"The prices payable for the items that you order are clearly set out in the web site. If, by mistake, we have under-priced an item, we will not be liable to supply that item to you at the stated price, provided that we notify you before we dispatch the item concerned."

You never know though...maybe Tesco are feeling generous!

Damn, should have waited for a bit before buying the console

Cheaper to buy the console than it is to buy any of the games.

The small chance of getting a retailer to honour a mis-price like this is if you can convince them that it was reasonable to interpret the price as a genuine offer and not a mistake. In this case the RRP is given as £34.99 which is obviously erroneous and makes a joke of the reasonable expectation. No chance of getting them to come good, I'm afraid.

They haven't underpriced any item, the item is the wireless entertainment bundle which is supposed to cost that price. The problem is that they've added an Xbox360 to the bundle contents, so unless their T&C's state so, we can surely demand it?

Just be wary of the product terms and conditions page, which states in section 1:

"If, by mistake, we have under-priced an item, we will not be liable to supply that item to you at the stated price, provided that we notify you before we dispatch the item concerned"

:(

Tesco servers rather busy and unresponsive. Still trying my hand - you never know your luck...

how do ppl in the States sign up for the club?

While it's not uncommon for small orders to be honoured, this is still up after several hours - and given the number of people here mockingly ordering more than one, I doubt they'll go for it.

T&C .. my order (of course!) lists dispatch as 16th November. Not a chance methinks. Still, fun to try.

I think they've copied and pasted the console part in accidentally? The same bundle is available elsewhere for the same price, but doesn't include the console... so don't waste your money getting this quickly thinking you're on a good one, cos I don't think it'll turn up, and even though it might be fale advertising or whatever i'm not sure how many of us would bother sending it back and Tesco will make a packet!

Is this taking a long time for anyone else?

It's still 'processing'

Maybe they caught on..?

It's taking way too long to process, and I cannot find this deal on Tesco website, only through the link that The Reg provided...?

It would help if "verified by visa" for switch cards hadn't just collapsed.

No chance at all of getting one if you can't even pay the £35 :-(

They caught on. The store is closed for 'maintenance'

Entertainment > games > xbox 360 hardware > 3rd page or so.

Looks like they've caught on:

This Tesco.Com store is currently unavailable due to essential maintenance.

We hope to have the service back to normal as soon as possible.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and look forward to seeing you back here soon.

Thank you for shopping with Tesco.Com.

This Tesco.Com store is currently unavailable due to essential maintenance.

We hope to have the service back to normal as soon as possible.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and look forward to seeing you back here soon.

Thank you for shopping with Tesco.Com.

Halfway through the order, they tore down the store!

http://www.tesco.com/entertainment/product.aspx?R=818488

"This Tesco.Com store is currently unavailable due to essential maintenance."

Worryingly there is a sneaky "<%@ Language=VBScript %>" tag at the top of the page. Oh well, I guess we can't all use real programming languages!

Great guys, you just ddossed them out or something.

We're sorry...

Tesco.com is currently unavailable due to essential maintenance.

We hope to have the service back to normal as soon as possible.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and look forward to seeing you back here soon.

Thank you for shopping with Tesco.com.

bloody sloths!!!

I got an Xbox 360 bundle for free, in store.

Of course, this was when they still had their "If the price you pay at the till is more than the price displayed on the shelf, we'll refund your money and you can keep the item" policy. Or R&R as it was known to the cognoscenti, who didn't share intelligence about misprices with each other, dear me no, not ever...

They have removed it :-(

Now it's reporting that the page isn't found. Bummer.

yet again Tesco's just got loads of marketing for an obvious mistake. thats what they do...set the prices low, people pick it up and do a write up about it and then hey presto...Tesco's get their name seen

You need a law like was recently implemented in Quebec, Canada.

It states that if a product is advertised or labled at price X, but the retailer really ment price Y, if it scans at price Y they have to sale it to you at the lowest of the 2 prices - 10$. This also applies to web order in that they HAVE to honor the listed price at the time of purchase.

This was done to avoid supermarkets labeling things at, say, 9,90$, then charging you 9,95$ or 9.99$. Now, if they do that and you catch them, they are obliged by law to give you the article free. Cut down enormously on labeling fraud

It gives a link to the legal store!

http://www.tesco.com/extra/search.aspx?Ntt=xbox&VSI=0&Ntk=primary&Nty=1&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchall

I seem to remember Tescos getting into trouble many years ago for a similar thing with TVs. It got on Watchdog who said that they are not obliged to sell at that price under UK law.

yet another tiring pricing mistake... hardly cutting edge IT journalism is it? el reg have been rolling out these dull tales for years...

Tesco only take £1 in every £8 circulating on groceries in the UK, presumably they cannot afford a bit of good will this time round.

that seems pretty much the price you'd pay in most American stores. Well, almost.

The Web page is nothing more than a legal 'invitation to treat' - that is an offer to enter negotiations which if completed will result in a legal contract. It has the same status as goods on a shelf, a shop window display or an advert.

Clicking on the button and going through the check-out constitutes the act of 'offering' a price for the goods. Tesco must then choose to accept or reject your offered price (£35) for an XBox 360 + goodies.

If they choose to accept and your card is debited (you are said to have provided 'consideration') then a contract is brought into being between you and the store. Tesco would be legally obliged to supply you with the XBox 360 for the minuscule sum being advertised.

HOWEVER - either party is able to walk away from the process right up until the acceptance of the offer provided they inform the other party they are doing so. This is what Tesco will do; they will say there was an error, you card was not debited and they're sorry for the inconvenience. They are not obliged to you in any way.

Correspondingly, if your offer of £35 was accepted by Tesco you would be obliged to pay it otherwise you would fall foul of the contract that would exist between you.

Obviously, contract law gets much more complex than this, mainly around what exactly constitutes a legal relationship, what consideration is and so on - all of which helps explain why contract lawyers are quite so rich.

I ordered this item earlier when the site was live and recieved a processing error, I thaught it may have been my new credit card at fault combined with the overlaod on the server with number of people also trying to order.

Tried it again but this time with my debit card and again a processing error so I left it thinking they have clocked on and are not allowing orders to be processed. However now I check my online credit card and bank accounts and both respectively show debits of the ammounts for the "unprocessed" orders from tesco.

Im quite worried as I have not recieved any sort of email confirmation of a successfull order from tesco at all.

from my days in retail, they either have to honour the price or take the product off sale for 28 days. either way, it was worth an shot... unfortunately as soon as something hits a site like el reg it's already to big to be honoured.

I am proud to state that me and my mates were on to this from the off. At about 11am our desk got a tip-off that the Virgin Megastore website was selling xbox bundles for £35. Considering Virgin are in the middle of being sold off at the moment this could have been a genuine mistake or a disgruntled employee - we will never know! We managed to get 2 before experiencing technical issues when one of my team (lets call him K) banged xbox into a couple of price comparison websites and bingo! Up popped tesco's - at the rather unusual price of £33.43. It took about a second for the penny to drop. It was obvious that Tesco were using an automatic price checker system to search the net for the cheapest price, take 1p+5% off and then repost the price as their own. Although Virgin were foolish to post their price they did pull it very quickly. Tesco, however, are very much the fool who followed and I'm sorry but they deserve to lose out on this one.

I work in the financial markets and although I cannot get specific there are routines in place inside trading software that are dedicated to pulling spurious prices for bonds and options out of the market if they get hit. After the first trade, bang, it's pulled. If not we could be taken by anyone and could face losing a fortune. It's a free market - why should Tesco be any different?

Their system was working perfectly and I'm pleased top say that me and my mates spent the rest of the day ringing everyone we knew and telling them all about it. It is not often that we the average joe get a chance to clean up and imagine little jonny's face when he gets an xbox instead of a bike for christmas. It's tescos obsession with undercutting competition that got them into the situation. Stuff'em

Where the customer always wins.

If they screw up the pricing then you are always entitled to the lowest price.

Our consumer protection laws are rather strong.

I've used them a number of times. :)

its been like a few months from then but i have it on my cousin's blog :D

http://blackstar74.blogspot.com/2007/09/dear-playcom.html

ofc this wasnt from santa.. but more like the black market :D

I guess there was some confusion with the person adding the product to their site.

The wireless entertainment pack can only be sold TOGETHER with a console. They cannot be sold seperately nor the items split for resale.

eBuyer put a phoney price on it to warn people off:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132287

Just been informed by one of my crew that (according to their credit card company anyway) their payment has been accepted by Tesco's - this is going to be interesting......

I managed to get one ordered and received order confirmation. Order is showing as "Awaiting stock, expected on Friday 09 November 2007". Will be interesting to see what (if anything) turns up on my doorstep.

This doesn't look to be Tesco's fault, the same item was being touted on Virgin Megastore and Woolworths at the same price, it looks like whoever provided them the bundle info is at fault (at least the other 2 pulled it off within a couple of hours, Tesco kept it on for ages).

IIRC when the Koday camera fiasco happened (which never made it to court IIARC) various lawyers pointed out that a "contract" to between two parties can be voided in the case of error or omission when the error or omission would have been obvious to either party.

Put simply, just because retailer X offers a 42" HDTV for 1p on their website, and take an order and confirm it, doesn't *automatically* mean the purchaser would win a contract dispute in a court of law. If the judge finds that the mistake was so obvious as to be apparent to the purchaser, then he can declare the contract void, and retailer X does not have to supply the goods.

In an item worth 600 GBP was accidentally priced at 450 GBP, then the retailer would be on shakier ground, as it's less obviously a mistake.

Unfortunately for the (UK) something-for-nothing brigade, them more stories like this are reported, the less likely it is a judge would accept that a purchaser had a genuine belief that a ridiculous price was not a mistake. In fact, (memory vague here) I believe that was one of the factors which led Kodak to eventually honour the camera orders, as it was pointed out that online shopping was a relatively new experience, and a lot of punters could have genuinely believed the offer was a promotional deal.

Incidentally, this tweak of UK law also puts the kybosh on those people who use such mistakes to order 100 high-value items at 1p ... I can't see any judge in the land accepting that you believed the mistake was a genuine price if you then order 100 !

You can tell it's Friday, and that damn report is *still* running !

Good point but if the low low price was a result of Tesco automatically undercutting the competition then I cannot see how it can be called a mistake. The price they posted was a genuine response - if Virgin stood by their price of £35 you can bet Tesco would have entered a lower bid as they seem to be obsessed with undercutting rivals - that IS a reasonable expectation for consumers familiar with Tescos to have! Also it was possible to buy the new H.P. book from Tesco's when it was first released for a FIVER. Almost a 75% saving on the RRP! You could say they aleady have form....

Tesco's have actually taken the money out of my bank account from me buying this last night, where does that leave us then?

Argos make this mistake all the time and generally the news is full of people complaining that they didn't honour the price.

When the retailer I was working for made the same mistake on a TV and listed it at .99p we decided to honour it - well why not, Argos had only the week before had a lot of negative press and we decided it'd show us in a good light :)

...advantage of this type of thing on several occasions. Most recently with my car, £1.5k* under-priced on their website, I'd laid a deposit down before they could take it down and re-list it. They realised their mistake eventually.

* - £1.5k might not seem much, however, I got £5.5k worth of car for £4k, so enough to make it worthwhile...

Mis-pricing goods doesn't oblige the retailer to sell the goods at that price. You offer to buy goods at a certain price, and the retailer is free to accept that offer or not

But shirley if they charge your card, the have accepted your offer?

Really its Tesco's fault for using S/W to undecut their competition, without having a safeguard in place to make sure that the price they list is valid..

Ho-hum ..

did anyone manage to order this? I did. Am just wondering if they will dispatch the wireless pack without the xbox ........

hmmmm leads to an even more interesting legalese point ....

Is a price generated by faulty software a "mistake" ? Especially if the suppliers of that software have a sign-off from the user ?

It seems that Tesco are now resorting to mis-using existing contract law relating to postal contracts to squirm out of this one;

http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/364560/major-retailers-in-xbox-price-mishap.html

In response to Tesco's furious back pedalling 'K' has formed a forum to try and get Tesco to face up to their responsibilities!

Facebook users can find it here;

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7202406620

hmm i've actually been responsible for a few of these pricing errors before and we had to honour them. still what i'd expect from tesco's:

a) who could tell if it was a special offer? they do promote massive savings thus would not be unreasonable to expect a limited availability offer (the big dept stores have done it before - get the favourite xmas toy at 1/2price but we only have 500 in stock - 5000 people turn up and 4500 end up buying other toys in store)

b) as such they should at least honour everyone with 1 xbox (so not 100 xbox's sorry!)

c) the site did crash/slow down and by 7:30 you couldnt access it anymore, so how many orders are we talking - maybe 800 - it's a days trading hit on their site but not end of world - they'd prob make it up in profits on the next day.

d) how much would they have to pay for this PR?!!

e) with emails now accepted in law as being the same legal status as letters, those purchase confirmations confirm you are purchasing the item - thus contract - also if money taken then even stronger case.

it'll be really interesting to see this, anyone remember what happened with the amazon mistake a few years back? think it was for PDA's and they honoured it no?

ARGGHH tesco's cancelled -

however they are saying its because the bundle didnt contain an X-Box -

anyone got any screenshots of the offer details???

grrrr..............

Dear Miss

Thank you for you recent order for the Wireless Entertainment Pack from Tesco.com

Unfortunately, there was an error in the product details at the time that you placed your order, the Wireless Entertainment Pack does not include an X Box 360. As a result we have had to cancel your order. Please refer to our Terms and Conditions on the Tesco.com entertainment site for further details of our order acceptance policy. We apologise for this error.

We note there may be customer interest in purchasing the Wireless Entertainment Pack including an X Box 360. We are currently working hard to offer our customers an increased range of bundled products. We hope to have these available on Tesco.com Entertainment in the near future.

Visit our site

Kind Regards

Tesco Customer Services

Just received this (well, my partner did. I only masquerade as Ms Nolan at the weekends or the right sort of parties)

Dear Miss Nolan,

Thank you for you recent order for the Wireless Entertainment Pack

from Tesco.com

Unfortunately, there was an error in the product details at the time

that you placed your order, the Wireless Entertainment Pack does not

include an X Box 360. As a result we have had to cancel your order.

Please refer to our Terms and Conditions on the Tesco.com

entertainment site for further details of our order acceptance policy.

We apologise for this error.

We note there may be customer interest in purchasing the Wireless Entertainment Pack

including an X Box 360. We are currently working hard to offer our

customers an increased range of bundled products. We hope to have

these available on Tesco.com Entertainment in the near future.

Kind Regards

Tesco Customer Services

Just had an email telling me my order's been cancelled (as has the rest of IT).

'Unfortunately, there was an error in the product details at the time that you placed your order, the Wireless Entertainment Pack does not include an X Box 360'

That's funny - we found out off e-buyer today that you CANNOT buy this bundle WITHOUT the console! Apparently these bundles cannot be split as the vendors get them as a whole unit from the suppliers

This stinks

Watch out for a 'TESCO - Where's my Xbox!' banner behind the goal at the Watford game tomorrow

The contract is closed and accepted.

they can't turn round and pull out without being in breach of contract (which as we know from our run ins with companies isn't just "oh, pay back and it's OK").

Do we really think that NO ONE from tesco is aware of this thread?

My advice to tesco?

suck it up!

Put your hands up and admit fair cop guv loud and clear - turn it around so YOU don't come away looking bad . Say you are concerned about xmas disapointment, that you always put your valued customers first or ANYTHING!

Just honour the ones you have already taken the money off! WHATEVER!

And just for the record - how many xboxes did I personally order?

none

zilch

nada

zero

I got a wii 2 weeks ago (but thats another story!)

Yes I sent the mails. Yes I rang the numbers. I informed everyone I could about this and my team alone hoovered up nearly 50. We're now just looking for deals on wrapping paper off e-bay.

The point is this - I haven't got myself worked up about this for anything as petty as greed. I can honestly say that my anger at tescos over this does not have a vested interest. How many of those execs at tescos can honestly say that while they were pulling their hair out today over this and getting called in to the bosses office to explain the situation?

All I know is that this stinks and a lot of families will have a much merrier xmas with an xbox under the tree.

Tescos - I await your response

It never ceases to amaze me the way this particular theme recurs constantly in England - people who believe they have a legal right to make a profit from somebody else's error.

I can't give you a direct quote, but Julius Caesar is the first person on record to have noticed that the British isles are peopled by people particularly enamoured with thievery.

Many people have no doubt noticed the same thing, myself included - the minute you get to england, people are stealing from you.

You have NO RIGHT to DEMAND a profit from somebody else's mistake.

YOU KNOW that an XBox costs considerably more than 30 squids, so YOU KNOW that you are trying to defraud Tesco.

Pack of thieves.

I ordered an xbox360 myself from Tesco. Mine got cancelled as well. When a Big store with Big profits advertises an item at a low price you do order thinking it is a promotion. How are we to know it was not a promotion when other stores advertised it as well. I honestly thought I had made a purchase to complete my young sons Christmas. Thinking about it I wondered if it was Microsofts fault they will loose out in the long run as had people got the console then they would be purchasing games. Add up the consoles sold and the demand for games.

IT ALL STINKS TO ME.

Thought you may want to look at Tescos other consoles.

http://www.tesco.com/entertainment/product.aspx?R=756131&bci=4537|S_Id*4|Games

Thats a bit harsh Mr C! In England such behaviour is regarded as opportunism and is widely admired (Del Boy anyone?) And anyway, it's quid pro qou - Tesco play the same game and make a lot of money out of it! In fact you should be defending me! Perhaps Julius Ceaser should have considered that other piece of latin wisdom 'when in Rome......'

> We are tipped off about web pricing errors maybe once a week

By the terminally stupid?

There's a far better chance of getting the offer if you can order one, rather than ten and manage to sit and wet your knickers without telling world+dog, until the order is completed. Too difficult for some though - they just have to tell the world, which more or less guarantees the mistake is noticed and they don't get the goods. D'oh.

A few orders would probably just get processed, when world+dog reports clearly they'll notice.

You are right Michael (hangs head in shame) - I think we can stick a fork in this one now - it's done.

See you here next time!

"Many people have no doubt noticed the same thing, myself included - the minute you get to england, people are stealing from you."

Then fuck off somewhere else and take your self-righteous bullshit bigotry with you.

"YOU KNOW that an XBox costs considerably more than 30 squids, so YOU KNOW that you are trying to defraud Tesco."

WRONG. An object "costs" what you are willing to pay and what the seller is willing to accept. If they offer an object at price X and you are happy to pay that, then it is not fraud. If an antiques dealer finds an object in a second hand shop that is "worth" thousands but is only priced at £10, he has not defrauded the shop by buying it for £10.

Tesco publicly offered this price, accepted orders and took payment. This is not fraud - this is a retail transaction.

As to Julius Ceasar, here's a latin phrase for you, "caveat emptor" - buyer beware. If you purchase an object then you need to make sure it is what you want as, once money has changed hands, you have no recourse if you realise it wasn't worth the money unless the goods are faulty. This also works the other way around. It is the shop's responsibility to make sure that they are selling their wares at a profitable price. The customer has no obligation to hand out business advice if he spots a ridiculously good deal, he simply has the responsibility to check that the goods he is paying for are exactly what he thinks they are. It's called personal responsibility and the free market.

Maybe if you actually looked at the culture as a whole instead of just projecting your own experiences of having bought some overpriced junk and then regretting it, you wouldn't come across as such an ignorant racist twat.

Yes, interestingly enough I checked out their bundles, and am getting the message that they are out of stock and no more is expected for 28 days...wonder if someone in their legal team has been advising them of retail law where if you advertise something at a certain price you either have to honour it, or take it off sale for 28 days. Or am I just TOO cynical?

Seems I spoke to soon about rolling over on this one!

'K' found this on http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5978958001

(clears throat) begin quote:

"Here's a copy of what I sent them - I suggest everyone else do the same. They'll crack under the pressure as they're legally not on solid ground and they know it. The letter they sent out is to see how many people complain and they can settle on the sly with anyone who makes a fuss, standard procedure...

Anyway, copy and paste this into your own letter/email to them:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Your terms and conditions do not at any point make reference to non-provision of goods due to inaccurate product details.

In addition, since you accepted payment for the items, the contract was formed and you are under obligation to provide the items described for the price listed. If you are in any doubt as to whether or not this is the case, I urge you to read The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, SI 2000/2013, which incorporates Directive 2000/31/EC.

As such I look forward to receiving the items ordered in a timely manner.

Yours sincerely"

Quote ends

If anyone has ordered ONE unit and still feels aggrieved by Tesco's attitude PLEASE DO TRY THIS!

It was all a publicity stunt they never had any intention of honouring any orders. Hit them where it hurts and stop shopping there, encourage others to stop shopping there too. It may make them think twice about pulling this kind of stunt again.

It seems Richard Branson had something to do with this, but at least he honoured his customer orders. Look at this linkhttp://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=22675

I feel violated by the bearded one! Doubt this is true though - sounds more like Branson's own perculiar brand of self-publicising. If it is a marketing ploy it has failed miserably - the biggest place I've seen this story is the sky news website so we have hardly set the world alight. The only practical upshot so far is that some people have had their cynicical world-view well and truly reaffirmed while others think tesco are sh*ts. I fall into both camps.

Beardface honoured his customer orders? My mate was fobbed off with an email from Virgin over his order. I will tell him to check this....

An update to the Postal Contract law referred to higher up the thread - word at the time was that Tesco was hoping to (mis)use it...

"The Postal Rule states that the contract is formed once acceptance of the contract has been sent, i.e. when the confirmation email was sent by Tescos. In addition, The Postal Rule is an outdated law (dating back to late 1800s give or take) and as such has very little statute in the modern world, particularly when it comes to electronic transactions as The Postal Rule set up to account for situations where substantial delays were expected between the sending and subsequent delivery of contractual terms.

Richards, P, The Law of Contract, ed7 (2006, London: Pearsons) construes providing an acknowledgement screen as an acceptance of contract and holds more precendant than the Postal Rule.

In short; 'A contract is said to come into existence when acceptance of an offer has been communicated to the offeror by the offeree.' With specific reference to the Postal Rule, 'As a rule of convenience, if the offer is accepted by post, the contract comes into existence at the moment that the acceptance was posted (Adams v. Lindsell (1818) 106 ER 250)'. Note the date of 1818. But even then they talk about the acceptance of the contract, not fulfillment of it. Acceptance as far as I can see constitutes the emails. Fulfillment of the contract would be the posting of the goods themselve, which they claim should be acceptance of the contract."

Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

Well here is an interesting update if somebody hasnt already beat me to it.

Tescos pricing error came about because of it's Price Checking software.

Richard Branson on his Virgin site apparantly knowing that Tescos scan his prices deliberately reduced the price of his Xbo360 package for a limited time to £35. He did this hoping the price checker would pick up on it and offer a similar deal which it did. Virgin did indeed honour the limited console sales and then quickly put the price back up leaving Tescos with the cheaper deal and exposing their pricing system.

So Tesco may have a problem which is now in the hands of BBC watch dog.