Earlier this month, a retailer in Italy called MediaWorld had an amazing online deal for loyalty card holders. The 13-inch iPad Air was offered to them for the incredible price of 15 euros ($17.28). Wow! Such a deal is almost too good to be true. That might be because it isn’t true. The price of the tablet should have read €879 (approximately $1,013). With Black Friday approaching, you can’t blame those consumers who placed an order at the ridiculously low price from thinking that they were taking advantage of a valid sale (more on that later).
At first, MediaWorld took the cash and turned over the tablets to buyers
To make sure that there was no issue, those purchasing the 13-inch iPad Air, thinking that the pricing could be a mistake, chose the “payment and pickup in store” option. This way, should the pricing prove to be a mistake, the customer would have already paid for the device and had possession of it. This turned out to be a very smart move as the 15 euro payment went through for purchases and MediaWorld handed over the device to each buyer. Those ordering online were able to pay the low price without any hassle and either picked up their new tablet in person or had their iPad Air shipped to them with no problems.
It should be pointed out that there was nothing on the sales receipt listing the terms and conditions of purchases that mentioned certain procedures to follow in the event of a pricing error. This became important when MediaWorld sent an email 11 days after purchases were made stating that the published price was “clearly incorrect.” Customers who bought the tablet at the advertised price were given a couple of options.
The options that the iPad Air buyers had were to:
- Keep the iPad Air and pay the actual price of €879 minus a €150 discount. This would make the final cost of purchase €729 ($840.15). That works out to a discount of $172.85 in U.S. Dollar terms.
- Or the iPad Air can be returned, and the consumer would receive a refund of the €15 they paid for the tablet they bought, and a €20 discount voucher for their inconvenience.
“We confirm that, in a very short period of time, due to a clearly recognizable technical error caused by an extraordinary and unexpected glitch on our ecommerce platform, some products were mistakenly displayed at prices that, due to their clear and objective disconnect from the true market value and the correct promotional price, should never have been displayed. This was a manifest error, making it economically unsustainable and not representative of our commercial offering.”
-MediaWorld statement
MediaWorld’s website lists this M3 13-inch iPad Air. | Image credit-MediaWorld
The two options that MediaWorld gave its customers were designed to either allow the retailer to make some coin from selling the tablet, or to get the tablets returned to them so they can be sold at a legitimate discount price. As MediaWorld put it, “By virtue of the provisions of the current regulations, we found it necessary to intervene, resorting to a legal principle aimed at preserving the contractual balance in the event of an error of this magnitude. Our approach was to prioritize the relationship with the customer and to offer solutions that went beyond the mere application of law. For this reason, we promptly contacted all affected buyers, proposing two alternatives.”
After 11 days, the retailer gave the iPad Air buyers two options to choose from
We’ve explained what the two alternatives were and the retailer went into it in depth: “We offer product retention: The customer has the option to keep the purchased item, paying the difference between the price paid and the correct promotional price.”
“We have also offered a further discount on the amount to be paid. Or return the product: The customer can choose to return the item free of charge, receiving a full refund of the amount already paid. In this case too, we have offered a MediaWorld shopping voucher. We firmly believe that these proposals demonstrate our willingness to support customers and maintain transparency and fairness. We continue to work to improve our shopping experience and maximum protection for our consumers.”
It all comes down to whether the buyer should have known that the price was wrong
The law in Italy would allow MediaWorld to demand that the iPad buyers be forced to pay up for the device they bought or return it if they knew that there was an obvious error in price. That depends on each buyer. Italian lawyer consumer lawyer Massimiliano Dona goes into more detail:
“If the buyer is Mrs. Maria, who finds a deal and decides to take it, that’s one thing. If, on the other hand, it’s someone who buys five tablets and then immediately puts them back on sale, or even someone who resells electronics for a living, that’s another matter. In that case, the awareness of the mistake would be more obvious. From a legal point of view, everything revolves around the buyer’s ability to recognize that the price was incorrect. This is the real deciding factor, which must be contextualized both with respect to sales channel used by MediaWorld and the buyer’s professionalism.”
This story probably won’t come to an end until it makes its way to an Italian courthouse nowhere near you.
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