Amazon consumer protection code violation?

TheDudeIsHere

Hi all

I'm really hoping I can get some assistance with a recent issue I'm having with Amazon as I feel my consumer rights have been violated.

So two weeks ago I decided I would purchase an item on Amazon, this particular item was fluctuating in price greatly in the days coming up to the purchase, it would change from €500 to €600 to €700( I've looked into this and apparently Amazon change their prices daily in line with customers spending habits, competitors prices etc.).

So I kept an eye on it and managed to get it for the lowest price I had seen, just over €500. I have an Amazon prime membership and the item was supposed to be shipped on the 25th of may and would arrive later that week. However, the item was never dispatched by Amazon.

I decided to message the Amazon customer support to find out why. The first customer service rep I spoke to told me there may have been an issue with the quality of the item and that it had been delayed in their fulfilment center and I would have an update in 48 hours. Firstly I was baffled as to how there could be an issue with quality as the item was bought brand new from Amazon, however, I waited the 2 days but received no update.

So I messaged Amazon again, a different agent told me she could see what the issue was, and that she would resolve it straight away and the item would be dispatched within 48 hours. At this moment I did not ask what the issue was, but screenshot the conversation with the agents response anyway. Waited 48 hours, once again the item was not dispatched. At this stage, the item has risen in price and sits at over €600.

I message Amazon a third time and immediately ask to speak to a supervisor on their chat(this was the only way I could contact them as their phone lines are currently unavailable.) The supervisor gives me no explanation as to what the issue is but strongly hints that if I were to cancel the order and reorder the item, it would more than likely get posted out much quicker. Obviously I shoot this down and advise that it would be ludicrous to think I would cancel and pay €600 for the item which I purchased it for €500 a week previously. He says he understands and the only other option is that he would escalate this once again to the fulfillment center and that I would definitely have an update within 48 hours. Of course at this stage I questioned him on everything he and his customers service reps have been saying to me and advised that I am constantly been told to wait for an update but am been kept in the dark as to what exactly is the problem with my purchase. I ask how I can make a formal complaint and he sends me an email with the process. So I wait again and of course, no update within the 48 hours.

So once more I message them, again ask to speak to a supervisor straight away, am connected ,however, this time I finally get somewhere. The supervisor firstly apologies about my experience so far and if I have been told incorrect information by some of their advisors. She then goes on to say that Amazon are constantly changing their prices but they cannot honour the price I purchased for and that she cannot guarantee the item will be shipped. I tell her i find this absolutely disgraceful and that I paid the price I saw on the day.


I want to know can I dispute this further as I feel Amazon have completed violated my rights as a consumer. The following is taken directly from the Consumer protection code website:

"What if a shop displays one price but charges a higher price – can you pay the lower price? Shops must display the correct price and ensure it is not misleading. This means that the price shown must be the price charged at the checkout. The same also applies to websites."

How can I dispute this further?I have recorded all my dealings with them and have screenshots of most of conversations including the second rep telling me the issue is resolved and that the item will be dispatched within 48 hours.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

28064212

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201909000

1. OUR CONTRACT
Your order is an offer to Amazon to buy the product(s) in your order. When you place an order to purchase a product from Amazon, we will send you an e-mail confirming receipt of your order and containing the details of your order (the "Order Confirmation E-mail"). The Order Confirmation E-mail is acknowledgement that we have received your order, and does not confirm acceptance of your offer to buy the product(s) ordered. We only accept your offer, and conclude the contract of sale for a product ordered by you, when we dispatch the product to you and send e-mail confirmation to you that we've dispatched the product to you (the "Dispatch Confirmation E-mail"). If your order is dispatched in more than one package, you may receive a separate Dispatch Confirmation E-mail for each package, and each Dispatch Confirmation E-mail and corresponding dispatch will conclude a separate contract of sale between us for the product(s) specified in that Dispatch Confirmation E-mail. Your contract is with Amazon EU Sarl. Without affecting your right of cancellation set out in section 2 below, you can cancel your order for a product at no cost any time before we send the Dispatch Confirmation E-mail relating to that product. This right to cancel does not apply to certain categories of products and services, including digital products or software which are not supplied in a physical format (e.g. on a CD or DVD), once download or use (whichever is earlier) has begun.

Unless you've received a dispatch confirmation email, no sales contract was entered into. You won't be legally entitled to anything. You can complain, and see where that gets you in the name of customer service, but you don't have any rights here

TheDudeIsHere

Is this not a complete contradiction to what is stated in the consumer protection code?

Surely I would have some case if the customer service rep stated the item would be dispatched?

28064212

TheDudeIsHere wrote: »

Is this not a complete contradiction to what is stated in the consumer protection code?

No, because the "checkout" equivalent for a website is the dispatch notification, not your offer/order.

TheDudeIsHere wrote: »

Surely I would have some case if the customer service rep stated the item would be dispatched?

At best, you could report them for false advertising, but you would need to prove that they were deliberately trying to mislead

TheDudeIsHere

Okay so why am I out of pocket €500 now for 15 days?

The item is also listed in my purchases and says" we will dispatch your item as soon as possible" and "we'll email you when we have a delivery date"?

It just doesn't make sense how could they not be violating any consumer laws here?

whiterebel

I think this is better suited to the Consumer issues forum, although probably not the answer you want. Please note the new forum charter

the hedgeman

So Amazon has no issues with the item and will dispatch it to you for £600.. that's strange,did Amazon put a pending debit on your bank a/c for the £500 when you ordered it

TheDudeIsHere

the hedgeman wrote: »

So Amazon has no issues with the item and will dispatch it to you for £600.. that's strange,did Amazon put a pending debit on your bank a/c for the £500 when you ordered it

Well they are advising me now to cancel and reorder but I will have to pay the higher amount(€600) even though the initial amount(€500) has been fully deducted and is a completed transaction on my bank account.

L1011

Did you use a debit card?

It's likely a hold, which doesn't take cash on a credit card (it takes limit) but does hold cash for usually 14 days on a debit card

jahalpin

TheDudeIsHere wrote: »

Hi all


I want to know can I dispute this further as I feel Amazon have completed violated my rights as a consumer. The following is taken directly from the Consumer protection code website:

"What if a shop displays one price but charges a higher price – can you pay the lower price? Shops must display the correct price and ensure it is not misleading. This means that the price shown must be the price charged at the checkout. The same also applies to websites."


Any help would be greatly appreciated

That section on the consumer protection website is incorrect and actually has an example a few paragraphs further down the page that directly contradicts this information, as the possibility of human error must be taken into account

"
QUESTION
YOU SEE A PAIR OF SHOES IN A SHOP WITH A PRICE TAG OF €39.99. HOWEVER WHEN YOU GO TO THE TILL TO PAY FOR THE SHOES, THE SHOP ASSISTANT TELLS YOU THAT PRICE IS WRONG AND THE ACTUAL PRICE IS €49.99. ARE YOU ENTITLED TO THE SHOES AT THE LOWER PRICE?

Answer
The price displayed should match the price at the till. However, if you are told the correct price before buying the shoes, you are not entitled to buy them at the lower price. You have the option to buy the shoes at the higher price or decide not to."

TheDudeIsHere

L1011 wrote: »

Did you use a debit card?

It's likely a hold, which doesn't take cash on a credit card (it takes limit) but does hold cash for usually 14 days on a debit card

I used debit card and it's not a hold, it's a completed transaction. A hold would drop off my account in 3-5 business days if it was cancelled by the merchant but it wasn't. The item was ordered over 14 days ago

the hedgeman

TheDudeIsHere wrote: »

Well they are advising me now to cancel and reorder but I will have to pay the higher amount(€600) even though the initial amount(€500) has been fully deducted and is a completed transaction on my bank account.

That's unusual for Amazon as I find them excellent to deal with with orders or returns and they should honour your order request especially as they took payment for it....in fact its only when item is dispatched that your payment is called in by Amazon

TheDudeIsHere

jahalpin wrote: »

That section on the consumer protection website is incorrect and actually has an example a few paragraphs further down the page that directly contradicts this information, as the possibility of human error must be taken into account

"
QUESTION
YOU SEE A PAIR OF SHOES IN A SHOP WITH A PRICE TAG OF €39.99. HOWEVER WHEN YOU GO TO THE TILL TO PAY FOR THE SHOES, THE SHOP ASSISTANT TELLS YOU THAT PRICE IS WRONG AND THE ACTUAL PRICE IS €49.99. ARE YOU ENTITLED TO THE SHOES AT THE LOWER PRICE?

Answer
The price displayed should match the price at the till. However, if you are told the correct price before buying the shoes, you are not entitled to buy them at the lower price. You have the option to buy the shoes at the higher price or decide not to."

Thanks for your input. I was never told about the price being an issue until today, over 14 days after my purchase and when Amazon have already taken my money and completed the transaction

FluffPiece

sugarman wrote: »

Very Odd. They normally don't charge you until your item is dispatched either.

I see this pop up a lot. I always get charged immediately upon ordering from Amazon. It's never charged at dispatch which I see posted a lot.

As for delays, since Covid 19, I've often been waiting 10 - 15 days before any items dispatch from their warehouse. Once dispatched, it arrives quite fast.

TheDudeIsHere

FluffPiece wrote: »

As for delays, since Covid 19, I've often been waiting 10 - 15 days before any items dispatch from their warehouse. Once dispatched, it arrives quite fast.

I'm not so sure about this, I've ordered and received many other things from them in the mean time, these were all shipped within 2 days and delivered without any issues.

FluffPiece

TheDudeIsHere wrote: »

I'm not so sure about this, I've ordered and received many other things from them in the mean time, these were all shipped within 2 days and delivered without any issues.

Since March, I've ordered only about 10 or so items from Amazon and all have been approx 10 days before dispatching. Once dispatched it usually arrived within 2 - 3 days.

I think there's a thread elsewhere on boards, where people are complaining of the same thing. Those people have paid for Prime to get the faster deliveries etc but if they order to an Irish address, it's 2 weeks or so time frame. But if they order to say Parcel Motel, it's 2 days or so.

EDIT: Added link below to thread with similar problems re dispatch times.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058081766

TheDudeIsHere

FluffPiece wrote: »

Since March, I've ordered only about 10 or so items from Amazon and all have been approx 10 days before dispatching. Once dispatched it usually arrived within 2 - 3 days.

I think there's a thread elsewhere on boards, where people are complaining of the same thing. Those people have paid for Prime to get the faster deliveries etc but if they order to an Irish address, it's 2 weeks or so time frame. But if they order to say Parcel Motel, it's 2 days or so.

EDIT: Added link below to thread with similar problems re dispatch times.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058081766

The issue here isn't the dispatch times though, it's that after 14 days Amazon have told me that they cannot honour the price that I paid for the item and are advising me to cancel and reorder even after telling me on webchat it would be dispatched.

the hedgeman

TheDudeIsHere wrote: »

The issue here isn't the dispatch times though, it's that after 14 days Amazon have told me that they cannot honour the price that I paid for the item and are advising me to cancel and reorder even after telling me on webchat it would be dispatched.

So you haven't cancelled it so I presume it's still preparing to dispatch mode

FluffPiece

TheDudeIsHere wrote: »

The issue here isn't the dispatch times though, it's that after 14 days Amazon have told me that they cannot honour the price that I paid for the item and are advising me to cancel and reorder even after telling me on webchat it would be dispatched.

Sorry, I did read that. My first reply was just to the poster who said they usually only take money at dispatch. I've seen that posted a lot but my experience was always money taken at time of order.

How long did you wait before contacting chat about it?

It's really odd that they want you to cancel and re-order it at the higher price without good will. I've had this situation happen to a my mate once for a graphics card. But in his case, Amazon issued him a gift voucher for the difference in the price. So he ordered for say €300 and for whatever reason it was cancelled. New price was €380, so Amazon sent him a digital gift card for €80 and he re-ordered the €380 item. Cost to him was still only €300 as the gift card is used at checkout first, then the balance from his card. I'm surprised they didn't attempt something similar with you in this instance. Any time I've had to deal with customer service, they've usually been good.

What I'm not surprised at is the lack of an update / follow up. It seems all the big corporations are unable to do this. They tell ya they will make a note on your account or something, must be just waving a pen in the air...

TheDudeIsHere

the hedgeman wrote: »

So you haven't cancelled it so I presume it's still preparing to dispatch mode

No because the supervisor today told me that they cannot honour the price at which I paid, so it still shows as pending in my purchases but I've gotten confirmation from them that they are not going to ship the item even though they've taken and completed the payment

con747

FluffPiece wrote: »

I see this pop up a lot. I always get charged immediately upon ordering from Amazon. It's never charged at dispatch which I see posted a lot.

As for delays, since Covid 19, I've often been waiting 10 - 15 days before any items dispatch from their warehouse. Once dispatched, it arrives quite fast.

Same here, always charged within an hour of purchase. I will say though that Amazon have the best customer service I have ever encountered and will bend over backwards to help, so this is very unusual as I have had no problems for many years of contacting them if there was issues and on numerous occasions they actually went above and beyond my consumer rights. I do not work for them:)

FluffPiece

TheDudeIsHere wrote: »

No because the supervisor today told me that they cannot honour the price at which I paid, so it still shows as pending in my purchases but I've gotten confirmation from them that they are not going to ship the item even though they've taken and completed the payment

Is it a 3rd party seller or is it a fulfilled and dispatched by Amazon item?

I find their behaviour very strange if it's the latter.

They haven't violated any of your rights or anything, so long as you get a full refund at the least. You can't make them sell to you.

I recall there was a similar issue with Littlewoods a couple of years back where they had an item on their website for a low cost and it seemed half of Ireland tried to buy it and like that, a charge was placed on hold on their cards etc. Joe Duffy was called about it and everyone vented, but ultimately all orders were cancelled and refunded while the item remained on sale at the higher price.

FluffPiece

con747 wrote: »

Same here, always charged within an hour of purchase. I will say though that Amazon have the best customer service I have ever encountered and will bend over backwards to help, so this is very unusual as I have had no problems for many years of contacting them if there was issues and on numerous occasions they actually went above and beyond my consumer rights. I do not work for them:)

Likewise, I luckily haven't had to contact them a lot, but when I have I've usually gotten a very satisfying resolution. Doesn't appear to have happened here however.

TheDudeIsHere

FluffPiece wrote: »

Sorry, I did read that. My first reply was just to the poster who said they usually only take money at dispatch. I've seen that posted a lot but my experience was always money taken at time of order.

How long did you wait before contacting chat about it?

It's really odd that they want you to cancel and re-order it at the higher price without good will. I've had this situation happen to a my mate once for a graphics card. But in his case, Amazon issued him a gift voucher for the difference in the price. So he ordered for say €300 and for whatever reason it was cancelled. New price was €380, so Amazon sent him a digital gift card for €80 and he re-ordered the €380 item. Cost to him was still only €300 as the gift card is used at checkout first, then the balance from his card. I'm surprised they didn't attempt something similar with you in this instance. Any time I've had to deal with customer service, they've usually been good.

What I'm not surprised at is the lack of an update / follow up. It seems all the big corporations are unable to do this. They tell ya they will make a note on your account or something, must be just waving a pen in the air...

So the item was supposed to be shipped on 25th of may, so I messaged them first on 28th of may when it was still showing as having not been dispatched. I then messaged them every 2 days afterwards after being advised to wait 48 hours for an update again and again. I was told something different almost every time until today when they finally mentioned that there was a problem with the price

Thanks that's helpful, I'm surprised they haven't offered me some sort of goodwill gesture and to cover the additional cost. I may message them tomorrow and request this but I don't have much hope at this stage

FluffPiece

That seems a reasonable time to wait and then message them from your point of view. A few days after dispatch and I'm sure you'd have been happy enough if they said a few days more but it will dispatch.

It seems so weird that they would ask you to cancel as it won't be dispatched. If it's a wrong price, I'm sure ultimately they could cancel it on their end so why ask you to do it.

con747

TheDudeIsHere wrote: »

So the item was supposed to be shipped on 25th of may, so I messaged them first on 28th of may when it was still showing as having not been dispatched. I then messaged them every 2 days afterwards after being advised to wait 48 hours for an update again and again. I was told something different almost every time until today when they finally mentioned that there was a problem with the price

Thanks that's helpful, I'm surprised they haven't offered me some sort of goodwill gesture and to cover the additional cost. I may message them tomorrow and request this but I don't have much hope at this stage

Want to post a link to the item if you don't mind?

TheDudeIsHere

FluffPiece wrote: »

Is it a 3rd party seller or is it a fulfilled and dispatched by Amazon item?

I find their behaviour very strange if it's the latter.

They haven't violated any of your rights or anything, so long as you get a full refund at the least. You can't make them sell to you.

I recall there was a similar issue with Littlewoods a couple of years back where they had an item on their website for a low cost and it seemed half of Ireland tried to buy it and like that, a charge was placed on hold on their cards etc. Joe Duffy was called about it and everyone vented, but ultimately all orders were cancelled and refunded while the item remained on sale at the higher price.

Yeah it was Amazon and not a third party. It's very strange, I've always found them to be very reputable and honest in any dealings I've had with them and it's not like they are losing money during this pandemic, online sales are through the roof surely

Padre_Pio

jahalpin wrote: »

That section on the consumer protection website is incorrect and actually has an example a few paragraphs further down the page that directly contradicts this information, as the possibility of human error must be taken into account

The possibility of machine error must also be taken into account. Price matching algorithms and glitches mean you could buy an item at a ridiculously low price, so legally the transaction is completed only when an item is dispatched, not at the online checkout.

TheDudeIsHere

FluffPiece wrote: »

That seems a reasonable time to wait and then message them from your point of view. A few days after dispatch and I'm sure you'd have been happy enough if they said a few days more but it will dispatch.

It seems so weird that they would ask you to cancel as it won't be dispatched. If it's a wrong price, I'm sure ultimately they could cancel it on their end so why ask you to do it.

That's what I don't understand, why are they advising me to cancel instead of them doing it? Another thing I forgot to mention is that they have told me they have plenty of them item in stock so if I cancel and reorder it won't be a problem? Why not just send me the item from their inventory?

FluffPiece

TheDudeIsHere wrote: »

Yeah it was Amazon and not a third party. It's very strange, I've always found them to be very reputable and honest in any dealings I've had with them and it's not like they are losing money during this pandemic, online sales are through the roof surely

Honestly, I would agree. The only possible reason I can think of is the customer care team could all be working from home and with demand through the roof sales wise, there would be more volume of work for CS to deal with. It could be a policy now to not be as quick to offer resolutions like before. I'm just guessing at this of course, no way to back this up at all so huge pinch of salt needed.

I wouldn't cancel it if I were in your shoes and I'd be contacting them again looking for a better resolution. If they want to cancel it on their end, I don't think there's much you can do but I'd make sure it's them who cancel it. I wouldn't be accepting 48 hour updates either, I'd be insistent on a resolution. You might get nowhere but having been told already it won't be dispatched, you have nothing to lose.

TheDudeIsHere

con747 wrote: »

Want to post a link to the item if you don't mind?

I'm not sure is that really relevant?