k750i on osps warning

PinkPig

I don't personally have a problem with them changing their offer and applying the new offer to any order that hasn't been processed yet. I do, though, have a problem with them making that change without telling you and simply posting the phone to you, and expecting you to return it at your own expense if you're not happy! With the TV analogy this would be as if you agreed to buy the TV for £250, arranged delivery, went home, it arrived the next day and the delivery man says "actually, the offer's changed, we're taking £350 rather than £250 from your credit card. You don't have to take it if you don't want it, but you'll have to pay me £15 now if you want me to take it back and give you a refund".

bbb_uk

PinkPig wrote:

The terms and conditions specifically say that the offer and price might change after purchase. I think the issue is that, I would have thought, the customer should be told and given the opportunity to cancel if this happens - an email or phone call would suffice - rather than just being sent the phone and quite possibly have unsealed it before fully reading all the paperwork!

If you order the phone at a set offer and they change the offer but don't inform you anywhere and you have to break the seal on the phone to read the revised paperwork (offer details, etc) then you can return it under unfair t&c. If the paperwork is seperate from the phone then breaking the seal could be interpreted as that you've read the accompanied paperwork and agree to the t&c (and revised offer possibly).

I recently bought my phone from Mobileshop.com and the phone's box (6230i) had a seal on it that read, "Please ensure you read the accompanied t&c before opening". The accompanied t&c (the paperwork) was just some leaflets with the t&c on it and were seperate and not in the phones box itself. I therefore read the t&c before I opened the phone and boy was I desperate to open that box for my new phone! lol :rotfl:

The same thing happened to M$ a long time ago when they sold Windows through retailers. It used to say breaking the seal on the software package meant you have agreed to the t&c. This (eventually) was found unfair as you don't know what the t&c were nor agree to such t&c until you had broken the seal to read it.

bbb_uk

PinkPig wrote:

I don't personally have a problem with them changing their offer and applying the new offer to any order that hasn't been processed yet. I do, though, have a problem with them making that change without telling you and simply posting the phone to you, and expecting you to return it at your own expense if you're not happy!

I totally agree with you. If they've changed the offer and haven't informed you of the revised offer anywhere (email or with any paperwork that comes with the phone) then I suspect that they would be liable of return costs as the phone (inc offer) is not what you ordered but before doing this ring t'standards for advice and write down any law (paragraph, etc) it comes under so when you ring OSPS you mention you've spoken with t/s (that can sometimes scare companies in not arguing with you) and you're returning at their expense (they collect) or that you're willing to post it providing they agree to refunding the costs otherwise you take it further.

mbailey

I ordered 2 K750i phones last week on the 8 month cashback deal. One phone arrived on Friday and the paperworks states 8 months. Nothing mentioned about the £10 cashback for internet orders and no car charger, but thats another story!

I phoned OSPS and asked for my second phone I ordered and they just said they have only sent me one. The CS operator said he could put another order through now, but that would be on 6 months @ 2.99! I said I wanted the same deal as the first phone but he said he couldn't do it!

So where do I stand? I ordered 2 phones, but they sent me 1. I ask for the second and they won't honour the same deal! OSPS confirmed they made the mistake and my order did say 2 phones, but they now claim they can't do anything about it! Great! :mad:

bbb_uk

mbailey, it appears to me that osps have a habit of offering one thing and then always changing their mind when it comes to sending it out. You have a right to return your phone but I believe t/standards should get involved as it appears to me now that osps are deliberately changing the offers that often and therefore by the time they process the order you dont get exactly what you ordered.

The t/standards that would deal with enquiries concerning them I think is Cheshire T/S. Click here to go to their website.

andy88_2

I think that might be slightly unfair - it is unlikely they are changing deliberately in order to give a worse deal. Promotional offers are always changing.

The message of this thread should be that it sounds like it will be better to order on the phone, as that seems to define the moment. The internet offers don't seem in most cases to have changed wildly; for example the OP is talking of one month's difference. I would expect that OSPS will honour that as messing about with sending the phone back and processing it at their end as a 14 day return isn't worth the bother for a few quid.

If some people succeed in this perhaps they will review their practice of altering the internet deals as they may be unaware of the feeling this may be causing.

I've found they are very helpful most of the time but if you decide to be aggressive with them from the start they can be equally robust, so careful negotiation is likely to be more fruitful than threats of Trading Standards.

PinkPig

andy88 wrote:

I think that might be slightly unfair - it is unlikely they are changing deliberately in order to give a worse deal. Promotional offers are always changing.

The 8 months lasted a couple of days - but the 7 months free deal only lasted about half a day - and only a few hours before they closed for the night, and presumably stopped processing any orders with the 7 months free offer.

bbb_uk

Andy, I know offers change on a regular basis but most companies when they run offers - they do so for a certain amount of time (week, month) or something similiar. PinkPig mentioned the 7months offer lasted few hours.

Now if OSPS honour the original offer for those that managed to sign-up to them before the offer changed without a lot of trouble on our behalf (convincing/threatening them, etc) then I'll hold my hand up and say I was out of order, etc.

Based on this and other threads on this forum, it appears to me that a lot of customers having ordered a phone/contract on one offer get the phone just to find out the offer changed and have a lot of hassle with OSPS getting them to honour their original offer.

Most companies if the offer had changed would (well should) at least provide us customers with advance notice that they were unable to provide the phone/contract at the offer that we requested at the time and apologise, etc and give us the chance to cancel the order (before it was delivered) or accept the revised offer.

In my opinion it is bad customer service to offer a phone/contract at such an offer then take orders for it. Then change the offer and process and send out the phones/contracts on these revised offers even though they had ordered the phones/contracts on the original offer (which from what I can see is generally the better offer and its the revised offers that aren't as good).

The ASA state that companies that do offers should (to the best of their knowledge) anticipate the extra demand of orders they'll receive and ensure they have enough stock, etc to cover this increase in demand of orders. (this paragraph doesn't really apply with regards to OSPS offers and is here as an example).

All the above is just my view based on threads I've read (as mentioned earlier).

andy88_2

I'm not trying to start an argument; I agree with virtually everything you say. They need to be cajoled into realising that they ought to honour offers ordered via internet at the price at the time.

If there is only a certain batch of stock at that extra-promotional price, the notional orders could be debited against stock even when the place is closed to avoid people thinking they'd got an order when they hadn't. It looks rather like the internet orders just go on a stack though, to be processed later. Maybe they need a bit of reprogramming of the site and database interaction or should overrule down to the lower price to avoid potential for ill-feeling.

Twigsy

Just like to say that I also received the same treatment from OSPS and I have sent a written complaint, asking that they honour the 8 month offer. I have two emails confirming the 8 month offers (I took 2). However, when I checked the order on-line 2 days later, they had cancelled the first order and the 2nd order was pending. They said that they had not received my fax verifying the delivery address. However, I sent 2 faxes - one for each order - and they claim they did not receive them. I am fuming. They should honour the offer that they accept at the time the order is placed. I hope they take note of my letter but I agree it would be good if these internet order companies were made to realise that they can't walk all over decent trading standards and get away with it. I take the point about ordering by telephone but you miss out on some reasonable pay back such as £15 Quidco and £10 internet booking.