Dispute with Argos - not sure where we stand

lucypez

My partner and I ordered a 3 door corner wardrobe from Argos for £135.99 plus delivery, didn’t think it was a bad deal considering their own brand products aren’t of the best quality so we paid online and had it delivered a couple of days later.
2 boxes arrived and upon assembly I started to realise there were parts missing, like half of the wardrobe. I called customer services and said it seems like you can buy it as separate components maybe and you’ve only sent me one by accident. The lady I spoke to read through the entire description and price and confirmed that this was all sold as one piece and I should’ve received the full wardrobe. I was then advised that the rest of the wardrobe had somehow gone out of stock and it could take up to a month for us to receive it but we agreed as we could’ve used the space we had until the rest came. Anyway my partner did some digging via twitter as she wasn’t best pleased that we were going to have to wait up to a month to receive the rest of the product considering it was listed as New on the website and we were able to buy it without any out of stock warning. We were informed by Argos that their had been an issue with the manufacturer and they had changed the specifications in regards to how many boxes the product should be packaged in and that there should be 3. So we asked them to just send it, as you would right? And after some further digging they then admitted that the description and price on the website was wrong and that the £135.99 was just for the corner of the wardrobe and not the full piece itself. When we asked how this was going to be rectified we were told (and we have all correspondence as proof) that to compensate the customers affected we would be receiving the rest of the product completely free of charge, and again we clarified that we wouldn’t have to pay anything further to which they agreed. We didn’t hear anything back so chased them up again and were chatting with the same person, who then advised us that if we wanted the full product we had to buy the second half of the wardrobe for £200 plus a 10% discount as a goodwill gesture and at saying they are not obligated to give us the full product that we ordered and that the corner that we received we’ve had cheap anyway as it is now listed on the site as £165.
Can someone please tell us where we stand?
We actually want the wardrobe, a friend and I took a day off work to put it up and it’s a huge inconvenience to do it again to send it back and be refunded.

Aylesbury_Duck

lucypez wrote: »

My partner and I ordered a 3 door corner wardrobe from Argos for £135.99 plus delivery, didn’t think it was a bad deal considering their own brand products aren’t of the best quality so we paid online and had it delivered a couple of days later.
2 boxes arrived and upon assembly I started to realise there were parts missing, like half of the wardrobe. I called customer services and said it seems like you can buy it as separate components maybe and you’ve only sent me one by accident. The lady I spoke to read through the entire description and price and confirmed that this was all sold as one piece and I should’ve received the full wardrobe. I was then advised that the rest of the wardrobe had somehow gone out of stock and it could take up to a month for us to receive it but we agreed as we could’ve used the space we had until the rest came. Anyway my partner did some digging via twitter as she wasn’t best pleased that we were going to have to wait up to a month to receive the rest of the product considering it was listed as New on the website and we were able to buy it without any out of stock warning. We were informed by Argos that their had been an issue with the manufacturer and they had changed the specifications in regards to how many boxes the product should be packaged in and that there should be 3. So we asked them to just send it, as you would right? And after some further digging they then admitted that the description and price on the website was wrong and that the £135.99 was just for the corner of the wardrobe and not the full piece itself. When we asked how this was going to be rectified we were told (and we have all correspondence as proof) that to compensate the customers affected we would be receiving the rest of the product completely free of charge, and again we clarified that we wouldn’t have to pay anything further to which they agreed. We didn’t hear anything back so chased them up again and were chatting with the same person, who then advised us that if we wanted the full product we had to buy the second half of the wardrobe for £200 plus a 10% discount as a goodwill gesture and at saying they are not obligated to give us the full product that we ordered and that the corner that we received we’ve had cheap anyway as it is now listed on the site as £165.
Can someone please tell us where we stand?
We actually want the wardrobe, a friend and I took a day off work to put it up and it’s a huge inconvenience to do it again to send it back and be refunded.

I think you should write to customer services, setting out what was initially agreed and ask them to stand by it. Ultimately though, I think they can just cancel the order, refund you in full and collect the part-assembled element (at their cost and your convenience). You are entitled to be no worse off than you are now, and you wouldn't be. I don't think you can force them to give you the other parts free of charge, you're reliant upon them wanting to help and sticking by what they said they would do.

DoaM

I'm not 100% sure on this - this sounds like a "loss of bargain" claim could be relevant. (OP buys the same/equivalent product elsewhere and recovers the additional cost from Argos). From what's written in the OP, Argos are clearly in breach of contract.

lucypez

Better late than never but I put a huge complaint in copying in advertising authority and trading standards.. a day later we received a call from Argos exec office apologising profusely and sent us the goods the next day
Thanks for all your help