Amazon uk refusing to dispatch "In stock" item

yannies82

Camelot1971, my problem is with Amazon, but that particular comment was a general remark on e-commerce, derived from this experience. I am from Greece.
I repeat that I placed the order on Nov 21st. The laptop was at the 599 pounds (499 for me because I am VAT registered and ordered through Amazon business). It was at this price for 2 to 3 days. I still have this order pending. The misprice occurred yesterday and I placed a separate order for it when I saw it. It was Cyber Monday after all, still too good to be true and I perfectly understand why Amazon cancelled the second order since it was a misprice.

LadyDee

Keep your eye on the Christmas sales, something else will come up. It could well be that because so many things have been sold on Black Friday, retailers will drop prices even more as their sales will be slower than normal.

yannies82

Anyway, from your responses I understand that the seller has every right to not send an ordered item until it has been dispatched and paid for. This is what I wanted to make sure of. Thank you all for your replies.

BoGoF

And if it was a business order you have even less rights

spadoosh

yannies82 wrote: »

Spadoosh thank you for your reply but there is no reason to be sarcastic to me. Of course, I am not suggesting that Amazon is trying to scam me, personally. This has probably happened to other people who have ordered this laptop. Or other goods for this matter. This is the first time something like this has happened to me and I just wanted the opinion of people more knowledgeable than me on these matters. To be honest, I am surprised that Amazon's representatives were so reluctant to work out a solution for this issue and tried to put the blame on me. It's half a trillion company, after all as you mention. They didn't suggest anything. I asked if I could pay a price difference and get the other model of this laptop which they had in stock and they said this could not be done. I assume that an issue arose with the supplier and they were able to fulfill some of the orders, but not all. In the product reviews a person states that his delivery is still pending too.

O right my sincere appologies from what you put in your post i quoted i thought sarcasm was the underlying them of this thread.

What blame have they put on you?

Theres processes in place so when they say they cant do something it usually because of a process. Whilst it might be easy for you to decide to allow you to get a reduced price alternative that might not be something those employees could do.

Im fairly sure they wouldve suggested something but id imagine it was something you didnt like. Ie im fairly sure they wouldve said they can refund you or cancel the order. Restoring you to the exact same position that you where in. No laptop but the money to buy a laptop.

Mistakes happen all the time in business. The vast majority of the time its down to human error and an employee. I dont know the specific instance as to why this problem occurred but its not unusual. If amazon where forced to provide this product for you yet where unable to youd imagine the expense involved would be considerable and far beyond what would be expected to be reaonable.

Your only argument is opportunity cost and considering amazon didnt take the money as you said then that opportunity cost was non existent.


What do you actually want them to do? Theyve said theyre struggling to get hold of the stock. Im fairly confident they wouldve said if they do you can have it. So what do you want them to do? Just so you know the only thing they have to do is make sure you have your money (which youve said you do).


I get its frustrating having a failed order. But it happens. My biggest pet peeve is people failing to indicate. Ultimately though it happens. I have to reside myself to accpeting it and using expletives in my head.

Youve got the benefit that you can choose not to deal with amazon again if you so wish. Unfortunately i dont thin that same option exists with people who fail to indicate.

Alternatively a politely worded complaint letter (not demanding rights etc) might yield a goodwill gesture.

yannies82

Spadoosh I guess you are right. This is the first time something like this has happened to me and I just wanted to know what to expect in such cases. It's not such a big deal about the specific laptop. As you say, things like these happen and it's good to know how to face them.

Camelot1971 the laptop I ordered I saw it on hotukdeals on Nov 20th. I cannot post links but if you go to the laptops section on that day you will find it. It had gathered 429 heat.

custardy

yannies82 wrote: »

On Nov 21st I placed an order on amazon co uk for an ASUS laptop. The laptop was on promotion and the price was really good. The product page mentioned the product to be "In stock". As far as I can tell, it remained in stock for at least 2 days after I had placed the order. After placing the order I received an email from Amazon stating that they need a little more time to estimate the delivery date. One week later, I still do not have an estimated delivery date for this order. The product has not been dispatched yet and I have not been charged for it.
Yesterday, I had a chat with Amazon's customer support. They refused to help in any way, stating that when I ordered the product it was out of stock. One representative told me that the product is not expected to be sourced again from the supplier and that the order is very unlikely to be fulfilled. Another one mentioned that there seemed to be a problem with this laptop and they pulled it from their website.
Therefore, I am left with a placed order for a laptop which may or may not be fulfilled. I would have cancelled this order and move on but it was a really good promotional price for this laptop and waiting on it I missed on all of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

Am I wrong to think that this borders on false advertizing on Amazon's part? Do I, as a consumer have any rights in this case?

yannies82 wrote: »

I am not allowed to post links but it was the Fx503vd-dm080t model.

It is the same model for which a pricing error occurred yesterday (the GTX 1060 version was priced at 130 pounds). I stumbled upon the pricing error and placed an order. Of course it is understandable that Amazon cancelled these orders and I have no complaints about that. My concern is for the order which I placed a week ago.

So you were shopping on Cyber Monday ( I hate these names)
So didnt miss out,just didnt find/get anything.

yannies82

Custardy, I was regularly checking the laptop's product page for reviews and availability. The pricing error just happened to occur on the same product.
Anyway, I got my answers, you have got me covered on what to expect in such cases and I thank you all for this.

yannies82

I also do hate these names too (Black Friday, Cyber Monday)!

steampowered

yannies82 wrote: »

Therefore, if I were a seller it would be perfectly legitimate for me to put a great, promotional price on an item, gather many orders and visits to my site and then just claim that the product is out of stock and never fulfil these orders. Is that how e-commerce works?

Correct. That is how e-commerce works. The standard practice now is that a legally binding contract is not formed until the store dispatches the item. At any time before dispatch the store can cancel the order.

That is in the T&Cs for pretty much any e-commerce site you might care to name, including Amazon.

There are a number of cases where sites have accidentally listed products at a silly low prices due to an administrative error, only to realise their mistake and cancel all of the orders.

The only legal protection against this are the consumer laws against misleading advertising and the like, which could get a e-commerce site investigated or prosecuted if they listed wrong prices deliberately.