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[Saracen]

It's been a while since my contract law lectures, but IIRC thats not true.

A contract can be accepted by many differen't mechanisims, for example the postal rule.

Also there is such as thing as loss of bargin.

However, given the fact everyone knows this was a mistake, its academic.

Well, he's right .... and wrong.

You certainly don't only have a contract when you have the goods. That much is true. The basic elements are :

- offer
- acceptance
- exchange of consideration .....

but that latter can include promise of exchange.

It's obvious when thought about. If you were only in a binding contract when you have the goods, you could hand over the money and then be told "sorry, no binding contract and I'd changed my mind".

Even more obvious are contracts for services. I promise to pay when my car is serviced, the house's windows washed, the gardener (if I had one) cuts the grass, etc. I am committed if I promise to pay on completion, and the job is then satisfactorily completed.

But, of course, Blitzen is right in his primary point, that what miXer had been told about a shop advertising at a given price obliging them to sell at that price, is incorrect. It does not, for the reasons others have given, namely "invitation to treat".

And that slightly obscure phrase, for anyone not familiar with it, means that the advert/price is an invitation by the shop for buyers to make an offer. In the offer/acceptance/exchange process outlined above, the "offer" is when the customer comes in and says "I'd like to buy that <whatever> for the £x on the price ticket". The shop are fully entitled to realise their mistake and decline to accept the offer, and the contract is therefore not made.

[scaryjim]

I think the key point to remember is that a shop is never obliged to sell, and they can give any reason they want. So if you want a specific item and the only one they have left if the one in their window display, they are quite within their rights to refuse to sell to you because they don't want to mess up their windows display! An extreme example perhaps, and unlikely to happen irl, but the right not to sell remains.

[dave87]

I think the key point to remember is that a shop is never obliged to sell, and they can give any reason they want. So if you want a specific item and the only one they have left if the one in their window display, they are quite within their rights to refuse to sell to you because they don't want to mess up their windows display! An extreme example perhaps, and unlikely to happen irl, but the right not to sell remains.

Nope, quite common - for example in Electrical retail - especially if there is stock elsewhere (e.g. Warehouse) but not in that store.

[Saracen]

I think the key point to remember is that a shop is never obliged to sell, and they can give any reason they want. .....

Erm, ..... I'm sure it's not what you had in mind with that statement, but actually, you're wrong about that.

Put it this way. They aren't obliged to sell to a given individual, or to sell a given product, or at a specific price. That's true.

But it cannot be for "any reason they want".

For instance, "I won't sell to you, you filthy <insert n-word, or p-word, or offensive term for gay person> "etc is illegal.

If I ran a shop (which I don't) I can refuse to sell to, for instance, a person that happen to be black, or gay, or both, but I can't so it because they are.

To put it another way, you're not obliged to sell, but you can't refuse to do so in a way that is illegal discrimination.

I could refuse to sell booze to a black person because they're under age, or even that I think they are and they cannot prove otherwise, but not because they're black.

And if they refuse to sell, they don't even have to give a reason, but if they do (or merely operate a illegal policy, without saying why they refuse) they're going to be at serious risk of winding up in court.

There are many reasons why they can refuse to sell, and there is no general obligation to sell, but it cannot be just "any reason they want".

[jim]

So if you want a specific item and the only one they have left if the one in their window display, they are quite within their rights to refuse to sell to you because they don't want to mess up their windows display! An extreme example perhaps, and unlikely to happen irl, but the right not to sell remains.

Trust me, when I worked on the highstreet and it took two of us an entire day to put one of the desks together for the window display, I wouldn't have sold that thing until it was the last one on earth.

Always used to make me laugh when customers asked if it was easy to put together...

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Someone told me that if they advertise a product at that price - they have to sell you it at that ;o

Not the case. i remember they was sellinga canon 7d with the 17-55 F2.8 IS lens for like £800 and they never honoured it

[scaryjim]

... you're not obliged to sell, but you can't refuse to do so in a way that is illegal discrimination. ...

OK, that's a fair enough distinction to make - as usual I was a little imprecise in my language I think I got my point (about not being obliged to sell at all) across though...