Asda home delivery charges

cb1001

Hi
Not sure if anyone can help me with this one.

On Sunday, I ordered 6 packs of dog food totalling £30.00 plus £2.00 for delivery charges.
Today, after checking my bank, Asda charged me a total of £40.88 (£38.88 for the food and £2.00 delivery).
When I rang to complain, they said that although I had an email confirming the order and quoting £32.00, their prices could change and I would be charged at the new price.
They did, however, as a 'one off', agree to refund the difference.

Can a shop do this?
If so, how do I know that the higher price charged is correct and surely this leaves the consumer at the mercy of the shop.

If I had gone into the store and seen the new price of the dog food I wouldn't have bought it there as I could got it elsewhere cheaper!

Any opinions on this one please would be welcome.

Thanks

unholyangel

Technically, it depends on when a contract is formed.

Once a contract is formed, both parties become bound by the terms and usually cannot breach/cancel the contract without possibly being liable for the others loss (if that loss was a direct result of your breach).

Online, this is usually when the products are dispatched. Its different from a store (where you offer x amount of money at the till in exchange for x goods, they accept so contract formed). Online its possible for a retailer to specify when a contract is formed. This could be because the majority use automated systems that will automatically send a email confirmation. Meaning the company hasnt actually had the chance to review your offer and accept it. But obviously at dispatch, a person is required to pick and pack your order. So this is why dispatch is the point of contract formation.


However, they should only seek to vary the terms with your agreement (even more so when that variation has a negative impact on you). They should have emailed/phoned you to ask whether you still wanted to go ahead with ordering.


But since they are refunding, rather a non-issue. Of course if they didnt notify you and you received bank charges due to them taking more money, technically you'd have grounds to pursue them for that amount.

dalesrider

Were the goods on special offer ? If so when did the offer end?

If delivery was for after the offer ended, then that would be why the price changed.

To check the price.. Just go onto their site and find the product....

I have lost faith in asda special offers....
Many products are a diffrent size (smaller) than normal. Butter 400g instead of 500g

Or when you compare to a diffrent way of getting the same dearer...
6 x heinz beans on offer. Yet buy 3 x 4 packs and it was cheaper than 2 x 6 special offer packs .......

Still plenty of mugs who fall for them....

peachyprice

Yes they can do it, they tell you that the price you will pay is the price in store on the day of delivery, you agree to this when you check out.

Price

3.1 Prices on the website are the prices charged in store on that day. As prices may change on a daily basis, and the website is updated overnight, prices are therefore a guide only. There may be variations by the time We are due to Deliver, or You are due to Collect, Your order. When You shop online You will pay the same price (excluding Our online only promotions) that You would pay if You came to Our Store to do Your shopping on the day of delivery.

4.1 If You change Your mind later, simply tell Our driver when s/he Delivers Your order or Our Collection colleague when You Collect Your order, and s/he will initiate a refund and take away the goods You don't need.

The new price should have been shown on your receipt when the goods were delivered, at which time you could have rejected them.

peachyprice

unholyangel wrote: »

However, they should only seek to vary the terms with your agreement (even more so when that variation has a negative impact on you). They should have emailed/phoned you to ask whether you still wanted to go ahead with ordering.


But since they are refunding, rather a non-issue. Of course if they didnt notify you and you received bank charges due to them taking more money, technically you'd have grounds to pursue them for that amount.

It doesn't work like this with Adsa online grocery deliveries, they don't charge your card until the order has been delivered and accepted, OP could have rejected the order when she saw how much it was and her card would not have been charged, unfortunately, as she didn't read the receipt at that time she was charged more than expected.

Sainsbury's charge before delivery but the drivers have a handset to generate a refund on your doorstep for any items that you choose to reject, so again they won't email you before they delivery.

It's been a long time since I've used Tesco so I can't remember how they process their payments, but again you have the opportunity to reject anything at time of delivery.

unholyangel

peachyprice wrote: »

It doesn't work like this with Adsa online grocery deliveries, they don't charge your card until the order has been delivered and accepted, OP could have rejected the order when she saw how much it was and her card would not have been charged, unfortunately, as she didn't read the receipt at that time she was charged more than expected.

Sainsbury's charge before delivery but the drivers have a handset to generate a refund on your doorstep for any items that you choose to reject, so again they won't email you before they delivery.

It's been a long time since I've used Tesco so I can't remember how they process their payments, but again you have the opportunity to reject anything at time of delivery.

Never used online shopping more than once and tbh, cant even recall who it was with - let alone whether they charged me before or after so your post has shed some light for me, thank you

However.....UTCA guidance does state (in relation to price variation clauses):

• Any kind of variation clause may in principle be fair if consumers are free to escape its effects by ending the contract. To be genuinely free to cancel, they must not be left worse off for having entered the contract, whether by experiencing financial loss (for example, forfeiture of a prepayment) or serious inconvenience, or any other adverse consequences.

Now if they're charged before they actually receive the delivery and before they consent to the higher price, they are still varying the contract in a way that binds the consumer to incur an increased cost with no real way of avoiding it. If thats the case, it has the potential to be unfair as - in theory - it could lead to the consumer incurring bank charges of some kind. More so because the increase in price was within their control and definitely foreseeable. Its not a "force majeure" situation.


Any term which allows them to vary the price when the increase in price is foreseeable and within their control has potential to be unfair. Especially since all it would take would be a change to how the calculations are made - instead of calculating on offers valid day of order, calculate based on offers that are valid on delivery date. Its not as if they dont know when they offers are going to end and that they're not aware the offer wont be valid before delivering the item to you.

We're so used to being told "check the terms and conditions", we check what the T&Cs say but dont actually check the validity of them.

Hintza

I read this thread last night and was coming on to say why would you use such a service, but peachyprince has covered it, and that makes a lot of sense.

We have never had our groceries delivered.

gregg1

peachyprice wrote: »

It doesn't work like this with Adsa online grocery deliveries, they don't charge your card until the order has been delivered and accepted, OP could have rejected the order when she saw how much it was and her card would not have been charged, unfortunately, as she didn't read the receipt at that time she was charged more than expected.

Sainsbury's charge before delivery but the drivers have a handset to generate a refund on your doorstep for any items that you choose to reject, so again they won't email you before they delivery.

It's been a long time since I've used Tesco so I can't remember how they process their payments, but again you have the opportunity to reject anything at time of delivery.

I know when you order from Ocado and pick something on offer it usually says "for deliveries up to" and gives the last delivery date the offer price is guaranteed. If your order is delivered after that date, you pay whatever the price is at that time.

cb1001

I was getting the goods delivered to my elderly mother-in-law who doesn't live near me and, since the goods were heavy, I thought I'd do it online for her so I never had the chance to refuse.
Thanks for your replies. I'll be more careful in future when ordering online!

joeyboy

ASDA must not have a set-up as good as Tesco does. With Tesco if you place the order in the 12th say, to be delivered on the 16th, but the special offer is ending on the 14th, it tells you when you go to checkout that the offer won't be available for you.

Techhead_2

unholyangel wrote: »

Never used online shopping more than once and tbh, cant even recall who it was with - let alone whether they charged me before or after so your post has shed some light for me, thank you

However.....UTCA guidance does state (in relation to price variation clauses):



Now if they're charged before they actually receive the delivery and before they consent to the higher price, they are still varying the contract in a way that binds the consumer to incur an increased cost with no real way of avoiding it. If thats the case, it has the potential to be unfair as - in theory - it could lead to the consumer incurring bank charges of some kind. More so because the increase in price was within their control and definitely foreseeable. Its not a "force majeure" situation.


Any term which allows them to vary the price when the increase in price is foreseeable and within their control has potential to be unfair. Especially since all it would take would be a change to how the calculations are made - instead of calculating on offers valid day of order, calculate based on offers that are valid on delivery date. Its not as if they dont know when they offers are going to end and that they're not aware the offer wont be valid before delivering the item to you.

We're so used to being told "check the terms and conditions", we check what the T&Cs say but dont actually check the validity of them.

There are a couple of points here. This isn't a traditional distance sale of order and deliver( Although I appreciate some people may think it is). The customer is sending an instruction to pick and deliver from a local store on a specified day. The prices shown are a guide. There may also be substitutions due to availability.

Whilst it's foreseeable that an offer may end; other price changes are not foreseeable as they relate to market conditions, supplier changes etc etc.

The supermarkets all have different ways of dealing with advance orders and in my opinion they are all fine as long as people are aware what will happen. Assumptions lead to problems though.