Play.com - Ignored my order

robot1000

I ordered a 256GB SSD earlier this month when it was on offer for £96. When I logged into my account, the status showed as 'awaiting stock', which I was fine with.

I checked the my order status last week and it showed 'order placed' and the website was showing as instock but at a higher price £186, so I presumed it would be dispatched within a day or so, at the price when the order was placed.

I checked the status on Wednesday after not receiving any dispatch emails and noticed that the status had not changed, yet the product was in stock and had been for the past week. I called customer services and was told by the agent that they would contact the warehouse team, who would process it manually for me.

After receiving no emails from Play.com on Thursday, I called in the evening and spoke to another agent, whom after going to their line manager to enquire about the issue, told me that I would have to place another order for the product, as the system was not processing the old one. I was informed that I should order at the higher price they would refund the difference and honour the original price. Whilst still on the phone to the agent, I went back to the website to place the order and the product was now not available from Play.com. I was then told that it had indeed just gone out of stock and they said that they probably would not get any more in.

Obviously I'm extremely disappointed, as the order should have been fulfilled as soon as the product was back in stock, which obviously didn't happen.

Does anyone know of an email that would get through to a senior department, as the one they provided (info@play.com) just bounces back?

Furthermore, as this wasn't a misprice and they stated that it would be dispatched when it came in stock, I'm just wondering what legal standpoints there are (if any).

wealdroam

Might be worth reading the post...

When is an online contract formed?

Play.com's T&Cs do indeed say...

4. No contract for the sale of any product will subsist between you and Play.com until Play.com confirms that the product(s) have been dispatched to you by a confirmation email. This confirmation e-mail amounts to an acceptance by Play.com of your offer to buy goods from Play.com or a third party supplier that is engaged on your behalf by Play.com (whether or not you receive that e-mail).
5. If an error is discovered in the price of the goods that you have ordered, we will inform you as soon as possible. If the error is discovered prior to your receipt of the confirmation email, we will cancel and refund your order.

CoolHotCold

None.

You have no legal contract with them, at this point and until they confirm otherwise all you have done is responded to their invitation to treat.
They can still back away from your response for any reason without telling you so long as they put you back in the same situation (I.E a refund)

cardinalbiggles

96 quid is extremely cheap for a 256Gb SSD, so cheap in fact that it sounds like a pricing error.

robot1000

cardinalbiggles wrote: »

96 quid is extremely cheap for a 256Gb SSD, so cheap in fact that it sounds like a pricing error.

It seemed extremely cheap, but there were other websites offering it for the same amount, so they must have been trying to clear stock.

The advisor (after speaking to her manager) did say they would have to honour the lower price and so they were planning to refund me the difference of £80.

I would understand if the product never came back in after ordering, as it did state that they were 'awaiting stock', but the fact that it did and that it was stated as 'dispatched within 24 hours' for a number of days and the fact that the previous day, the advisor told me that they would contact the warehouse team and still nothing was done, demonstrates the total lack of customer service.

I'm going to request that they provide a like-for-like product and I'm hoping that they'll do that, seeing as I said before, they were going to match the lower price of the product I originally ordered

somethingcorporate

You were bound by the terms and conditions when you offered to buy the product so there was no contract.

I doubt very much that what the agent said would be binding given you already have the T&Cs saying the contract is not agreed until dispatch.

Keep escalating the complaint though, you may get somewhere - esp if they record calls!