to a complaints team who are going to get back to me

[TimmyMallett]

Good luck Rotund Robert.

[119]

TimmyMallett said:

Good luck Rotund Robert.

Yeah this.

See it a lot with Virgin, so i wouldn't give them the steam off my piss.

[Austin_Metro]

It would be interesting to see what they say, often online contracts are made by you the customer making an offer to buy - clicking “buy now” and the retailer, likely by automated process, accepting that offer.

It would be at that point the contract was formed. If I u stand you correctly. The sequence is this

1. Web link etc with 2 quid deal
2. You click yes please. - likely the offer, in law
3. They supply you with the 900mb service - possibly acceptance by conduct, in law
4.! They send you an email with the 31 quid deal. Technically as it doesn’t match your offer, this is a counter offer that kills your 2 quid offer. But that matters not if there is acceptance at 3.

There are also likely some terms referenced somewhere in the process - and these are likely to muddy it all further. Do they apply? How are they incorporated?

Unless you want to argue this in court - why not ask for some good will. Six months free or something?

[Chuffedmonkey]

Not related to Broadband but many years ago, Curry's messed up and offered the new at the time PS4 slim. It was a while ago but it was something like a new PS4 Slim with 2 games for something like £199. It was all over the Price Spy websites etc. I ordered online, balance left my account.

An hour later I had an email saying there had been a computer glitch and they wouldn't full fill my order and would refund my money. At the time although disappointed, I had an original PS4 plus the games they offered. I knew they had messed up because back then that would have been a £400-500 purchase so took a chance. To my surprise a few days later I received an email with a voucher for the lost amount to purchase a new PS4 Slim plus the 2 games minus my £199 so a £300 voucher. I think because it went viral and it was over Hot UK deals and other sites they had to honor the deal at a massive loss due to the volume of complaints.

What I am saying is I got lucky and you may get lucky too, but when something seems to good to be true its is a mistake. I don't think the Broadband supplier would have received the same amount of attention the PS4 did. I do actually hope you get your deal for £2 a month though.

[Marcellus]

IIRC in contract law if there is a genuine mistake in the offer then the contract is voidable even if acceptance has been made.

But I think there are conditions to this, which may include that the buyer has to know there’s a mistake which they’re knowingly taking advantage of.

This was introduced to get around someone advertising TVs for £10 when everyone knows they should be £1000.

[Alex Z]

Marcellus said:

IIRC in contract law if there is a genuine mistake in the offer then the contract is voidable even if acceptance has been made.

But I think there are conditions to this, which may include that the buyer has to know there’s a mistake which they’re knowingly taking advantage of.

This was introduced to get around someone advertising TVs for £10 when everyone knows they should be £1000.

I'd like to see someone claim that they honestly believed a maximum speed full fibre connection could be had for £2 a month

[Ham_and_Jam]

Usually tucked away in their T&Cs -

E&OE (Errors and omissions excepted).

[Austin_Metro]

Ham_and_Jam said:

Usually tucked away in their T&Cs -

E&OE (Errors and omissions excepted).

Yes, but what does that actually mean and was it incorporated into the agreement made by conduct, when they accepted OPs offer by supplying the service.

What is to say the price was an error, and not any other term? Can they just reject any obligation they later think is an error or exception.

[essayer]

T&Cs will also mention your statutory rights are not affected..

£2 per month might seem cheap but it might be a loss leader to sell other services, TV, mobile etc. Consumer may have quite fairly believed it was the correct price..

[Ham_and_Jam]

Austin_Metro said:

Yes, but what does that actually mean and was it incorporated into the agreement made by conduct, when they accepted OPs offer by supplying the service.

What is to say the price was an error, and not any other term? Can they just reject any obligation they later think is an error or exception.

It means what it says. There was an error.

The term is used to allow a seller to revoke / amend contacts or invoices that have clerical errors. They would cite this as a clerical error. So seems reasonable.

EO&E is used without prejudice, so all legal options are still open to the OP if they still wish to pursue.

My guess is it will only happen if goodwill is shown by the vendor. However based on this being a wide email shot, it won’t. Certainly not at the quoted price, but maybe a better discount than their usual prices.

[Austin_Metro]

Ham_and_Jam said:

It means what it says. There was an error.

The term is used to allow a seller to revoke / amend contacts or invoices that have clerical errors. They would cite this as a clerical error. So seems reasonable.

EO&E is used without prejudice, so all legal options are still open to the OP if they still wish to pursue.

My guess is it will only happen if goodwill is shown by the vendor. However based on this being a wide email shot, it won’t. Certainly not at the quoted price, but maybe a better discount than their usual prices.

I understand what the letters are used to signify. My point it whether they are effective. Contracts are supposed to promote certainty and to allow one party to exit a concluded contract because it claims there is an error defeats that - and I would suggest would need the clearest drafting, setting that right and consequence out in plain terms.

Take another example, the broadband supplier offers OP the 900 mb broadband for 15pm. And OP accepts and starts using, if e and oe is effective why can’t the supplier decide that this too is an error and back out. Or of any contract for any error.

Your point on “without prejudice” does not make sense if e and oe is effective - if supplier can freely exit based on it, what rights does person in OP’s position have?

I don’t think that phrase is the panacea that some might hope or think it to be.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Austin_Metro said:

I understand what the letters are used to signify. My point it whether they are effective. Contracts are supposed to promote certainty and to allow one party to exit a concluded contract because it claims there is an error defeats that - and I would suggest would need the clearest drafting, setting that right and consequence out in plain terms.

Take another example, the broadband supplier offers OP the 900 mb broadband for 15pm. And OP accepts and starts using, if e and oe is effective why can’t the supplier decide that this too is an error and back out. Or of any contract for any error.

Your point on “without prejudice” does not make sense if e and oe is effective - if supplier can freely exit based on it, what rights does person in OP’s position have?

I don’t think that phrase is the panacea that some might hope or think it to be.

We will see how it plays out then.

Hopefully the OP will let us know what the outcome is.