Student Discount not being fulfilled help wanted

DoaM

To reiterate ... this was a face to face sale in a store. You have no rights whatsoever to a retrospective student discount being applied. Your only potential get out is if the delivery schedule extends ... you could make a "time of the essence" declaration to the supplier (assuming you haven't received the bike yet) whereby if the bike isn't delivered by the agreed date then the contract is void and they must refund you all monies paid.

You could then renegotiate ... but per your earlier posts, am I right in saying that this really good deal isn't available any more?

societys_child

You bought in store.
You knew the price and you knew that no student discount would be applied.

Not sure what you're expecting.

FBaby

I experience something similar with a holiday. I had planned a particular journey and was going to order directly with the company, but I then saw on my employer discount scheme website that a broker offer a 15% discount to that same holiday, so I thought I'd give them a try.

As it was, they were quoting a significantly higher price than what the company offered directly, so I said I wasn't interested and would book directly. Just before I hang up, she got me to listen to her and said that she thought she could do me a deal. She got me on hold for about 10 minutes to talk to her manager, and then came back all happy on the line to say they could match the price. I explained to her it was only of interest to me if they also included the 15% discount. She became a bit cagey at this point and asked me to read what was written on the site. I did, and she agreed that I seemed to be meeting the conditions but she needed to have evidence of it and therefore if I booked now and pay the price, and I then sent her a link to the page, she would then refund the difference. I did, send her a nice email with the link...and heard nothing. I chased 2 weeks later...nothing. I emailed for the 3rd time and said I would appreciate a response and action and I got a snotty reply back saying that she never promised to apply the discount and that in any case, she had already lowered the price and therefore should count myself lucky!

I couldn't be bothered to complain, but they certainly lost my custom for good, and not just in relation to their holiday service but everything else (and they do just about everything indeed!).

Richard_SOS

Silver-Surfer wrote: »

To reiterate ... this was a face to face sale in a store. You have no rights whatsoever to a retrospective student discount being applied. Your only potential get out is if the delivery schedule extends ... you could make a "time of the essence" declaration to the supplier (assuming you haven't received the bike yet) whereby if the bike isn't delivered by the agreed date then the contract is void and they must refund you all monies paid.

You could then renegotiate ... but per your earlier posts, am I right in saying that this really good deal isn't available any more?

Thanks for your comment. You're correct I haven't received the bike yet and I shall hold that in mind if it comes to that. My view is that the showroom experience should reiterate the website experience, and as both website and showroom use the same prices and even experiences - I was directed to use a computer which was there website to log in and place the bike in a basket and then purchase through their website.

I'm bothered about the principle, i.e. I asked for student discount, the company policy seems to suggest I was entitled to the student discount, but for some reason the sales assistant wanted to convince me that I wasn't, and did because I trusted them - and this is where I was mislead in the sale.

Richard_SOS

FBaby wrote: »

I experience something similar with a holiday. I had planned a particular journey and was going to order directly with the company, but I then saw on my employer discount scheme website that a broker offer a 15% discount to that same holiday, so I thought I'd give them a try.

As it was, they were quoting a significantly higher price than what the company offered directly, so I said I wasn't interested and would book directly. Just before I hang up, she got me to listen to her and said that she thought she could do me a deal. She got me on hold for about 10 minutes to talk to her manager, and then came back all happy on the line to say they could match the price. I explained to her it was only of interest to me if they also included the 15% discount. She became a bit cagey at this point and asked me to read what was written on the site. I did, and she agreed that I seemed to be meeting the conditions but she needed to have evidence of it and therefore if I booked now and pay the price, and I then sent her a link to the page, she would then refund the difference. I did, send her a nice email with the link...and heard nothing. I chased 2 weeks later...nothing. I emailed for the 3rd time and said I would appreciate a response and action and I got a snotty reply back saying that she never promised to apply the discount and that in any case, she had already lowered the price and therefore should count myself lucky!

I couldn't be bothered to complain, but they certainly lost my custom for good, and not just in relation to their holiday service but everything else (and they do just about everything indeed!).

Thanks for sharing your experience. I certainly didn't expect to receive a worse offer for making the effort to go to the showroom and buy the bike there and then rather than online.

Richard_SOS

societys_child wrote: »

You bought in store.
You knew the price and you knew that no student discount would be applied.

Not sure what you're expecting.

I expect them to treat people who go to their store to be treated the same as those who happen to purchase online. In this case I was treated differently. I would have been able to generate a discount code for this item online, in-store I was not given the opportunity to generate the discount code.

wealdroam

Richard_SOS wrote: »

I certainly didn't expect to receive a worse offer for making the effort to go to the showroom and buy the bike there and then rather than online.

That's always a possibility.

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 gives the consumer more statutory rights when purchasing online compared with rights afforded by The Consumer Rights Act 2015 when buying in store.

takman

Richard_SOS wrote: »

I expect them to treat people who go to their store to be treated the same as those who happen to purchase online. In this case I was treated differently. I would have been able to generate a discount code for this item online, in-store I was not given the opportunity to generate the discount code.

This is extremely common and alot of big companies offer cheaper prices by buying online than in store. This is because runing a store is a lot more expensive than being online. So the people who use the stores pay the premium and the people who shop online still get competitive prices.

But in your case I don't see why you would buy in the store at all. You obviously didn't walk away with the bike that day and still have to wait for it to be built.

Fosterdog

It is worth bearing in mind that even if you had ordered online and used a discount code the company didn't have to accept the order and could still have rejected the sale with the discount applied.

susancs

Fosterdog wrote: »

It is worth bearing in mind that even if you had ordered online and used a discount code the company didn't have to accept the order and could still have rejected the sale with the discount applied.

I agree that this may well have happened especially if they realised the bike was selling at a loss. Most online and instore retailers have a clause in their terms and conditions stating that they can withdraw promotions and discounts at any time or in the event of a pricing error.