Dealer's pricy blunder costs him a Porsche
A Porsche Panamera is displayed at the Automobile Shanghai in 2017.
A Porsche dealer in a northwest Chinese city mispriced a Panamera in an online store at 124,000 yuan (US$18,377), one-10th of the original price, resulting in hundreds of orders.
On January 30, the popular sports car, sold by a dealer in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, was available in Porsche's WeChat mini program for a deposit as low as 911 yuan.
A total of 598 orders had been placed before the sedan was removed from the online store. According to the news portal Yidianzixun, the dealer said there was only one sports sedan in stock, therefore, the remaining 597 orders were deemed invalid, and deposits were reimbursed within 48 hours.
A Panamera is mistakenly priced at 124,000 yuan in Porsche online store.
On Tuesday, an employee of the dealer told Yidianzixun that a staff member inadvertently entered the incorrect price into the system due to the slow network. After identifying the error, the car was removed from the online store.
The dealer has struck an agreement with the buyer who placed the first order, but has refused to provide the precise price of the vehicle.
A lawyer said the dealer had violated the consumers' rights by unilaterally canceling the orders, news portal Xibujuece.com reported.
According to Zhou Zhaocheng of the Beijing Anjian Law Firm, if a buyer successfully places an order online, the vendor is required to deliver the merchandise. The seller cannot refuse to deliver by citing reasons such as being out of stock.
Zhou said that the dealer should be held legally liable because the order cancellation was a violation of the contract.
The local market watchdog has started an investigation into the case.
Panamera is priced from 998,000 yuan to 2,501,000 yuan on Porsche China's official website.
