Argos fre gift with purchase

toffee163

I purchased a Samsung Smartwatch through Argos In October as they were giving away a free battery pack worth £50.  The battery pack was out of stock at the time but the manager assured me it would definitely be in within 5 days which persuaded me to buy from the, and not elsewhere.  Since then it has not been back in stock and has now been removed from the catalogue. I was advised by store manager that it hadn’t been in since Sept.  Up to that point I was told on a weekly basis that it would be on that weekend. I have contacted them through social media and email and have been given the runaround and basically been told too bad. They have lied, contradicted themselves and ignored my queries which I have in writing .  My argument is that they can advertise what they want to get people to purchase goods and not provide the gift or an alternative. Can I do anything about this? 

Aylesbury_Duck

Return the watch for a refund?  They may deduct something for your use to date. 

toffee163

Spoke in store before and they said no as it has been worn and not faulty 

Aylesbury_Duck

What were the terms and conditions of the offer?  If it was subject to availability you don't have a case.  These sorts of offers usually are. Perhaps a nicely worded email to HQ might elicit a goodwill voucher or something?

toffee163

think it was availability but I was assured it would be in within 5 days which persuaded me to buy it and hasn’t been in stock nationwide during the offer. I feel the offer should have been withdrawn as no intention of fulfilling.  Surely a store can’t offer what they want in order to con people into buying goods then say sorry it’s out of stock and no alternative being offered. 

Aylesbury_Duck

toffee163 said:

think it was availability but I was assured it would be in within 5 days which persuaded me to buy it and hasn’t been in stock nationwide during the offer. I feel the offer should have been withdrawn as no intention of fulfilling.  Surely a store can’t offer what they want in order to con people into buying goods then say sorry it’s out of stock and no alternative being offered. 

They can if the offer was genuine, but no, they can't invent a non-existent offer to entice you to buy.  You could always ask them how many offers were fulfilled.  They may not answer but if they say "several thousand" or something like that, then you were just unlucky to have been in the queue when they ran out.  If you had something that could prove your purchase was conditional upon them being able to fulfil the offer, you might have a case, but otherwise you're bound by the terms of the offer, which were very probably based on availability.

toffee163

Thanks, if the manager hadn’t told me it would definitely be in within the week I would have gone elsewhere. Getting nowhere with customer services or lack of. Lesson learned. Don’t shop at Argos.