So I made a rather large purchase with a reputable wine shop in DC online. Spent over $2,000. The store just called and said they mispriced the bottles as if they were 375 ml and therefore could not honor the purchase.
The bottles themselves do not even come in 375ml format. Isn’t this false advertising?
I understand that in the past conversations have taken place about orders being placed and refunded as the wine shop inventory systems can sometimes have a lag and therefore they were unaware that a wine had sold out. For example, a minute after the WOTY is released and a feeding frenzy takes place, but this on the other hand seems like shitty business.
On one hand, I do feel bad if a shop mispriced something as they are not in the business to lose money, but again, by advertising an online price and not honoring said price (when in stock) occurs, isn’t there something wrong with that?
If the price is really what 375 ml pricing is typically (60-65% on 750 ml) and it is way below actual retail for 750s, I’d shrug it off. You’re not out anything (except a little disappointment at not getting a tremendous deal).
I’ve had this happen where store priced based on case price not realizing it was 6-pack.
Mistake (clerical, typographic, etc.) can be a defense to the enforcement of a contract, and so you don’t necessarily have an opportunity to peg them, should you so desire. With that said, if it’s a means of getting you in the door, or to make a big purchase, it is pretty shitty. If the bottles aren’t even made in 375s, I’d probably raise that point in a conversation with the seller and see how it reacted to having BS called out.
But if your whole tab is $2,000…the fight isn’t worth it.
I didn’t name the store as I didn’t want to take it to that level and I accepted a refund after informing them of my displeasure.
Discount was about 50%. That said, they are having discounts on William Selyem as we speak for 53% off their listed price, so who am I to question whether the other bottle was “mispriced” as well.
Typically in situations where a price is too good to be true, it’s worth a call to the shop to verify the price listed online is legit. If you know that the deal is too good to be true, it’s either a mistake or a bait and switch. If the store has credibilibity, the only real option is that it’s a mistake. In this case, you’re “out” a deal that you essentially had no business getting in the first place. No harm, no foul.
My stubborn Norwegian gene says boycott the business for life. If they were overcharging customers due to a clerical error, I doubt they’d contact customers post purchase to give the money back. If the business won’t eat the loss due to their screw up in order to keep making money from you in the future, then the boycott is fair, however shortsighted.
Hi Eric
I had a similar scenario occur once, and did ask them to honour the deal, which to their credit they did.
The scenario was:
Advertised (clearly) as a case of a dozen, but should have been advertised as a case of 6
Price was *very good for the dozen, but would have been very pricey for just 6 (I wouldn’t have been a buyer).
The mistake was discovered only after 6 bottles were delivered, so at that point cancelling would still have had a cost.
Merchant was a large operator. I wonder if it had been a small operator, I might have at least ‘split the difference’? Who knows.
In your situation I think you have some legitimate leverage, for instance if that wine was a big reason for putting the order in. There are times I’ve bought other wines on the back of an order of wines that I wanted & the price was good. Take that ‘trigger’ wine away and I might never have put the order in. If you feel like this, then let them know and it’s then either down to them to accept the whole $2,000 order is lost, or offer you a compromise to resurrect the order. Often there is a win-win, not you screwing them over, nor them screwing you over.
Regards
Ian
This is legally important over here, as a clearly mis-priced offer does not need to be honoured e.g. a car advertised for £20 when they meant £20,000. A car for £20 is clearly an error, so would not have to be honoured. A bottle of Musar priced at $40 instead of the intended $50 would not be an obvious error and would have to be honoured.
Hmmm…posting the WS discount and the “state” it’s being sold in isn’t really hiding the name of the store. It takes less than 5 seconds on WineSearcher to figure out what store he’s talking about. And the discount referenced is a bit inflated to say the least.
and maybe that makes the perfect scenario. Classy enough not to to name them, but enough info to allow the committed wine geek the opportunity to find out for themselves (should they wish).
This is a tough one, and, I would say, it depends on the merchant. If you feel like it was an honest error, and generally they are trustworthy, then definitely no harm no foul. But I do resent sometimes how it can all be a one way street–if you accidentally place an order online, pretty unusual that you can take that back, no? No matter what the circumstances. I especially dislike, however, discovering a hard to find wine at a good price and being told, sometimes weeks later, after CC has been charged, that it is not available. (They discovered what they had or sold to better customer.)
My contract law is very rusty, but I’m not sure there was a contract. Aren’t ads and web listings construed as invitations to make an offer? In other words, when you place an order, you are making the offer and it’s up to them whether to accept. Only then is there a contract. As a legal matter, I think that placing an order is not treated as accepting an offer.
I’m going to address those people who say “If it was too cheap you should have known it was a misprice.” That is a load of hogwash. I’ve bought wines at retail that were well over 50% off normal pricing. Most of the time I happened to know it was due to the old importer clearing out product they no longer represented. Thus selling to retailers well below the previous wholesale and then the retailers selling it for cheap as well (using their normal mark up still).
So unless one is ITB or knows a lot of producers/importers and stays up to date with all the internal goings on, it’s impossible to know what a wine shop MAY have mispriced or what is a legitimate price reduction. And that doesn’t even touch on when a shop just decides to discount a given SKU to clear space.