HighAndMighty - can they do this?

Aenarion

I made an order with High And Mighty (a clothing store for tall and large men) on Boxing Day using a 10% discount code. I have heard nothing from them until today, when out of the blue I received two emails telling me I had been partially refunded. There was no explanation of why, so I called them and was told that though the items were in stock when I'd ordered, they don't have a central warehouse for their online store so their stock is taken from shops, and therefore that on Boxing Day the shops had sold out of the items I'd bought.

Does this sound legal to you? I saw they were in stock on the website, bought them and had my card debited for them - yet they went on during that day to sell those items I'd paid for in their store. Are they allowed to do this?

They refunded me for the cost of the items, but the 10% discount code was only for that day and I would've ordered other stuff instead if they'd told me the item was out of stock so I'm very annoyed about it.

It seems to me like if you went into an electronics shop, bought a television (paid and received the receipt), then went home and came back later that day to collect it and found they'd sold it again and would refund you. Are they trading outside the law by doing it this way, and what action would you advise either way?

gordikin

They are entitled to cancel your order and refund what you paid...which they have done.

Pigeongirl

Maybe try sending them a polite email saying how disappointed you are to miss out on the 10% offer and could they perhaps give you another voucher or code?

Aenarion

gordikin wrote: »

They are entitled to cancel your order and refund what you paid...which they have done.

My question was more about their unstated practice of selling goods which have already been purchased, and then refunding. Their website does not state that the contract is created on dispatch so surely they are not allowed to sell the items in-store if they've already sold them online?

gordikin

Pigeongirl wrote: »

Maybe try sending them a polite email saying how disappointed you are to miss out on the 10% offer and could they perhaps give you another voucher or code?

...and/or tell them you'd be happy to wait until items were back in stock if they'd be willing to fufill the order at the price you ordered them including the 10% discount?

Becles

Aenarion wrote: »

There was no explanation of why, so I called them and was told that though the items were in stock when I'd ordered, they don't have a central warehouse for their online store so their stock is taken from shops, and therefore that on Boxing Day the shops had sold out of the items I'd bought.

I think it's disgusting that they didn't demand that their staff went into work on Boxing Day just so they could manually count the stock and update the website as items sold.

:rolleyes:

Aenarion

Their staff were at work on Boxing Day anyway, it was their Boxing Day sale... besides which, as I said the issue wasn't inaccurate stock reporting. They did have the items in stock when I bought them, but they then sold them before dispatching them to me.

gordikin

Their website says that orders placed after Noon on 23/12 would be processed on 26/12. So there were 3 days orders to be processed before they got to yours. Perhaps they just ran out of what you were wanting before they got to your order?