Increase in 'pay now' and we'll cancel if not in stock

barnabee

Has anyone noticed that there seems to be an increase in online companies who take payment immediately the customer orders an item?

Tesco have the been one of the biggest culprits of advertising goods that are not actually in stock. But looking around they are not the only ones.

It cannot be right that a company processes and receives payment (by card, PayPal etc) and days later cannot fulfil the order. The customer is out of pocket and then has to wait sometimes weeks before getting a refund.

The old thinking of 'payment taken, contract formed' seems to have been got round by clever terms and conditions.

Fosterdog

It's happening because of the amount of people who place an order when they don't have the funds to pay for it. The shop buys in the number of items needed to fulfil orders and then payments fail on quite a number of them leaving the shop with extra storage costs etc. and hoping someone else wants the same item.

If payment is taken first then no funds to pay = no item ordered and no major loss if payment fails.

I know it seems like lots of things then end up completely out of stock but that's because this is a consumer forum. None of the millions of customers each week come on here to praise them for them receiving an ordered item we only hear about the tiny fraction that go wrong.

System

Fosterdog wrote: »

It's happening because of the amount of people who place an order when they don't have the funds to pay for it. The shop buys in the number of items needed to fulfil orders and then payments fail on quite a number of them leaving the shop with extra storage costs etc. and hoping someone else wants the same item.

If payment is taken first then no funds to pay = no item ordered and no major loss if payment fails.

I know it seems like lots of things then end up completely out of stock but that's because this is a consumer forum. None of the millions of customers each week come on here to praise them for them receiving an ordered item we only hear about the tiny fraction that go wrong.

You can ring fence funds by authorising and then only charging on despatch. There is no real need to charge up front.

notanewuser

I ordered some items, 4 in stock and 2 on a 10 day delay (apparently) in the middle of January. Payment taken immediately. I still have no items. The latest update is that I should have them around 18th March. They don't seem to get that this is pretty sh1tty customer service.

vikingaero

Fosterdog wrote: »

It's happening because of the amount of people who place an order when they don't have the funds to pay for it. The shop buys in the number of items needed to fulfil orders and then payments fail on quite a number of them leaving the shop with extra storage costs etc. and hoping someone else wants the same item.

If payment is taken first then no funds to pay = no item ordered and no major loss if payment fails.

I know it seems like lots of things then end up completely out of stock but that's because this is a consumer forum. None of the millions of customers each week come on here to praise them for them receiving an ordered item we only hear about the tiny fraction that go wrong.

I doubt that Tesco Direct actually hold much stock. They probably get orders dropshipped from their suppliers/manufacturers. And they can't accurately predict stock especially when a supplier chooses to divert stock to a customer who may be paying more than Tesco.