fridge from currys store

joshreade

Hi all

I hope I am posting in the right section.

Basically my mum bought a fridge the other day from Currys. She went in store, selected her fridge, and paid.

As an ex PC world employee I know the sales process when items are ordered, and I also know the steps staff members will take to avoid "red sales" or sales without insurance attachments etc.

As the fridge she wanted wasn't held in stock, the standard procedure would be to order the item from within the store using their eclipse pos system, and my Mum would have received a receipt.

However as the fridge was badly damaged when it was delivered my Mum sent it back. It was only then I found out that she had been sold the fridge from in store using the currys customer website rather than using their POS system. I can only presume this is to avoid getting a "red sale".

The problem is now my Mum has to wait until the fridge arrives back at the depot, and then a further 72 hours before her refund will be processed, as opposed to receiving an instant refund if she had a store receipt.

She was not asked if she wanted to purchase it through the website and as far as she was concerned it was a regular store purchase. Had I have been with her I would have clocked on to what they were doing.

Have they committed some kind of fraud or mis selling act? Not only is it an inconvenience having to wait extra time for the refund but surely the member of staff who input my Mums credit card details into the Currys website without her explicit permission is committing fraud?

Sorry about the long post, does anyone know where we stand with this?

Thanks

wealdroam

joshreade wrote: »

Hi all

I hope I am posting in the right section.

Basically my mum bought a fridge the other day from Currys. She went in store, selected her fridge, and paid.

As an ex PC world employee I know the sales process when items are ordered, and I also know the steps staff members will take to avoid "red sales" or sales without insurance attachments etc.

As the fridge she wanted wasn't held in stock, the standard procedure would be to order the item from within the store using their eclipse pos system, and my Mum would have received a receipt.

However as the fridge was badly damaged when it was delivered my Mum sent it back. It was only then I found out that she had been sold the fridge from in store using the currys customer website rather than using their POS system. I can only presume this is to avoid getting a "red sale".

The problem is now my Mum has to wait until the fridge arrives back at the depot, and then a further 72 hours before her refund will be processed, as opposed to receiving an instant refund if she had a store receipt.

She was not asked if she wanted to purchase it through the website and as far as she was concerned it was a regular store purchase. Had I have been with her I would have clocked on to what they were doing.

Have they committed some kind of fraud or mis selling act? Not only is it an inconvenience having to wait extra time for the refund but surely the member of staff who input my Mums credit card details into the Currys website without her explicit permission is committing fraud?

Sorry about the long post, does anyone know where we stand with this?

Thanks

There is no fraud here.

CoolHotCold

joshreade wrote: »

As the fridge she wanted wasn't held in stock, the standard procedure would be to order the item from within the store using their eclipse pos system, and my Mum would have received a receipt.

Actually, even if they purchased in store, what would happen is it would be arranged to be picked up from the customer, then once it had been picked it it would be refunded.

There is literally no difference in time for receiving a refund, in fact your mum would have to either (phone customer servicer to arrange a collection) and then wait for a refund like a web sale,

Or she could go into the store, say its faulty, get it picked up, then have to return to the store once it was picked up for a refund.


Plus the Online In Store web order system has more consumer benefits.

To your question, there is no fraud. Only additional benefits and no difference in timescales for refunds.

SuperHan

As an ex employee, you may not be aware of the new order systems in place.

The Curry's customer website is now available to employees to use for sales in store, and will still hit the daily reporting and the sale will be logged to the sales individual.

For some lines of stock, this is the only way to place the order, as Curry's now sell items that are not held within the Eclipse stock system (eg direct from manufacturer items).

There's no fraud, and she wouldn't have had an instant refund unless she took the fridge back to the shop. Even then, there would have been a processing time for the refund, so this wouldn't have been immediate.

Things have clearly changed since you worked there, so don't be so sure of how well you know the systems.

joshreade

Thanks for your replies, and I accept I may be wrong, so again please correct me if I am.

This is what they have done wrong from my point of view:

- Handled my mums credit card details, including the cv2 security code. To me this alone seems dodgy.

- My mum did not get a chance to read or agree to the terms and conditions set out on the website, which will no doubt be different from those in store, for example the distance selling act.

CoolHotCold wrote: »

To your question, there is no fraud. Only additional benefits and no difference in timescales for refunds.

- Actually, with regards to timescale, if she had been given a store receipt from Eclipse she would be able to arrange an exchange for another fridge, and paid or received the difference.
They then could have arranged the delivery of a new fridge for next day delivery, meaning she would have a replacement tomorrow, instead of having to wait for a refund before being able to purchase a new one. The manager even said this in store.

Sorry but I fail to see how being without a fridge for a few days is an additional benefit.

Out of interest are all who have replied so far sticking up for the company because they are employees of currys/pc world?

Sorry if I am coming across rude, this is a frustrating experience for us and you have to understand even if no laws have been broken it has hardly been an example of good customer service.

At the very least I would expect the employee to explain the method he was using to process the transaction.

dacouch

Just to be a pedant, Currys do not sell Insurance, they sell a carefully designed Service Plan designed to side step the heavy regulation of Insurance sale.

Thus avoiding have to worry about things like these

http://www.fca.org.uk/news/former-swinton-executives-fined-and-banned-misselling

http://www.fca.org.uk/news/swinton-group-fine-mis-selling-add-on-insurance-policies

Esqui

joshreade wrote: »

- Actually, with regards to timescale, if she had been given a store receipt from Eclipse she would be able to arrange an exchange for another fridge, and paid or received the difference.
They then could have arranged the delivery of a new fridge for next day delivery, meaning she would have a replacement tomorrow, instead of having to wait for a refund before being able to purchase a new one. The manager even said this in store.

The store can refund an online sale via Eclipse in just the same way as an in-store sale (at least, once the stock has been put out for delivery). That said, if she wanted to refund the fridge in this way, she'd need to go in store, arrange the collection, and then return to the store once it had been collected to actually get the money, so this seems quicker.

Also, I assume they did it through Online in-store as the cost for next-day delivery on a fridge would be less (most fridges are available for take-away in store, so most don't require next-day delivery, hence it's more expensive to keep slots open for heavier items...or something).

joshreade

From the Curry's website terms and conditions:

"Because all Reserve & Collect sales take place in our stores, sales are subject to the normal in-store terms of sale, statutory rights and the Manager's discretion. "

Whilst this may not relate to my issue it clearly says there are "normal in-store terms of sale". Therefore the T&Cs that apply to online sales are going to be different, at no point was my mum presented with these terms and conditions.

Whether or not it is normal practise to use this method to order customers products it doesn't seem right to me.

Surely someone out there agrees with me?

wealdroam

joshreade wrote: »

Out of interest are all who have replied so far sticking up for the company because they are employees of currys/pc world?

Certainly not. What a silly comment.

I am disappointed that you should think that [STRIKE]anyone[/STRIKE] everyone who offers an opinion that differs from yours is an employee of the company.

joshreade

Esqui wrote: »

The store can refund an online sale via Eclipse in just the same way as an in-store sale (at least, once the stock has been put out for delivery). That said, if she wanted to refund the fridge in this way, she'd need to go in store, arrange the collection, and then return to the store once it had been collected to actually get the money, so this seems quicker.

Also, I assume they did it through Online in-store as the cost for next-day delivery on a fridge would be less (most fridges are available for take-away in store, so most don't require next-day delivery, hence it's more expensive to keep slots open for heavier items...or something).

Thanks for your reply.

There was no option for the refund to be processed through Eclipse, according to the sales staff the refund will be processed when the item arrives back at the warehouse, and will then take 72 hours to complete.

It would have made much more sense to have refund/resold the fridge then and there, then the order could be sent out next day.
The delivery drivers took the damaged fridge away so there wouldn't be any issue of them losing their stock.

My mum has received no paperwork or receipts stating she will receive the refund either.

joshreade

wealdroam wrote: »

Certainly not. What a silly comment.

I am disappointed that you should think that anyone who offers an opinion that differs from yours is an employee of the company.

Silly comment? Superhan and coolhotcold both seem to have knowledge of the ordering system that only an employee or very recent employee would know