O2 refuses to honour my order

[fitsw6]

I ordered a sim free phone from O2 on-line shop. The cost was FREE. I filled out all my details and received a confirmation email. Then I received an invoice for £0.00. Then I received an email informing me that my order had been sent to the warehouse for dispatch. Then another email telling me the phone was out of stock but they would make every effort to send me the phone as soon as possible.

A few days later I recieved an email informing me that there was an error on the website and they could not send me my phone and I should place my order again.

I replied informing them all the above and mentioned Article 11 of the European Directive on Electronic Commerce, which states that there is a prima facie contract in place "when the recipient of the service has confirmed receipt of the acknowledgement of receipt"

How can I make a big company like O2 give me the phone I ordered for the price of £0.00? Surely I am not responsible for an error on thier website.

Apparantly I am not the only person that O2 is refusing to honour an order with.

Gary

[buzby]

Well, since you have a confirmed order you could write to them and ask why they are not fulfilling your order. The website error apart, what is now the current cost for the same phone without the 'offer'? You could then sue them for the revised cost to purchase the phone, using your order acceptance as proof. As to you saying you are the 'only one' not to have received the phone, how many people do you know who actually received it?

[fitsw6]

Another on-line forum has many people who placed the same order. a few have got thier phone (if telling the truth) and a few have been persisitant in chasing them up.

The phone costs £59.99 PAYG and is in stock on thier website (even though they say it is out of stock in thier emails)

Like me though, not everyone has had thier phone yet.

They say that the confirmation emails are automatic (implying they are not valid), but that does not make them invalid surely?

[buzby]

It's an acceptance, UNLESS the email states itis simply a confirmation of receiving the ordsr, not that they are obliged to supply. (amazon only state their acceptance applies when the goods are shipped!)

[fitsw6]

This is in my 'order confirmation' email and does not state anywhere that it is a confirmation of receiveing the order:
'Please print or keep this email as confirmation of your purchase.'


This is the dispatch email:
'We're happy to tell you that your O2 order has been passed to our warehouse for dispatch. This should be on its way to you very soon.'

The out of stock email:
'We regret to inform you that the items you have ordered from us are currently out of stock although we will make every effort to ensure that they will be delivered to you as soon as possible. '



This was them telling me of the error:
Thank you for placing an order with O2 Online.
We're really sorry, but due to a fault which we experienced on our website, we were not able to process your order. The good news is that we've now fixed the fault and would like to invite you back to place your order again should you still wish to do so by clicking on the following link www.o2.co.uk/shop.

They admit in another emial that 'Due to a system fault on the O2 website this phone was advertised at being free.'

As far as i can see the order is real and confirmed and they are not honouring the order.

Do I have any legal rights to make them honour this order?

[buzby]

See message # 2. If they didn't agree with your interpretation, your only recourse is to the Small Claims court (to comply), or MCOL for the £59.99 value (so you can purchase it).

[fitsw6]

Thanks for the advice

Gary

[fizz07]

Was the order placed in the normal way as this could have a bearing on whether you have a leg to stand on? I ask this as there was a post on another forum showing a way to get this phone for free by exploiting a flaw on their website. According to that site, people placed orders for x amount of phones each by using the procedure posted on there.

[fitsw6]

I heard about that but the bottom line is I ordered 1 for myself and 1 for my mother. Some people have recieved thier phone but others have not.

I am not overly worried about getting the phone, but on principle, whether there was an error or not, I recieved an order confirmation and a dispatch notice and O2 then tell me that they will not honour the order and I will not get my phone.

[fitsw6]

O2 called today just to verbally inform me that they will not be sending out the phone.

They agreed that the order was placed and confimed and sent for dispatch, but said thier legal department has told them not to honour the order as it was a technical fault on the web site.

I disagreed with thier decision and said they either want a customer... or they dont!

If i knew the law, and if I had grounds to take this further... i would - even though its just a cheap... free phone!

Its the principle!!!

[buzby]

Fundamentally, they are right if it was a genuine error. You could argue itr via a Small Claims action that the confirmation email WAS an acceptance, but is it worth paying £50 to raise the action and possibly lose?

[fitsw6]

I dont really intend going to court on this. It was free after all lol

But it is annoying that they have sent the phone to some customers and not others.

[ivorbiggun]

Originally Posted by fitsw6

I am not overly worried about getting the phone, but on principle, whether there was an error or not, I recieved an order confirmation and a dispatch notice and O2 then tell me that they will not honour the order and I will not get my phone.

Most sites somewhere have E&OE.

I personally don't think that they have to fulfill the order. It's similar to the mis-pricing of the LCD/Plasma TV on Woolworths site.