Olympus E-1 Digital SLR - £98.70 (Apple Education Store) [CLOSED]

POET_3

harryc wrote:

the last few posts here have been spot on. I think that the way that this thread has run is simply down to the fact that being lied to in the way that we have is just not acceptable.

My letter went off in the post tonight to apple, Hopefully a few others will also follow through in making our feelings known directly to apple.
Intersestingly if you use google and do search under the news banner with just the term apple. you will see that the top two stories concern this matter. I cant believe that this fact is sitting too well with apple at present. At sometime in the near future if and only if the pressure is maintained apple will have to say something. Im not sure how we can all pull anymore together on this issue than what we have done and has already been suggested..

Weve manged to make it news worthy. Weve hopefully lodged out concerns with the bbc watchdog site and weve written to apple directly . Until apple responds to our mail then there is very little else i think we can do . The ball is in thier court .

I want to thank everyone who came along on this ride... people who genuinely put a sense of moral injustice above getting a percieved bargain.

oooo ehhr!!
........I did get a bit annoyed and send a copy of my complaint as well as links to this thread and the dvd forum to as many media "contact us" email adresses as i could find when i got annoyed after calling them up again this morning!!!!!

....Sorry apple, you do need to get your customer services sorted before you get away with pulling a stunt like this.

POET_3

CitizenBidet wrote:

Will this end up in The Sun or any of the daily papers?
I hope so!

Basically the story has gone to most sites that come under newspaper when i put a search on google !!!!!

Apple, ..... will you learn?

harryc_3

davilown wrote:

@ Harryc

could you possibly let us know what you wrote and where to please - freatly appreciated. If you don't, I totally understand

Cheers

beermonster

hi I am no legal eagle expert and my grasp of english grammer is quite poor but i dont have a problem detailing below what I wrote.
i sent it for attention of the ceo apple uk hollyhill industrial estate cork replublic ireland.


Apple UK
Cork
Eire

Dear Sir or Madam,

I write to you in connection with order Wxxxxxxxx. As you are well aware this order was accepted by you on the 29th of December 2005. Under the terms and conditions that where in place at that time, fortuitously I have kept a copy, the confirmation email that I received from you constituted acceptance of my order and at that stage a legally binding contract was formed.

The subsequent fiasco that your company has engaged in, in attempt not to honour the said agreement has been I am afraid a sad reflection of how much you value having good customer relations.

More so your attempts in preventing completion of the order by changing your companies terms and conditions may indeed be viewed in law as a shallow attempt to defraud the consumer and at the very least would be seen as being morally wrong.
In any case regardless of what terms and conditions that you wish to play under, cancelling the order without first making contact to offer an alternative product or offering a proper explanation may again been an infringement of the conditions that where prevalent at the time of order.

I took the liberty of phoning your companies customer services department to discuss the situation. Unfortunately the person that I spoke to was far from comfortable in reading from whatever prepared script that they had been asked to work from. As such the mumbled excuse that Olympus could no longer supply the camera..."cause they aren’t made no more"...I am afraid was comical in the extreme.

Olympus say that the cameras are still readily available and have directed me to several of their suppliers. I believe that in law 'loss of a bargain' if proven would allow me to purchase from any of these suppliers and charge any additional expense to your company.

Therefore the reason for this letter is to provide you with the opportunity to honour good the agreement that we entered into on the 29th of December. I will accept the original camera as ordered or a substitute camera naturally for no more that the price that I paid. Given that your site at time of cancelling was still offering the lesser model of camera the E300 model, I would even consider that model despite its limiting factors as a substitution.
I look forward to hearing from you soonest with regards this matter. However I feel it is only right to mention that I have contacted both press and the BBC’s Watchdog’s program with a view to enlighten them on what I consider to have been a sorry tale of a major company riding roughshod over consumers.
The link to the webpage below will highlight that my intention to pursue this matter is genuine. Until I receive a satisfactory answer to my concerns I shall endeavour to make my views and opinions on this matter known, you will see that I have added my views to the comments section.
http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024875,39155342,00.htm?PROCESS=show&ID=20060906&AT=39155342
Sincerely,


as i say my english may be poor but i wanted something in the post sooner rather than later .

italiastar

harryc wrote:

hi I am no legal eagle expert and my grasp of english grammer is quite poor but i dont have a problem detailing below what I wrote.
i sent it for attention of the ceo apple uk hollyhill industrial estate cork replublic ireland.


Apple UK
Cork
Eire

Dear Sir or Madam,

I write to you in connection with order Wxxxxxxxx. As you are well aware this order was accepted by you on the 29th of December 2005. Under the terms and conditions that where in place at that time, fortuitously I have kept a copy, the confirmation email that I received from you constituted acceptance of my order and at that stage a legally binding contract was formed.

The subsequent fiasco that your company has engaged in, in attempt not to honour the said agreement has been I am afraid a sad reflection of how much you value having good customer relations.

More so your attempts in preventing completion of the order by changing your companies terms and conditions may indeed be viewed in law as a shallow attempt to defraud the consumer and at the very least would be seen as being morally wrong.
In any case regardless of what terms and conditions that you wish to play under, cancelling the order without first making contact to offer an alternative product or offering a proper explanation may again been an infringement of the conditions that where prevalent at the time of order.

I took the liberty of phoning your companies customer services department to discuss the situation. Unfortunately the person that I spoke to was far from comfortable in reading from whatever prepared script that they had been asked to work from. As such the mumbled excuse that Olympus could no longer supply the camera..."cause they aren’t made no more"...I am afraid was comical in the extreme.

Olympus say that the cameras are still readily available and have directed me to several of their suppliers. I believe that in law 'loss of a bargain' if proven would allow me to purchase from any of these suppliers and charge any additional expense to your company.

Therefore the reason for this letter is to provide you with the opportunity to honour good the agreement that we entered into on the 29th of December. I will accept the original camera as ordered or a substitute camera naturally for no more that the price that I paid. Given that your site at time of cancelling was still offering the lesser model of camera the E300 model, I would even consider that model despite its limiting factors as a substitution.
I look forward to hearing from you soonest with regards this matter. However I feel it is only right to mention that I have contacted both press and the BBC’s Watchdog’s program with a view to enlighten them on what I consider to have been a sorry tale of a major company riding roughshod over consumers.
The link to the webpage below will highlight that my intention to pursue this matter is genuine. Until I receive a satisfactory answer to my concerns I shall endeavour to make my views and opinions on this matter known, you will see that I have added my views to the comments section.
http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024875,39155342,00.htm?PROCESS=show&ID=20060906&AT=39155342
Sincerely,


as i say my english may be poor but i wanted something in the post sooner rather than later .

Just out of interest, Did you actually qualify for the offer ie a student or work in education?

peter_the_piper

Are there any objections to others on this site and other sites using this same letter as it very neatly sums up the current situation. A blitz of these letters will not do any harm and a copy of this would enhance anyone elses claim, should it go further.
Peter

dreamr

I agree. Great work people.

I will post my version up soon. Again I am no legal expert and my english is even worse. However no harm in giving people a choice.

So here is my suggestion, if you would like you could post up your version. That way people can just copy and paste, pick and mix or alter the version to there content. All that is left is print a few of these and mail them to the relevant companies.

Just my 2 cents as they say.

harryc_3

italiastar wrote:

Just out of interest, Did you actually qualify for the offer ie a student or work in education?

yes i wouldnt have pursed this matter if i hadnt been genuine...

I am a secondary school technician and one of the things i was doing before I stopped for the christmas break was teaching the use of digital camera's to both staff and pupils. The camera I was using was basic compared to this a compact not a slr... hence I thought what a chance to pick up somthing id never normally be able to afford, and a piece of kit the school will never be able to stretch its ict/av budget for... added to this I am also engaged in an open uni degree course.Into my third year now so thought i qualifed on that score as well....

davilown

To anybody.

Does the freedom of information Act apply to all companies or is it directed only at the public/government sector?

Ie can we write to apple to ask them what their stock was and what it is now?

Cheers

sainthalo

FIA does not apply to apple! DPA does but unlikely to be of any use to you. Just issue proceedings they will settle rather than expend £700 defending. Guaranteed.

davilown

If it helps!!!!


Dear Sir or Madam,

REF: WEB ORDER OLYMPUS SLR-ZML, ORDER NUMBER: W********

On 29th December 2005 I ordered the above item from your education website at the price of £98.70. I subsequently received an order acknowledgement and an order confirmation. According to your terms and conditions paragraph 2.5, this email is the opening of a contract between your store and myself. At this time, the £98.70 was taken from my bank account. From this point you officially entered a legally binding contract.

On the 3rd January 2005, I received an email stating, “We regret to inform you that your order for the Olympus E1 SLR, part number TB011, has been put on hold, and will soon be cancelled as the product is no longer available.” And that the order would be cancelled shortly. On phoning customer your customer services, I was politely told that Apple could not honour the contract because they were unable to source the camera as it was no longer in production.

I did not believe this and proceeded to contact Olympus UK who informed me that it was still in production and stock was available.

A subsequent phone proceeded to your customer services to determine why were we told an untruth (whether deliberate or not). From this I was informed that the order was cancelled because it had been mis-priced and if I would still like to purchase the above mentioned product, I would be able to but at the original price with a 10% discount.

Unfortunately for Apple UK I believe that there have been too many people saying different things to customer and it has ended in appalling customer services. The emails were inexcusable as they did not explain the situation your company may be in or when refunds would be given, or even a gesture of goodwill to say sorry for making a faux pas.

As the product can be widely sourced, I ask for you to honour the binding contract that both parties entered into and either supply myself with the camera or provide sufficient compensation so that I am able to purchase the camera elsewhere at the contracted price, or alternatively, supply a camera of similar specification.

I am a student and am able to prove that I am eligible to use the education store.

I look forward to a suitable solution through the next few weeks or legal advice will be taken.

Sincerely