Canyon not honouring advertised web prices?

Canyonero

Evening,
Canyon sent out a mailshot yesterday (17th sept) saying they had a big sale on with reduced bikes and bike lights. I already own a canyon nerve 9.0sl which has been a fantastic off-road bike and I have been keeping a close eye on the canyon website to buy a new road bike. I'm a big fan of canyon bikes, two friends have subsequently bought canyons after seeing mine.

The bike I've been lusting after is the Canyon ultimate cf sl team edition with a lovely campagnolo groupset. The website homepage has a big orange banner with 50% off bikes. I go to the bike I'm after and see that sure enough it is 50% off! £2500 down to £1250! An absolute bargain! So I placed the order then and there, put in my card details and got an order confirmation email from canyon.

Today I got a rather sheepish call from canyon uk. There has apparently been a website error. The bike should not have been at the price they originally advertised so I cannot buy it at that price. Canyon will still sell me the bike and to compensate for my troubles would give me 10% off the full rrp and would throw in free postage and free cardboard postage box (which they call a bike guard).

Has anyone else had a similar problem with canyon in the last few days? A quick google search and I saw people discussing similar pricing issues with canyon historically so it looks like this isn't the first time this has happened on the canyon website.

Any thoughts or advice on what I can or should do?

Ps sorry for such a downbeat first post, I promise to make future posts more upbeat

Pps - I'm really not trying to have a go at canyon (as it might have read) I just want to know where I stand and if anyone else has had similar problems

sloppyschleckonds

It was a mis-price.

You agreed to their terms and conditions.

rolf_f

Company makes honest mistake, brings out worst in potential customer. Nothing like one of these incidents to remind you how unpleasant people can be......

nochekmate

Change your username - you'll get over the disappointment

danlikesbikes

See attached link which refers to other companies online sales where mistakes have been made

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/pers ... takes.html

In a nutshell depends on what the T&C's are as could be canyon only consider acceptance at point of delivery or might be the reasonable test

mroli

Rolf F wrote:

Company makes honest mistake, brings out worst in potential customer. Nothing like one of these incidents to remind you how unpleasant people can be......

That's a bit unnecessary Rolf - the OP thought he was going to get a fantastic bargain and now isn't getting one -he's little disappointed and hoping that there might be some way to get that deal still.

OP - in reality, I don't think that there is anything you can do - most websites guard against this and say it good delivery are subject to availability/pricing errors etc. The best thing you could do is try and negotiate the best price you could - split the difference at 25%?!

rokt

You've posted on the right forum, a friendly bunch here !

Canyonero

Thanks for your reply and helpful link.

As the link says, online sale isn't always clear but depends on t&cs. So had a quick look and the canyon t&cs (probably should have done that first...). The customer is entering into a binding contract at point of sale (clause 2.2) whereas canyon only enter contract by a second email or by despatching item (clause 2.3).

As I say I'm not trying to slate canyon - they sell very good bikes and customer service in the past has been excellent. I guess I'm just slightly surprised they decided to cancel my order.

Oh well, no harm done. Will start looking again for a road bike.

danlikesbikes

Can be a pain and sometimes hard if you think you've seen a good deal and the seller doesn't honour it.

With the way distance selling rules are set out most of the larger online retailers have their T&C's in order.

Good news is your looking to buy at the right time of year as still plenty of deals out there.

rolf_f

mroli wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Company makes honest mistake, brings out worst in potential customer. Nothing like one of these incidents to remind you how unpleasant people can be......

That's a bit unnecessary Rolf - the OP thought he was going to get a fantastic bargain and now isn't getting one -he's little disappointed and hoping that there might be some way to get that deal still.

Well, you may be right. I don't have any problem with people giving it a shot - you never know if you won't get away with a bargain. It's the griping about it when it doesn't come off that I find depressing. If you like a company then you perhaps shouldn't be too keen to inflict losses on them because they made a simple mistake.

That said, I note that the bike is discounted £257 anyway (if I have the right one) so offering a £250 discount off full retail as compensation does seem like a bit of a p1ss take! I think your suggestion about trying to wangle more off is a good idea. The point is it needs to be a deal to suit both parties.

lawrences

Rolf F wrote:

mroli wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Company makes honest mistake, brings out worst in potential customer. Nothing like one of these incidents to remind you how unpleasant people can be......

That's a bit unnecessary Rolf - the OP thought he was going to get a fantastic bargain and now isn't getting one -he's little disappointed and hoping that there might be some way to get that deal still.

Well, you may be right. I don't have any problem with people giving it a shot - you never know if you won't get away with a bargain. It's the griping about it when it doesn't come off that I find depressing. If you like a company then you perhaps shouldn't be too keen to inflict losses on them because they made a simple mistake.

That said, I note that the bike is discounted £257 anyway (if I have the right one) so offering a £250 discount off full retail as compensation does seem like a bit of a p1ss take! I think your suggestion about trying to wangle more off is a good idea. The point is it needs to be a deal to suit both parties.

Losses on them?

They are probably still raking it in if they sold them for 1250.

curto80

The thing about this is Canyon seem to be making pricing mistakes a lot. Where it's completely obvious that it's just a website glitch (like with the endurace launch debacle and the thing yesterday) then fine, take a punt if you want but blatantly they're not going to honour it. It seems to me the OP's situation is a bit different to that, placing the order totally in good faith with genuine belief, promoted by the website, that they were buying a sale price at a deep discount. Regardless of what the Ts & Cs say, I have some sympathy with that. Canyon need to up their game on this.

rolf_f

lawrences wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

mroli wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Company makes honest mistake, brings out worst in potential customer. Nothing like one of these incidents to remind you how unpleasant people can be......

That's a bit unnecessary Rolf - the OP thought he was going to get a fantastic bargain and now isn't getting one -he's little disappointed and hoping that there might be some way to get that deal still.

Well, you may be right. I don't have any problem with people giving it a shot - you never know if you won't get away with a bargain. It's the griping about it when it doesn't come off that I find depressing. If you like a company then you perhaps shouldn't be too keen to inflict losses on them because they made a simple mistake.

That said, I note that the bike is discounted £257 anyway (if I have the right one) so offering a £250 discount off full retail as compensation does seem like a bit of a p1ss take! I think your suggestion about trying to wangle more off is a good idea. The point is it needs to be a deal to suit both parties.

Losses on them?

They are probably still raking it in if they sold them for 1250.

Well, who knows but you might be right. But I assume you have some basis in fact to think this rather than just supposition? I would have thought that Canyon works on a "pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap" strategy. Even without the costs of a middle man distribution network I wouldn't have thought that the profits at retail price are over 50%. £1250 is less than retail for the groupset alone.

Philby

This may clarify the regulations:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/c ... p_till.htm

alex222

Philby wrote:

This may clarify the regulations:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/c ... p_till.htm

Absolutely. It's a common misconception that a shop is obliged to sell you an item at the price on the label even if it is in error.

curto80

The UK CAB advice isn't relevant though because, (i) when you buy from Canyon you contract under German law and, (ii) in any event, the rule in Fisher v Bell applies where there is no written contract which governs the terms of the prospective sale of the goods. Canyon have their own Ts&Cs which make it clear that they are not legally bound to sell at the point in time that a web order is submitted. There's no legal debate here, Canyon are entitled to reject the order. Whether morally they have done the right thing is another question.

Percy Vera

I can't find anything on the Canyon website with a 50% discount - if this is the case that is false advertising.
The Germans must have different rules to the UK, and are allowed to do such unethical things.

birdie23

Alex222 wrote:

Philby wrote:

This may clarify the regulations:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/c ... p_till.htm

Absolutely. It's a common misconception that a shop is obliged to sell you an item at the price on the label even if it is in error.

They don't have to but they'll still have broken the law (as that page says in the top tip) so it's often worth saying you'll contact trading standards.

Ber Nard

That says they "may" have broken the law, not that they "have" broken the law. If it's a genuine error, then it's between the buyer and the seller to come to an agreement. If it smacks of deception, then Trading Standards would take an interest.

danlikesbikes

Read my link earlier in this thread.

Online retailers as part of their T&C's if worded correctly are not considered as entering into a contract even if you have paid them. Quite often it is either at delivery (though personally I think this is a bit harsh) or after a second email (as often the first one is system generated) where someone has checked the order and viewed the info and at that point both parties have considered and accepted to enter into a contract.

CAB link is not incorrect, however it does not clearly tell you the above parts about when both parties have entered into the contract.

Whilst the OP is clearly gutted at not getting the bargain of a lifetime & a few others have posted this is not the first time this has happened with this retailer, it is within the law what they have done.

Whether you agree with the morals is a different story.