Bought item that was not in stock - can't get refund

MFCSteve

Peter999_2 said:

Currys have got serious issues and have for the last few months.     Similar to you, I ordered something a couple of months ago via click and collect.    I never received the email saying that it was ready for collection and recieved an email the next day apologising and saying that the item was out of stock.   They assured me in the email that no payment had been taken.   When I checked it was still showing as pending in my online banking so I presumed it would drop off.

Couple of days later, it changed from pending to payment actually made.   When I looked online there was no way to contact them, I completed a form, waited 14 days and got nothing.      There was no way I was going to phone and be on hold for hours to get nowhere (it was only £3.49 fortunately) but it means I will not buy from Currys online ever again.

I fully sympathise with you OP and hope that you do get your money back.  I don't blame you at all for getting one from Smyths as it was for a birthday present.

Looking back through Twitter, it does seem like this issue has been going on for many months with them and for a wide variety of different items.
The whole process of everything with them is far more complicated than it should be. They have a 'web chat' which is not a real person and no matter what you ask, always ends up telling you to phone CS, the cancellation forms clearly just do not work as many people have used them to no avail, on Twitter they look like they are trying to help publicly, but once you start a DM conversation, as they suggest, they just stop responding, you cannot even email anyone and over the last few days have spent over 3 hours connected to their CS phone number, only to speak to a real person once, when they told me it would be ready the next day, which was later proven to be a lie as I was subsequently told they had none.
I have used them a lot over the years but, like you, no more. Something seems really amiss with them these days.

MFCSteve

Manxman_in_exile said:

Not much help at the moment, I'm afraid, but my advice for the future would be that if you are buying an expensive birthday present for a child who is so young that they will be disappointed if they get nothing on the day, then I don't think it's a good idea to wait until four days before the birthday to buy something on the internet in the hope that you will be able to collect it the day before the birthday.

Absolutely appreciate that. To be fair, we did know of several places we could get one and were trying to decide which bundle to get which is why it was that late. On the flipside though, this is the first time I have had anything sold to me that was not actually in stock to be sold. With it being ready to collect the day before the birthday, I know there is a risk of it being one or two days late, which would have been fine. Telling me they do not actually have it while holding my money for it, was something I did not expect.

jon81uk

MFCSteve said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

Not much help at the moment, I'm afraid, but my advice for the future would be that if you are buying an expensive birthday present for a child who is so young that they will be disappointed if they get nothing on the day, then I don't think it's a good idea to wait until four days before the birthday to buy something on the internet in the hope that you will be able to collect it the day before the birthday.

Absolutely appreciate that. To be fair, we did know of several places we could get one and were trying to decide which bundle to get which is why it was that late. On the flipside though, this is the first time I have had anything sold to me that was not actually in stock to be sold. With it being ready to collect the day before the birthday, I know there is a risk of it being one or two days late, which would have been fine. Telling me they do not actually have it while holding my money for it, was something I did not expect.

It was only one or two days late though and was received on Wednesday. Maybe they expected stock to arrive at the weekend but there was a delay and then by the time it was sent out to store it was Wednesday. They can be both out of stock and expecting to fulfil your order with stock that is coming.

Cancelling an order for something that is already despatched for delivery is always a pain and it is often better to receive it and send it back. You may be best to go into store, collect it and return it in store, or at least try to phone the store direct. Otherwise you will be waiting for the store to return it to the warehouse and then a refund to be processed.

MFCSteve

jon81uk said:
Maybe they expected stock to arrive at the weekend but there was a delay and then by the time it was sent out to store it was Wednesday.

Absolutely appreciate this may be the case. But they never actually acknowledged it was going to be late which is the issue. I phoned them on the Monday and that was the first time I was told it was delayed and would be ready Tuesday. On Tuesday I was told I won't be getting it at all as they did not know when they would have any, which contradicted what I was told the day before. But none of this info was offered upfront by Currys, I was only told these things after getting in touch.  I would have expected if there was a delay they would inform customers instead of leaving them waiting.
On Wednesday, when the text to tell me it was ready for collection came more than 24 hours after I had actually cancelled the order. Now 4 days on, the cancellation still has not been put through and I am getting no response with attempts to speak to them about it. 
I will follow your advice and walk up there tomorrow. Some people have stated on Twitter that they received a 'ready to collect' text but upon getting to the store it was not there. Phoning the store to check would be ideal but can only find the general number that I got cut off from after waiting an over an hour earlier.