Consumer Law, Warranties Incorrect Price On A Quote

[pamatthews]

Our small business (Value Added Reseller) provided another company with a quote for their purchase of our product which they, in turn, would then sell to their customer. The person who prepared the quote took the pricing from the wrong column of numbers- therefore the quote per each unit was lower than it should have been by about $40. As soon as he noticed the problem he immediately phoned the other reseller to advise him that the pricing was incorrect. Of course, the man was most unhappy because he had already passed the quote on to his customer. We feel terrible that this happened but we cannot afford to lose nearly $800 on this sale.

We are trying to get a discount from our supplier to help cover some of the loss.

My question is: Can this man sue us for giving him an incorrect quote? This certainly was not intentional and we tried to correct the problem as quickly as possible. Can anyone advise us what we should do? Please.

 

[dee_dub]

You quoted a guy an incorrect price. That is (sort of) an offer to sell to him at that price. You corrected the price before he bought anything. That is (sort of) a retraction of the original offer and an offer to sell at the correct price.

You're not contractually obliged to sell him anything at the lower price.

Now the interesting question is whether he has any claim against you for losses he might incur. So: before you quoted him the correct price, did he make any sales to anyone based on the incorrect information you gave him? If yes, he might conceivably come after you for the loss. If not, he has no claim against you. No harm, no foul.

 

[pamatthews]

Thank you very, very much. I so appreciate your answer.

Since there was no actual loss as a result of this I am hoping that the sincerest of apologies for our mistake will smooth things over.

Again, my thanks for your reply.