[CLOSED] Live Aid DVD - £11.99

musicman_2

Doing a late night read through the site and it stuns me how often WH Smiths manage to get away with incorrect pricing on their site.

I'm just curious if anyone has contacted Watchdog regarding this, it seems like they blatantly get away with this time and time again. As Kodak found to their cost (see my previous message and link), if a company displays the wrong price, it is not the consumers fault if they place an order.

So...has anyone contacetd Watchdog? ???

cooldaz

Hello,

This is the response i got after emailing the PR department.

Dear Darren

Thank you for your email and for bringing this situation to my attention. I have asked the WHSmith Direct team to provide me with all the details on the situation and will respond to your email once I am better informed.

Kind regards
Sarah

ikkleosu

Posted this in discussion but thought people might be interested. After reading on Watchdog site that companies that make a habit of mispricing should be reported to Trading Standards, I complained to TS via their website. This morning I got an email from my local fair trading officer asking me to conact them to discuss it in more detail. So it looks like could be getting somewhere.

(I complained about the AMOUNT of mispricing but also about the vague and useless emails they've been sending out)

Tiggerwendy_2

I know it's still annoying (although now expected it seems), but I discovered some small consolation today - I noticed that GreasyPalm have still credited my cashback from the "purchase". So although I missed out on a bargain DVD I still gained 48p for taking a chance!

smokeysmate

I also got the same email from Smiths. Cooldaz could you pm me with how I can contact their PR dept please? Did you keep your complaint to this specific instance or complain about the various !!!!!!-ups?

Hello,

This is the response i got after emailing the PR department.

Dear Darren

Thank you for your email and for bringing this situation to my attention. I have asked the WHSmith Direct team to provide me with all the details on the situation and will respond to your email once I am better informed.

Kind regards
Sarah

cooldaz

Email address for WH Smith PR is PR@whsmith.co.uk let them know off all the bad publicity and hoipefully they will do something.

cooldaz

Here is the latest response received from WH Smith

Dear Mr Noyce,
We would firstly like to apologise for the fact that you are only now receiving a response to your complaint concerning the pricing errors on our website. We have been making thorough enquiries into the situation and were therefore not in a position to respond until now.

As we explained in our previous communication, despite our best efforts to ensure our prices are always correct, a technical error with our software resulted in an incorrect price being displayed for a variety of products. These errors were discovered and rectified as quickly as possible. I would like to assure you that this was certainly not a deliberate attempt to drive traffic to our website by manipulating the prices of the affected products.

Although we appreciate that you may be disappointed that we have had to take the measure of not accepting your original order, we are under no legal obligation to fulfil that order at that price, or at all. Our website terms and conditions clearly state that we do not enter into a contract with you until we charge your credit or debit card for the product you have expressed an interest in purchasing. As we had not yet entered into a contract with you, we are therefore within our rights to halt processing of the order and reinstate the product at its correct price on our website, offering you the opportunity either to purchase it at the correct price, or cancel the order.

As communicated in our previous email however, due to this genuine error, a gesture of goodwill is still available to you, which is valid until the 31/01/2005. To take advantage of this, please click on the link below:

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/WHS/go.asp?shop=4622 - Exclusions apply as set out below*.

We are sorry that your experience of shopping with WHSmith Direct was not wholly satisfactory on this occasion, however we feel the explanation above clearly outlines the reasoning behind our actions.



Regards,

Customer Service Team
WHSmith Direct



Well I ay Bull888t to them I have now contacted Watchdog. Watch this space for the latest

cooldaz

A further email from WH Smith


Dear Mr Noyce

Further to your email, although we understand your frustration we must point out that the legality surrounding a purchase online differs from a purchase made in-store which is why we are not obliged to honour the incorrect price allocated to this product. Until we formally take payment for the product you have ordered online we have not entered into a contract with you and are therefore able to cancel that order in this type of situation. We do apologise for the disappointment this may have caused you, however we have acted within the law in our action.

As we have explained, this was a genuine technical error that we acted upon to correct. If Watchdog chose to follow up your email we will advise them of the situation and our response.

Kind regards

Sarah

destiny_open

Hi,I didnt buy live aid dvd i bought firefly (which also was incorrectly priced).
I emailed asking why my order had stayed "new order" for 5 days ,not knowing i had an email from them in my junk folder with the standard error email so we have cancelled,offering !0% discount etc.
I have received a reply to my email today and it says sorry we are out of stock !!!.
So i now have one email which states the technical error and a more recent email stating the are out of stock.
Surely this company cannot get away with this ? They are blatantly lying to cover up their mistakes, not sure wheather its worth trying to take this further.

cooldaz

Contact Watchdog at https://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog I have alrready. If enough of us do then it will make for some interesting TV