Subject to availability - fake item

daggy

Hi all,

I'm trying to find the answer to a question my GF has and I'm hoping the good folks on MSE will know.

The girlfriend bought two shampoos from a website and they were advertised as coming with a free gift which is subject to availability; she only bought the shampoos because of the free gift (which was confirmed as in stock when ordered).

The GF has already got a bottle of the product that was arriving as the free gift and there is a noticeable difference between the products in the bottles.

In short she believes that the free gift is watered down or just fake.

She called the company who sent it and they basically said it is subject to availability, so you can send it back, but we aren't giving you a replacement.

How does she stand? I could understand if the gift was genuine, but as it is (apparently) dodgy, surely the offer was never real... ?

Any help would be appreciated.

I should add that she never accepted any specific terms and conditions re: the offer and it does not clearly state subject to availability unless you click a button near the offer which is not labelled as T&C or anything that suggest it provides extra info.

Thanks in advance

visidigi

You would need to prove it was fake. As in have it reviewed by the manufacturer to see what they say about the item. Then you can have the retailer rectify the issue.

eskimo26

daggy wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm trying to find the answer to a question my GF has and I'm hoping the good folks on MSE will know.

The girlfriend bought two shampoos from a website and they were advertised as coming with a free gift which is subject to availability; she only bought the shampoos because of the free gift (which was confirmed as in stock when ordered).

The GF has already got a bottle of the product that was arriving as the free gift and there is a noticeable difference between the products in the bottles.

In short she believes that the free gift is watered down or just fake.

She called the company who sent it and they basically said it is subject to availability, so you can send it back, but we aren't giving you a replacement.

How does she stand? I could understand if the gift was genuine, but as it is (apparently) dodgy, surely the offer was never real... ?

Any help would be appreciated.

I should add that she never accepted any specific terms and conditions re: the offer and it does not clearly state subject to availability unless you click a button near the offer which is not labelled as T&C or anything that suggest it provides extra info.

Thanks in advance

I would contact the manufacturer and let them know that you suspect this company is passing off fake or substandard merchandise with their name on it.

Chances are they will ask for the product to be sent to them for examination, so obviously it depends how much effort you want to put into this to get a result.

Something else to consider is that these may have been made for the promotion so might not be up to the same quality as the paid for product, not sure on the legalities of that though.

daggy

Thanks everyone; I've e-mailed l'oreal directly. I've compared the products and they are clearly of different quality/consistency.