Amazon seller cancelled my order

akkers

I placed an order for a fairly expensive item with a seller on Amazon. A few days they took payment off my credit card and advised the item would be delivered in a week. A few days later they sent an email saying order has been cancelled and I would get a refund. They did not state why the order was cancelled and provided no alternatives. 

I missed offers on this item elsewhere to buy from this seller on Amazon. And the fact that they took payment for the item. Are they or Amazon not in breach of contract? How can they take order with payments and just cancel Willy nilly?

km1500

this is all about the law of contract

in normal circumstances once a price has been agreed and payment made a binding contract is formed.

however if there are terms and conditions then these  take precedence

it is not unusual for a terms and condition to say that a contract is not formed until the product is shipped. if this is so in your case then the seller is perfect entitled to say I will withdraw from the contract and refund your money

if there are no such terms and conditions then you are entitled to go to the seller and claim from them your financial loss which presumably will be the difference between what you paid for the item and what you now have to pay for it

elsien

Your title says Amazon cancelled your order, but your post says it was a seller.

 If it was a third-party marketplace seller, Amazon don’t have responsibility for the order. 
and it may be that they no longer have what they’re selling so can’t fulfil the order. I remember selling an item once and then breaking it while packing so I had to cancel the order because it just wasn’t possible for me to fulfil it. 

Not everyone who sells on there is a business.

DullGreyGuy

Any sensible online seller will state contract isn't formed until they confirm the item has been shipped, this helps them deal with human errors in pricing, errors in stock systems meaning they've oversold, someone drops it in the warehouse and a plethora of other things that could mean the business is unable or unwilling to complete the contract. 

You say you didn't get a dispatch notification so check the terms but most likely there is no contract. Claiming damages beyond the full price you paid is a long struggle and if in the last 2 weeks there have been various offers you ignored then its likely more offers will continue to appear. 

akkers

So a vendor can stick any clause of his own and over-ride the law of the land? Then what’s the point of having a law in the first place? 

Surely such tricks should be classified as unfair clause. Weren’t Amazon taken to task recently over an unfair clause about deliveries?

Because Amazon took the payment I hold them responsible.

Aylesbury_Duck

akkers said:

So a vendor can stick any clause of his own and over-ride the law of the land? Then what’s the point of having a law in the first place? 

Surely such tricks should be classified as unfair clause. Weren’t Amazon taken to task recently over an unfair clause about deliveries?

Because Amazon took the payment I hold them responsible.

No, and that's perhaps not what's happened here.  It's perfectly reasonable for a retailer to have a clause saying that a contract isn't formed until dispatch, but if they don't, then the default is that the contract is formed before that.  There is no trick or unfairness, it all comes down to the retailer's terms.

And you can hold responsible who you like, but it's the contractual position that counts, not what you consider to be right.

What are the terms and conditions for this sale?  Have you checked?  Can you post them here?

born_again

akkers said:

I placed an order for a fairly expensive item with a seller on Amazon. A few days they took payment off my credit card and advised the item would be delivered in a week. A few days later they sent an email saying order has been cancelled and I would get a refund. They did not state why the order was cancelled and provided no alternatives. 

I missed offers on this item elsewhere to buy from this seller on Amazon. And the fact that they took payment for the item. Are they or Amazon not in breach of contract? How can they take order with payments and just cancel Willy nilly?

Retailers can take payment as soon as order is placed. Amazon is one of a few that only take payment on dispatch. Trusting retailer.

DullGreyGuy

akkers said:

So a vendor can stick any clause of his own and over-ride the law of the land? Then what’s the point of having a law in the first place? 

Which "Law" are you referring to?

The UK generally is a Common Law civil system and so much is simply defined by legal precedent and is far from static. We do have legislation too, some of that will give you statutory rights that set a minimum standard which a retailer cannot remove but they can exceed. Some of them only give a default position, if the contract is silent on the matter, but can legitimately changed in any direction by either party if they agree. Then there are common practices which are not a law in any shape or form. 

This is the reason when you buy something online you almost always click an "I agree" or "proceed" button that has next to it something saying you confirm to agree to the terms by clicking the button with a link to the T&Cs. The fact 99.9% of people choose not to read them, despite agreeing to be bound by them, is a reflection on the clickers not something that invalidates the terms. 

km1500

"So a vendor can stick any clause of his own"

yes, contracts almost always have clauses of their own that is the whole point of a contract - to define the position of both parties

and over-ride the law of the land?

the law of the land you are referring to is contract law which says if both parties agree to a contract then it is binding on both parties.

however, in your case the retailer's t&c for ordering probably states that they will not enter into a contact until they are ready to ship. there is no law of the land that forces one party into a contract if they are not ready.