Buying Goods online

[Exconsumercardo]

Good afternoon,

I recently purchased some electrical goods online and the funds were taken from my bank account. Shortly after placing the order, I received an email inforning me that the order had been cancelled.

I have checked the terms and conditions of sale from the retailers website where it states:

'We take payment from your card at the time we receive your order, once we have checked your card details and stock availability. Payment must be made with a valid credit or debit card acceptable to us. The address at which the card is registered must be the same as your billing address.'

The question is the contract legally binding after funds have been taken or is it reasonable for a vendor to take funds and then cancel an order?

Please advise.

Thank you

[BankFodder]

no, it is not at all reasonable – and they are probably tied into a contract with you.

 

On the other hand, you should consider what there is to be gained by getting into a fight with them. If the item was being sold at a very reduced price and you couldn't get it at the same price elsewhere then it would be worth attacking them to get the goods at the contractual price. However, you need to resign yourself to a load of hassle. Why don't you let us know who the online suppliers are so that other people can be warned

[Exconsumercardo]

Thank you for your prompt reply.

 

I purchased the goods from Sainsbury's and they were being sold at a reduced price. I have spoken with the CS department and in all fairness they did apologise but it was a complete waste of my time and i wasn't very happy that they took funds from my account.

 

Needless to say, they have removed the product from their website.

 

Best wishes

[theghost]

the bit you have posted doesnt confirm or deny whether the contract has been formed - you will prbably find they have a bit on there that says the contract is formed when they have posted the item out.

[Exconsumercardo]

I purchased some electrical goods online from a large supermarket chain. I paid for the goods using a debit card and funds were debited from my bank account. However, the order was cancelled by the vendor and I was told that the item was no longer available. My money was refunded in full but I then discovered that the advertised price was actually a mis-price. To cut a very long story short I have decided to take this to the small claims for two reasons:

 

1. Loss of bargain

2. To get the retailer to stop taking monies from customers bank accounts until the point where the goods are checked in terms of their availability and checked to ensure the goods are not mis-priced.

 

I will ask the court to take into consideration the following.

 

1. Misleading pricing interms of consumer protection from unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

 

2. The unfair terms in Consumer Contracts regulations 1999 - Section 5 (1).

 

Is there anything else that I should be using to support my arguments in terms of legislation or case law?

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited January 29, 2012 by SPALICE
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[Exconsumercardo]

I purchased some electrical goods online from a large supermarket chain. I paid for the goods using a debit card and funds were debited from my bank account. However, the order was cancelled by the vendor and I was told that the item was no longer available. My money was refunded in full but I then discovered that the advertised price was actually a mis-price. To cut a very long story short I have decided to take this to the small claims for two reasons:

 

1. Loss of bargain

2. To get the retailer to stop taking monies from customers bank accounts until the point where the goods are checked in terms of their availability and checked to ensure the goods are not mis-priced.

 

I will ask the court to take into consideration the following.

 

1. Misleading pricing interms of Consumer Protection From Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

 

2. The unfair terms in Consumer Contracts regulations 1999 - Section 5 (1).

 

Is there anything else that I should be using to support my arguments in terms of legislation or case law?

 

Thanks in advance

Edited January 29, 2012 by SPALICE
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[theghost]

Hmm, I think you are onto a loser.

 

What do oyu hope to achieve? The court cannot force them to give you the product. And it is upto Trading Standards to make sure the shop complies with the legislation.

 

Be interested to see what happens tho

[ims21]

Two threads on the same subject merged

 

Please keep to one thread per issue

 

ims

[Exconsumercardo]

I know this could end up costing me financially and I have never taken anything to court before. I am planning raise awareness by doing a press release to get some media coverage because I do not think it is fair that retailers take the money out of the customers bank account and then cancel the order.

 

In my opinion, taking the money first and then cancelling the order is 'unfair' and the terms and conditions appears to be to the detriment of the consumer. I am interested to know what the Court Service will make of this.

Edited January 29, 2012 by SPALICE
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[theghost]

Not sure if the small claims court can throw thingso utb efore they reach the cout stage but if so they might dofor this as I cannot see any valid legal claim.

 

If not then you will just turn up the court and the Judge will tell you to get lost!

[Exconsumercardo]

Not sure if the small claims court can throw thingso utb efore they reach the cout stage but if so they might dofor this as I cannot see any valid legal claim.

 

If not then you will just turn up the court and the Judge will tell you to get lost!

 

Thank you for your comments and don't get me wrong here, I am not a Solicitor, but I think you are mistaken because the adverised price was misleading (Consumer protection from unfair Trading Regulations 2008 misleading pricing practices).

 

They should have also checked the availablity of the goods before taking the payment as per their T's & C's. I would draw your attention to the Unfair terms in Consumer Contracts regulations 1999 - Section 5 .1 "a contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer."

[theghost]

Can you clarify what you actually want to achieve?

 

The Court can only work o nthe law and I think you have the law mixed up.

 

The CPUTR 2008 do not give you any rights as a consumer to take a company to court. It gives Trading Standards and the OFT power to prosecute a company.

 

Secondly the UTCCR do apply when there is a unfair term - the laws apply to specific terms that a company uses - what terms are you reffering to? What the legislation does it cancel any unfair terms.

 

As I say, I cannot see what you are trying to achieve - if it is to make the company sell you the product at the advertised price you won't achieve it with either of those laws IMO.

[Exconsumercardo]

Can you clarify what you actually want to achieve?

 

The Court can only work o nthe law and I think you have the law mixed up.

 

The CPUTR 2008 do not give you any rights as a consumer to take a company to court. It gives Trading Standards and the OFT power to prosecute a company.

 

Secondly the UTCCR do apply when there is a unfair term - the laws apply to specific terms that a company uses - what terms are you reffering to? What the legislation does it cancel any unfair terms.

 

As I say, I cannot see what you are trying to achieve - if it is to make the company sell you the product at the advertised price you won't achieve it with either of those laws IMO.

 

Thank you for taking time to respond.

 

In terms of what I would like to achieve, I would like the vendor to fulfil the original order at the advertised price and I would also like the vendor to make their T's & C's more transparent to the consumer. Currently, the T's & C's are 7 pages long if you were to print them off.

 

I would also like the vendor to refrain from taking monies from the customers bank accounts until:

 

1. the goods have been checked for availability

2. the goods have been checked for any pricing errors

 

In states in the vendors T's & C's that 'We take payment from your card at the time we receive your order, once we have checked your card details and stock availability'.

 

I can confirm that payment was taken from my card but subsequently, I received an email from the vendor stating the goods were no longer available. If the vendor didn't have the stock available at the time the order, why was a payment taken and why was I given an order confirmation number.

 

The get out clause for the vendor is 'Acceptance of your order and the completion of the contract between you and us will take place on despatch to you of the products ordered unless we have notified you that we do not accept your order or you have cancelled it'.

I think that it is unfair on consumers that vendors can ask for payment from your card at the time they receive the order if they do not have the goods in the first place or if there is a pricing error.

 

I accept that nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes but surely, a common sense approach would be for the payment to be taken after the vendor has checked the goods for availability and for any pricing errors as this would minimise any inconvenience caused to the customer.

Edited January 30, 2012 by SPALICE
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