Tesco 360 Error

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.

You all must be sick of me by now but...

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 In addition, The Postal Rule is an outdated law (dating back to late 1800s give or take) and as such has very little statute in the modern world, particularly when it comes to electronic transactions as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!

RE: Richard Branson

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.