online order cancelled after courrier damaged without notification & finance agreement cancelled

roachbiker

Hello,

I'm a newbie on here so please excuse me if i've missed a thread with information to me.

Right, on the 20th April i bought an electric mountain bike from Wiggle on sale (3299.00)

The order was processed, 0% finance agreement signed & completed so the bike was shipped to courriers hub (Tufnells Sheffield)

It sat there for several days & no update from either Wiggle or Tuffnels, contacted them eventually got through after 3 days, i was told the bike was damaged in transit, so i offered to receive the bike to inspect, this was agreed but 3 days later the bike was returned to Wiggle, several emails later Wiggle stated the bike was correctly damaged & i would have to wait for Tuffnels management report to be processed, i replied that surely the issue was between the 2 parties & i should be sent a relacement, no reply, i then got a response 4 days later that the another bike would be processed & i would have to wait 12 days for it to be built.

So, i replied & asked if an alternative could be processed, i explained i had no notification & as an emergency worker i cancelled a shift to receive it & needed a date, i also explained that it cost me money to cancel shifts so i needed accurate information.

no reply, i sent several emails & had no response, so i took to Twitter & hey presto! i checked the status online & it said that Wiggle had cancelled the order & the finance company (V12) had refunded my deposit & my first months payment.

I had no notification of this being cancelled from either company, the bike i ordered had returned to its original price after my order was processed to £4300, i had offered numerous times to arrange a replacement or alternative but the order was cancelled without my knowledge or permission, what are my rights on this?

ssparks2003

You have your money back so your rights are preserved. The bike has been returned and at the suppliers discretion they have decided the remedy as is there right. Not sure really what else you are looking for. 

They are no longer selling the bike at a discounted rate so you are now not going to buy it at that price. 

roachbiker

all i wanted was the bike at the cost i paid, if the bike gets damaged before they ship to me surely there's some sort of contractual obligation to fulfill the transaction? i didn't even get any notification the order or finance agreement was cancelled.

I was told another bike was going to be processed & sent out then they cancel, seems unfair to me.

ssparks2003

Unfair is irrelevant. You have been returned to your original position.  Perhaps in normal times they might have taken the hit on a 2and bike but now they can ill afford to

roachbiker

are you kidding??? bicycle sales are through the roof because of Covid, stores cannot get them out fast enough

Aylesbury_Duck

All the more reason not to give away more margin than they need to.  Sounds like they'll easily shift them at the full price.

I'm afraid you have no rights any more.  The contract has been cancelled and you have been put back into your original position.  Frustrating, but that's the situation.

bris

Two separate actions are at play, the first is your contract to buy the bike. This was completed, you don't agree with that but it is a fact, they supplied the bike. 

The second is that the supplied bike is faulty, this creates a consumer rights issue. This is resolved by them by returning you to the same position you were in before buying the bike. 

They didn't break the contract because the fault is unforseen, just one of those things they had no control over.

You could argue that they agreed to process and send another bike but  instead of agreeing to this you wanted an alternative to be processed. What alternative is there to them building you another bike? they couldn't  offer an alternative so took this as a rejection of the offer. Why didn't you just accept the offer instead demanding information they probably couldn't give you as the bike wasn't even built.

roachbiker

This is my argument entirely, I did agree to an alternative bike & to a direct replacement to the bike I ordered, the only difference was colour, same spec, but they failed to contact me & decided to cancel, this is my frustration

buglawton

Sounds like someone 'Wiggled' out of accidentally selling a valuable bike at a discount. Wonder how 'genuine' the damaged bike story from Wiggle was.

roachbiker

Exactly what I thought, since it happened I've been looking at their customer service, it's horrendous

Aylesbury_Duck

You've ended up better off then.  Spend the money with a decent independent bike shop.  Most of those give really good customer service in my experience.  My local bike shop has done all sorts of small jobs free of charge for me because I bought a number of bikes from them over a few years, plus accessories, etc.  I've easily recouped any discount I might have got from buying from one of online sheds.