Harrods customers try to bag a bargain – but can they keep it?

1 Aspinal handbag full price £950 and one at £8.08

Website glitch shows ridiculously low prices for handbags

Ha! Harrods glitch! The Evening Standard reported that Harrods Aspinal handbags, normally retailing at £950, were on sale on their website for £8. They sold out (pretty quickly!)

The Standard also reported that fine Italian leather handbags, which would have usually cost several hundred pounds, were listed at less than £5. One £250 pure leather tote bag cost just £2.13, while the brand’s Marylebone tote bag, usually costing £950, was on sale for just £8.08.

Does the retailer have to honour the wrongly marked up price?

So, does Harrods have to honour these prices and ship the orders?

In a word, sadly, NO. It is a common misconception see 7 consumer rights misconceptions (and what they are really)

Many people wrongly believe that if something is marked up at a certain price then that is the price you pay. The price label is actually just an “invite to treat”, in legal terms. This means that it is open to negotiation between the two parties. Sorreeeee!

In some cases, it may be that traders’ terms and conditions state that the contract has been entered into once payment has been taken and you receive the confirmation email.

However, in the Harrods’ terms and condition it states:

When you place an order, we will send you an acknowledgement email to let you know that we have received your order. This is not an order confirmation or acceptance. We will request pre-authorisation against your payment card at this stage.

We will send you a confirmation email to confirm that your order has been dispatched for delivery. This is confirmation and acceptance of your order. Your payment card will be charged on dispatch.”

So, unless you have received a confirmation email to say that your item has been dispatched, you can be pretty sure that Harrods will not honour the sale on these apparent bargains.

I have asked Harrods for comment and whether they will be offering customers a goodwill gesture to make up for the disappointment! As yet I haven’t heard anything…

The cynic in me wonders if this was all a publicity stunt? Why haven’t they put out a statement yet? Are they just waiting for the story to spread a bit more?

If you fancy writing to the Harrods CEO catch his email address here at www.ceoemail.com (where you can find any CEO contact details!)

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