third party pricing mistakes

[rabbit1971]

Hi all,

 A very interesting price debacle  has recently occurred locally . The local RACT magazine advertised a 35 day syney-hawaii return on sea princess for $3500,

 my MIL went to book, only to be told that Princess had supplied the wrong price to the agency and were not going to honor it, and the price was actually $6000.

 Has anyone else had this happen and what were the outcomes. In my limited understanding, if something is at an advertised price, the consumer is entitled to it at that price.

 Thoughts?

cheers maree

[Stickman1990]

Sorry - Not a hope in hell I‘m afraid

 

Mistakes in advertising happen from time to time and merchants are not obligated to honour the incorrect price - they can choose to do so but don’t have to 

[mum and son]

Unfortunately for you, they don't need to honour anything. There is no contract in existence, which would be the legal basis for any argument on the topic. I have been lucky enough to grab an incorrect price in the past, but I had booked and paid in full online at the cheap price (it was clearly an error - dropped digit fare). Princess could have cancelled my booking, even at that point, but they didn't. We were lucky.

[rabbit1971]

Hello,

 I thought as much, apparently Princess are threatening to sue the agency if they honor the price, so a case of too good to be true.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

8 minutes ago, rabbit1971 said:

Hello,

 I thought as much, apparently Princess are threatening to sue the agency if they honor the price, so a case of too good to be true.

 

I sometimes get newsletters through with deals ,....followed by another apologising for a pricing error. 

I think proof reading is a thing of the past  these days.

 

[The_Big_M]

4 hours ago, Kiwi Kruzer said:

 

I sometimes get newsletters through with deals ,....followed by another apologising for a pricing error. 

I think proof reading is a thing of the past  these days.

 

 

That costs money. Not a popular thing to do nowadays.

[icat2000]

5 hours ago, rabbit1971 said:

Hi all,

 A very interesting price debacle  has recently occurred locally . The local RACT magazine advertised a 35 day syney-hawaii return on sea princess for $3500,

 my MIL went to book, only to be told that Princess had supplied the wrong price to the agency and were not going to honor it, and the price was actually $6000.

 Has anyone else had this happen and what were the outcomes. In my limited understanding, if something is at an advertised price, the consumer is entitled to it at that price.

 Thoughts?

cheers maree

There always disclaimers that if the pricing is an error like printing error then they not entitled to honour it. The fact that they haven't got a booking number then there probably not a lot that going to happen. 

[MicCanberra]

No chance, as prices are normally advertised as 'from' or have a 'as at' date.

[The_Big_M]

5 hours ago, rabbit1971 said:

Hello,

 I thought as much, apparently Princess are threatening to sue the agency if they honor the price, so a case of too good to be true.

 

Can't see it getting to that. If the cruise line doesn't take the booking, the agency can't do anything - unless they want to honour it themselves and pay the difference to the cruise line. It's just an ad so the agency can't make a booking at that price.

[Bubbeh]

21 hours ago, rabbit1971 said:

In my limited understanding, if something is at an advertised price, the consumer is entitled to it at that price.

This is a common misconception.  There is always room within consumer law for genuine mistakes and reasonable expectations.  A $6k trip for $3.5k may well be considered an unreasonable expectation and I doubt any mediation /action would result in your favour.  Sorry.

[Chiliburn]

If you’re really interested in the cruise see if they can knock a bit off,

worth a try