TheHut - offering free gift, now cancelled it

wozwebs

Bought the wife some GHD hair straighteners from TheHUT as they were offering a good price plus a 'FREE Heat Mat' worth £5.95. Straighteners arrived next day so no complaints there but the free heat mat wasn't in the parcel. Looked online at my order and it said it was on back order. This was 4th June 2013.

Between now and then they have still been offering this free heat mat and even now they still state free heat mat yet I was told yesterday that the back order had been cancelled and they would not be providing the free heat mat as they "cannot source any more from the supplier". Messaged them and was told the following:

[quote[I am really sorry to let you know that we have had to cancel your order for Beauty Sleuth Heat Mat - Black because our suppliers were unable to provide it.

I understand how disappointing this might be. We have tried other suppliers but we have not had any luck. We will be removing the item from our website as soon as possible.

If there is anything else that we can do, then please do not hesitate to get in touch and a member of our team will be happy to help.[/quote]

Not good enough for me, are they trying to tell me that for the past month, anyone ordering GHD's will not be getting a free heat mat. Told them I don't care what brand of heat mat it is, not fussy but it, to me, is false advertising to get people to order under false pretences.

ThumbRemote

Breach of contract - return the straighteners (at their expense)

wealdroam

From their T&Cs:

24. GIFT WITH PRODUCTS PROMOTIONS
24.1 Where we are offering a free gift with a product, we shall only provide one free gift per transaction (irrespective of how many products are purchased). The free gift is subject to availability and we reserve the right to change the free gift for a gift of equivalent value.

You might like to ask them for a 'gift of equivalent value'.

They are showing the Beauty Sleuth Heat Mat at £6.95.

fozmcfc

I would say that the ASA and/or trading standards would be interested, because they were still advertising the free gift, even though they clearly had previous orders, where customers hadn't received the gift.

As the gift, is an incentive which would attract customers they should have removed the offer, much earlier, once they run out and were having trouble sourcing more.

Not sure if you'll benefit out of it, but it would at least give them a kick up the rear.

How the T&C's are to be read, is also a question.

Is it..

We will provide the stated free gift or an alternative until we run out.

Or

We will provide the alternative gift, once we can't provide the free gift stated for all orders taken.