Auction website starts an offer at 10am but refuses to honor an earlier purchase

yvonne13_2

hellfirejac wrote: »

To clarify, the offer started around 10am because I had a txt from them.

The advertised offer just said today only. I appreciate that "today only" could be interpreted differently, but in my own opinion it should in fact mean the whole of their trading day.

Wait!!! Hold on, hold on lets take a pause.....Are you being real??? You actually had a text from them confirming the time? Sorry hun but you need to fall back as they have done nothing wrong as you were fully informed via text of their terms and conditions.

RFW

hellfirejac wrote: »

To clarify, the offer started around 10am because I had a txt from them.

The advertised offer just said today only. I appreciate that "today only" could be interpreted differently, but in my own opinion it should in fact mean the whole of their trading day.

You've answered your own question there. "50% off everything in store between 1 and 2pm, today only" means that the sale is not on any other day at any other time.
I'd assume that a company like Madbid would cover themselves for every eventuality.
If you still can't get over that contact Trading Standards and Advertising Standards, they'll probably both like the opportunity to investigate Madbid.

Flyonthewall

hellfirejac wrote: »

To clarify, the offer started around 10am because I had a txt from them.

The advertised offer just said today only. I appreciate that "today only" could be interpreted differently, but in my own opinion it should in fact mean the whole of their trading day.

So you'd expect it from midnight to midnight?

Why should it mean that? What difference does it make when it starts? They state the day and times it's happening, it's not like they did it to confuse people or were really mysterious about it all.

Today only would be some thing happening just on that day, which this was. Today only has never meant that is must be the entire day. Offers always have a start and end time and they can be anything so you should always double check.

Their site, their business, their offer (and one they didn't have to do at all). Yet it seems you feel they should offer it when you think is right, not when they wish the offer to be on. They informed you of it, the details were all there and, as you said yourself, you were just unlucky. I doubt you're the first person it's happened to.

hellfirejac

Now I understand why people get the wrong end of the stick when reading these messages...or I'm not explaining myself properly lol.

To clarify again The offer did not have a specified time, it just said "today only". The only way I know it was around 10am is because the txt message was of course time stamped.

Flyonthewall

hellfirejac wrote: »

Now I understand why people get the wrong end of the stick when reading these messages...or I'm not explaining myself properly lol.

To clarify again The offer did not have a specified time, it just said "today only". The only way I know it was around 10am is because the txt message was of course time stamped.

You didn't say what time you got the text, just that it was about the offer. If I got a text at 10am saying today only I wouldn't assume the start time was 10am because that's the time it came through. Sometimes texts get delayed or whatever. I've also had emails the day of an offer that started at midnight. Offers aren't always sent through the moment an offer begins.

What do the terms and conditions say? Have you asked them to confirm the start time? Is there anything that says the offer actually began at 10am or are you only assuming based on a text timestamp?

hellfirejac

Exactly my point Flyonthewall. I just looked at the offer telling me "today only", you don't naturally think it must be from now onwards.

I have of course argued this at some length with them, but they simply just say offers can start anytime without backing this up with t&c's. Nothing in writing says the offer started at 10am.

All I know is that my purchases did not include the offer. Even though their t&c's confirm that funds automatically added by them should actively add up to date offers for you, which it didn't. This is why I'm sure they didn't bother starting the deal until after my purchases...after 10am...but not stated

Flyonthewall

hellfirejac wrote: »

Exactly my point Flyonthewall. I just looked at the offer telling me "today only", you don't naturally think it must be from now onwards.

I have of course argued this at some length with them, but they simply just say offers can start anytime without backing this up with t&c's. Nothing in writing says the offer started at 10am.

All I know is that my purchases did not include the offer. Even though their t&c's confirm that funds automatically added by them should actively add up to date offers for you, which it didn't. This is why I'm sure they didn't bother starting the deal until after my purchases...after 10am...but not stated

Problem is today only can mean at any point in the day, for as long as they want. You don't know for sure the offer started after you paid but you can't prove it started before either. You wouldn't normally assume it starts from that point onwards but you can't assume it started before either. For all you know the offer may not have started until later and they gave an hour or more notice of it.

If normally it's automatic there is always the chance that the system glitched and it did start before, but again you have no proof.

Some sort of time should be stated although I imagine somewhere in ther T&Cs they cover themselves by saying they can refuse to sell to people if they wish or retract offers or whatever.

Another thought, are the company in this country? If not there may be time differences which would obviously affect offers.

Edit: Looking up the web address I can't find much. Their site says about an office in London so they appear to be UK based. So there shouldn't be any time difference issues.

RFW

Hang on a minute...

So you bought items at 9.30am and then got an email at 10am with an offer? The chances are they sent that offer as a result of the first purchase. Was this one day offer advertised anywhere other than the email you received?

hellfirejac

The offer was not just sent to me, it was advertised on their website. So was not triggered by my purchase, although I get what you're saying. I have had individual offers before in the past when I have spent an x amount of money.

The offer was claimed by entering a promo code, as per the advertisement on the website and txt sent to me.

They tried to accuse me of not entering the code, which is their get out. However when I tried several times the code in fact was entered for you, which they tried to blame on cookies. I said ok I can believe that might be the case, but doesn't explain how their automatic system didn't add the code to the purchase.

Finally they admitted that head office must have genuinely started the offer after my purchase. But as far as they are concerned that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I wouldn't bother wasting my time normally but the value is equivalent of £350.

campdave

Seek proper legal advice. Lawyers don't offer their services for free on internet forums.