Amazon and price changing. What price should I pay

Trampas

I placed an order the other day for €217. I selected to pay in euro instead of sterling.

I got a confirmation email with the price. The items where dispatched and the price increased by €40.

They are blaming a computer glitch but they can't say what the glitch is.

Can they charge me more for the items or can they only charge me the price i received in my confirmation email?

Thanks

MyKeyG

Trampas wrote: »

I placed an order the other day for €217. I selected to pay in euro instead of sterling.

I got a confirmation email with the price. The items where dispatched and the price increased by €40.

They are blaming a computer glitch but they can't say what the glitch is.

Can they charge me more for the items or can they only charge me the price i received in my confirmation email?

Thanks

There was a thread about this the other day and it got rather nasty. Ultimately they're entitled to do what they want once a formal contract has not been agreed. An order confirmation email is not a contract as far as I know. Were you sent a formal receipt upon making the order? Was the sum taken from your card?

Trampas

Thanks for the quick response.

I got the usual email from email with the following



It was only I got the dispatched email that I noticed the price had change.

My cc hasn't been charged yet which is unusual since i placed the order on the 1st.

jor el

What is the actual price of the goods, glitch free? This is what you should pay. If the glitch made the price less, then they can't really be held to a mistaken price as you'll find E&OE stated somewhere, which exempts them from being held to a mistaken quote. If the glitch charged you more than the actual price, then you should not pay that.

The charge probably has been applied to your card, but just not showing yet. Is there any unposted transactions value on your account?

Trampas

jor el wrote: »

What is the actual price of the goods, glitch free? This is what you should pay. If the glitch made the price less, then they can't really be held to a mistaken price as you'll find E&OE stated somewhere, which exempts them from being held to a mistaken quote. If the glitch charged you more than the actual price, then you should not pay that.

The charge probably has been applied to your card, but just not showing yet. Is there any unposted transactions value on your account?

The price was £216. I was offered a euro price which I accepted. The glitch was more than likely their currency converter and not the advertised price.

I have a Visa Ice card which never shows an unposted transaction value.

MOH

If they undercharged you originally, they can't just charge you the higher price unless you agree to it.
I'd have expected them to offer the choice of cancelling the order, or going ahead at the higher price - but it sounds like they've already dispatched it?

Looking at the figures, it actually sounds like they meant to charge GBP 217 instead of EUR 217, that would work out at close to EUR 257

jor el

If the price was £216, and when you selected Euro pricing it said €217, then you must have known this was wrong. You tried to capitalise on an error, which you can't do.

Amazon should not have charged anything until the issue was resolved though.

TouchingVirus

jor el wrote: »

If the price was £216, and when you selected Euro pricing it said €217, then you must have known this was wrong. You tried to capitalise on an error, which you can't do.

Amazon should not have charged anything until the issue was resolved though.

You don't select Euro pricing, it defaults to Euro pricing when you enable the currency converter. You do have the option to switch back to GBP if you want. As the item was significantly discounted due to a promotion, and all totals are given in Euros during the checkout process it's possible that the OP didn't know they were the victim of a GBP conversion rate error.

I don't think Amazon.co.uk's policy on actual-price-is-higher misprices doesn't apply here (they will, at their discretion, either cancel the order outright, honor the lower price or email you for instructions prior to dispatch) because the items were not mispriced, the currency converter bugged out. The Amazon currency converter terms & conditions state:

If you use Amazon Currency Converter to pay in your Card Currency, all fees and charges for your use of Amazon Currency Converter are included in the exchange rate received by us from our bank service provider ("Applicable Exchange Rate"). The Applicable Exchange Rate is determined at the time the payment total is displayed in your Card Currency on the final checkout page on the Site. That payment total will be the amount reflected on your bank or credit card statement. We do not charge any other fees, taxes or other charges for using Amazon Currency Converter. Although in some cases your bank may still charge you a fee. The seller of the items you pay for in your Card Currency will receive payment for those items in GBP as listed on the Site. Your use of Amazon Currency Converter and these terms and conditions are independent of your contract for the purchase of the items from the seller and do not give you any extra rights under that contract. The seller is neither involved in providing the Amazon Currency Converter nor a party to these terms and conditions.

mik_da_man

I agree with the above.
Replied on the thread on Bargain Alerts but will here too.

This exact same thing happened to me a few months ago.
I bought a few items which had a discount, the final order page showed X€, the e-mail confirmation showed the same € Price, but my card was charged a different price.

I dont see how they have any rights to charge you anymore than the price displayed, they may cancel if they wish but defo not charge more. Sure if that was the case they could randomally add €20 to orders and get away with it.

In may case I had the proof of the price I was offered on a screen shot and the e-mail. I called my cc company and explained what happened, the girl I talked to said it happens quite a bit. I had to write a letter and attach the screeshot and confirmation e-mail. the cc company said it was a very straight forward case and my refund would be on the way shortly.

You should have no issues getting the difference refunded

Trampas

Thanks for the reply everyone.

I said it to the person on the phone what is it to stop amazon to add €40 onto every order if that was the case and they wouldn't listen to me.

All she would say is that it was a glitch but unknown glitch.

Surely they can't just dispatch the item and charge more without contacting me 1st.

How am I suppose to know what the exchange rate is for sterling to euro and I don't accept that everyone know it was to good a price. If I asked my mother what is the exchange rate she wouldn't have a clue.

I'll wait till I see what is on the cc before contacting my bank.

noodler

As a side, I never use their currency converter - always buy in Sterling.

I always just assumed that would work out cheaper...

Anyone any experience with compring the two?

Pacing Mule

Looks to me like the currency convertor didn't convert at all.

Normally when you switch to euro for Irish orders the VAT rate changes adding the 1% difference in VAT rates to the order. I think that's why the figures are slightly different here. After that the currency conversion should have happened but it appears it failed.

TouchingVirus

noodler wrote: »

As a side, I never use their currency converter - always buy in Sterling.

I always just assumed that would work out cheaper...

Anyone any experience with comparing the two?

It depends on what fees you're charged by your credit card company for foreign exchange, and the rate your CC gives you. Using the Currency Converter can get around currency fluctuations much like using Paypal for FX transactions - you take their rate on the day.

E.g. You want to buy something today, check the rates etc and come out with a rough total from your CC for €200. The Amazon Currency Converter offers €205 so you go with your credit card. But between order and dispatch sterling hits the roof and by the time you're charged the total from the CC is €210. This is avoided with the Currency Converter, but in general it works out slightly more expensive.

dilallio

I used to always buy at local currency, but recently, I've found that my bank (BOI) have been charging conversion rates which are a lot worse than the sellers conversion rates.

Trampas

Items are just a few miles away and on my cc appearing is the new full price by amazon

rubadub

noodler wrote: »

As a side, I never use their currency converter - always buy in Sterling.

I always just assumed that would work out cheaper...

Anyone any experience with compring the two?

I have compared about 3-4 times now, always cheaper with CC and I did take charges into account.

rubadub wrote: »

I ordered some items on amazon on 30 april. Came to

-Order Total: GBP 93.48

using their currency converter it was

-Payment Total: EUR 112,43

I checked on XE at the time and it was

93.48 GBP=107.672 EUR

Of course nobody gets this and it is usually 2-3% more than this using CC or paypal so I chose to pay in sterling via CC.

My BOI mastercard statement was
93.48GBP RATE 0.8549 €109.34

So mastercard was only 1.5% more than XE
Amazon was 4.4% more
And I saved €3.09 by choosing to pay in sterling rather than use amazons converter.

My statement shows the payment on 4 May, so I wonder if it is taken on that date and if the XE rate would have been the usual 2-3% I would expect.

Also be careful when comparing prices, you should be looking at the checkout prices not the original price you saw on the page in sterling -amazon will add on Irish VAT so the first sterling price you see is rarely what you will pay.

MOH

Trampas wrote: »

Items are just a few miles away and on my cc appearing is the new full price by amazon

If you agreed and paid a price, and the written confirmation shows that was the agreed price, there's no way amazon can charge you more claiming a computer glitch.

From their own help page:

Items in your Shopping Cart will always reflect the most recent price displayed on the item's product detail page. This price may differ from the price shown for the item when you first placed it in your cart. Placing an item in your cart doesn't reserve the price shown at that time. It is also possible that an item's price may decrease between the time you place it in your cart and the time you purchase it.

Some discounts are limited-time offers. The discount we are able to offer for any item is dependent upon its availability, Amazon.com's price will necessarily change on occasion.

With respect to items sold by Amazon.com, we can't confirm the price of an item until you order; however, we do NOT charge your credit card until after your order has entered the shipping process. Despite our best efforts, a small number of the items in our catalog may be mispriced. If an item's correct price is higher than our stated price, we will, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions before shipping or cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation.

This policy applies only to products sold and shipped by Amazon.com. Sellers may follow different policies in the event of a mispriced item.

If you don't want the stuff at the new price, you could refuse delivery of the order.

If you already have it, tell Amazon they can either collect it and refund you, or refund you the difference.

If they won't, get onto your credit card company and see what they say.