Need some advice on what to do when an item posted for sale shows a price of zero dollars. This just happened to me. Four different people, all living on the same street placed orders for this item at a cost of 0.00 dollars. Quantities ordered ranged from 1 to 25 units. They payed for the shipping cost through PayPal at $25.00 per item to be shipped. I refunded the shipping fees and sent them an email explaining that there had been an error. They have sent several emails claiming that I am obliged to send them the merchandise. The last email they sent had my personal address in big bold letters which they claim is what I registered under my company name. The email also stated that I have till tomorrow to agree to ship or they will proceed with their lawyer. I am a little concerned because they live within a 30 minute drive from me. I am new to online selling and not to sure about the legalities nor what to do next.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Angelo
atlastraders.com

Where was this posted for sale? Online auction, newspaper or website?

Initially, I'm thinking that your reply should be something along the lines of " it was an obvious error and we apologize for any inconvenience! Please understand that we are unable to complete the transaction with a $0 purchase price, however we are extending this offer of _____% off (our cost) and reduced shipping costs (actual costs for ground). "

It would help tremendously knowing how the products of $0 were marketed.

I have no idea what you were selling but since the orders are from within 30 minutes of you is there any chance you can "sell" the items at the shipping charge of $25.00 and deliver the items yourself and still show a profit?

Just a thought ....and probably not a very good one.

Were the items listed on your website, eBay, or what?

The item in question is a HI-FI 5.1 CHANNEL HOME SYSTEM and shipped from California while I am in Canada. Although a good idea "Whatever" not feasable to hand deliver myself. This item was posted on our website. We listed over 800 items. I checked them all this morning and it was the only item with a 0 price. mherlehy, excellent idea and it's the second thing I did after refunding the shipping fees. Their response was that I needed to ship because they know thier rights. Sounds like they have experience doing this kind of thing and they spend their day looking for errors on websites. As an after thaught, I should have told them we were sold out.

ibargain4U,

You are not obligated to sell at that price especially since it was an obvious error. We also operate a website business and our website is updated sdaily and sometimes we too make mistakes and for this reason we actually have a disclaimer on the footer of our webiste that reads:

Some information on our Web site may contain typographical errors or other inaccuracies, or may be incomplete or not current. Unfortunately, such inaccurate information may relate directly to the price of a product, the description of a product or to its availability. We reserve the right to correct all such mistakes at any time without notice, even after an order was placed based on inaccurate information.

If an error occurs we always give the cusomter a call letting them know and then it is up to them to either pay the correct price or be completely refunded, if htey decide to tell us we are obligated we tehn refer them to our disclaimer.

Good Luck

All us US citizens should check our advice closely! I don't have a clue how the laws read for this sort of thing across the border to the North! I would hope that you would have the recourse of blaming a typo and refunding the shipping with an apology, but you know better than I how things work in Canada.
Good Luck --- bluehat

Thanks everyone for your quick feedback.

Lisa, I like your idea of a disclaimer. Could I place your disclaimer on my site as is until I can come up with my own wording?

Just curious; what happens in the US if a customer pays for a product and you sold out? Are you obliged to somehow provide that product?

Angelo

ibargain4U,

Sure, you can use it if you like and it is legal, our lawyer helped to write it.
We had our lawyer help with a lot of the wording on our website because we were not sure how to handle some situations either.

If an item is sold out just tell the customer it is sold out and you won’t be getting any more in and offer them a refund. You can place a note or disclaimer on your site saying that items can sell out without notice....that would help.

Glad I could be of help

ibargain4u,
From my past dealings, I would say you have no obligation because you notified the buyers and also refunded the shipping. I just don't see how your circumstance would hold up in court, since it is obvious there was an error in the price to start with. It sounds like these people want something for nothing. Good luck.

I wonder if there is any update to this Or has anyone had anything happen that was similar

This is a very sticky problem. I agree with what nearly everybody said. I don't think that a merchant is required to honor a listed price when it is so obviously an error. Most retail businesses tend to honor these sort of mistakes to avoid customer service problems however brick and mortar stores are rarely confronted with $0 price problems.

Like nearly everyone else I don't know what the laws say for sure. It is probably dependant on the state you live in. I would advise you check with the local authorities.

If anyone knows the law for certain please let us know.