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Making an error on a quotation


What can you do if you realise you have miscalculated after your quotation has been accepted?


You quote a price for a specific job where the shipper has provided full and accurate information, but after the quote is accepted you realise you have made an error and under quoted. Do you have to honour the quote? What about if the job has been completed and you realise when invoicing that the quote was wrong? There is no straight answer to these questions


as there are many variable factors. Legally, if you have made a bad deal you are stuck with it. There is scope for argument where the offer and acceptance do not correspond, but only one party to the contract knows, or should have known, that there is a mistake. It would have to be very obvious for a quotation to be wrong


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before a contract based on it is deemed to be a unilateral mistake and thus void. For example, if it were an FCL job and a quotation UK to China was given for US$200 instead of US$2,000 it would be obvious that a mistake had been made, but not if say US$2,000 was quoted when it was meant to be US$2,800.


Your obligations If the offer has been made and is capable of acceptance (in other words full and accurate information concerning the goods and the journey required has been given to enable an accurate quote) and has been duly accepted before the error noted and corrected, then the


forwarder is stuck with it and is bound to perform the contract at the agreed price. The contract, once made by acceptance, can only then be amended by agreement and not unilaterally. Many quotes are made subject to caveats such as surcharges being additional, length of validity, subject to change in certain stated circumstances.


BIFA STC


All quotes should be made subject to the BIFA STC. Each case depends on its own merit, so it is difficult to give any general guidance. There is no “catch all” statement that can be applied to a quotation, so the best course of action is to ensure all staff are aware of the implications when preparing a response. Make sure you are sending a response to the right person.


Spoof emails are a common problem and it is important to check that the e-mail you are replying to is the correct address – if it is not the consequences could be serious and adverse in terms of confidentiality breaches, data protection breaches and loss and expense. You could put “subject to change” but such


wording would be of no effect if the change was not notified before acceptance.


December 2018


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