widescreen TVs for 49p!!!!! [CLOSED]

talkshop

monlchr wrote:

still no phone call,,,,,,still no e-mail cancelling,,,,,,,,, how much longer is it going to take them to sort out this mess. surely by now somebody must have been told NO.... you are not getting tv.

I think this answers your questions, from terms and conditions.

"If we discover an error in the price of goods you have ordered we will inform you as soon as possible and give you the option of reconfirming your order at the correct price or cancelling it. If we are unable to contact you we will treat the order as cancelled. If you cancel and you have already paid for the goods, you will receive a full refund."

peter_the_piper

What a pity someone can't get the Sun to fund a case. It would be a good story and a darn sight cheaper than the love life of a Z list celeb.

HOLsale

a few points here

this was done on a bank holiday weekend when stores are frequently known to do big sales. it's ONLY for the internet which makes you think that not too many people would know about it (which would be true if it wasn't on sites like this) and most importantly the asterix next to the 49p quite clearly states that it is NOT a reduction in price sooooo you think hey, it's like a special ordered in loss leader thing and they're hoping to get more business off of you

not totally off the wall!

regardless these companies need to start being everybit as careful on line as they should be in store. they are largely unpoliced online and argos and it's affiliates are well known for their lax pricing policies AND also for not even honouring feasible discounts shown online when you show up in store to pick up the items they often do things wrong perhaps intentionally and don't try to rectify the situation, it's a habitual thing that needs to be stopped

i guarantee you if they are forced to honour the sale of the tv to anyone who's money has already been debited that they WILL clean up their act!

also, like many companies they don't take the money immediately, the reserve the money so if they actually get to the point where they take the money out of your account THEY are responsible for not having checked the amounts properly (again!) not you...

aliasojo

Unfortunately, this is a definate no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.

The very fact that the item was priced at 49p will be the swinging factor, regardless of the T's & C's.

If it had been £50.49 or something of a slightly more believable nature, then it may have been worth persuing, but no Judge in the land would accept that people actually believed this was a genuine offer.

Let it go. These things crop up from time to time. Save your energy for a situation which you have a chance of winning. (Like the Virgin Gamecube/Woolies Phone/ Index HP Printer etc.)

monlchr

i e-mailed the sun yesterday regarding this fiasco.................surprise surprise they have not even replied

biglugs

But if companies weren't allowed to take your money by law until dispatch then how come all those kitchen and bedroom companies like MFI, Sharps etc. can get away with making you pay weeks before delivery?
I'm pretty certain Argos's lawyers would have gone through their T&Cs with a fine toothcomb to ensure there were no loopholes before they put them online. You can be sure they spent more time looking at the T&Cs than they do looking at the prices they put online! Easier to cover all your mistakes in one place than to have to worry about them every time you change a price list online.

jaxxy00

Well ive just phoned Homebase customer services, didnt quote my order number or name and asked what was going to happne about the 49p tellys. Her answer was they are dealing with it now and everyone will be receiving a phone call or email to say the order is cancelled and will be getting a refund. I asked about had a contract been made because they had taken the money and she said no because of the t&c's. She quoted term 4.2 which ive not checked yet but i then said are your t&c's valid in law then and she said thay had all the top management in to discuss it and that is whats happening.
I shall now phone my legal advice line and see what they say now and if they will take the case on. Once and for all something should be done so they dont think they can do as they like and take our money, hold onto it for however many days and then just give it back.

JonnyF_2

biglugs wrote:

But if companies weren't allowed to take your money by law until dispatch then how come all those kitchen and bedroom companies like MFI, Sharps etc. can get away with making you pay weeks before delivery?

Of course they're allowed to demand money upfront, but as soon as they do they're contracted to giving you a kitchen. But the ambiguity here is are Argos contracted to giving us all TVs?

Jonny

ought

I perhaps thought it was a special hidden bargain give away for promotional purposes. They had an extra special bargain item to be found on their website at an astonishing "WOW" price if you could find it. ;o)

Munki_2

I wonder how many of the people who registered with Homebase to order the TV will forget to de-register once all this fiasco is over?

I'm not sure Homebase stand to make any money out of all this, as I guess refunding thousands of people's payments must come at a slight value (if merely transactions systems downtime during the refunds)... however, they're going to retain quite a few of the new registered customers which they will no doubt be sending newsletters/adverts to from now one.

I'm not saying it's a marketting ploy, but hey... they've got some attention.. and as most sensible people see this as being a simple pricing error, it's not going to be seen in most peoples eyes as 'bad attention' either...

As long as they give me my money back I don't care one bit about not receiving a TV. I didn't expect to, and I never will.

I once went to order a digital camera from a small company's website, only to come across a similar model being offered at £0. I added a camera case to the order, making the order a grand total of approx £13 and paid for the order.

An hour later I got a phone call from the Director of the company asking me how I managed to get the camera ordered for £0. I then sat for a while in front of my computer trying to recreate the situation. I sussed it out and he was really thankful that I had highlighted a bug in their ordering system. I just wished I had been honest and mentioned it to them before I made the order and then maybe he might have offered me a discount (I guess)... but as with a lot of people my greed got the better of me and I quickly ordered it and crossed my fingers hoping that noone would notice.

Just because these companies are big, and just because this website's hook is to screw companies like they screw us, perhaps we should all learn a lesson from this and perhaps we can become better, less greedy and more honest people in the long run. Find bargains, yes. Work 'the system', of course. But when it comes to rediculous pricing slipups like this... how about we try alerting the companies of their mistakes in the future?

Munki.