Iceland Rip-off

26angel20

I made an online purchase from Iceland which came to £84.25 and after the 3 for 2 offers it came to £69.69. I then had a voucher for £15 when spending over £40, bringing the price down to £54.69. One of the items was out of stock (Baileys iced yule log at half price £4) but NOT included in any of the 3 for 2. They have refunded me £3.16 for the item stating the £0.84 reduction is because a voucher used on the order. It's not the amount of money that bothers me, it's the principal. If you take the £4 off for the Yule log I would have still met the full criteria/ threshold required to use the £15 off voucher so I should have been issued with the full £4 refund. After two lengthy phone calls Iceland have flatly refused to reimburse the £0.84 and they can do nothing else. How should I proceed from here?   They are still advertising and selling this non-existent item on their site. 

sammyjammy

These things are frustrating but personally I'd move on, its not worth the stress, vote with your feet.

You don't know its a non-existent item you just know it wasn't available for delivery in your local area on that day.

Woodstok2000

26angel20 said:

I made an online purchase from Iceland which came to £84.25 and after the 3 for 2 offers it came to £69.69. I then had a voucher for £15 when spending over £40, bringing the price down to £54.69. One of the items was out of stock (Baileys iced yule log at half price £4) but NOT included in any of the 3 for 2. They have refunded me £3.16 for the item stating the £0.84 reduction is because a voucher used on the order. It's not the amount of money that bothers me, it's the principal. If you take the £4 off for the Yule log I would have still met the full criteria/ threshold required to use the £15 off voucher so I should have been issued with the full £4 refund. After two lengthy phone calls Iceland have flatly refused to reimburse the £0.84 and they can do nothing else. How should I proceed from here?   They are still advertising and selling this non-existent item on their site. 

I am  not commenting on the rights and wrongs of this, but i can see how they got to this result. From their perspective you got a 21% discount on your shop (£15/£69.69).  Therefore you only paid 79% of the value of each item, and you get a refund of 79% for anything unavailable.  

saajan_12

Woodstok2000 said:

26angel20 said:

I made an online purchase from Iceland which came to £84.25 and after the 3 for 2 offers it came to £69.69. I then had a voucher for £15 when spending over £40, bringing the price down to £54.69. One of the items was out of stock (Baileys iced yule log at half price £4) but NOT included in any of the 3 for 2. They have refunded me £3.16 for the item stating the £0.84 reduction is because a voucher used on the order. It's not the amount of money that bothers me, it's the principal. If you take the £4 off for the Yule log I would have still met the full criteria/ threshold required to use the £15 off voucher so I should have been issued with the full £4 refund. After two lengthy phone calls Iceland have flatly refused to reimburse the £0.84 and they can do nothing else. How should I proceed from here?   They are still advertising and selling this non-existent item on their site. 

I am  not commenting on the rights and wrongs of this, but i can see how they got to this result. From their perspective you got a 21% discount on your shop (£15/£69.69).  Therefore you only paid 79% of the value of each item, and you get a refund of 79% for anything unavailable.  

Well that's just how the numbers can be reverse engineered, but that doesn't make it fair. It was Iceland's action /choice to not supply the item, so the basket should be recalculated without that item. As such, it would be a £4 refund, not a % discount. 

However of course the overriding fact is its small change and I'm surprised both sides aren't just giving up (them giving a £1 voucher to get rid of it, OP just not bothering futher). 

Woodstok2000

saajan_12 said:

Woodstok2000 said:

26angel20 said:

I made an online purchase from Iceland which came to £84.25 and after the 3 for 2 offers it came to £69.69. I then had a voucher for £15 when spending over £40, bringing the price down to £54.69. One of the items was out of stock (Baileys iced yule log at half price £4) but NOT included in any of the 3 for 2. They have refunded me £3.16 for the item stating the £0.84 reduction is because a voucher used on the order. It's not the amount of money that bothers me, it's the principal. If you take the £4 off for the Yule log I would have still met the full criteria/ threshold required to use the £15 off voucher so I should have been issued with the full £4 refund. After two lengthy phone calls Iceland have flatly refused to reimburse the £0.84 and they can do nothing else. How should I proceed from here?   They are still advertising and selling this non-existent item on their site. 

I am  not commenting on the rights and wrongs of this, but i can see how they got to this result. From their perspective you got a 21% discount on your shop (£15/£69.69).  Therefore you only paid 79% of the value of each item, and you get a refund of 79% for anything unavailable.  

Well that's just how the numbers can be reverse engineered, but that doesn't make it fair. It was Iceland's action /choice to not supply the item, so the basket should be recalculated without that item. As such, it would be a £4 refund, not a % discount. 

However of course the overriding fact is its small change and I'm surprised both sides aren't just giving up (them giving a £1 voucher to get rid of it, OP just not bothering futher). 

It's not reverse engineering, it's exactly how the discount is calculated and applied in their system and therefore when an item is voided, it's how the refund is applied.

eddddy

Based on what you say, Iceland are clearly in the wrong.

They said something like "get £15 off when you spend over £40" - you spent over £40, but they only gave you £14.16 off.

So it's likely to be misrepresentation (or maybe breach of contract, depending on how you got the voucher) - but realistically, there's no sensible way of making a claim for a small amount like this.


If you want, you can report them to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice for misleading pricing. Trading Standards wouldn't take action based on one complaint - it would just be filed under Iceland's name. But if Trading Standards received multiple complaints about Iceland's pricing, they might decide to investigate. 

Boohoo

The selling of the item you never got means it wasn't in stock when your order was picked at whatever store delivers your order 

Iceland could have that non delevered item at another store so they can still advertise it.

Rosa_Damascena

If its any comfort to the OP I am less inclined to shop at Iceland than I was before reading this thread? Not that I have set foot inside one for at least 3 years, because much of what is sold is ultra-processed junk masquerading as food.

SirTainly

I've also had a problem with Iceland.

On 12th December there was a one day offer on Pepsi Max (for delivery same day or the following day only), I purchased two (a saving of £11).

I ordered for delivery the following day over £40 worth of stuff (to get the free delivery) and the invoice showed the saving from the special offer. About 9pm I thought “hmm I could do with cheese too” so I added £5 cheese (you can amend orders up to 11pm day before delivery). The next day I got confirmation there were no substitutions, and Pepsi Max special offer wasn’t showing it’s offer price any more. I phoned them up and complained and after a long convoluted conversation they admitted the offer shouldn’t have ‘disappeared’ and that they owed me £11 which would be added to my Iceland Bonus Card. I explained that My bonus card wasn’t linked to the account, they responded with that would be sorted. Long story short, since then they’ve cancelled my bonus card account numerous times and given me instructions in how to open and link a new one which still won’t link. Two weeks ago they managed the link a bonus card and said the £11 would be added to the card in 3 to 5 working days. After 5 working days (7 actual days) my card was still showing a zero balance. I complained yet again and it is now another week later. I've received received confirmation that my complaint was received but still no money and no response either. OK it's only £11 but as a pensioner I want the money owed, and it has now been almost two months, what's my next step?

tastyhog

should probably read the terms of the offer, I know that asda ones are now discounted pro rata on each item, probably down to people ordering things that they know will probably be out of stock so they used to get the full discount off a lower order value

Help_me_i_say!

There are lots of negative reviews on Trustpilot for this exact situation, as I discovered when I encountered the exact same issue.

I was offered £10 off for spending a certain amount - which I did, yet my order never received £10 off because of the out of stock refund being pro-ratad.

The customer service for Iceland is HORRENDOUS. Even 'brain-dead' would be too kind on the level of intelligence on display. I am pretty sure they're doing it on purpose. Which would not surprise me because Iceland like to pull pretty scammy tactics whenever they can.

Took me weeks of not giving up on a point of principle but I eventually got my full money off.