Vodafone OnLine Order - Item out of stock

gCoffee

The company I work for sent us an email about an online promotion by Vodafone in which one of the latest smartphones was on offer. I believe Vodafone in error included on their website this particular handset as it was discounted by 50%.

In any case, I placed an order for this model and a confirmation email from Vodafone was sent right away. No indication was available at the time that the item might be out of stock. This was over 2 weeks ago and Vodafone have not given me any update on my order.

When I contacted them the first time I was told that the item will be with me "on Monday", it was a Friday at the time. Of course that did not happen and when contacted again I was informed that for certain it will be with me by Friday, nearly 2 weeks from order date. Friday came and I contacted Vodafone again but I was informed that the item is out of stock and if the item is out of stock within 15 days from order date Vodafone will cancel the order.

I am just wondering whether this is delaying tactics by Vodafone as they realized that this model should not have been on such an offer and they are trying to find an excuse to not deliver it.

Are they obliged by law to deliver the order that I placed through their website?

I would appreciate some thoughts on what people think my rights are in this case.

Thanks

FiremanDave

They aren't obliged to sell you anything.

gCoffee

Is not so much that they are obliged to sell me anything but whether by accepting an order through their website for an item they have to fulfill that order.

shaun_from_Africa

Just about every online retailer has something in their terms and conditions stating when they consider that the contract has been formed, and the majority of them state something along the lines of this being when the goods are actually dispatched to the buyer.

The only way to know for certain what Vodafone's policy is would be to check their T&C's.

gCoffee

Unfortunately, I think you are right. This is from Vodafone's T&Cs website:

"...
Your order

When you order products and services from this site, we treat this as an offer from you to purchase such products and services. We may refuse to accept such orders for any number of reasons - such asa failure to meet credit check criteria, unavailability of products or services, product or pricing errors.
..."

Thanks.

Vodafone

Hi gCoffee,

I’m sorry to hear what’s happened.

If you'd like me to look into this, please email me with your details via the link in our profile here.

All you need to do is copy and paste the link into your web browser and it'll take you to the Contact us form on our website. To make sure it reaches me please quote the code WRT135 - MSE in the subject line.

Once sent you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Please update the thread with this and I'll check we’ve received it.

Thanks,

Jenny
Vodafone UK

gCoffee

The reference number is:
#8446467

Thanks

gCoffee

Just an update for anyone that may be interested.

3 days on since the representative asked me to raise that query and no reply yet from Vodafone. Maybe is a complicated issue or they are just ignoring me.

FiremanDave

gCoffee wrote: »

Just an update for anyone that may be interested.

3 days on since the representative asked me to raise that query and no reply yet from Vodafone. Maybe is a complicated issue or they are just ignoring me.

Did you actually email them or just post your order number on here?

gCoffee

I did what the representative asked me to do, i.e. via their "contact us" form on Vodafone's website I created a new inquiry about my order and entered the requested details.

keyser666

So you got something far cheaper than expected as deemed an error and then let the representative on here know about it

Ha, you couldnt make it up