@pladanwalt wrote:
It seems to violate any principle of contract law that I’m aware of but eBay apparently condones it.
When pricing errors occur in a B&M situation, the seller has the right to withdraw the item from sale or they can opt to honour the price, but that choice is definitely the seller's.
This applies as long as no money has changed hands (which constitutes acceptance), but the problem with online sales is that more often than not, pricing errors are not detected at all until the purchase & payment has occurred - it's easy enough to look traditional contract law and transpose it from B&M retail (which was all that existed when most of the legislation was drafted), to online retail, but the way they function is completely different since an online seller can't refuse payments except by refunding them. (To be fair, though, they should not ask for the difference - they should only either withdraw the item, or honour the price, and that part can transfer directly - i.e. I don't think a seller should effectively hold the item hostage for more money, it should either be the item is supplied, or not. The most I have ever done myself when mistakenly underquoting a price [be it for an item or postage] is advise the buyer of my mistake, explain it will be honoured for this sale but can't be in the future).
I'm purely theorising here, so don't take it as a personal assessment or judgement of yourself in particular, but I think what happens in a lot of these cases is that the frustration and disappointment that results from these scenarios is funneled into looking for a way to enforce the sale, to be right - and within rights - to expect and / or demand what a particular party wants. Practically speaking, however, the only way you would have a chance to do that is to take the case to court, and success would definitely not be guaranteed.
On a slightly different note, while there are some sellers that handle these kinds of situations badly, and I've even seen some very experienced, high volume sellers that have done it deliberately, others have not set out to do the wrong thing. People make mistakes, or they might discover the postage service they quoted for isn't available (common in current conditions) - some will take the position that none of it matters, that no matter what, every seller just needs to suck it up and honour a sale even if it causes them a loss; that doesn't sit comfortably with me personally - I will take my own stuff-ups on the chin, because I am making that decision for myself, I can't decide for someone else what is or isn't viable for them, particularly financially. So, I more like to look at things in context, if it was (or is at least most likely) a genuine mistake, I will cut them a little more slack than I would be prepared to for an experienced seller who should know and do better.
